I have been listening to some podcasts and reading about Genius Hours and 20% Time lately. Not intentionally, but it just keeps coming up and when that happens I have to stop and dig into it a little more. This information has spilled over into other topics and I want to share a little bit of that with you today. For those that don’t know, the premise behind 20% Time is that you spend 20% of your time on topics that inspire or motivate you. This encourages the development of your passions and provides the opportunity for creativity. When we are passionate about something, we put more into it. We want to learn more about it and give all of our energy to it. This practice is present in some corporations and is being incorporated into many classrooms.
In the classroom it can take on many forms. For example in a history class 20% time could be taking one day a week for students to research and study any topic or time period in history that they are really interested in knowing more about. You would set some goals for how they would later share that knowledge with the rest of the class, but it gives them the chance to take ownership of their learning. Realistically, true 20% time isn’t really meant to be limited to a topic, but is open to any topic or idea students are passionate about.
If you want more information about it there are a few places you can get more information. You might check out 20time.org and you can even find a book about it on the site as well as examples of projects students have done.
Another site you might want to go to is 20Timeineducation.com which will give you some background into the history of 20% Time and how it has been used in industry to develop some of the great products we use today. Not only that, but it gives some links to templates and other resources that can use. If you are not ready to dive deep into 20% Time it suggests some ideas for using the Genius Hour approach instead. The posts on this site are a few years old, but it is still worth checking out if you are looking for ways to inspire your students to take ownership of their learning.
You could also check out ajjuliani.com and go to his guide on 20% Time. You can even sign up for a free course from the site.
Why is 20% Time a good idea for the classroom? Aside from the fact that we want our students to own their learning and other phrases and buzzwords, we don’t know what careers are going to be around in fifteen or twenty years when they are the majority of the workforce. The tools we teach them to use now, will likely be obsolete. If we move beyond the tools to the process of learning and what it looks like to do that on your own because it is something that is exciting or gets you motivated, then we are truly preparing them for their future. This, in my opinion, is what it truly looks like to be college/career ready, not just being able to pass a test.
As you can tell from my references this concept is not new, but it may be new to you. But I want to take this beyond your students and have you reflect on your own learning. As an educator I boast about wanting to inspire students to be lifelong learners and this is one way we can accomplish that. Even though we say we want them to be lifelong learners and take ownership of their learning, do we live that out? Are we true examples of that? About 25% of adults have not read a book in the past year. And when you break it down by demographic, some groups that percentage jumps as high as 50%. This statistic, though not directly related, could be a good indicator that the goal of creating lifelong learners isn’t as successful as we hope. Now, I know that reading a book is not the only way to learn and research. In this day of video and online resources, books are not always our first go to when we want to learn something new. I would be interested to see some statistics on this area of learning and research.
To get back to my point, in order for us to inspire students to be lifelong learners we have to model it for them. So if you are implementing 20% time in your classroom be an active participant. Develop a project of your own while students are working on theirs. Obviously you won’t be able to dedicate much classroom time for yourself to do this because you will be assisting your students with their projects, but setup an accountability piece and be an active participant in that. For ideas on accountability in 20% Time look at the How page on 20time.org.
Why am I pointing back towards teachers with this concept and asking you to get involved?
Burnout!
That's right, teacher burnout. Many teachers that reach the burnout stage have lost the passion that motivated them to become a teacher. I believe that becoming active participants in 20% Time can keep us from reaching that point. It can remind you continuously about the reason you do what you do and keep that spark alive in you.
In the classroom it can take on many forms. For example in a history class 20% time could be taking one day a week for students to research and study any topic or time period in history that they are really interested in knowing more about. You would set some goals for how they would later share that knowledge with the rest of the class, but it gives them the chance to take ownership of their learning. Realistically, true 20% time isn’t really meant to be limited to a topic, but is open to any topic or idea students are passionate about.
If you want more information about it there are a few places you can get more information. You might check out 20time.org and you can even find a book about it on the site as well as examples of projects students have done.
Another site you might want to go to is 20Timeineducation.com which will give you some background into the history of 20% Time and how it has been used in industry to develop some of the great products we use today. Not only that, but it gives some links to templates and other resources that can use. If you are not ready to dive deep into 20% Time it suggests some ideas for using the Genius Hour approach instead. The posts on this site are a few years old, but it is still worth checking out if you are looking for ways to inspire your students to take ownership of their learning.
You could also check out ajjuliani.com and go to his guide on 20% Time. You can even sign up for a free course from the site.
Why is 20% Time a good idea for the classroom? Aside from the fact that we want our students to own their learning and other phrases and buzzwords, we don’t know what careers are going to be around in fifteen or twenty years when they are the majority of the workforce. The tools we teach them to use now, will likely be obsolete. If we move beyond the tools to the process of learning and what it looks like to do that on your own because it is something that is exciting or gets you motivated, then we are truly preparing them for their future. This, in my opinion, is what it truly looks like to be college/career ready, not just being able to pass a test.
As you can tell from my references this concept is not new, but it may be new to you. But I want to take this beyond your students and have you reflect on your own learning. As an educator I boast about wanting to inspire students to be lifelong learners and this is one way we can accomplish that. Even though we say we want them to be lifelong learners and take ownership of their learning, do we live that out? Are we true examples of that? About 25% of adults have not read a book in the past year. And when you break it down by demographic, some groups that percentage jumps as high as 50%. This statistic, though not directly related, could be a good indicator that the goal of creating lifelong learners isn’t as successful as we hope. Now, I know that reading a book is not the only way to learn and research. In this day of video and online resources, books are not always our first go to when we want to learn something new. I would be interested to see some statistics on this area of learning and research.
To get back to my point, in order for us to inspire students to be lifelong learners we have to model it for them. So if you are implementing 20% time in your classroom be an active participant. Develop a project of your own while students are working on theirs. Obviously you won’t be able to dedicate much classroom time for yourself to do this because you will be assisting your students with their projects, but setup an accountability piece and be an active participant in that. For ideas on accountability in 20% Time look at the How page on 20time.org.
Why am I pointing back towards teachers with this concept and asking you to get involved?
Burnout!
That's right, teacher burnout. Many teachers that reach the burnout stage have lost the passion that motivated them to become a teacher. I believe that becoming active participants in 20% Time can keep us from reaching that point. It can remind you continuously about the reason you do what you do and keep that spark alive in you.
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