Jr High Girls Basketball will be playing for the championship! Come support and cheer them on this Saturday at 9:30am at Cory-Rawson High School. Played a great second half after being down 11-9 at the break tonight.

Attention Families of Incoming Kindergartners!

Congratulations to Ms. Meyerson for being Nationally recognized by Yamaha music's 40 under 40. Very well deserved!!

https://hub.yamaha.com/music-educators/40-under-40/2023/40-under-40-2023/

Emily Meyerson, the K-12 Music and Drama Educator for North Baltimore Local Schools, isn’t afraid to try anything to improve her program. “I came into an established program in 2010, where things had been done a certain way for so long, and I was too green to immediately shake things up,” she says. “After I had a couple of years under my belt and gained a little confidence, I knew that major change was necessary in order for this program to thrive.”
Meyerson started with a huge revamp of the middle school program. “I went from 50 kids in the middle school choir to seven, which was terrifying,” she says. “I leaned on my administration for support, and the elementary principal at the time suggested the creation of an elementary show choir as a feeder program.”
Over the next several years, her numbers grew and she started to see the fruits of her labor. Meyerson now has a strong middle and high school choir program, and she continues to use the elementary show choir as a great feeder program to get strong singers involved early.
Another change she made was switching her pedagogy to Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB), a concept the art teacher introduced her to that focuses on:
• What do artists do? The child is the artist. The classroom is the child’s studio.
Meyerson and the art teacher took the plunge together and incorporated this new methodology. “Switching to a TAB pedagogy completely revitalized my classroom, the way I teach and my students,” she says.
When students come into her music class, they begin with a mini-lesson or demo that usually lasts about five to seven minutes, then they are free to explore and create in whatever ways they want, within certain guidelines. “In the visual art world, TAB studios are offered by medium so you might have drawing, painting and sculpture studios,” she explains. “In music, I wanted to do the same thing, offering the same type of choices. Some of my favorite studios are boomwhackers, keyboards, ukuleles, electric guitars, electric drums, note knacks, electronic music (on iPads) and the recording studio that my custodians built for me in the back of my classroom.”
Meyerson acts as facilitator, helping students work through whatever problems that may arise as they work toward project completion of their choice. “Sometimes, it’s absolutely chaotic, and at any given time, instead of creating one lesson plan for a whole class, I could be working on 25 different things with 25 students,” she laughs. “We’ve got things in place to help with that though, including a check-in system with specific points they need to touch base with me, and a list of questions to keep them thinking, reflecting and acting like musicians.”
Meyerson also created a swing choir to push and stretch students who were ready for a bigger challenge, as well as a high school guitar program to reach students who weren’t in choir or band or those who wanted additional musical outlets. She started with a two-level class, Guitar I in the fall and Guitar II in the spring. It was a huge success and soon Guitar III was added, followed by Guitar IV this year. “I am super excited about this new course! It features more advanced guitar techniques, electric bass and culminates with a final project that will be writing, recording and producing an original song,” she says.

Our Jr High Girls Basketball team plays tomorrow night at Cory-Rawson (tip time approx. 7pm). This game is the semi-final game against PG. They beat Liberty-Benton this past Saturday to advance to this point! Good luck girls!

North Baltimore Local Schools will be on a two-hour delay today, Monday, January 30.

Sleep in! North Baltimore Schools will be on a two-hour delay tomorrow, Friday, January 27.

At North Baltimore Middle/High school every staff member is deserving in some way or another. When I had heard this staff member hadn’t received staff member of the month yet I was surprised to say the least.

This staff member is always putting students first and creates a wonderful learning environment. Their classes may not be traditional textbook based, but I know their students are receiving lessons that will last beyond the classroom. If anyone were to watch for a few minutes they would see this teacher inspiring and giving their students a welcoming space to allow their creative minds to flourish, which is a crucial part of growing and learning as a young adult. You might have guessed this teacher by now, but if you haven’t, I have chosen Ms. Meyerson as staff member of the month!

What Emily does at the high school has always impressed me. She teaches three preps between starting and ending her day at Powell Elementary.

Going back and forth between the buildings twice a day and teaching numerous preps and grades every… single… day… has to be challenging and tiring in itself, however after school Emily organizes performances and concerts, helps with the improv show, and probably other art extracurricular activities I’m not even aware about.

I have to admit when I first began at NB as a teacher, and then as athletic director I didn’t have much interaction with Ms. Meyerson, until a few years ago we were struggling to find jr high volleyball coaches she stepped up and took on this extra responsibility to our kids at NB. She stepped right in and excelled in coaching, in addition to her teaching, all while handling the stress of covid and other issues.

She’s a great fit in this district! Staff and students together are lucky to have Emily here. Congratulations again, it’s well deserved!

Mr. Davis and Ms. Meyerson had other commitments today. Thank you to Mr. Kiser & Mr. Kipplen for standing in!!