Today I had the great pleasure of attending the Kevin Brookhouser keynote session on the 20Time.org project at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (See http://www.20time.org/) Mr. Brookhouser is a Google Certified Teacher and Trainer. His specialty is incorporating Google’s “20 Percent Time” into instructional time. Kevin has taught English, history, and technology for over 15 years.
Kevin shared a lot of about how Google supports their staff and developers (Check out the video at the bottom of this post about Google's Project Loon). One key idea the incorporate is an idea called "20 Percent Time". What Google does for it's developers and workers is it gives them 20% of their work time to be devoted to an idea or concept they want to solve or work on. This is how Gmail came to be in existence. Don't believe me? Then check this story out about Gmail's creator. Google's "20 Percent Time" concept is intended to promote inquiry and personal discovery. Stop me if you've heard any of these "buzz" words in education lately... As you can imagine I was very much engaged at this point when he talked about ways to better motivate students or as he called it, "wicked problem solving!" He showed us examples of how he gave his students 20% of his class time to work on creating personal projects. If you have ever heard of"Genius Hour" with students then this process should be somewhat familiar. If you've every tried incorporating "Genius Hour" into your classroom (I HAVE!!!) then you know that one of the most difficult challenges you'll face is getting the students to find a topic to research or a passion to follow. Below is a slide from his presentation he gave today that he shows to his students to help them through the process of creating their project. Being the elementary teacher that I am I would probably recommend changing some of the wording (like "sucks") if I wanted to use this with my students personally. However, I did get a kick out of the transitions. http://www.20time.org/blog/2015/6/10/the-life-of-a-project Now that I gave you some time to read the graphic, you may have noticed one thing I did too. Check the bottom middle of the page. Right where it says, "Dark Night of The Soul)...Sounds morbid doesn't it? However, I found this to be a very accurate description of the part of a project where you get so frustrated you want to quite and the moment that many students don't realize is actually the turning point towards self-discovery and inquiry. It definitely got my attention! Mr. Brookhouser then described how he handles that part of his student's projects, something I know I've definitely not done, he celebrates with his students. He brings out candy (doubt I could do that with the fact the city of Mason City, Iowa is a Blue Zone designated city) and celebrates their frustration. Many teachers I've observed, including myself, typically when the students get to this point tend to give the students comfort and let the student find a different topic to research. It's a common issue with teachers because we don't want to see our students fail or get hurt. However, by following this notion we are doing our students more of a disservice by not letting them figure out how to push through the struggles. There is some "food for thought"... My last takeaway is that I found this idea to be a more manageable way to go about introducing "Genius Hour" to my students. I know many teachers like me have the constant fear of "Am I going to be able to fit this all in to my schedule?" An hour is a long time, but by saying "20%" it can make the task seem more manageable, especially for my 4th graders this fall. His presentation was geared towards secondary students and teachers, but I know that this can be adapted for elementary students as well, hence "Genius Hour". How might you incorporate Google's "20 Percent Time" logic into your classroom? In closing, I would like to send a huge thank you to Noreen Colbeck-Bush for allowing me to attend today's keynote session at Prairie High School and for the College Community School District's continued support from a far whenever I have an educational or technology inquiry. Their staff is always willing to help and offer advice for the sake of helping further student success no matter what district they are attending which is the true mark of a "Student-First" district. Sincerely, Benjamin "Ben" Feight
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AuthorBenjamin's educational experiences include teaching both 3rd and 4th grades all around the state of Iowa. His commitment to students has led to various local and state awards and honors such as being named the 2014 Iowa Technology Educator of the Year and authoring a section of a chapter in Dr. Todd Whittaker's book Start. Right. Now.: Teach and Lead for Excellence on maximizing student potential. |