By Xime BG, Minh Nguyen and Layla Roop

Ms. Hunt
She is a new math teacher at Ironwood Ridge. Has been teaching high school math for 4 years, but teaching full time for 9. She comes from the marana school district, teaching at two high schools there. Before that, she taught college biology at Georgia. Her favorite grade to teach is Juniors or Sophomores. She first started teaching in grad school, then worked in healthcare. Her favorite hobby is weightlifting.She enjoys math that is applicable to the real world. Ms. Hunt doesn’t think of herself as a math person and has empathy for people that struggle with it. She understands people who are not “natural math geniuses.”

Ms. Perez Pineda
She is a brand new Spanish teacher at Ironwood Ridge. She started teaching in 2021 in the amphi and tucson districts. She did subbing, this year she is starting full time. She prefers talking to students individually in Spanish because “they don’t have any distractions” and it helps them learn better. She hopes for this year to be her favorite year teaching because she likes this school and the students. Ms.Perez takes the challenge of students that are only in Spanish class for the language credit, wanting them to pursue languages. She wants to make languages fun and enjoyable.She believes being a teacher is the best way to make a change to today’s teenagers. During her free time she enjoys knitting and crochet, spending time with her family and watching movies. Ms. Perez wants everyone to know that her door is always open for help and support for things related or unrelated to her class.

Mr. Counts
Mr. Counts has been teaching for three and a half years. He first started as a long-term sub at Amphi before getting the job and teaching photography. While teaching an elective class, he has taught students of all grades. He taught photography and TV, and film production back at Amphi, but now at Ironwood Ridge High School, he teaches photography and photo design, and the yearbook designing class. As of now, Mr. Counts’s favorite year of teaching is his first year teaching at Ironwood Ridge, this current year, 2025-2026. “I really like the culture here.” He has decided to become a teacher because, after the end of his career in journalism, he wanted to do something more meaningful. “I felt that teaching was the right career choice to be able to pass on my knowledge of journalism and photography.” In his free time, Mr Counts enjoys photography, and he took photos for the Tucson Weekly. Before the pandemic, Mr. Counts owned a deli called 4th Avenue Deli. Owning his own deli, he would focus on food photography for social media and advertisements. Mr. Counts also played music professionally. He previously played rock and roll before he started playing blues instead.

Ms. Winter
Ms. Winter has been teaching since 2022, for about three years in the teaching field. She has taught at multiple schools in the Provo School District in Utah, and Canyon View High School in Cedar City, before teaching here at Ironwood Ridge High School. She has taught mostly juniors; however, this year, she has gotten some seniors. English Language Arts is Ms. Winter’s main subject, but before teaching, she would substitute for science classes. When asked about her favorite year of teaching, she claims that this current year has so far been her favorite. Ms. Winter has decided to be a teacher because “teachers weren’t always teaching for the right reasons.” She claimed that teachers only taught for the schedule, not necessarily because they enjoyed teaching. Having learning disabilities such as adhd, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, she struggled a lot in school. Schools back then did not have 504s or IEPs in traditional schools; only used in Special Education schools. Being in a traditional school, Ms. Winter only had three teachers who put in full effort into helping her understand concepts. The reason she wanted to become a teacher was because of her past experiences. She didn’t want any other students to go through the same thing. “I wanted to help students feel seen and help them get the help they need.” During her free time, Ms. Winter enjoys hiking. Taking in the view of the Utah scenery. Ms. Winter has only ever been to Tucson twice in her life, which was her way from and to Texas, but she officially moved to Tucson a month ago. “It feels like home.”