Inspirational Day!

It is days like today that really make me miss being in the classroom! You see, we had an inset day. I can almost hear a collective moan coming from everyone. We have all sat through these days that lacked sparkle and were filled with little inspiration.

Oh, did I tell you it was an inset day on WRITING?! ( Again, an even deeper intake of breath!)

I can assure you that this day was not filled with understanding grammar and structure. It had nothing to do with levelling or marking. It wasn’t about how to teach genres or informational text. No! It was none of that. It was about INSPIRING children to write.

What has always been my main complaint about writing in England is that there is a complete lack of audience or purpose. We never give writing a true platform. So, children, day in and day out, write for a none existent audience. How utterly dull is that! Uninspiring!

Today was all about giving writing a platform, mainly through blogging, for children to write and engage with the world. Today was about skilling ourselves up to take on the 21st century by the horns and take a wild ride with the children with purposeful, inspiring and engaging writing.

I feel very lucky that my Vice Principal showed me this link, http://deputymitchell.com , several months ago. It was because of this that we were able to have David Mitchell with us for the day. Even better was the fact we shared this inspirational day with two other primary academies.

Today, as people left, I was already seeing and hearing the impact it had had on the staff. I look forward to seeing the impact in the coming weeks, months and years!

Yes, today was a day that make me really miss the classroom!