Hi Harbord, and welcome to the first Guess the Teacher edition of the 2025/2026 school year. I have interviewed a mystery teacher, and it’s your job to use your decoding skills to try to Guess the Teacher!

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Submit your guess on the Tigertalk Instagram @hcitigertalk, and our mystery teacher will be unveiled in our next edition. Good luck!

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Ruby: Did you have any major role models growing up (authors, historical figures, celebrities, etc.)?

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Mystery Teacher: I feel like I was really influenced by all authors but particularly a few Canadian ones, but not solely Canadian ones. Judy Blume was a big influence. Jean Little -  I read a lot of her books and I always was kind of fascinated by the stories that she would tell about different time periods and historical eras and stories about disability as well which I didn't see a lot of at the time. She was a Canadian author, so I really looked up to her. But yeah, pretty much any author ever captivated my attention.

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Ruby: Is there a skill you think people would be surprised to learn/hobby people would be surprised to know you do in your free time?

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Mystery Teacher: To look at me, I think that people would be surprised that I really like hiking and that sort of physical activity. But the one that a lot of people wouldn’t know is that I know how to fire a historical musket. I’ve never done it with ammunition, obviously, but I have done that and like all the different steps needed to fire a historical brown bess musket.

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Ruby: Where are you from?

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Mystery Teacher: I am from Amherstburg, Ontario.

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Ruby: If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?

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Mystery Teacher: That one's hard. I want to meet Finn the Human from Adventure Time because he's so adorable and cheerful and just has such a positive attitude about everything. He’s such a wholesome guy that I think I would just enjoy spending time with him or just spending a day with him. 

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Ruby: What is your favourite part about teaching at Harbord or teaching in general?

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Mystery Teacher: Harbord is my favourite school that I’ve worked at; I think it’s a very special place. I’ve never felt so welcome or so in awe of a student population that is just so lovely and kind and hard-working. So, that’s my favourite thing about Harbord, but, just teaching in general, I love the relationships that I’m able to build with students everyday. I often go home feeling grateful for the job that I have and just filled with gratitude for being able to be a teacher. I am very lucky.

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Ruby: If you could time-travel to any different era throughout history, which one would you pick and why?

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Mystery Teacher: I’m going through a phase where I’m obsessed with the Victorian era, so, even though any historical era has its problems and is rife with various “isms” and oppressions and discrimination, I would still want to see what the world looked like during or before the industrial revolution. That’s a little before the Victorian era, but also I’m just so obsessed with historical fashion, in particular Victorian fashion. I just want to dance around in a big old ball gown for a little while.

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Ruby: What would you want to be if you couldn’t be a teacher?

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Mystery Teacher: I’ve considered social work, always secretly wanted to be an author and speech language pathology maybe.

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Ruby: What’s your dream travel destination?

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Mystery Teacher: I really want to go to Austria because my grandmother spent time there when she was young, and it’s a country in Europe that I have never visited. I feel a connection because of my grandmother, so that’s on my list for sure.

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Ruby: What’s your most memorable moment at Harbord so far?

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Mystery Teacher: There are lots. A particularly memorable one would be the time that my engagement ring flew off my finger in the middle of a dodgeball game, and we had to stop the dodgeball game to go find it. Thanks, Mr Yee! We did find it.

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Ruby: If you could go back in time and talk to your past self, what advice would you give them?

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Mystery Teacher: If I could go back and speak to my past self, I would tell her that being happy and being yourself is so much more important than what other people think of you. It doesn’t matter nearly as much as she thinks it does, way back in the past. Prioritizing and fostering your own identity and living a life that you’re happy with every single day is the top-most important thing.

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Who do you think this mystery teacher is?

1. Ms. Garner-Pringle
2. Ms. Gray
3. Ms. Fraser
4. Mme. Michael

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