The bell rings, and snack has just begun. As you make your way down the busy hallways, you casually decide to text message your friend. Out of the corner of your eye, you see the familiar shadow of Mr. Welsh approaching your way. Before you even get the chance to panic, he walks by you, not even noticing the cell phone.

Before you start patting yourself on the back thinking you fooled Mr. Welsh, think again. In fact, having your cell phone out is no longer a crime. Finally, the administrators are loosening their grip and have created a policy that students can celebrate about.
Why is this?
Believe it or not, the source of this decision came directly from the student body.
How so?
Through the power of writing.
The Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) decided to have students write four times a year based on an aspect of campus life. We saw this last year, when we were asked to write up our opinion on the cell phone policy and to our own surprise some form of changes took place.
Before you groan at the thought of timed writings, think about it this way. It is true that students are already burdened with timed writings with the SAT, AP tests, and required benchmarks. Not to mention all the writing we�re supposed to be doing in our English classes. Yet, the incident with the cell phone policy clearly demonstrates how timed writing proved to be useful.
Timed writings such as the writing prompts that the ILT give out are an efficient way of getting students� opinions recognized in an organized manner. Allowing students to witness how their writing can enact changes is the prime way of getting students to take their writing seriously. And who knows, maybe they will even learn to love writing.