As the new school year begins, Linganore High School (LHS) welcomes back many old faces, as well as new. There are also many courses that are being offered, one of which being Music Theory, taught by McKenzie Berry, a new music teacher at Linganore.
Music Theory is a class that is rarely run throughout Linganore’s many years. This year there are five students taking it and they share a class with Berry’s music tech class. Berry says it is an extremely fun class, and she wishes more people would take it.
Berry is a former Linganore High school graduate, and she expressed her excitement in joining the community. She has spent the last four years training to be a teacher. Even though this is her first year as a certified teacher, this is not her first year teaching. She was a long-term substitute at the Banner School in Fredrick, where she also taught music. Along with this experience, Berry worked as a student teacher for a year under a cooperating teacher at Bensalem High School, where she taught choir and piano.
Berry is grateful for this experience in preparing her for her teaching career.
“I am very lucky that I’ve had a lot of experience in the classroom prior to my actual teaching experience,” Berry said.
She expressed her love for teaching and what inspired her to become a teacher in the first place. She says she wanted to become a teacher to share the amazing experience she had at Linganore High School with her own students. It is Berry’s goal for every student at Linganore to have a good music and personal experience.
Berry is well loved by her students, and there are many things she has done to make the students feel comfortable in her classroom. She works toward being a positive teacher who makes the class material easy to learn.
“Yeah I think she’s good about making sure everyone understands the material,” Linganore sophomore Oliver Fuller said.
Berry knows how to make the classroom environment fun and how to turn her class into a comfortable place where people want to learn.
Some of her students consider Berry to be an extremely energetic teacher.
“She’s very light-hearted; she likes to crack jokes,” Linganore senior Joao Paredes Salas said.
Along with gaining a new classroom, Berry shares an office with Linganore band teacher Mr. Hodge, another new music teacher who joined Linganore in Fall 2024.
Last year Hodge taught Choir, which Berry will be taking over next semester. Berry also currently teaches Color Guard, another class Hodge taught last year.
Hodge finds his new colleague to be extremely trustworthy and dependable.
“Yeah, if you need something done, you ask her, [and] it’s done,” Hodge said.
Hodge also talks about his interactions with Berry outside of the classroom.
“We hang out during lunch, obviously, and then we send memes back and forth, but that’s about it,” Hodge said. “I hear she’s really good at Fortnite. I have yet to see that, though, we have yet to play.”
Along with playing Fortnite, Berry loves to play Mario Kart and Animal Crossing in her free time. Her many other interests include reading; she is currently reading “Rising on the Reaping,” the new Hunger Games book. She also shared that she is very big on cats. She has a lot of cats and even said that she would like to foster some in the future. In addition, Berry likes to do meal preps and loves baking, especially for holidays.
As for extra-curriculars at Linganore, Berry is starting a choir club to build more recognition for choir. A choir class is offered at Linaganore but only runs during the spring semester; therefore, Berry is hoping to get students involved in the fall as well.
She believes choir is an activity where different groups of students can join, have fun and get to know their peers better.
“You know, there are so many opportunities to connect with the community through choir, and choir is a really, really cool opportunity for students to get involved in the performing arts who either have experience or maybe don’t have experience,” Berry said. “There’s no experience required for choir. You just show up as you are and sing. So, I’m really, really hoping to grow that program as much as possible.”
