Many students are out the door the second they hear the bell rings, for teachers this is not true. A half day is a blessing to most students while for teachers they do not feel the same way. Teachers are required to stay after school for three extra hours as the students leave the school, they spend this extra time  in teacher workshops . 

     Three   hours after a half day, teachers are just getting ready to leave for their workshops. During this time the teachers are pushed to become the best educators they can be while working on critical thinking and skills students need. These days the teachers are understanding the schools vision for their students and school as a whole, The teachers are expected to pursue this vision of what the school has in mind for the students.        

    During Covid teachers were all over the place from zoom meetings , to dealing with absent students to trying to catch up with everyone’s late or missing work. Triton did not have much time to work together as a school to create a plan for their students . In  2021 they had no formal time to meet , most  teachers used this time to prepare for their next lesson due to all the changes in the covid schedule. The plan this year for teacher development days has improved very much. 

   Joe Celia explains that on teacher development days teachers work together to move the school forward. Teachers  put together a plan to explain what they want from the teachers to benefit their students. “ Everyday is a test,” Celia says, explaining that although they might try to be as prepared as they can, teachers  do not always know what is going to happen next. Celia’s role during the workshops really depends on what teachers  are doing that day. Teacher development days are days when  teachers collaborate  to learn new skills to bring into their classrooms, they also work with others to improve their collaboration skills and many more activities to further their teacher expertise.

    “ I am a better educator because of this training.. This is the idea of moving forward to become better” Celia says. 

    Sometimes you can find our teachers working together or you can find them separated into their departments like math will work together and english work together etc. The idea behind it all is to work on critical thinking and essential questions, trying to make things easier for the students to understand. Most of our teachers spent a Friday  in training through a CPS think:kids program which is collaborating problem solving.The focus of the training is to recognize kids with challenging behaviors and this program is proven to reduce challenging behavior and build relationships with adults in their lives. The CPS think:kids program was ranked #1 in the Department of Psychiatry in the United States.  

     “ The world of education changes all the time .. and to do our best as teachers we need to stay up to date with it, this is why this training is so important” said Timothy Jepson a teacher here at Triton. At the end of the week on November  4 Teachers will be working together in a teacher development days based off of departments. 

  The English department explains their plan for this week is called a “curriculum  rehab” where they will look at a unit they have prepared and look over the assignments and questions to make sure they fit with the student’s level of skills. “ Im working with the english department this week and I don’t know much of what we are doing yet but i’m excited” Mellissa Davis an english teacher at Triton states. 

  Triton plans to still continue with teacher development days as many educators have felt like it has benefited everyone.