Editorial comment.

Mantei, Jessica ; Kervin, Lisa ; Latham, Gloria 等

Dear Readers:

Welcome to the first of your Practically Primary journals for 2010. Our February theme, Please don't ask me to write or draw what I did in the holidays has certainly struck a chord with our contributors and we thank them for their passion for the teaching of writing and their generosity in sharing their stories with us. Their stories, observations, insights and recommendations remind us to move beyond 'doing school', to lift our teaching beyond the classroom and to make genuine connections to lives of the students we teach. We are reminded of the importance of providing opportunities to engage with a range of topics, in a range of genres, through a range of mediums.

Wendy Bean's article 'What happens when you decide on authentic, purposeful writing?' begins the conversation with powerful observations about the purpose for writing and the delicate balancing act between teaching for benchmarking and tests and writing for real reasons and audiences. Fostering and supporting a love for writing is a challenge we all face. The articles that follow remind us that writing, whilst usually challenging and at times downright difficult, has great rewards; as authors we bring our characters to life and tell stories in truly unique ways, we use words to represent our own take on the world and our experiences within it. We are fortunate in this edition, too, to hear from a number of children's book authors as they describe their own approaches to writing and how such characters as Tashi, The Loblolly Boy, Anna and Zac, Tom and Bilby came to life. No doubt the importance of children's literature is at the forefront of your mind as you keep abreast of National Curriculum developments.

As each of the contributors describe their experiences in the classroom, many have been drawn to reflect on their practice and challenged their existing beliefs and practices about the teaching of writing. They describe these challenges and the professional learning they have gained from the process. We encourage you to reflect similarly on your own writing practices as you read these articles; perhaps consider your beliefs about writing and how they are evident in the ways that you teach (or are they?).

Lisa, Gloria and I hope you enjoy Please don't ask me to write or draw what I did in the holidays and we encourage you to share your own stories, as these contributors have done. There is lots of support available for you as you write--Lisa, Gloria and I are happy to read and respond to your ideas and early drafts and we're sure your local and state ALEA representatives would be keen to talk through ideas as well!