Our Journey Through Renewal….
The road to Knox Middle School’s
renewal plan is forged through
dedication. That dedication needed
to start with one major factor:
personnel. In order to develop a plan
for students, we needed to develop
a plan for teachers. We targeted
teacher morale both inside and
outside our school. Our hope was
to provide students great access
through great people and great ideas.
lead teacher positions. We filled these
positions with world class educators
and then gave them a task; make
Knox the best school in the world!
Students Focused
Knox has undergone significant
changes under the watchful eyes of
the six lead teachers and leadership
team this year. Students were placed
at the forefront of all policy and
curriculum decisions. The school was
broken into six smaller schools called
PODs. This allowed us to vary the
instruction by interest and career
path options. The mornings in each of
these PODs consists of personalized
PBL experiences. The products
of these experiences include the
following:
RSS the Renewal School System
The seed for our plan was planted
when Rowan-Salisbury principals
toured the public schools in
Washington, DC. Their principals
spoke with great conviction on the
freedom they were given to make
decisions with their budgets and
allotments. At the time, we couldn’t
achieve this because of the restriction
placed upon our schools by the state
of North Carolina. All hope was not
lost though, this dream became a reality when Knox moved into Restart and
shortly after the district became the Renewal School System in NC.
RSS Leadership Support
Our plan was set to motion and led by Dr. Lynn Moody and her innovative
and progressive planning. Our plan was crafted through the efforts of Knox’s
leadership team, the teacher-led design team, the staff, and Dr. Moody’s
cabinet. Educators and policy makers such as Dr. Julie Morrow, Dr. Andrew
Smith, Tina Mashburn, Dr. Kristi Rhone, April Kuhn, Carol Herndon, and Jerri
Hunt, worked tirelessly to make this plan materialize.
Teacher Leaders
To break the cycle of poverty, we needed to secure personnel that were
willing to push boundaries. We needed individuals with principal level effort to
work beyond the scope of an average teacher. We needed to find some way
to value these individuals, boosting the morale of all involved. We created six
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Knox Fall Festival
Medical Cadet Program
Knox Step Team and Acting Troop
Knox SGA
Cosmetology and Culinary Opportunities
Knox Career Fair
School Store, and
Knox Community Service Teams.
These are just the first steps into the access we strive to offer for our
students. Many more plans are in the works for far reaching and sustainable
impacts on the community surrounding Knox.
Our hope is to inspire others in the community, the district, and the world.
We want to show everyone that valuing the people that value children
will produce a model where students want to come to school to learn and
educators want to come to school to teach.
Mr. Joshua Reinsvold, Lead Teacher
Knox Middle School
Learn about what is happening in Rowan-Salisbury Schools - at your convenience!
We are excited to announce that our district's Podcast – 'RSS Connects –
Inspiring Conversations’ – can now be found in iTunes, in addition to listening
in on Podbean. So you now have two ways to listen and learn about what is
happening in Rowan-Salisbury Schools at your convenience.
iTunes
It is simple to listen to us in iTunes.
n Open the iTunes App
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Search for: RSS Connects
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Renewal Hiring of Teachers
n Hear from a teacher about Blended Learning and
her class culture
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What are Fundamental Standards
n How to engage students through their Unique Life
Goals
Student Led Conferences
n Subscribe to our Podcasts – RSS Connects
Enjoy! n
Podbean We hope you will enjoy listening,
learning, and maybe even sharing
with us in a few laughs as we talk
about the great things happening
in our schools for the benefit of our
children.
Just go to: rssconnects.podbean.com
Latest Episodes on Renewal
In our two latest episodes that have recently been published, you will hear
from Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody about our directional focus and core
values and our accountability model that we are creating under Renewal.
Would you like to learn more about:
6 • March/April 2019• Parent Teacher Magazine
Stay Tuned – More to Come!
Stay tuned for more dialogs to come
with RSS Connects…