20 Time Year in Review

This was the second year implementing 20 Time Projects here at PHS, and based upon some of the challenges we faced the first time around, many changes were made to this year's journey.  I credit incredible educators such as Karl Lindgren-Streicher, Kevin Brookhouser and Kate Petty for sharing great ideas and providing inspiration to keep pushing forward with this concept.

Here's a rundown of this year's 20 Time Project at PHS:

Introducing 20 Time  (September)

I introduced the project with this 20 Time Presentation that provides some background regarding creativity, motivation, and concept of "20 Time." This year I also provided students with 20 Time Guidelines to give them a better sense of the expectations and timeline for the project.

This year's project also had two basic requirements:

1.  Your project provides a solution to an existing problem.

2.  Your solution benefits a particular community or people.
*** In other words, your project will help/affect more than just yourself.

Brainstorming Sessions  (September - October)

Last year, students had a particularly difficult time getting started.  I therefore decided to help students think about different topics and interests with this Brainstorming form.  It not only helped them organize their thoughts, but also provided me with some insight regarding the direction that they were heading.

Maintaining Focus  (October - November)

Once most students had settled upon an idea and began working on their proposals, I realized that many were not making the most of class time.  To help them stay on task and monitor their progress, students began writing weekly reflections.  This simply asked students to record what they had accomplished that week as well as what steps needed to be taken before the next 20 Time day.

Project Proposals (December)

Before diving too deep into the projects, I had students develop an in-depth Project Proposal document.  This required students to discuss their passion, needs and opportunities, audience, timeline, final product, and equipment needs.

Students also had to develop a pitch video.  They started by completing this "1 Minute Pitch" video form.  Their responses were then written out into a brief script.  Before they recorded, I also showed students a few Kickstarter videos so that they would understand the concept of "pitching" an idea.

I feel that these two assignments helped students hone their ideas and create a road map for moving forward with the project. Creating the pitch videos also helped drive home the point that this project is not just about themselves, but some larger community of their choosing.

Connecting With Experts (January - February)

As part of the project, I urged students to reach out to experts in the field related to their topic.  In this Interview Proposal form, students had to indicate two people that they would like to interview. Students also had to include a brief description of how each person's experience, expertise, and insights would assist their project.  I then helped the students connect with each person via email, phone call, or GHO.

Inspirational Videos

Around this time of year, many students began to hit a wall.  Some were "stuck," some were losing interest in their project, and some were unsure of where their project would ultimately end up.  That's when I began starting each class with a quick, inspirational video.  I made a point to include some TED talks since that is how each group was going to present in June.  I searched for resources (such as this Pinterest board by Terri Eichholz) to curate videos that I thought were especially creative and inspirational.  Here is a screenshot of the videos that we viewed throughout the year.

Final Presentations  (May - June)

Although I tried to stay as "hands off" here as possible regarding the content and style of their final presentation, I did offer students this guide of questions to be addressed during their talk.  A few students also created this TED Talk Tips presentation based upon the book How to Deliver a TED Talk.  For students who could not deliver their presentation live to the class, they were given the option of either creating a video or presenting before or after school.

I was pleased with the variety of projects this year and how well many students followed-through with their plans.  Here is a sampling of what they created:

• Product design for a device that monitors the vital signs of an unborn child and streams the information to the mother's Smartphone. 
• Relay for Life community campaign to raise awareness for the cause and increase community participation. 
• E-Book that provides inspirational stories for teens that are going through difficult times. 
• How-to guide for tech-savvy students interested in creating their own "home server."

Overall, this year's 20 Time Project was much more successful.  As for future iterations, I'm looking forward to reading Kevin Brookhouser's upcoming book and implementing some new strategies to increase student buy-in from the start and provide more inspiration and targeted support throughout the project.  

"1 Minute Pitch" Videos for 20 Time

We've made several changes to this year's 20 Time project, thanks in large part to my awesome PLN that shares their 20 Time resources and reflections regularly, particularly Karl LS.   (If unfamiliar w/ 20 Time projects, here is a great place to start)

One big change has been a focus on the "pitch."

By November, most students had completed their 20 Time Proposals and were ready for the next step. Before diving right in, we instead spent a couple weeks developing 1 minute pitch videos. They completed this form to help organize their thoughts and develop a script.  Then, each team went into the "green screen room"  (vacant office in the back of the library) to film their videos.

In general, each video needed the following components:  Project Title, Problem/Issue, Your Product (Solution), Audience, and Closing Statement.

Although some took this process less seriously than others, I think that it still helped all students think more deeply about the purpose of their 20 Time projects while also taking more ownership of their work.  

Here are a few samples of their pitch videos from December:

Lace Lamp

Supporting Gay Rights


Relay for Life Appreciation


Bullying

Volleyball: Will You Play Today?

Looking Ahead: The Future of Our Class

Ever since I transitioned to a mastery-learning approach, I have tried to help students develop their metacognitive skills.  For example, goal setting, progress monitoring, and reflecting on an almost daily basis.

To practice what I preach, I though I would outline some general goals and direction for the year ahead. No, these are not specific or measurable, but they will at least set the tone for the upcoming year and keep me focused on a few things.

When I coached basketball, I went to a clinic where West Virginia coach Bob Huggins spoke.  He made a great point that if you have your players "focus" on everything (boxing out, help-side defense, defending screens, deflections, etc.), then their mind will be racing so much that they won't end up "focusing" on anything!  With that in mind, here are the three general concepts I will focus on this year and a few ideas regarding how that will look in practice.

1. Flipped Learning

I will continue to modify the way that I apply Flipped Learning principles to our class.  One particular change this year will be to create a series of "Inquiry Videos" to start each unit.  Although I still would not consider my class Explore-Flip-Apply or PBL, I would like to incorporate more inquiry-based activities in each unit, particularly at the beginning.

2.  Gamification

You may recall in previous posts that I am "gamifying" my class this year.  After hearing Lee Sheldon speak at #GIE13, I purchased his book "The Multiplayer Classroom." What a great decision.  I quickly realized that the way that I had set up my flipped-mastery course was already similar to how a "gamified" class was.  I will certainly be reflecting upon this quite a bit on this blog since gamification is the most substantial change to my course this year.

3. 20 Time

Although 20 Time was mostly successful last year, I need to improve how I structure it and provide feedback and guidance to students.  I know of several great educators who are well-versed in 20 Time, so I will be picking their brains in the coming weeks/months to help improve this aspect of the course.

I'm looking forward to a great school year with my students, and of course collaborating with my awesome and ever-expanding PLN!

Gauging 20 Time's Effectiveness

After spending a few months researching the emerging "20 Time" (or "Genius Hour") concept, I decided to implement a pilot program during the 4th quarter.   Here is a post that I wrote in April regarding our "Dive Into 20 Time."  In general, I was pleased with how our flipped-mastery units were progressing, but I still felt that the course lacked a few things.  First, I needed to find a way to incorporate inquiry, particularly the open-ended variety that was driven by student interest and motivation.  This is where I felt that merging 20 Time with the flipped-mastery approach could improve the class in profound ways.

Before we began, I was interested in what typically motivated students in school, what degree of autonomy they had, how much time they were allotted to complete projects, and whether they had a sense of purpose in their work (can you detect the influence of Drive here?)    I therefore created a "Pre-Survey" to get a better sense of this before starting the 20 Time projects.  I then gave a similar "Post-Survey" to determine how much 20 Time changed these views, if at all.  

In sum, 20 Time granted students more control over their learning, fostered a deeper understanding of the subject, established a greater sense of purpose, and granted enough time to learn what they deemed important.  

There was also a clear change in what motivated them.   For typical school projects, 39% of students were most motivated by earning rewards while 38% were motivated to avoid punishments. Only 23% were motivated to learn about the topic or skills for the sake of learning.  The post results reveal that 59% of students engaged in the 20 Time project primarily because they were motivated to learn about the topic or skill.  Although it is a very small sample size, the jump from 23% to 59% is rather substantial.  

Is this definitive proof that 20 Time / Genius Hour projects are always successful? Of course not. It is certainly encouraging, however, to see that students were more motivated and engaged in the learning process. As both research and anecdotal classroom experience can attest, increasing students' motivation is not only half the battle, but often the entire one.

The following table summarizes the results in greater detail for those interested.

Diving Into 20% Time

Over the past year, I've noticed the term "20% time" popping up in conversations with colleagues in the flipped learning community.  Karl Lindgren-Streicher had mentioned it during a #flipclass chat and later discussed it briefly in his FLN podcast appearance.  I then heard a recent FLN podcast that focused specifically on 20% Time.  Host Troy Cockrum, who has implemented 20% time himself, led a great discussion with Kevin Brookhouser and Kate Petty.  After hearing this incredibly thought-provoking episode, I finally committed to learning more about this new concept.

First, I tried to connect with many of the 20% Time thought leaders on Twitter by searching the hashtag #20Time.  (I also realized that there is a #genioushour community that has a very similar approach.)  Joy Kirr directed me towards an excellent livebinder loaded with 20% Time / Genius Hour resources.  I then checked out Troy's blog,  Kevin Brookhouser's website and Kate Petty's new 20TimeinEducation.com which is specifically devoted to this topic.   Next, I spent some time over April vacation reading Daniel Pink's Drive, a book I wish I had read a few years ago when it was first released!  He also has an abridged version of his argument in the influential TED talk called "The Puzzle of Motivation." 

I was now officially committed to piloting 20% Time for the rest of this school year.  Final guidance was sought from Troy, Kevin, and Kate before finalizing my introductory presentation and lesson plan.  To build excitement for the project, I leaked bits of information about it throughout the week.  (Autonomy, Purpose, Google, Intrinsic Motivation, Passion, and 20% Time.) Some students actually spent considerable time trying to figure out what the heck I was unveiling later in the week.

Friday's introduction to 20% Time went extremely well!  The students seemed genuinely interested in the concept and excited to start their projects.  Troy's suggestion to kick things off with the Ghost Drive Through was a big hit with the kids, even those who had already seen it.  Also, although I was hesitant to include them in the presentation, students were intrigued by the studies on intrinsic motivation that were cited in the book "Drive."  Most students ran with the Brainstorming session, but as expected, some had no idea where to start.  I tried my best to get them to at least think and ponder what they might be interested in, even if it is not something that immediately comes to mind.

For those readers interested, I have included the presentation that I delivered to intro 20% Time below.  I have also included links to the Brainstorming Form and Lesson Plan document.


Brainstorming Form
20% Time Intro Lesson Plan

Although I have just started implementing 20% Time, I feel that it complements flipped learning very well.   As this pilot program progresses, I will have a better idea regarding the "marriage" of these two approaches and their potential to bring flipped learning to a whole new level.