On early release days, after the students go home early, teachers have collaborative team meetings. These meetings are when teachers who teach similar subjects come together and talk about how they’re going to grade individual students, student needs, how they will set up common assessments, work towards consistent levels of presenting materials and tracking student progress. Teachers try and meet with their CLT teams at least twice a month. However, teachers attend other meetings as well.

On September 11th, HHS had its first early release. Here’s an inside look at what some of the teachers were doing.

Principal Cynthia Prieto, tries to attend as many meetings as she possibly can. She’s constantly dropping into different meetings as well as leading some of them. “Early release days benefit the students because it makes the teachers stronger and better at what they’re doing,” Prieto said. Her main duty on early release days is making sure people are supported as they meet.

French teacher, Sally Young, says she’ll be spending her first early release day cleaning her room and attending two meetings. These include her CLT meeting and a meeting she will be having with a Bridgewater College student who is training to teach. She will be talking to her about what to expect when she’s assisting her in her classroom.

Science teacher Brittany Wolchak also had things to do on the early release.

“I’ll be grading and emailing parents, positive emails, and I will be cleaning up labs,” Wolchak said.

Math teacher Avery Walker says he will be grading tests on his early release day. He will be attending two to three meetings as well as working on “smart goals”.

“Smart goals are goals that we wish to achieve in our classroom like, how well the class will do in this particular area,” Walker said.

Geometry teacher, Beverly Combs, was spending her first early release day giving students extra help and attending meetings. Other teachers like english teacher, Aaron Cosner and math teacher, Jeffrey Oswald, were finishing up smart goals, grading work, and attending meetings as well.

So, even though the students leave early, teachers are still working well after they are gone.

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Christa Cole