Chambers 20 Time Passion Project - Day 3/4

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!

 ***

Day 3 - Wednesday, March 4th, 2015---Day 4 - Thursday, March 5th, 2015

 

What. A. Blur. 

 

First myth of project based learning that needs to be dispelled and hard - projects are less work for the teacher. A variation of this myth is that projects are front-loaded with work for the teacher, but they're pretty easy once they get going. 

 

These are not true! 

 

I have spent the last two days jumping from person to person, group to group, trying to brainstorm and problem solve. The kids are really thinking and coming up with creative ideas - you can read about some of the highlights in Day 1 and Day 2.This truly is great and I'm really excited to see things working the way they should. On my end, though, that means that answers aren't really answers in the traditional sense. Kids are really asking me questions. It's like they're on a river with a bunch of small tributaries branching off from the main river. Sometimes a kid goes down one of the smaller paths and finds something cool. Sometimes they go down one of these small rivers and wind up in mud. 

My role is to get kids un-stuck. I find out why they've run ashore, figure out the cause of it all the best I can, get them back into deeper water and push them off. Some kids are going in wonderful and incredible directions with this project. Others and spending more time in the mud then they are in the water.* How do I balance my time between those who are stuck and those who needs some high-level brainstorming? 

 

*My wife tells me that I use the most ridiculous analogies. She's currently denying it to my face as I type this. She sits on a throne of lies.

A cool side-effect I'm already seeing is that some students (not all, but some) that are doing really well are reaching out to other students and trying to help out with ideas. This is very cool to see. I'm excited to see how this kind of action develops as the project goes forward.

Another cool thing that is happening is the role of the adult mentor and how some kids are really going after this requirement. I have made each student ask an adult (not me - I don't want to play any favorites with my time) to help mentor them during the project. Dave Leone, Center School District Superintendant, has been asked and has accepted. A friend of my grandma who loves are is going to meet up with one of my students at the Nelson-Atkins to talk about art and museums. Another friend of mine who serves in the military is going to mentor a student who is doing a project on drone strikes. That will be fascinating to see. 

That's all I've got for now. Tomorrow is the day of the "I Will..." statements. Students will write their statements to stake a claim on what they are going to actually do or create for their project. They've brainstormed, asked questions and researched for a week. Tomorrow is the day to make a choice. Most students are already here. Be looking out for a quick video next week to see what kinds of projects are coming up! 

Until next time...

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!

 ***

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.