Reconnecting . . . Back on Track
After the opera production, when the authentic purpose for collaboration to accomplish the collective goal no longer exists, students sometimes struggle to re-establish their connection as a group and refocus their attention. They need to be reminded that it is the group effort that brought them to this point on the track. Each contributed to the whole in a unique and personal way, but the interdependence of the process enabled them to arrive at the station, their intended goal.
To bring students back together as a company, we present them with new challenges, exercises in which they must apply the skills they have acquired throughout the opera process to work as a team to achieve a common objective.
In silence, company members were asked to complete a series of tasks requiring physical connection and contact and no adult consultation.
“Find a way to connect your bodies so that all are touching and no one is left out.” Students held hands in a circle.
“Now connect in another way. Another. Now another.”
“Connect your bodies to form the capital letter A. Create an H. Now a V.”
The tasks became progressively more difficult and the students mastered them all without saying a word or directing one another. An hour passed quickly and the company was eager to continue. Now, individual company members could remember their true power when joining forces. They were back on track.
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.
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