BRIAN WHITSON
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#ChangetheEquation

North Rowan High School - Rising to the Top

12/19/2018

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Today was an amazing day.  Our students have been working collaboratively with their English II class to select a story, remix it, and add value to it.  In doing so, our students had to read children's literature, short stories, and poems.  Students then had to analyze their work and determine a new way to remix the story by adding value to it.  This process takes time and is not easy.  Many of our students found this process to be more challenging than they originally thought.  Adding to this challenge was the fact that the students had to present to 6th graders at the middle school where I previously worked.  I honestly was nervous the night before as our students had not made as much progress as I would have liked to have seen.  But, in true North fashion, our students rose to the top when it counted. 

One of the students who I am most proud of wrote the poem below based on Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken.  I am particularly proud of this student as she has made incredible progress in our Design Class.  She remixed several ideas from the original poem and added value by connecting her own thoughts to the struggles that we face when we must make decisions.  Below is her poem.  This young lady has grown tremendously this year and it has been a blessing to be able to watch her grow.  In working with her on the poem, I was impressed with how she was able to connect words and create a good flow.  This young lady presented her poem today to at least two classes and it was well received.  In helping to provide feedback on her work, we discussed that life is not always easy and definitely not as "pretty" as it is laid in a lot of stories and shows.  I am very proud of this students for sharing her work.  She took pride in what she created and employed a variety of skills to create an effective poem. 

Words really escape how proud I am of this young lady and how much she has grown during this school year.  It is experiences like this that shows just how important the relaunch of North Rowan High School is.  Our visionary principal has truly put North Rowan High School on the cutting edge of creating a school experience that will serve our students and prepare them for an ever evolving life that we cannot even imagine now.  I am proud to work at school where we are creating students who will be better critical thinkers, collaborators, communicators, and creators.  The innovation that is occurring at North Rowan High is truly revolutionary and is a model that is on the right track.  It is my sincere hope that the progress and changes that we have made here are recognized, celebrated, and allowed to continue.  As we close out 2018, this year has been a tremendous year of change.  But this change is definitely the kind that we need to disrupt the traditional role of school that celebrates those who do traditional school well and tears down those who do not do school well.  


Wrong Road Taken By T.M.

Three Roads Diverged in hollow woods
And I couldn’t travel all
There in the woods I stood
And thought as hard as I could
There I stood without a fall

Then I took the first road
As I start walking I start to see things
As if I was ending up at the wrong place
There I stood looking with doubt on my face
No telling if I took the wrong road

I decide to turn around and go back
Thinking if the next road would be right
I stood there and stared for almost a night
I began walking toward my starting point

I go down the next road
I begin walking thinking I took the right one
But then I start to see things again
I think to myself this road might not end
I feel like giving up, wondering if I should go back and try once again


I get to the end of the road and stop,
I see that it doesn’t end at all
I continue walking to see if I made it
So, there I stood tall
Telling myself I’ve made it, after all my big falls



​

North Rowan High Cavaliers "Making Stories Come Alive" for our 6th grade friends at China Grove Middle @williamsmnrhs @bcrawford76 @LisaSimmerson @RSSinformation @Mrs_Biblio_File @CoachCausby We rise to the top and show our best with authentic audiences #ncdlcn #AppleEDUchat pic.twitter.com/Suj5PyxE01

— Brian Whitson (@scibri) December 19, 2018
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