Mr. Ruggiero (Mr. 'R')

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About The Teacher Label:


About The Teacher
Mr. Ruggiero is a staff member at the Memorial School and Dale Street School in Medfield, MA. At Memorial, he teaches classroom music to Pre-school, Kindergarten and Grade One. At Dale Street, he teaches Grade four strings and co-teaches and when necessary, accompanies Fourth and Fifth Grade Orchestra. Mr. Ruggiero has previously taught K-5 classroom music and fourth and fifth grade chorus at the Memorial Spaulding Elementary School in Newton and at the Heights Elementary School in Sharon. Mr. Ruggiero was a Music Education Major at Rhode Island College. He has earned his Masters Degree in Education from Lesley University, where the focus of study was integration of the Arts. He has also taken several masters level courses in Music and Music Education at Central Connecticut State University and at the University of Las Vegas. Mr. Ruggiero's main instrument is voice, but he also plays violin and piano. He is currently licensed to teach music in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island and is certified in Orff Schulwerk, which is an approach to teaching Music. In other areas, Mr. Ruggiero has served as a clinician at the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) Conference in 2002 and 2007 through 2009 and at the 2007 and 2008 Massachusetts General Music Festivals (Southeast District). He will again serve as an MMEA clinician in 2010. In addition, Mr. Ruggiero is on the Board of Directors for both the New England Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association (NEAOSA) and the Society for General Music of Massachusetts (SGMM).

Mission Label:


Mission
Music has validity as its own subject. It is necessary for teaching the whole child. It can also be used to help teach other curricula subjects and other life skills that are important to a child’s development. Students that benefit, here, are those in grades Pre-K to One and fall in the four to seven age range. For these children, Music opens other instructional avenues. Since each child is different and learns differently, Music can help reach those children who respond best to the musical elements, and in turn, give educators a greater degree of success as they strive to transfer valuable knowledge to their students. Learning Music should be an extremely active, participatory process. On any given day, children should continually be engaged in a combination of singing, playing instruments, moving or dancing, creating, and improvising. Moreover, there should be a place for every child in each music-making experience. All children possess varied musical abilities; however, in spite of their inherent abilities, everyone can contribute to the music-making experience and grow as a musician. In addition, children should be given the opportunity to make music in a non-threatening and non-competitive atmosphere, where they are provided with structure and at the same time, given the freedom to create. Futhermore, children should always feel a sense of pride at whatever musical level that they have attained, and therefore, should always leave a musical experience feeling successful. In the end, not all students will leave the Medfield Public Schools and seek a career in Music, but all will leave with valuable life skills. They will also possess a life-long love of music that they will hopefully pass on to future generations.