Next year at Triton, English teacher James Allen will be introducing another journalism class to Triton students. 

His new class is just one of many being brought into Triton,  some of which include new science electives, a look into world religions, and a class on excursions in modern mathematics. With student course selection coming up, these classes might be just what you are looking for. 

Media Studies: 

Media studies is a new, semester-long, class that English teacher James Allen will be teaching. This class will be offered as honors level credit for those interested in grades 10, 11, and 12. This class will allow students to focus on reading, writing, and communicating state standards and skills, along with satisfying the elusive publishing standard through print, online, and audio/video publication. The class will be working on one main project each quarter. Some units that will be covered in this course include journalism ethics, student press law, and tenets of investigative journalism. News and feature interviewing will also be covered along with research and writing, podcasting and audio, raw video and filming for journalism, and “taking it to the streets,” with the community projects. This class will change the view some people might have on writing and might inspire others to take on new classes. 

According to Allen, students should take this class “one, if you are interested in writing for the school newspaper, two, you are are just looking to try it out, or if you are trying to extend your time in journalism, or if you are a sophomore trying to figure out if you want to take journalism as a junior or senior.  All of those are good reasons to try out this class,” said Allen.

Sustainability:

Mr. Thomas Horsely, a science teacher at Triton, is looking to broaden students’ understanding of their daily lives and the impacts they make in his new class, sustainability. While going on field trips and doing different experiments, students will explore ways to make changes in their daily lives to better our environment. This CP credited class will be a semester long class and depending on the number of students that sign-up, will be offered during both semesters. Juniors and Seniors will have the opportunity to make it personal and talk about their daily lives and the effects that they have on the environment. 

 “It’s a personal toolbox, to bring about positive environmental change,” Horsley said. 

In Horsley’s class, students will be studying electricity usage and how to change it, doing hands-on and personal projects, and taking part in a disposable product challenge. He will be challenging his students to use as few plastic products as possible, analyzing how we spend our money, and analyzing the brands we buy most and how they are affecting the economy. 

World Religions: 

World religions, taught by history teacher Ms. Blythe Cowen, is a semester-long class that may be offered for all grades. It will be offered during both semesters and is only offered in the CP level. This class will allow Triton students to understand the backgrounds of different religions and how they shaped our world and history today. Religion is a huge part of our history and students will be doing simulations for different cultures so they fully understand what they are and how some things today are taken from religion like yoga and meditation. Cowen wants to create an understanding of these different world religions, and make students want to learn more about them.

“Learn world religions, learn your worldview,” said Cowen. 

Environmental Chemistry: 

A new semester long science class will examine the chemical processes and conditions that normally occur in the Earth’s environment. Taught by Dr. Adam Lothrop, students will be exploring the changes, both good and bad, that science has brought to our world. This class will be offered to both juniors and seniors next year as a CP level class. Lothrop plans to separate his class into three units: water, soil, air. 

“What I’m trying to do with this class is help people understand how chemistry works in nature, to make the world work the way it does,” said Lothrop. 

Lothrop wants his class to be accessible to all and so the class itself isn’t going to go at an accelerated pace. He is focused on teaching students the chemical wonder of the environment and how we can preserve our world for the future. Something Lothrop says students can look forward to in this class is units and lab experiments on water containment, biological chemistry of organisms, and air pollution. 

Partners in Theater: 

Mrs. Natlie Safely, the drama teacher here at Triton High School, is introducing her own elective that will be offered to all grades. Partners in theater will be a very active class with the promise of no homework and an opportunity to learn how to interact with others in the world. Throughout the semester, or full year if you choose, students will be presented with the opportunity to learn how to sew and paint with their partner. 

“This is for anyone who is interested in learning more about theater,” Safely said. “Sometimes it can be really nerve wracking to come into a theater class if you have never taken theater before. This is a really easy way into something that is very safe, very slow paced, and really just a lot of fun and being comfortable trying something new.”

Safely said that students will also be introduced to prop work, costuming, and writing scripts too. Devised theater will be a big topic being addressed in the class as well. Depending on the time, a poetry unit will be taught and a choice project will be given along with the challenge in acting in more difficult scripts. 

Excursions in Modern Mathematics: 

As one of the only semester-long classes available for math, excursions in modern math is also being offered as a class next year. This class, taught by math teacher Mrs. Irene Thompson, will be offered as a CP level course to juniors and seniors. After teaching this course to undergraduate students as a college instructor herself, Thompson is ready to introduce her class to Triton. This class was designed for non-math majors in college. It will essentially cover topics such as methods of fair division (methods of sharing), the math behind elections, and traveling salesmen problems that cover maximizing and minimizing. If time is spared, fractibility could be introduced as well. 

   “It’s how math can be viewed in the real world,” Thompson said. 

Thompson also says that students should want to take this class to encounter a different view on mathematics. By taking this class for one semester, they could gain a half credit towards their buildup of math credits if they choose. But, Thompson also says that to gain full credit, they could pair the class with Mrs. Marissa Galante’s CP statistics class. 

On March 15th through the 24th, the portal will be available to students for class selection in Aspen. It is advised that students choose their classes as soon as they are sure what they want to take. On March 31st, the course verification sheet will be published. This sheet will be acknowledged by students and parents in case of any mistakes or wrong information. April 7th will be the deadline for any mistakes regarding a student’s classes for next year.