Meet Your Neighbor � Mary Morton

By Lora Scripps/The Leeds News

Mary Morton, a teacher at Moody Middle School, believes working with fourth grade students over the past 13 years is nothing short of a blessing. She says she believes she was called to be a teacher and that her gift is working with children. �I love when students learn,� she says. �I love when I can tell that I have helped somebody or that they are successful. When I feel that I am a part of a student�s successes�being that I have either inspired them or motivated them or helped them overcome an obstacle�that�s what I love about it.�

Ms. Morton�s classroom is filled with an array of activities for students that include state-of-the-art technology. She says she is fortunate that the administration has provided so much for the classrooms. �We have a number of hands-on activities like crabs, millipedes and frogs that they get to observe,� she says. On Tuesday, the class was building a car in 20 minutes that would move 100 centimeters. She says she likes a combination of learning activities for her students, adding there is a time in day when she likes to work old school, in a structured environment, and other times where students are exploring. �I like to combine the two,� she says. �I think my strongest gift is to motivate.�

Mary says she loves the small town feel that Moody projects to its residents. She admits she enjoys going shopping or going to the ballpark and running into past and present students and parents who share hugs and calls out, �Ms. Morton!� She said she is fortunate to have so much community and parental support. �The more that they support and encourage me, the more successful of a year that I have and their children have,� she says.

Mary thinks of her students as her own and enjoys watching them grow up and come back to visit her. She believes in Teddy Roosevelt�s quote, �Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.� She wants all her students to know that she genuinely cares about them.

Mary graduated from Moody High School and went on to attend Auburn University where she received a bachelor�s in elementary education in 1996. Her teaching career started at Community Christian School in Moody and later landed her back at Moody Middle School. She worked at a teacher�s aide in the library for a few years before moving into her own classroom.

When she is not teaching at MMS, Mary attends Community Presbyterian Church where she teaches on Wednesdays. She enjoys traveling and has been on a number of mission trips including England, Mexico and Brazil doing service projects and helping build communities. She is also a member of an organization of teachers that work within the community. She says in the future she may get involved with city government. Her hobbies include gardening and travel. She started a butterfly garden at MMS and says she loves to travel and eat a variety of food from different cultures. She is also a huge Auburn Tigers fan.

�I am very grateful for this community,� she says. �There are a lot of people who have helped me along the way. They have all motivated to be a better teacher and a better person.�

Text Only