Derek Ciccone is an academic support teacher at Triton Regional High School who strives to help the special needs community of kids live up to their full potentials, and prepare for the rest of their lives.

‘’I want to help others the way I was helped when I was younger.’’ Ciccone said

He gets this energy, from teaching. It makes him feel great whenever he’s working with the kids, and he loves doing it, he never gets bored either he is always having fun. Ciccone says working with the students sometimes brings him back to when he was a student here at Triton. He is also modeling after the teachers he had when he was younger to create the best possible environment for his students. He works amongst the special needs kids and they enjoy him and say he’s fun and exciting. Ciccone says he wants to become a full teacher within the next year. He says it makes him happy and he has that drive to help others.

Ciccone’s mentor and fellow teacher Cheryl Caracciolo is also very liked and respected teacher amongst the students.  Her and Ciccone have a very tight, good working relationship together.‘’He’s a good part of our team.’’ Said Caracciolo. Another reason is  he’s very helpful and supportive of the students in his classrooms. She also says another reason he’ll be a great teacher because he has the experience in special needs, so he’ll always be a step ahead of the other teachers.

Another person that really enjoys learning with, and having Ciccone around is one of his students Robert Marr. Marr says Ciccone is a really fun person and when he is feeling down, Ciccone always lets him go down to Mr Fontana to help him feel better. He also says that Ciccone is very helpful towards him.

Marr says, ‘’He’s really understanding, and a fun guy, I enjoy coming to school because I get to see him.’’