Teacher Feature: Yulia Cook overview image

Teacher Feature: Yulia Cook

  • Post Date: 11/01/2017
  • Author: Yulia Cook
  • Reading Time: 1 minute read

My name is Yulia Cook and I am a 6th grade social studies teacher at Jefferson Middle School. Spurlock Museum has always meant something special to me. I visited Spurlock when I was a student in Champaign public schools. During my time as an undergraduate student at UIUC, I also worked there in the Registration Section. Now as a teacher, I take my students to Spurlock on a yearly field trip. This field trip is one of the highlights of our school year and students always remember their experiences. For the rest of the year, students talk about the mummy and statues that they remember seeing at the museum.

Our experiences at Spurlock Museum are always positive. This year I am even more excited to visit the Museum with my students: the staff at Spurlock Museum have been planning to make experiences more accessible for students with disabilities. For example, our students with visual impairments will be able to work with the artifacts in a more hands-on way than ever before! Teaching artifacts that students can touch and feel will help them get the most out of this trip. It is this caring and flexible nature of the Museum staff that makes this field trip an even better experience. I am grateful for the opportunity to visit the Museum every year!

  • Yulia measures a wooden figure from Africa
  • Yulia works with a carved wooden dish or boat
  • Yulia smiles at the camera in a Museum workroom