If you step into the Guidance offices of Triton Middle School, you will be greeted with an overwhelming amount of laughs and smiles from the different staff members. One of those smiles belongs to Lorraine Miles.

Mrs. Miles is the new behavior analyst at Triton Middle School and she says it has been “All good things.” since she has arrived a Triton.

Miles just started working at Triton this year, but before that she taught in a daycare for preschool, and was also a behavior specialist in Topsfield. She then taught a classroom in Topsfield for students with special needs. After that Miles became a behavior analyst, and currently works at Salisbury Elementary School and Pine Grove in addition to working at Triton. Miles works in dealing with inappropriate behavior that may disturb the classroom setting.

“I help students and school teams understand challenging behavior and how to interact with challenging behaviors,” said Miles. Miles helps keep the classroom running smoothly and efficiently.

Miles wanted to become a behavior analyst so she could support others, 

“I wanted to be able to have those answers and be able to help support students, and teachers, and families on what to do when you have those really tough behaviors.” said Miles with a smile.

Teachers and staff who work with students often have a rough transition working at a new school, but Miles’ transition has been a good experience so far.  “It’s a great place to work awesome kids, awesome teachers, great administrators, I feel very lucky.” Said Miles.

Miles’ teacher mentor, Mrs. Curtis, said that she thinks Triton does a wonderful job of helping recent teachers transition into the new environment.

Miles said that the only real challenges she has had so far while working at Triton is typical obstacles that any job contains like getting to know everybody and getting to know how things work.

Miles is a BCBA. BCBA’s (Board Certified Behavior Analysts) are an essential part of the education system and help the classroom run more smoothly.

“There is no doubt in my professional opinion our schools need support with BCBA’s,” Said Evaluation Team Chairperson Leonora Swerling. “They are educated in behavior analysis and are able to support teachers with supporting their students who may be exhibiting behaviors, which are disruptive to the class and themselves.”

To have successful teachers in a school, they must be supported by the school itself. At the same time, the teacher must also be responsible and want to be a valuable mentor to the student..

“I think that Mrs. Miles is very approachable, she is also very flexible, so she is very willing to meet with different teachers about different needs. She is willing to help out in a lot of ways.” Said Mrs. Curtis. Curtis also describes Miles as collaborative and very patient.

When talking about her work, Miles said that, “The students really benefit.”