Articles

     The murmur of voices leave the brick walls behind, as the maroon double doors shut for the day. What is left in this hallway, embedded into the wall, is a library. The colors from the different book covers are vibrant underneath the school's light. The users of this library stand on the square tan tiles that cover the floor as they read the words of an author on the page during the day. This three shelf library rests in the hallway that houses classrooms 222 and 221 and is across from the two maroon bulletin boards that at the time of publication read “The sky is the limit to your success”. Our very own Ms. Interrante started this free school library. 

Over the summer Ms. Interrante was cleaning out a classroom in preparation for a change in space when she found several boxes of books that appeared to be abandoned. She placed them outside in the hallway in June and notified the staff that they could take any book that they needed out of the bins. When Ms. Interrante came back to the school in August and there was a large amount of books left over. This gave her an idea and an opportunity. She reached out to Principle Titus and asked about starting a library using the remaining books. The plan was approved and by the end of the day the bookshelves had been installed by a custodian.This library has been running since the beginning of this school year and has been visited by many staff and students. If you have a minute drop by the library and explore the world of reading.

On Sunday, October 5th 2025 the 5th and 6th grade boys football team, the Gloucester Fishermen, played against the Swampscott Big Blue. The game was at the Swampscott turf field at 11:30 AM. This game resulted in Gloucester losing 46 to 0. As it stands, Gloucester's 5th and 6th grade team has now one win, one tie, and two losses.

  During the Fishermen huddle there were a lot of mixed emotions between mad and sad. Also the team (including me) got down on ourselves. But Swampscott was a good team and sometimes you lose and sometimes you win. It was a good learning experience for us because we watched film at our coaches house and we learned a lot from our experience. Hopefully our Gloucester youth football team can win another game in the future.

     We have new teachers who joined the O’Maley community this year. One of them is Mrs. Stevens. Mrs. Stevens is the 8th grade science teacher for Anchor house. She lives in Gloucester now, but even before she lived here she would come up during the summer to visit Good Harbor Beach. To this day Mrs. Stevens still enjoys swimming and playing at the beach. She and her husband have one baby, Parker, and they all live underneath her in-laws or her husband's mom and grandmother. She has dyslexia and ADHD and holds that as an important part of her journey to become an educator. 

   Mrs. Stevens' disabilities have impacted her life. In school she felt that she had to be pulled out of class much more than she would have liked just to be at the same level as her peers. This experience drives her to make an environment where students can all feel equal and learn the material in an inclusion educational setting. Mrs. Stevens thought she was going to be an elementary teacher. She felt and feels that science is underrepresented at the elementary level. This thought influenced her choice in majors when she was going to college. She has a degree in Elementary School Education and a degree in Special Education. While in college, Mrs. Stevens’ advisor told her that she would be a great middle school teacher. Mrs. Stevens took this with a grain of salt but decided in the end to take the MTEL-teacher licensure test (middle school teaching license) Mrs. Stevens thought she wanted to teach elementary school, but she found middle school science to be a better fit in the end. 

   Mrs. Stevens' goal was to teach elementary school students. Her first teaching job was in Salem as a 6th grade science teacher. She did this but at the very same time she was a 7th grade stem specialist. Let's just say she was a busy bee. Later on, after 7 years in 6th grade science, at Salem she decided to switch to a position, science coach, where she would teach the teachers how to teach. Mrs. Stevens would help science teachers in her building grade, build lesson plans, teach students, and run their classrooms among other things. She did enjoy this job but she really missed building relationships with and seeing her growing students, which she stated was her favorite part of teaching.  She initially wanted to teach elementary school but ended up educating middle schoolers.

  When coming to O’Maley she wanted to try something new, something other than 6th and 7th grade science. So she came to 8th grade. Although she has only been teaching at O’Maley for a few weeks she revealed that she enjoys the community and just the overall atmosphere of O’Maley. Something she states that adds to the atmosphere of O’Maley is the trust. At Mrs. Stevens' old school she was strongly encouraged to follow the curriculum with fidelity. However, at O’Maley the teachers are allowed to make their own decisions and lessons as long as they are teaching the students the material and they are meeting the 8th grade MA standards as best they can. 

   Mrs. Stevens had a curriculum to follow but sometimes it would not highlight all of the key points that had to be made. With the confidence given to the teachers at O’Maley, Mrs. Stevens feels that she can meet all the standards more easily without needing to follow, what felt like, a script. She is now able to create lessons in collaboration with my coworkers to fit the Massachusetts state standards in a more engaging and hands-on way.

Here are some unexpected things you may not have known about Mrs. Stevens. Mrs. Stevens is the oldest of 5. She has three sisters and one brother. Since her household was always so loud growing up she finds that the quiet can sometimes feel weird and unnatural. If you have ever been in her room you will probably get the not so subtle hint that she loves the TV show “ Friends”. She loves the show so much that she combined her love of Lego’s with it and has built numerous scenes from the iconic show out of building blocks. As she is building we are too. We are building a community of teachers and students at this school. Come back next week to build your knowledge of the new teachers that build part of O’Maley.