What is the Renaissance National Honor Roll?
The Renaissance National Honor Roll program is designed to help guide educators to data targets that research has shown result in greater student growth through implementation strategies. It is available to teachers, librarians, and school administrators.
There are eight monthly challenges published August through March. The challenges are like bite-sized chunks of professional development to help educators improve implementation and get more out of the programs. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate student growth throughout the year. The final step of the process entails data submission for educators to show their achievement of the targets. Those who meet the targets will be recognized through an achievement kit that includes customizable digital student certificates, a classroom pennant, and a school banner.
Watch the Honor Roll video.
Meet some of our Renaissance Honor Roll educators!
Diana Mitsch
Second grade teacher
Southwestern Christian School
Arizona
I am a Second Grade teacher in southwestern Arizona, completing my first year of teaching Second Grade. My husband and I have two children, and one very loving 11 year-old dog, Lucy. My greatest success has been the continuous encouragement of each of my 21 Second Graders, even as school transitioned to distance learning with COVID-19. Each student maintained their reading practice, met or exceeded goals for the quarter, and finished strong. When school was physically in session, students received various incentives for making their goals, such as new books and "coupons" to do fun things in our room (i.e. use the special supply box for their work, bring stuffed animals to school as a buddy, eat lunch with a friend at a special table, etc.). Our school participated in National Honor Roll collectively, and what a blessing that each of us as educators at different grade levels, gets to encourage each other in our successes. It truly takes a village, and I'm thankful that our school recognizes that and capitalizes on the opportunity to take our students' learning abilities another step further.
Diana Mitsch
Magaly Piña
3rd grade teacher
Dr. Palmira Mendiola Elementary
Texas
Hello! My name is Magaly Piña, and I'm thrilled to say this is my 5th year teaching elementary at La Joya ISD. I enjoy coming up with creative & rigorous ideas for the classroom. Using Accelerated Reader this year helped my students improve their reading skills, motivated them to read more, and made them more responsible for meeting goals. Our principal recognized students who have met their individual goals by giving them an incentive every Friday. I participate in National Honor Roll because I love learning from other teachers.
Magaly Piña
Missy Berry
4th, 5th, 6th grade math teacher
Granite Elementary
Oklahoma
I'm married to my high school sweetheart with three kids, Trey, Kennedy, and Charlie Belle. Oklahoma educator for 18 years. Recently received my master's degree in public school administration. I participate in National Honor Roll so our students can be recognized for their hard work and dedication. I love how this program has paved the way for success for all my students. I am able to provide a gifted and talented portion to my day, as well as, maintain a balance for the students that require purposeful and targeted intervention strategies. Witnessing firsthand how the purposeful intervention strategies via the exercises can benefit the entire class has been my greatest success with Math Practice this year. I also love how I can create my assessments to target specific standards. We have celebrations for students that make a 90 or above on their first attempt of a practice or test. I let them ring a bell in the class each time. I offer to video it and send to their parents or grandparents! They love that!
Missy Berry
Shonda Hill
2nd grade teacher
Venice Christian School
Florida
I am a second grade teacher who has a huge desire to build a love for reading. Reading is my favorite pastime. I want to spread that love to my students. I participate in National Honor Roll because it is fun to be recognized for our hard work. We have weekly reading goals and students who exceed the weekly goal get a special Lunch with the Teacher.
Shonda Hill
Lisa Capon
Instructional Coach and Accelerated Reader Coordinator
St. Bonaventure Catholic School
Florida
I am the Instructional Coach and Accelerated Reading Coordinator at St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Davie, FL. I am an avid reader and love sharing my love of reading with my students. I have been an educator for 30 years. I participate in the National Honor Roll because I find that I really benefit from the Royals community and it helps me keep my students on track with their goals. My greatest success with Accelerated Reader has been with increasing participation in the program. I started a BINGO program where the students get new cards each quarter and receive prizes for getting BINGO (They must get 85% or better on quizzes in their ZPD for it to count). They love it! It has almost doubled the amount of reading! My greatest success with STAR Assessments has been using them in PLCs and having teachers utilize the Instructional Planning Reports. These reports are a wonderful tool in charting benchmark achievement and making sure all students make progress.
Lisa Capon
Shelly Fuller
Library Media Specialist
Idabel Central Elementary
Oklahoma
I am a Library Media Specialist at Idabel Central Elementary. Our students LOVE to read! I am so happy to see their smiling faces when they find the 'just right' book! Our teachers really promote reading and helping their students reach their reading goals. Our School-Wide Goals and Reading Challenges helps to keep our students on track to reach the #nextlevel. I believe having goals is a great way to reach students! AR National Honor Roll & completing challenges in Renaissance Royals keeps us on track to achieve our goals. Our students LOVE non-fiction books! This year our students read 62% of their books as non-fiction! Wow! This year was the first time our teachers administered Star Reading & Math. I normally would oversee this in our computer lab, however, we turned our computer lab into a STEAM Lab. Our kids did great with both transitions.
Shelly Fuller
Lynn Humphrey
Kindergarten Teacher
Henrey Timrod Elementary
South Carolina
I’m a kindergarten teacher in rural SC. When I’m not teaching, I enjoy crafting and Gamecock football. Reading a good book on the beach is one of my favorite things to do. I count surviving on-line learning as we teach from home as one of my greatest successes this year. I have been recording books and posting quiz number links in Google Classroom. I have sent parents links to help them find books to read online. I am proud of my students hard work! This year I have enjoyed learning about and digging into and using new Star reports. These reports help guide mini lessons and help me group students based on their instructional needs. My students works so hard throughout the year, I love seeing them recognized nationally. That is why I participate in Renaissance National Honor Roll.
Lynn Humphrey
Jacqueline Perez
5th grade teacher
Camarena Elementary
Texas
I'm Jacqueline Perez, 5th grade teacher at Camarena Elementary for La Joya ISD. This is my 18th year of teaching elementary. We participated in the Renaissance National Honor Roll because I wanted to showcase all the hard work my students did this year. My greatest success with Accelerated Reader was that my students have learned to love reading books and have put in a lot of time reading. Students received a prize for every 100,000 words they read. Our class read more than 26 million words this year! My greatest success with Star Assessments was to see how much my students have grown throughout the year.
Jacqueline Perez