An Interview with Ms. Morton

Community Connections: IRHS Staff Interview

Tanvi Manku

Ms. Morton (she/her) is beginning her eighth year teaching at IRHS and usually teaches Grade 11 Media Studies, Grade 12 Film and Literature, and Grade 11 and 12 University English.

What advice do you have for students?

My best advice for students is to try your best to live in the moment and don't get too carried away planning for the future- as we've seen with the pandemic, anything can happen to throw you off course, but that doesn't mean you won't get where you wanna go eventually!

It's so easy to get overwhelmed worrying about marks (I definitely did in high school), but at the end of the day the memories you will carry with you from high school will not have much to do with those grades. Yes, grades can of course direct what you do immediately after high school, but there are also plenty of opportunities to reach your destination outside of high school marks.

What have been your most memorable teaching moments at IRHS?

Even though the 2020-2021 school year was very difficult for me, as well as many other teachers and students, I would say that it was also some of the most memorable "teaching" that I ever did by the time we got to Quad 4. I decided to focus more on discussion-based learning in my grade 12 University Film and Literature class and the stuff that came out of that class astounded me- I learned so much from the students that I will be forever grateful for.

Also, getting to know several students really well as I tried to help them keep going during really challenging personal situations, though very hard for all of us, was different from the regular school year where I might not always see that side of students' lives. So it made for some really special moments and connections that I will always be very thankful for!

Finally, one of the most memorable experiences of my time at the Ridge was leading a school trip to South Africa in 2018. We had an absolutely incredible time with an amazing group, and the amount of laughter we shared will never leave my heart.

Apart from teaching, what other interests/passions/hobbies do you enjoy?

Apart from teaching, I love reading, writing screenplays and academic papers, and generally talking for thousands of hours about pop culture! I absolutely love watching movies (and all media really) and chatting endlessly about how far cinema has come- and how far it still has to go- in regard to inclusivity and the representation of all voices, especially those of people of color, women, the queer community, and those with differing abilities.

What is one interesting fact about you that students would be surprised to learn about you?

To be honest, I don't know that there's much students would be surprised to learn about me given that I'm a pretty open book, but students who haven't had me as a teacher before may be surprised to learn that prior to COVID-19, I travelled to each continent at least twice (except Antarctica- that's so expensive, I'm saving it for my retirement gift)! I had hoped to visit 40 countries by the time I turned 40 (Sweet Mother, that's so soon now) until COVID came in and ruined all the things, but I got pretty close- I think I'm at 35-38 countries!