We spent 2 days with Tim Rylands, an inspirational teacher who makes fantastic use of ICT and computer games to inspire children across the curriculum.
On the first day Tim worked alongside all our teaching staff to introduce new ideas, techniques, programmes and gimmicks to helps us find new ways to inspire children to write. He introduced us to ‘Mr Walker’ – his trusty walking stick, who plays tunes just like a flute, and we used Myst III, a computer game, to build up pictures of a whole new world.
The second day he worked with pupils, putting his ideas into practice and this was invaluable. He spent the morning with the two 5/6 Classes where they explored new lands and thought about what they could smell, feel and hear. He encouraged everyone in the use of similes “Simile Timbers!” and metaphors ‘how posh!’ no-one got the chance to just sit back and watch, everyone got writing!
In the afternoon he worked with all the Year 2s, looking at describing what they could see and what the mythical creature they could see might be like. They shared their ideas with one another and showed each other their thoughts and ideas.
Hopefully this is just the start of some inspirational work and everyone will be inspired to do some fantastic writing. Watch out for it appearing on the website!