Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 2

We've talked a lot about urbanization and industrialization. This student has found an online, 3D city builder. She's planning on building an ideal city then using Screencast-o-matic to create a video explaining  her decisions!

 If you are curious about what a 20 Time Passion Project is, read my introduction here. It has a bunch of links to tell you all about this whole "20 Time" idea and how it is taking off in the educational world.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are the basics:

• Kids can do ANYTHING they want as long as it satisfies 3 essential questions that tie what their doing into our class goals. Kids are encouraged to build and create rather than complete.
• Kids have to find an adult to mentor other than the teacher who will help them during their project.
• The projects will last almost 3 months and culminate in a public presentation day.
• I pledge to give approximately 20% of class time to this project for the rest of the year. 
• I'm doing a project with the kids - this blog. I am going to blog about the kids work on this blog each day. That's an extra 12-13 blog posts for me!

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Day 2 - Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015

Kids are continuing to come up with really great ideas. I am giving the kids 5 straight days to work on their projects at the start here. The idea is to give enough consecutive days for each student to fully develop a project topic, idea and plan of action. I also want to give plenty of time for the kids to reach out to their mentors. To give some examples, I have kids who are reaching out to:

• Sly James - Mayor of Kansas City
• Robert Kenner - Director of Food, Inc.
• A civil engineer at a local firm, SEGA
• A visual artist who is apparently pretty big in the online scene...I can't remember the name right now and I misspelled it in my notebook!
• I have a student looking to connect with a neurologist to do a project on the brain and learning. Anyone out there want to help with that one?

Two students collaborating on their project. They are going
to be conducting a series of interviews with people of have
taken the Islamic Hajj to Mecca.

The part about all of this that I'm enjoying most is seeing kids react when I do something unexpected. Here's an example. I have a student who wants to study art and culture. We were brainstorming and without much surprise came up with the Nelson Atkins. In the middle of class, I took out my cell phone and called my grandma. She lives in Santa Fe now, but she used to be a member at the Nelson Atkins and I thought she might know someone. She did, gave me a number, and we'll see where that goes!

The world is about making connections! That's what this project emphasizes, especially with its requirement to get an adult adviser to help. I love history as much as the next history teacher nerd out there, but learning how to make a phone call to a stranger and ask for advice is a more important skill than anything I'll teach kids about history! If I can instill this skill in kids while still having the kids learn about history, then it's a win-win situation.

Brainstorming looks for a campaign to stop wars.

Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 1

A brief introduction to what I'll be doing here for the next two and a half months:

There is an idea growing in the world of education that curiosity and creativity need to be given their proper due. I tend to agree with this. I think of my class with Mrs. Lerner in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade and remember the field trips, 8-square drawings, sand-box and other creative tasks that we did. I think this says something important seeing as I'm not a particularly creative person. Yet this are the moments that stick in my memory.

Will anything from my class become a memory for a student?

A 20-time project, or Genius Hour, or MakerSpace, or Teach Like a Pirate (#TLAP), or whatever variation you prefer - all of these projects aim to give students the time in class (and the infrastructure) to think and create and be curious. I decided to name my project the 20-time Passion Project.

In this project, I am committing to giving around 20% of the remainder of the year to the students to create a project of their own making. There are three questions that kids have to answer no matter what they do. If they cannot answer all of these three questions, then they'll be encouraged to revise their idea or simply move on to the next idea on their list. Those questions are:

• How does your project relate to our Modern World History class?
• Why is your topic of study and guiding question important to us today?
• What real information or statistics prove the point that you are trying to make?  

 You can look at my full rubric here, although it is still in the construction phase. The cool yet oh so terrifying part of this is that I've never done this before. I've given the kids an introduction and hopefully some inspiration on where to start. I've also told the kids that I'll be learning how this all works right along with them. When I have a revelation, they'll know. It's going to be painful at times. It will probably be pretty chaotic. But I think it's going to be pretty damn special as well. When it's all done, we'll regroup, rethink and be a little more organized as we try it again next year. The first year of any project is always the scariest - and the most important.

My Project
Part of this project is the promise that I would do a project of my own with the kids. I got the idea from a student of mine who wrote a guest post on this blog (go read it if you haven't yet - it's amazing). My 20-Time Passion Project is going to be to advertise the projects of my students by creating a blog for each day of class I give the students. That will result in 12-15 posts over the next three months. When it's all done, we'll be able to compile those posts and create a story of what everyone did and learned. Like the students, I'm still fleshing out my idea, but it will come to me.

On the first day of brainstorming, there are several very cool ideas that I want to highlight here:

Sketching out what a cross-section of a road might
end up looking like.

Road Infrastructure - A student is interested in what is underneath all of our roads. He wants to talk to an engineer (I've put him in touch with a friend of mine who works in that field) about how roads are constructed. We sketched up an idea for what a cross-section might look like in his final project.

Menu of the World - One student is interested in researching more in-depth some of the cultures that we've studied by looking at their food. She wants to make a world menu. I'm trying to get her to cook something that we can eat!

Researching 3D online programs

3D City Construction - A student wants to construct a city online. He is researching programs and plans on sending out emails requesting a trial, a discounted price, or some kind of mentorship on using the 3D technology. We'll see where this one goes - I'm very interested.

The Hajj - A student of mine who is Muslim became more interested in the Hajj, the holy trip to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Her grandmother has taken the Hajj. She is going to interview her grandmother and maybe some of her grandmothers friends to tell the story of the Hajj from a different perspective from the one we learned in class.

Presidential Debate - We've talked a lot about the development of urban areas and industrialized cities. A group of three wants to plan a mock-Presidential debate focused on issues surrounding the urban core. Their plan is to write, film and edit the whole thing into a short movie.

There are many more project ideas to come in future blog posts. I hope you'll follow along the journey. Maybe you'll see a project that you think you could help with! If so, feel free to shoot me an email.

Learning is Beautiful [STUDENT GUEST POST]

First, a story I read a while back. I forget who wrote it originally.

There was a man who was stranded during Hurricane Katrina on the top of his house. It was just him and his dog, alone on the rooftop waiting to be saved.This man's story seemed to have a happy ending when a rescue boat showed up and offered him and his dog a ride to safety. The old man smiled and shouted back "Thanks, but I'm waiting on God to send me a miracle!" A few hours later, a neighbor in a small paddle boat was making her way towards safety and offered a spot in her boat. The old man waved gleefully at his neighbor and responded "It's OK! God will save me with a miracle!" Days go by and the old man begins to get desperate, wondering when God will send this miracle. Finally, a helicopter arrives to save the man. When the rescuer lowers himself to the roof, the old man thanks him, but tiredly informs him that he is waiting for God to send a miracle and save him.

Days pass and the old man passes away on his rooftop. When he arrives in heaven, he is totally distraught, asking God why he didn't save him with a miracle despite the old man's great faith. God, throwing his hands into the heavenly air, exasperated, replies, "I sent two boats and a helicopter! What more did you want??"

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Sometimes we have to work hard for the great things, the wonderful moments that make teaching worth all the nonsense. Often we have to work hard. Really hard. Other times, those great moments come up and smack you right in the face, and we simply have to be paying enough attention to take advantage of them.  The young woman whose writing you are about the read is the latter. Unlike the old man in the story, I'm listening!

Aleyda  Dominguez is a sophomore student of mine this year. She is of Honduran descent, moving to America with her family when she was 6 years old. Aleyda joined my class at the beginning of this semester, but immediately fit in with the class and became a great example for other students to follow. She has shown herself to be driven and curious, outgoing but mature. I wish dearly that I could claim to have known her for more than 6 weeks so I could take credit for some of her wonderfulness, but I cannot. 

Aleyda Dominguez

Aleyda came up to me the other day and complimented me on my blog. I thanked her and told her that if she was ever interested in writing a student post, I'd be open to the idea. Within the week, she had submitted a draft to me that was beautifully composed. A couple tweaks and several emails later, here we are.

I am excited beyond words to get to know and teach Aleyda more and to get to see her grow from this point forward. I told her that I think we may have a teacher in the making - I hope so. The world needs more good people teaching. 

Below is Aleyda's post, published with her permission. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Learning is Beautiful

Being from Honduras, I have come to appreciate not just the teachers here in the U.S, but the overall school environment. Compared to the schools in my country, schools in the U.S are mini Harvards. The school I attended was a long building with open doors and windows that housed grades K-6. The lessons taught were much different than that of the usual school lessons in the U.S. In 2^nd grade writing, we were taught strictly cursive writing. We would be given lined paper and red pen, and were made to draw a series of loops, each had to be the same size and same distance away from the previous loop. When I got to 2^nd grade in the U.S, the lessons in writing never involved me writing anything in cursive, and I studied more than one subject at a time. I enjoyed learning from a young age, seeing how it allowed me to overcome many burdens.

In my opinion, the simple action of learning is a beautiful thing. It has allowed me to break communication barriers in a country different from my own, and allowed me to find so many different catalysts for expressing myself, my ideas, and beliefs. The idea of gaining information that is new and foreign to my own, is a fascinating subject to me. From learning about what it means to “sauté onions” to the meaning of “laissez-faire”, I am an information junkie. I would like to say this a great skill to have for a high school sophomore. Without this skill, I would be mute in a country filled with loud mouthed politicians, and highly opinionated public figures.

Another aspect of learning that fascinates me is the fact that it is not limited to a classroom, or any school building. Learning can occur anywhere at any time, in regards to any subject. Learning has no boundaries. It is a never ending road, leading to advances in a broad spectrum of concerns.

 I admire those who teach and never stop learning. Teaching is a skill that takes mastery in all its aspects. From finding different ways to deliver information to various individuals, to having such a great understanding of what is being taught that any question asked has an answer. Teachers are incredible individuals, each with a purpose that is much underrated. Teachers are the support behind future leaders and are the overall articulation of encouragement. 

Aleyda Dominguez-Martinez
Click here if you would like to contact Ms. Dominguez via email
Class of 2017