OM’s newest English teacher

Say hello to our newest English teacher, Mr. Kameron Harrison. This year, Mr. Harrison teaches eleventh-grade English during periods 5 and 6 in room 211. 

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and was raised in Catonsville, where he still currently lives with his wife and cat, Gus. He attended Catonsville Elementary School, Catonsville Middle School, and he graduated from Catonsville High School. He attended UMBC for his undergraduate degree in English Literature before returning immediately to earn his master’s degree. In total, he spent six years in college. Mr. Harrison actually started at UMBC as a biology major and planned to become a pharmacist before realizing that wasn’t his passion. He later discovered that he really enjoyed English and was pretty good at writing. Many members of his family were teachers, so he gravitated towards education because of them.

This is Mr. Harrison’s first time officially teaching at the high school level; he previously taught an English Composition course at UMBC. This year, Mr. Harrison is split between two Howard County high schools; in the morning, he is at Centennial teaching ninth-grade English, while in the afternoon, he teaches eleventh here at OM. While discussing the difference between here and Centennial, Mr. Harrison said, “I’m teaching completely different grade levels, so I’m teaching ninth-grade English at Centennial and they’re a lot younger in maturity – and a lot younger in general – compared to the eleventh-graders that I teach here. So, I think that’s a big difference.”

Believe it or not, this is not Mr. Harrison’s first time at OM! He actually completed his teaching internship with Mr. Williams during the virtual 2020-2021 school year. Mr. Williams, his mentor, said, “I’m very very proud of him and how far he’s made it.” There are many different things he was taught about teaching, one being, “not to take yourself too seriously.”  He said kids will humble you with the many things they have to say. 

Mr. Harrison loves the school environment and community and hopes to become more active in it. “I’m so new that I want to get to know the communities better by going to some extracurricular things, I haven’t really been able to do that yet,” Mr. Harrison said. Hopefully, we’ll see him at some basketball games this winter. “I love seeing what the students are able to do,” he continued.

 Outside of teaching, Mr. Harrison enjoys playing tennis as well as playing the drums. He has been playing drums since he was nine years old and he really loves it. He once tried learning how to play the guitar, which he played for about a month, but it was difficult for him, so he stuck to just playing the drums. He loves listening to music, especially rock and alternative music. His top list would include Beach House, Fleet Foxes, Radiohead, and Big Thief. His favorite author is John Steinbeck and the book he considers his favorite is East of Eden. Lucky for him he gets to explore Steinbeck and other American authors with his eleventh-grade American Literature classes.

If you happen to catch Mr. Harrison in the hallways (after 4th period), be sure to say hello. Welcome hOMe, Mr. Harrison!