As a teacher with 31 years of experience, Mary Ruth McGinn has always sought innovative ways to meet the needs of each of her students. She has spent her entire career in schools where a majority of students speak English as a second language and where poverty significantly impacts the...
Read more
Discover Other Local Blogs
We have a great number of amazing blog posts contributed by our local bloggers. Discover what is happening in your neighborhood by reading their latest posts.
After reading The Music Inside Me, a book written by fourth graders in Massachusetts, my students pondered their music within. They drew pictures. I asked if they wanted to represent these drawings with music. A collective yes resounded. We gathered in the music room, surrounded by an assortment of instruments. Bells, glockenspiels, xylophones and recorders waited to be played.
Each student selected his instrument of choice and the exploration in composition began. It was fascinating to watch the creative process in action. For most, it was a first experience.
The time came to share the musical masterpieces with the class. Many seemed nervous as they joined their circle of fellow musicians. As they played, one after the other, the room filled with possibility, joy and accomplishment.
Carlos was deeply engaged in the experience and completely focused on finding his music within. Upon reflecting, Carlos did not hesitate to write. He wanted the world to know his discovery.
Like this post? Sign up for our Daily Update here.
About Mary Ruth McGinn
As a teacher with 32 years of experience, Mary Ruth McGinn has always sought innovative ways to meet the needs of each of her students. She has spent her entire career in schools where a majority of students speak English as a second language and where poverty significantly impacts the learning experiences and opportunities of students and their families.
Nineteen years ago she had an experience that changed her life and altered her professional path in a profound way. She attended training sessions at The Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City, spent nine intense days living the process of creating an original opera and learned how to replicate the experience with her students. She then began creating opera with her students and using the process of creating the opera as a vehicle to teach curriculum and life skills. The authentic purpose for learning coupled with the arts provided the perfect stage on which to construct a love for life-long learning.
The profundity of the work, the transformation of the students and a desire to “bring to light” new ideas in education, inspired Mary Ruth to share this way of thinking and learning. In 2006 she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship, sponsored and funded by Teatro Real and Fundación SaludArte in Madrid, and a sabbatical from Montgomery County, to travel to Spain to develop and implement a similar program there. She lived there two years training teachers and working side by side with teachers and students in their classrooms. The reception of the project was overwhelming. Mary Ruth returns to Madrid every summer to train a new team of educators and artists in the process. In the summer of 2018, she joined forces with The Kennedy Center to offer the opera training for teachers in the Washington Metro area. She currently teaches third grade at Stedwick Elementary School in Montgomery Village, Maryland where she is implementing a classroom curriculum based on the principles of authentic learning.
Read more of Mary Ruth's blog Learning for Real.
Engage us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Tweets by @mymcmedia