Writing in Real Life Career Day

My team and I hosted our first ever Writing in Real Life Career Day today! We welcomed a total of 22 parent volunteers to speak to our classes about how they use writing for their jobs. Each teacher held two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with about 4 – 5 participants a session. Parents prepared answers to questions like “What is your job?” “How do you use writing?” “What is your writing process?” “What are the biggest challenges you face with writing?” and “Do you use mentor texts or colleagues to help finalize your writing?”

Parents touched on all questions and then some! They had a plethora of advice for our kids. Some of my favorite pieces of advice were “reading supports your writing,” “give yourself breaks, give yourself rewards,” “chunk your task into more manageable pieces,” and “learn how to edit your work!”

Much of what we tell students is met with scoffs, eye rolls, and shoulder shrugs. We are teachers, we assign this work to make them miserable! But alas, here are four adults, with jobs completely unrelated to English class, speaking about the importance of writing every single day.

The kids were attentive and curious. They asked follow up questions about how AI has changed their writing (surprisingly it hasn’t for many), about their biggest influences growing up, and even about their day to day attire.

I am already excited to plan for next year!