Rosa Elena combines her love of language and music and brings high energy to her teaching. Over the course of her career, she has taught at many schools and programs, including Joyful Music, Mystic Valley Music Together, Music Together Belmont, River of Song, Music and Movement of Newton, and in the Cambridge and Somerville public school systems. She has used the Canta y Baila Conmigo curriculum for many years and also has extensive experience as a voice instructor, dance and movement teacher, and program director. Rosa Elena is a talented opera singer with a long list of solo recitals, performances, and musical productions to her name.
Charles River School is amazing for a music teacher because the arts are valued, and thoroughly integrated into the curriculum. We are all a team teaching the students together, and I have the time, support, resources, and excitement to do incredible projects with all of my classes. I am so lucky to work here!
Mica joined CRS in 2006, and is the Director of Performing and Visual Arts. In this role, she teaches general music, electives, and Multi-Arts classes, directs the fourth- through eighth-grade CRS Chorus and runs both the Assemblies program and the after-school music lessons program. Prior to CRS, Mica worked as a musical director at Artbarn Community Theater in Brookline for 17 years and taught private piano lessons. She was also a performing singer/songwriter of folk and rock music in and around New England, and produced two CDs before deciding to teach children to be rock stars instead! Mica earned her bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in jazz piano performance and her Master’s in Music Education from the online Longy School of Music in 2026.
Recess might be my favorite time of day at Charles River School because it shows the value of community and the joy of childhood that CRS pursues. Watching kids from every grade play together, especially when the middle school students make time for the PreK/K students, warms my heart and reminds me that we all have so much to learn from each other at every age and stage of life.
Sarah joined Charles River School in 2020 and quickly fell in love with the CRS community and our approach to learning and teaching. As a co-teacher of the seventh and eighth-grade MultiArts curriculum, she recognized an opportunity for younger students to learn performance, presentation, and communication skills and developed a new class called Communication-Presentation (Comm-Pres). Sarah designed the curriculum to help students in grades 3-5 build the public speaking skills and confidence necessary to share their ideas with the world. In addition to MultiArts, Sarah directs the eighth-grade musical every year, a beloved tradition at CRS. She teaches the Growth Education curriculum for the seventh and eighth grades, focusing on a holistic approach to well-being, health, and growth. Sarah also serves as an advisor to seventh and eighth-grade students and runs Early Birds, the before-school care program.
Before CRS, Sarah worked as an actor and director in theatre, television, and commercials. She received her BFA in Theatre Arts from Elon University, where she was also selected to be an Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow, completing an intensive four-year study and practical application of leadership.
