The Rambler
Roland Park Middle School
Baltimore, MD
Look
inside
Get to Know the Middle School Art
Teachers
By Indira Jackson
Premier Issue
April 2013
Editor in Chief
Jayla Jackson
Staff
Kristian Alston
Mandy Berry
Destiny Brown
Nicholas Chapman
India Driscoll
Indira Jackson
Tori Legaspi
Kiara Lennon
Brionna Murray
Jaylin Roundtree
Mikayla Woodyear
Ms. Lopez
Indira: What are your teaching styles like?
Ms. Lopez: I believe teaching should be about empowering people. What we learn
should help us become more ourselves.
Indira: What do you prefer to teach about?
Ms. Lopez: I prefer to teach about social justice issues, culture, and identity.
Indira: Why do you teach the way you do?
Ms. Lopez: You have to be excited about what you’re doing in order for students to do
the same. I enjoy being with kids.
Indira: What are your outside hobbies and what are your goals or dreams?
Ms. Lopez: I like to eat, run, and go on adventures. I also want to get my PhD and live
abroad.
Indira: What made you decide to teach art? In other words, what inspired you to
become an art teacher?
Ms. Lopez: It was the horrible teachers I had as a kid. Art saved my life and was like
my outlet.
Indira: What is the project you like assigning most?
Ms. Lopez: The Frida Kahlo project.
Indira: What was your beginning art experience like?
Ms. Lopez: I had a really cool art teacher in 8th grade that encouraged me to apply
to a school for the arts in New York. I went to an art high school and a college for art.
(continued on p. 2)
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Ms. Grizzard
Indira: What is your teaching style like?
Ms. Grizzard: As an art teacher, I like to give prompts and problems where there is no
ONE right answer. It’s very different in a studio class—not like math where everyone is
searching for the same answer. Unique and creative innovations are our goals.
Indira: What do you prefer to teach about?
Ms.Grizzard: I love to teach drawing skills! I love to draw; it’s a language we all have
as children, but are not allowed to develop in school. I also love art history.
Indira: Why do you teach the way you do?
Ms. Grizzard: Art history, science, and language arts are contents in the arts. I believe
we need to teach these subjects using the arts. It makes learning more interesting and
more fun; I believe in arts integration.
Indira: What made you decide to teach art? In other words, what inspired you to
become an art teacher?
Ms.Grizzard: My family is full of artists. We all taught each other. My father is a
painter and architect. Making art was our hobby. It was a natural progression.
Indira: What is the project you like assigning most?
Ms.Grizzard: I love to combine teaching about real artists with teaching new skills for
the students. I hope that they discover new abilities within themselves and new ways
to think about problem-solving by being creative and having fun!
The Clydesdale
By India Driscoll
A crisp wind blows through the forest
Twigs snap under his mighty hooves
He pushes on through muck and filth for a small prize
A whip whizzes past his large, ever-hearing ears
Reminding him of the glory days
Young mares galloping about as tiny foals bucked and neighed in giddy laughter
Yes! He rejoices as he sees his mother and father nuzzling the hand of an older
woman who smells of chicken feed and gingersnaps
He bucks at the sight of her and comes trotting up to taste the delicious sugar she
holds in her frail but worn hands
A small yet scrumptious treat that only she holds with her baseball cap and hair
that reminds him of woven silver
A sign of wisdom and beauty
He pushes on, remembering the glory days.
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NAL Team of RPEMS
By Tori Legaspi
Edited by Mandy Berry
NAL, which stands for National Academic League, is a successful varsity
team that plays against other teams in the city. There are four quarters in a
game. The first quarter, trivia, is played individually. The second quarter is a
form of more complicated trivia with different parts to each question. Players
work in a team of five and only team captains can buzz in to answer. In the
first two quarters you are not penalized for wrong answers. Third quarter is a
presentation for an argument on an assigned topic; each presentation is judged
by a panel of judges. The fourth quarter is exactly like first quarter, but if you
make a mistake you are penalized by losing one point.
Mandy Berry is a sixth grader who plays first and second quarter because
she scores many points in the games. She finds NAL interesting, fun, and
competitive. She also likes NAL because, “NAL competitions are a mix of
academics and sports. It is academic because the trivia is a mix of everything
you learn in school, and it integrates sports by using stop clocks, score boards,
fouls, and outs.”
Sydney Eaton, an eighth grader, likes the first quarter: “NAL could be
the most fun thing to do if you join the right quarter where you feel most
comfortable. Third quarter is just presenting information that you research.”
She said that she originally joined because she didn’t want to stay outside
during the cold mornings, and then she developed love for NAL during the
games and morning practices.
We completely agree with Michelle and Sydney. Anyone can be an NAL
star! Want to join? See you at practice next year!
Mandy Berry’s Silly List
Mistakes You Hope Won’t Affect Your Grades
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Writing your Spanish homework in French.
Mistaking ratios for radios.
Saying that Andrew Jackson was a member of the Jackson 5.
Using a pizza to represent pi.
Doodling in you language arts notebook because you think that it's
a class where you study comic books written in foreign languages.
Rambler Submissions
Would you like to submit an article, interview, review, or poem to the
Rambler? If so, please put it in the folder on the Write Place door (room
305). If you’d like to join the Rambler staff, just drop by the Write Place
on Thursdays after school. We’re around until 4 pm and if we’re not in the
Write Place, find us in the library computer lab.
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Sports Center: School Edition
By Jayla Jackson, Kiara Lennon, & Mikayla Woodyear
RPEMS: Succeeding in Lacrosse
Roland Park’s lacrosse team is phenomenal. The players train hard
throughout the season to prepare for games against their rival teams. They
always look prepared appearing from the back gym doors to the outdoor field
where they train and practice until 5 o’clock at least once a week.
Because of our fascination with our lacrosse team, we interviewed two
lacrosse players about their thoughts on the sport. “Lacrosse isn’t just one
simple sport of its own; it’s also mixed in with a lot of different sports,” said
eighth grader Raekwon Hinton. Franklin Rodriguez, also in eighth grade, added,
“Yeah, it’s also combined with soccer and football.” Out of curiosity, we
looked up a few things about the sport after talking to these players. What we
found out was beyond our belief—soccer and football players play lacrosse in
the off season to prepare and train for their primary sports!
RPEMS: Track Team
Track is also a wonderful sport to play during the transition of the
seasons. From winter to spring, it’s a fresh start to kicking off your spring
semester. To these players, it’s not just about running and jumping over
hurdles; it’s about more than that. To further express these ideas, we
interviewed two track team members. Here’s what they had to say about the
sport:
Daywarn Walker is an eighth grade student who explained to us the true
meaning of track. “It’s not just about running; it’s about training for that big
moment when you truly get to express yourself,” he explained. Daywarn, who
has only been playing this sport for two months, is really moved by the fact
that track is one of his favorite sports.
Danae’ Douglas, eighth grade, is another great track team member that
we came across. Danae’ has been running track for five years and counting. Her
hero is Usain Bolt, a Jamaican runner who won three gold medals in track at
the 2012 Olympics: the 100m, the 200m and the 4x100m relay. “I play this
sport because it is fun and I’m good at it,” Danae shared.
RPEMS: Volleyball
Finally, we interviewed an eighth grade member of the volleyball team,
Kaleea Hill. Kaleea loves volleyball and has been playing for two years. She
played volleyball at her old school and is currently enjoying playing for her last
year at Roland Park. “An interesting thing about volleyball is you can take out
your feelings on the ball,” she said.
We asked our interviewees to choose another sport to be added to
Roland Park. The options were: swimming, tennis, and football. There was one
vote for tennis and the rest agreed on football! What do you guys think?
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