Research is Underway!

Although this has been a short week, I am amazed at how many teachers have been using the library resources this early in the year. This week I have had numerous teachers reach out to me regarding our video databases! The databases we subscribe to are a huge asset to supporting the curriculum in any subject. Teaching students to locate and analyze information from a database provides them with a higher level of research skills.

The link for all of the library databases can be found here: http://www.natickps.org/departments/library/nhs/eresources.cfm If anyone needs a tutorial on how to use the databases or would like to work on how to incorporate the research databases into their lessons please do not hesitate to contact me.

Book Review!

Continuing with our staff book reviews, Ms. Carrick read Being Mortal / Atul Gawande and wrote the following passionate review!

 This summer I decided to read Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal. I read his first two books, Complications and Better and loved the raw quality of his writing and admissions in making some mistakes as a doctor. They are all fascinating, dramatic reads, but having a father in law who turned 90 last year really made me want to read “Being Mortal”.  Dr. Gawande is a local ER Surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston (local!) and speaks frankly about his own experiences with his elderly father and the decisions they had to make (some good, some bad). He gives the reader an in depth history as to how all these assisted living facilities came to be and the history of nursing homes in America and how doctors might be overcommitting to extending life at all cost, that in some cases extend suffering. He argues that quality of life decisions must lie in the hands of the person suffering, and only addressing how to extend your life medically may not be the best option. The book speaks about the shortcomings of the medical field in dealing with end of life issues and how each person/family needs to do what is best for them and make their own decisions even if they run counter to what is popular/common or in the case of the elderly person -  what your children want you to do.

“In his compassionate and learned way, Gawande shows all of us - doctors included - how mortality must be faced, with both heart and mind”

~Sue Nelson

Seniors Show Their Spirit!

It's not all study and research in the library! Seniors are showing their spirit today with their Friday dress up day. Today's them is Hawaiian! We love to feel the spirit in the library!