March 2014
I went to a GIEWCS where I signed up for a session taught by +Kate Petty . The subject was something that I had never heard about (ever) and was curious. The subject was 20% Time/ Genius Hour. During her presentation, she introduced us to her website TheTechClassroom. Here she had resources to help those of us interested get started. Also, in her presentation, she talked about +Joy Kirr and her Live Binder, another great place for resources. In short, I left inspired and wanting to try 20% Time in my classroom.
When I got back to school, at our April faculty meeting, I sat with a colleague who teaches English and I shared what I had learned about 20% Time with her. She got excited and that day we decided that we would collaborate and launch 20% Time in the Fall.
Summer 2014
I began researching more about 20% Time and came across the names of +AJ Juliani and +Kevin Brookhouser. As I read more about how these 2 men were implementing 20% Time in their classrooms, I became more intrigued and started looking to see if they were authors of books on 20% Time. Sure enough, I found AJ Juliani's book and read it. Those of you who know me, know that I am not a reader, but I read this book!!! I began searching to see if Kevin Brookhouser had a book, and at that time, he did not. However, it just so happened that in one of my Google + Communities, I found out that Kevin had started a Kickstarter fund for a book on 20% Time. I did not hesitate to contribute to his project (I just got an email last night saying that my book had been mailed out...I am so excited; it's like Christmas all over again).
July 2014
I attended a CUE Rockstar Event in Las Vegas. At this event, I signed up for a session about 20% Time taught by Trisha Sanchez (@techishtrish). During her presentation she talked about her experiences in the classroom, shared her resources, and showed us a student example of how creative kids could be if given a chance. Again, I left inspired and eager to start 20% Time in my class.
Another session that I went to that I knew would be valuable was a "How to Use Blogger" session taught by +Sam Patterson Ed.D. . During this session, he showed us how to set up parameters for Blogger, along with showing us how he uses blogger in his classroom. I signed up for this because at GIEWCS, Kate Petty mentioned how her students blog during their 20% Time projects and how blogging met Common Core Standards.
August 2014
The first day of teacher meetings, I met up with my English teacher colleague and we began planning out what we wanted to do for 20% Time. We both decided that trying to start it in the Fall would be too soon since we had not met during the summer to discuss the topic.
September-December 2014
Once a month my colleague and I would meet and we would write down what we thought the 20% Time project would entail. Again, using the resources that I knew about, this part was pretty easy. In our December meeting we split up the work. I was to work on the student handouts and my colleague would work on the rubrics. The handouts that I created (using resources from Kate Petty, Joy Kirr, Trisha Sanchez, AJ Juliani, Kevin Brookhouser, and Sam Patterson) can be found on my class website.
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| These are my original notes and ideas from my collaboration time with my colleague. |
Today
Today (1/23/15) I introduced 20% Time Project to my even day periods. I am on a block schedule that is 90 minutes long. I teach, at most, 3 periods a day. Today was an even day, Periods 2, 4, and 6. After introducing 20% Time, I showed students how to set up their blogs. At first, I originally was going to attempt this in our computer core and I would have to give direct instruction from the handouts with no visual aid for the students. I knew this was going to be difficult, so I asked the English Department if I could borrow one of their chromebook carts and they let me. I was able to show students step by step how to set up most of their blogs. The part that we still need to finish is the addition of blog readers. For this, I need to collect their student Gmail information from a Google Form. On this form I will also collect their blog URL's and their blog titles. From these I will set up, on my class website, a "one-stop shop" for all student blogs so that it is easier for them to search their period. During 2nd period as students were adding me as Blog Authors, I began accepting their requests. THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO DO I N CLASS. This took time away from other things that I wanted to do. Needless to say, for 4th period and 6th period I will be accepting their requests outside of class. The reason I accepted requests during 2nd period was because I wanted students to change my Blog Author status from Author to Admin, which would give me control of their blogs. The only reason why I would want any control of their blogs at this point in time was for those "OOPS I don't know what I did or how to fix it" moments.
By being a Blog Author, "My Blogs" is a large number because they now include student blogs. My question is this..."Is there a different way of accessing student blogs, without "My Blogs" being cluttered with student blogs?" In other words, I don't think I like having a long list of student blogs. Maybe I shouldn't be a Blog Author.
In my 6th period class, I was able to show them a Kid President Video. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do this in 2nd or 4th periods. The students seemed to get excited and motivated after the "Pep Talk."
Kid President- "Pep Talk"
For all of my periods, I was able to walk around the classroom and talk to the students who had ideas. All students will be conferencing with me next week, especially those students who were struggling with their ideas. Conferencing will allow me to check on their progress and to make sure they are headed in the right direction.
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