What's recently happened?
The Morton High School (MHS) Governors strive to create innovative spaces for their community to freely flourish. With the change of the seasons, students are trying their best to get a handle on the new school expectations and regulations. The no phone policy being enforced during school hours hasn’t stopped the students of MHS from having a good time.
The school year started off strong with Morton’s favorite non-official essential back-to-school event called Fits On Fits (FOF). FOF is where the students throw together their best outfits to show off during the first couple weeks of school. There’s nothing like a good outfit to start the day off right.
Sports are dominating the Governor’s Mansion this time around. The MHS football team started the season off strong with a win against the Portage High School Indians on August 18. Girls Basketball has been conditioning all summer to prepare for its callouts on August 24. Girls Volleyball is trying its absolute best to have a year like no other and is holding practice matches every single day.
Cheering the football team on strong, the MHS Cheer team kept tricks up its sleeve to bring out only the best chants for this season. Girls Soccer has MHS at the edge of its seat with neck-and-neck scores every week. The athletic department continues to count these W’s that makes MHS one of the best athletic-oriented schools in Hammond.
Teachers are back in the building to improve student wellness every Wednesday after early release. Every week, teachers are required to go to positive professional development courses after school to discuss and collaborate on how to make the MHS learning environment better.
Every teacher at MHS is required to be in attendance physically as well as cognitively. Working together, providing daily insight, and understanding the psychological part of education plays such an important role in school. MHS strives to provide their students with a growing foundation to implement their knowledge in educational spaces.
What's coming up?
Homecoming week has brought everyone out of hiding as MHS counts down the days to crowning the new Queen and King. This week launched the homecoming spirit week featuring days where the students get to strut their stuff and enter daily costume raffles. The MHS Enchanted Garden Dance is hosted by the MHS Dance team and is planned to be one for the books with new inclusions, decor and DJ’s to make the night truly magical.
There are countless memories to be made in the bushels of beauty this Homecoming, so stay tuned for the fun. September 14 will be the first Powderpuff game where the ladies will run up and down the field playing flag football as the crowd goes wild.
This game will top the charts as flag football may make its way to the MHS for the ‘24 - ’25 school year. Next year, MHS will be bringing back the students versus faculty basketball game in spring ‘24.
As fall approaches, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen are preparing for the PSATs. MHS wishes them luck as they prepare to take on this academic challenge and succeed with flying colors.
Staff spotlight:
Brad Brown, the economics teacher at MHS, never fails to help his students understand human nature and common currency. Brown has been teaching economics for 18 years. Before his teaching took flight at MHS, the Hammond Area Career Center was his home. Brown originally didn’t plan on becoming an educator, but after seeing his wife teach English language arts (ELA) for a handful of years, he decided to give it a shot.
Brown himself has always been into economics and feels that it is an important topic that most people don’t know much about.
In his free time he works on writing his own book and spends time taking care of his 4-year-old tabby cat named Tilly.
"The way to a true economist's heart is through coffee,” Brown said.
His favorite thing about economics is that it provides a framework for making decisions. Brown uses cost/benefit analysis often to try and understand the choices he’s making in his day-to-day life. What does he want? What will it cost him? Is it actually worth it? These are a couple of questions he inspires his students to ask themselves throughout the day as they start to make more complex decisions.
"There is nothing else I would like to do besides help my students become more aware of the impact their actions have,” Brown said.
Brown's classrooms consist of mostly seniors. His students are at a point in their life where they’re making a lot of important decisions. Brown said it is rewarding to hear them talk about their choices as the year progresses. Brown also believes that teenagers are fun to be around because they are so full of energy.
Brown also greatly enjoys accounting. He reads business news every day. Understanding the world in which he lives is something that he is incredibly fond of. At the end of each year Brown hopes to have passed all his knowledge down. He tries to be prepared and plan ahead for his day to provide valuable content to his students.
Brown is a man with a plan that is taking on the world with one ethically thought out solution at a time.
Student spotlight:
Senior Kasandra Sanchez has found a love for swimming at MHS. Sanchez started her swimming career in the fall of ‘22 with hopeful eyes and high spirits. She wanted to do something new and ended up spending more time in the pool than in her own home. Thanks to this good experience, Sanchez never hesitates to inform people how fun it is to be on the swim team.
In her free time she also teaches swimming lessons at the YMCA to keep the kids kicking and the community floating.
“You’ll never regret putting in the work, but you will regret not trying,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez is looking forward to starting her journey and becoming an adult after this school year is complete. Sanchez is also looking forward to opening her world up to new opportunities. The only thing that’ll never change is her love for swimming because she likes to say she’s a mermaid.
Sanchez is all for making connections and sharing laughter with her peers. During swimming, she made a lot of new friends at her weekly competitions. Her teammates also never hesitated to root her on when she won first place at her swim conference and first in her meet at Sectionals.
“I wanted to quit so many times, but I persevered and it paid off when my times dropped at sectionals and I felt so accomplished with myself,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez plans to make her senior year the best year yet with a shiny first place medal at this year’s sectional.
When it comes to her time at school, she maintains a steady pace and stays focused on what she needs to get done. Balancing academics and amusement isn’t just any ole feat but the athletes at MHS find a way to do it all. After high school, she has plans of going to cosmetology school to do hair and nails. In her free time, she practices doing nails, goes out with friends, and enjoys one of her favorite drinks, boba tea.