LEARNING FOR REAL - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Secretary of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Chief Executive Officer
• Member of the Board of Directors
• President

As a teacher with 33 years of experience, Mary Ruth 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. Twenty 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 as a vehicle through which 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 kids 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 by the Teatro Real in Madrid and a sabbatical from Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, to travel to Spain to develop and implement a similar program there. She resided there for two years, training teachers and working side by side with teachers and students in their classrooms. The reception of the opera project was overwhelming. Mary Ruth returns to Madrid every summer to train a new team of educators and artists in the process. To date, more than 500 teachers and 14,000 students have participated in the program. Mary Ruth 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.

Job Titles:

• Treasurer of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Vice President of the Board of Directors