Another year and another great adventure in 20 Time. Last year, I was not sure if I wanted to do 20 Time again because I was so exhausted and I was worried I would never be able to recreate the environment where my students excelled. After the first marking period passed, I am so excited to see what my students are planning on doing.
I used TodaysMeet to have students share what their projects were and then we could all talk about them in class. It is a little change to the process I took last year and it worked well. The students had a bit of a harder time choosing their projects this year and I was worried about the commitment the students would have to the project, but I gave them a bit more time and they came up with some great projects.
They will have their first blog posts up next week and I will share those out. What I learned over the summer and at the start of the year by talking to students who did 20 Time was that they loved having others read their blog and connect with them. It was great to hear that and I look forward to sharing their work and seeing the connections that can be made.
Thanks for all of the support everyone and I'll keep you posted on how all of this goes.
Nick
I used TodaysMeet to have students share what their projects were and then we could all talk about them in class. It is a little change to the process I took last year and it worked well. The students had a bit of a harder time choosing their projects this year and I was worried about the commitment the students would have to the project, but I gave them a bit more time and they came up with some great projects.
They will have their first blog posts up next week and I will share those out. What I learned over the summer and at the start of the year by talking to students who did 20 Time was that they loved having others read their blog and connect with them. It was great to hear that and I look forward to sharing their work and seeing the connections that can be made.
Thanks for all of the support everyone and I'll keep you posted on how all of this goes.
Nick
Hey Nick! masters of education student and future English teacher here. This #20 Time adventure sparked my interest! As an advocate of project-based learning, I am curious to know more about this project that your students are working on (for the year? it seems like?). I am currently student teaching at an alternative high school in Southfield, MI and would like to continue working in high needs high schools upon graduation from my graduate program. I feel like my students would be so much more invested in their learning if they had the agency to design a project and be supported in the development of their project throughout an entire school year or extended period of time. You mention being worried about students' commitment to their projects. This is something I too have thought about when brainstorming how to incorporate student-led projects in my future classroom. On the one hand, it seems like projects would be a great way to get students who are checked out of school (many for legitimate reasons) to showcase their passions and talents. On the other hand, I worry that many of those same students would lack the academic perseverance it takes to ride the ups and the downs. How do these projects typically turn out? What do you see students struggle the most with? What are students' biggest successes in completing such a project?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing from you!
Samantha