Pine Hill Media Center News

Mrs. Defusco and I want to let you know about a couple of exciting events that will be taking place in November. First, author Kate DiCamillo will be appearing on November 9th at 6 p.m. at the Wilson Middle School in Natick. She has written great books for all ages such as Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and the Mercy Watson series about the adventures of an amazing, toast-loving pig. Take a look at her web site to learn more!

Another event to mark on your calendar is Mike Lupica’s appearance on November 16th at 4 p.m. at the Wellesley Free Library at 530 Washington Street in Wellesley. Mike is a sports writer that has written several great books including the children’s books Heat, Travel Team, and Miracle on 49th Street are a few of his titles. We have many fans of Mr. Lupica’s work here at Pine Hill! His books fly off the shelf! He writes action-packed adventures that children can relate to.

If you’ve read books by either of these authors, take a minute to tell us the title of the book and write a bit about what you thought of it. You can click on the “comments” link to send your comments to me and I will add them to this blog for other students to read.

Mrs. Defusco and I hope to see you at the presentations!

As you’ve all read in Mrs. Defusco’s newsletter, I will be working with her in our Media Center “learning the ropes” until her retirement in December. After having been a classroom teacher for 13 years, the last seven teaching fifth grade at Pine Hill, I am feeling reenergized by this change. Those of you that know Carol can only imagine the exciting experience this is! There is so much to learn and I am thoroughly enjoying working with all of the students and teachers in our school.

I am currently wearing several hats as I work on transitioning into my new role. I am co-teaching math in Ms. Scobie’s second and third grade multiage classroom and spending some time with the fourth graders as they practice typing in the computer lab. I have also had the opportunity to begin to provide some enrichment activities. I recently worked with a small group from Ms. Sidman’s first and second grade multi-age class teaching them how to describe and identify leaves. The students presented what they learned to the rest of the class and their work is posted in the classroom for all of the students to use. I am looking forward to doing more of this type of curriculum work with students throughout the school.

Another aspect of this career change for me is that I am back in graduate school. As I work toward my Masters in Library Media Studies I will be using what I learned in “library school” in my job at Pine Hill. My first endeavor is this blog! I want to have a place where we, parents, students and teachers, can share our thoughts about books and great resources on the web. I’m not sure if this is the format I will be using for all of my newletters. There are so many options I’ve yet to explore - wikis are next on my list! I’ll appreciate your feedback and I’m looking forward to working with you as I begin this adventure!