Our community at Morris Hills High School has flourished into a rapidly-growing learning environment, where students and staff members can connect to bring forth a better future.
As a new school counselor at MH, Ms. Tiana Victor acknowledges that her office should be that place where you can come in and just be yourself. One day, while working at a doctor’s office, a patient came in talking about their counseling job and recommended to her that she should apply.
“So it seems like a place where the students really care about this school and the staff really care about it. So it makes it very easy to care about what I’m doing and work really hard.” Ms. Victor said.
Ms. Victor recently worked with Questbridge for a specific population of students that qualify for a special application, competing for top colleges. She hopes that people always consider higher education, whether it be a four-year degree, a two-year or trades school. She also is working on instant decision day in November, which is an opportunity for students to apply for local colleges and get interviewed by them. After receiving an immediate admissions decision, colleges give you advice to strengthen the entirety of your application.
“The most important thing, I think, is that you belong here, and you’re not alone. Ms. Victor added.
Ms. Danielle Matovski is surpassing her tenth year in school business administration. She works with finances, purchase orders, supplies to payroll, cafeteria services, transportation and custodial maintenance that is located on buildings and grounds. Starting off at Madison and then moving onto Fair Lawn Public schools, she stays team-oriented by helping manage all of the construction of the school district, meeting with all the administrators to get their feedback. Believing communication is key, she emphasizes that in “whatever decision we make, students are always at the forefront.”
The managing team is at the cusp of starting Morris Knolls field and track renovation, applying the same type of turf and track and Morris Hills on Dec. 1st. She explains that this would be better for sports.
“And a bigger picture item that we’re looking into is the renovation of the Morris Hills auditorium. We have to still present that during the budget, and that’s at the very beginning conversation, but that’s something that sets up and is hopefully within our pipeline.” Ms. Matovski smiled.
Using systems, Mrs. Samantha Pino believes that math is understanding procedures in a process.
“I really like teaching pre-calculus, I think, it’s finally a place where all the math you’ve learned over the years finally comes together and you see why you learned what you learned Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2.” Mrs. Pino said.
In high school, she worked at a daycare and realized that math was her strong suit. She lives in the Rockaway community, and compliments the students and coworkers here at MH. Her teaching method is a mix of taking notes while also giving people the time to practice, as she believes that practice makes perfect with math. She loves being able to teach problems that relate to the real-world, like tying exponentials to teach how loans work.
Another math teacher is Mrs. Victoria Rama, and she teaches 3 sections of Algebra 1 CPA, the semester course of SAT prep and one section of Algebra 2 CPB. She’s always known she wanted to be a teacher, and her goal is to make students enjoy practicing math better.
“I really appreciate when they ask questions and tell me when I make a mistake when I’m up at the board. I think it’s a very collaborative environment and I like knowing that I’m not just the teacher, the students are also teaching me just as much as I’m teaching them.” Mrs. Rama said.
Mrs. Rama loves teaching Geometry because it’s less black and white than Algebra, preferably on paper, and there are so many angles to look from to solve problems. As a student, she liked learning proofs to see how everything builds off of another.
“Just because you don’t know the answer doesn’t mean you don’t know how to get there.” Mrs. Rama said. “Sometimes students are so fixated on knowing the answer, that they forget that what’s more important is knowing the way to get there. And that’s outside of the math classroom too.”
Mr. Erick Gill has his associates’ in accounting, bachelor’s in business, MBA in business management, and is pursuing his master’s in education. He’s been the assistant control and service director in several companies, and owns his own commercial cleaning company, real estate business and general contracting business that are all proprietary. Interested in sports as the coach of the Little League, softball, wrestling in his town for 20 years, his dad played in the World Cup Qualifiers in 1978.
Mr. Gill teaches Accounting 1H, Introduction to Business and Personal Finance. He believes that accounting requires a mix of IQ and EQ, and tries incorporating real-life experiences and emotional intelligence in his teaching.
“I would’ve loved to have a personal finance class when I was in school. It’s kind of something that I can share with the kids and do better than my generation did, because I didn’t have those types of courses in high school.” Mr. Gill said.
As a proud alumni of Morris Hills, Ms. Kaley Moran teaches Biology and Environmental Science.
“Biology is my favorite because it gives me the chance to dive into the medical side of science topics.” Mrs. Moran explains. The Homeostasis lab she conducts helps students get up and moving while collecting real data. She coaches volleyball, winter track and spring track. She still plays volleyball and runs the occasional 5k, and her goal is one day being able to run a marathon before she turns thirty.
“I believe successful scientists need to value both IQ and EQ. It is important to find answers through strong reasoning, but equally important to consider how your actions and discoveries may impact other people. This balance helps create not only great scientists but also compassionate humans.”
Growing up, Mr. Joseph Carlson always had an interest in how things work; being able to break things apart and fix them. After starting his building journey he took a 4.5 year break as a newspaper reporter in Sussex County, committing to the role again in 2017.
Facilities are operational 24/7, meaning that he must touch base with Dr. Toriello often conducts morning routines and daily walkthroughs. And in terms of technology, Carlson monitors HVACs. He believes that MH is one of the best in the state, and upgrades classrooms, bathrooms and the completion of the Media Center and Gifford Field are undergoing.
Understanding the importance of teamwork, he believes that “The satisfaction of seeing what me and my team accomplish at the end of each day. Whether it’s making a major repair of cutting grass and getting fields laid out.” Mr. Carlson said.
Ms. Lynda Orrichio has lived in Rockaway for about 20 years, and graduated with a BA in Economics. She pursued her graduate studies at Montclair state after realizing that teaching was what she wanted to do, and she speaks Italian and Spanish.
In her teaching, she mixes up lecture, partner speaking activities, writing and listening comprehension. She also incorporates projects where students can be more hands-on and creative, especially oral practice.
“Even though I teach beginner levels, students are able to complete the class with basic conversational skills and a knowledge of some of the beautiful cultural aspects.” Ms. Orrichio stated.