News - October 2021

From Ms. Katie Tempinski … The children in K1B are social and love to learn! This month they have been learning about each other during Morning Meeting. They have brought in items from home in the class “All About Me” bag. When it is each child’s turn they talk about the items they brought in and share why the items are special to them and their family. Every day at Morning Meeting K1B sings their good morning song in English and in Spanish and says their good morning prayer. The children take turns with classroom jobs, say the Pledge of Allegiance, place the date on the calendar, report the weather and count how many days they have been in school. The children look forward to center time where they do a variety of hands-on math, language, literacy, science, social, fine motor and art activities. K1B enjoys working together with their peers and teachers during this small group time. We recently went on a fall walk and a leaf hunt and had a chance to enjoy a beautiful autumn day. New families are welcome to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

This year we welcomed back our current teachers, as well as some new teachers to South Boston Catholic Academy. Here are some of our new teachers we welcomed to the SBCA family community this school year… Ms. Emily Barron is our new K0B Lead Teacher. “Ms. Emily is a graduate of Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology and Human Development and Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. In her free time, she enjoys walking her bulldogs around Castle Island, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.” Ms. Taylor Thomson is our new K0C Lead Teacher. “Previously Ms. Taylor was an Aide in a K1 classroom. She is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and minored in Human Development and Family Studies. Ms. Taylor was born and raised in South Boston, and in her spare time, she enjoys beach days, traveling and spending time with family and friends.” Ms. Hope Vareika is our new K1A Lead Teacher. “Ms. Hope attended Boston College for undergrad, and received her Master’s in Early Childhood Education from the Lynch School at B.C. this past spring. Hope is passionate about early childhood education and is thrilled to join the K1 team this year. In her free time, Hope enjoys spending time with her friends and family, cheering on Boston College (go Eagles!), and going for walks with her dog Percy.” Mrs. Emily Maher is our new K1C Lead Teacher. “Ms. Emily was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. In 2014, Emily graduated with honors from Wheelock College in Boston, double majoring in Early Childhood Education and Human Development. In 2016, Emily earned her master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education at Bank Street College in Manhattan. Over the past six years, Emily has worked in a variety of school settings in New York City and Chicago, as well as throughout the Boston area when she returned in 2018. Emily and her husband Dr. Asim Maher reside in Charlestown with their cat Julie and their dog Lily. Emily is thrilled to join the team at SBCA!” Ms. Meghan Leslie is our new 2C Lead Teacher. “Ms. Leslie is from Westchester, NY. She is a graduate of Providence College where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary and Special Education, as well as a Masters of Education in School Counseling. In her free time, Ms. Leslie enjoys walking, spending time with family and friends, and eating ice cream!” Ms. Kate Sieber is the new 3C Teacher. "Ms. Sieber is very excited to be starting her first year at SBCA in the third grade. Ms. Sieber is originally from North Attleboro, Massachusetts. She graduated from Stonehill College with a BA in Elementary Education and Psychology in May of 2021. She is currently obtaining her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction through the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps at Boston College. In her free time, Ms. Sieber loves to read, spend time with her friends and family, and go to the beach!" Mrs. Kellie Defelice is our new Grade 4 Teacher. “Mrs. Defelice is very excited to be joining the SBCA community to teach the fourth grade. Mrs. Defelice is from Quincy, Massachusetts. She attended UMass Boston and graduated with a BA in Sociology and completed the Undergraduate Elementary Education program. She continued her education at UMass Boston and graduated with a Master’s in Education. She has a license in Special Education with Moderate Disabilities. She believes in the value of Catholic Education as she herself attended Catholic Schools and her daughter currently attends a Catholic School. In her free time, Mrs. Defelice likes to spend time with her family and pets, read, go to the beach and travel.” Mr. Jesus Espinal is our new Music Teacher. “Jesus started his musical journey at 7 years old and has been in love with it ever since. Originally from South Florida Jesus Espinal is a graduate from Berklee College of music majored in Jazz composition and minored in Jazz music theory. Jesus believes very much in the benefits of music education for young people and is an active educator/composer/performer in the Boston area.” We welcome all our current and new teachers to this year’s South Boston Catholic Academy Team and we wish our students, families, faculty and staff a wonderful 2021-2022 school year! New families are welcome to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.

We are excited to have the 6th grade, South Boston Catholic Academy Class of 2022, leading the new school year! This year we have two 6th grade classes lead by Ms. Hoisl and Ms. Smith. The 6th graders took part in our first school Mass for this school year and did a fantastic job with the readings at this Mass. Father Casey, the Pastor and Father Boyle, the Parochial Vicar were the celebrants at this Mass at St. Brigid Church. The students were eager to get back in the classroom, and are off to a great start. We look forward to seeing what this year brings for our wonderful 6th graders! New families are welcome to email Mrs. Jamie Brown at j.brown@sbcatholicacademy.org to learn more about South Boston Catholic Academy.