When students are given time, resources, encouragement, and support to use their skills, interests, and questions to inquire, research, learn, and create, the results are beyond our expectations! THIS is what creative, integrated learning at Reynolds is about. Did the students learn the curriculum? ABSOLUTELY! Were they engaged and making connections with each other and the community? ABSOLUTELY! One result of this project happening so early in their high school experience, though, is how empowered, connected, and SEEN students feel through sharing their interests and being vulnerable in their learning.
Education is not about checking boxes and filling in bubble sheets (though our students do VERY WELL on state and federal assessments, and our graduates go onto wonderful colleges and careers). Education is a personal process of discovery and inquiry.
'Education...Is a process of inviting truth and possibility, of encouraging and giving time to discovery. It is, as John Dewey (1916) put it, a social process – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living’. In this view educators look to act with people rather on them. Their task is to educe (related to the Greek notion of educere), to bring out or develop potential. Such education is:
- Deliberate and hopeful. It is learning we set out to make happen in the belief that people can ‘be more’;
- Informed, respectful and wise. A process of inviting truth and possibility.
- Grounded in a desire that at all may flourish and share in life. It is a cooperative and inclusive activity that looks to help people to live their lives as well as they can."
"I’m a million kinds of teacher proud right now...I started a new thing this year, The Genius Project, which offered my student humans the opportunity to research, learn, create, and produce in ways that motivated and intrigued them. The only rule was that there were no rules. After several days of panicking because they didn’t have boxes to check, they settled in and did some amazing things. From creating art to raising funds for endangered animals to making a short film designed to bring attention to an often overlooked issue among our very own, these kids inspired me today. They learned how to communicate with “scary” adults, how to schedule meetings, how to problem solve, how to change course when Plan A needs to be Plan Z, and a myriad of other skills they’ll take into the real world. They truly are the best." Quote from teacher, Pamela Henderson Kirkland.
Our students truly ARE the best--and our student body represents the entirety of Forsyth County. However you define diversity, you will see it here at RJR.
If you want to attend for the 2019-2020 school year, apply by January 22nd at 4:30 PM to have a chance to attend a school that values ALL students--and encourages/supports them to follow their dreams and open doors.
https://assignment.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/public/magnet/