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The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

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The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

Faculty Friday: Chilling with Picillo

Meet the new history teacher Dustin Picillo, a past student of Franklin High School (FHS) who has his own unexpected history to share.

Before his career as a teacher, Mr. Picillo had done stand up comedy. He attended open mics in both Boston and Providence. Also, Mr. Picillo keeps up with his hobbies of playing golf and rock climbing.

His attachment to golf goes back to his days at FHS where he also ran track and played football. While his experience in football was, as Mr. Picillo stated: “one and done,” he continued to play golf in college.

Mr. Picillo attended Westfield State predominantly and Assumption College for a year. Before he was certain in his path as a teacher, Mr. Picillo considered being a lawyer and going to law school.

However, Mr. Picillo declared his history major and his path towards becoming a teacher in his freshman year of college. It may have helped that he comes from a family of teachers.

Furthermore, during his college experience, he took part in the Disney College Program in which he actually worked at the Disney attraction the Tower of Terror as a bellhop.

While a great experience, Mr. Picillo stated that his claim to fame was when his question made it onto the Jerry Springer Show. Picillo applied to be apart of the audience, and out of all of their questions, his was one to make it on the program.

That aside, Mr. Picillo is glad to be in his teaching position here at Franklin, recalling his time here with Mr. Schmidt as his own sociology teacher and some of the other history teachers who still remain here at FHS.

He can also relate with some of his students as he remembered his time as an employee at Shaw’s.

As for his own class, Mr. Picillo creates an environment focused around elements such as debates and simulations. Mr. Picillo states: “[He is] just trying to keep things fresh.

Mr. Picillo is a welcomed new addition to the FHS faculty with a great new teaching style and plenty of tales from his own high school experience and more.