Interview With Ms. White

Recently we sat down with Iroquois Ridge's new principal Ms. White to welcome her to IRHS and ask her about all the things that the Ridge wants to know. 

Q: How have you found The Ridge so far?

A: As you know, of course, the Ridge is known for it's excellence and the quality of its students and it's staff. I knew that coming in and certainly I haven't been disappointed. I've met a lot of wonderful students, and staff members, and a lot of community members, and some parents already. Obviously the school is as active as I remember, if not more-so. Everybody has been really welcoming, the office staff has been wonderful to me. Everything has been excellent so far.

Q: Where were you teaching before the Ridge?

A: The Ridge was actually the last school where I was a teacher. At the time that I left I was the program leader for English Literacy, Library, and Staff Mentorship. As a teacher, throughout my career I mostly taught English and History. This is my ninth placement, so I have been at seven different schools around Halton.

Q: What is something interesting about yourself?

A: For me, a personal connection to this school is that, the way I say it is, "my son was born here". I was working here, I was a teacher, the year that my son was born. I sort of associate this birth with this school. Other than our family, the first person that I told that he was going to exist was someone in this school. I remember telling the principal that year. And the first people, other than our close family, that I called the next day after he was born, was the Ridge. So there's a personal connection here as well.

Q: Any hobbies?

A: I think probably like most parents, your kid becomes your hobby, and their hobbies become your own. So it seems like we're always going to the next hockey or soccer tournament. Of course, as an English teacher I love to read, and I try to read as much as I can. We love going to the theatre, so for the long weekend we went to Stratford and saw Hamlet and The Sound of Music, and then last weekend we went to the SHAW festival and saw Peter And The Starcatcher. Those are things that I enjoy doing, I don't always get to do them as much as I would like.

Q: What do you think is the key to learning?

A: I've always loved learning, both as a student and a teacher. I think to truly benefit from the learning process, you have to be totally immersed and engaged in that process. For sure, some of us have that internal motivation to be involved, and I think some of us need a strong teacher to encourage us to be involved in the learning process. And there’s both types of students, and anything and everything in between. In order for everyone to learn we have to determine what works with what students. And that, for me, is really the key. determines what works for you and what works for me. And trying to make a classroom setting, or a school setting, work for everyone.

Q: How do you hope to better the Ridge? What are some changes we can expect?

A: I would say the word change is a word that scares some people, and when they think about change they worry that change is something that will be imposed upon them. That’s really not really the way that it should be. I really think of it more as a constant improvement and I think about lifelong learning. You’re not changing, you’re learning. You’re not changing, you’re improving. And to me that makes it a little bit more realistic and relevant, thinking about those concepts in that way. Certainly I’m thinking that together we’re all going to take the ownership for this improvement. It will be something that we share together, students, staff, the community. It’s not me making it better it’s not me changing things, it’s us working collectively towards looking around and saying how do we want to improve our school, and just making it happen. Based on what I’ve seen so far we’ve got a lot of students here who want to make things happen, so I know that together we will be able to do that.

Q: What is the future of leadership at the Ridge?

A: As I started, the Ridge has long been known as a place that does foster student voice, and student leadership and I myself felt that this was the school that had the greatest impact on me as a leader, and this was the school that I knew that I wanted to become an administrator, so I started to take the courses and getting into that role. So again, a very personal connection. I always told the people at other schools that I went to that there’s something about the Ridge that truly fosters leadership in both staff and students. I was very very fortunate to be here, and so I think that this is obvioulsy just going to continue. That’s really the future, that all of this leadership is going to move forward. And as I said I’ve met with students and staff already, been completely blown away by the level of commitment, organization, that students are showing and the work ethic. And I think that is why we produce so many good leaders here. And I have been working on a student leadership structure with a lot of different groups and the staff to understand what it might look like. It’s my understanding that student leadership was going through a bit of a change, in terms of the structures last year. So, I think that together I have talked with lots of staff and lots of students, and lots of student groups and I think that we are coming up with a structure that should work for us all. I am looking  forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to say to the students of the Ridge? 

A: Just keep inviting me to things, there’s so many things happening and I really want to be involved as much as I can. So, when people are having meetings for their clubs, or there’s games after school, or there’s events happening at night or at lunch I would really like, as much as possible, to be a part of that and contribute in any way that I can.