20% Time

Image credit: https://openclipart.org/detail/154075/light-bulb-icon

New year, new blog direction. The focus for the year will be my reflections on 20% time in my class.

Every year I ask the students, "What do you want to learn about this year"? in an effort to personalize my learning, and every year, the curriculum comes cascading down on me, washing away my efforts in this arena. This year, I will be making a focused effort to do the 20% time in my class.

What is it? Well, "the legend goes" that Google instituted a 20% time, during which staff members were allowed to pursue passion projects during their workweek. Some of the best creations came from the 20% time. Gmail is an example of a product of that time. What does that look like in the classroom? Well, in the classroom, this looks like setting aside time, at regular intervals, to allow students to engage in passion projects using the design process to explore, research, refine, and present. 

So, off I went. I asked students "What do you want to learn this year?" knowing that it would not be a question posed in vain. When I explained 20% time, I received excited looks (on the face of tired middle schoolers, no less!).

This blog will be mixed with technology and reflection on that 20% time (since technology is a great support for it). In the meantime, if you too are interested in 20% time (or a variation), here is an article that I used to launch off from this year, from Edutopia.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the kids do with their 20% time, in World Language, in order to bring some authenticity to their learning and meaningful application to their work.

Until next time,
Scott


Works Cited
Smith, Meshelle. "Genius Hour in Elementary School." Edutopia, 15 September, 2017,     
     https://amp.edutopia.org/article/genius-hour-elementary-school?__twitter_impression=true.    
     Accessed 6 September 2018.