20 Time Projects Could Be the Solution for Pandemic Education
By: Carrie Honaker
Tags: Education, Teaching And Learning, Genius Hour, Project Based Learning, Pandemic Teaching

20 Time Projects Could Be the Solution for Pandemic Education

Google found giving employees 20% time to pursue a passion boosted productivity and happiness. The same model could make virtual school engaging and effective.

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

A classroom teacher for over a decade, I was always looking for innovative ways to challenge students academically. Edutopia did a great deal of research into the effectiveness of PBL and found it boosted student engagement. With most classrooms virtual, small-scale face-to-face, or some hybrid combination of the two, the struggle to design meaningful curriculum is real. As I talked to more and more teachers, I realized a project I designed the last few years in the classroom could hold some answers.

The summer of 2015 I read about Google’s 20% percent policy.

It is not secret that students are more motivated by intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. In “6 Ways School Is Stopping Your Creativity,” Tahsan compares what school teaches you to what life gives you, two very different outcomes. Traditional school does not offer much intrinsic motivation, but a project like 20 Time does. The student chooses something they are interested in, they research and learn about the topic, they set their own schedules, they satisfy their personal curiosity while pursuing something they are passionate about, and learning about overcoming failure.

This is an excerpt from the letter I sent to parents the first week of school:

At Google, employees are given 20% of their time to pursue a project they are passionate about. From this time products like Gmail, Google Drive and Google Sky have emerged. I think if we give our students the opportunity that Googlers enjoy, we will find our kids can do amazing things. During past 20% projects students have written grants, constructed collaborative zoo murals, created apps, constructed a Habitat for Humanity house, written books, created a community garden, as well as many other exciting endeavors. Before I get into the details of the project, I want to explain why I am asking students to participate in this activity. For over 20 years a trend in education has been gaining momentum that suggests the role of the teacher ought to shift away from an industrial model where the teacher stands in the front of the classroom to dispense knowledge through lectures, and the students sit to consume the information. Rather than being the “sage on the stage” as some pedagogical experts maintain, teachers increasingly ought to play the role of the “guide on the side.” In this role, the students play a much more active role in how the content and knowledge is acquired. In this model, teachers provide resources, ask questions, and suggest projects for students to explore their content. Put simply, this is a student-centered project rather than a teacher-centered project.

When I ran the project in a face-to-face classroom, I set aside one day a week for 20 Time work. With virtual or hybrid classes, students can work on their own schedule. The problem with synchronized zoom classes, and one-size-fits-all scheduling goes away. The teacher needs to set up a communication system, but much of the project would fall on the student to design.

The goal of this project was always to allow students the freedom to pursue something they were passionate about and give them the tools and time to bring that passion to fruition. In my experience students found things they were interested in and some even found paths for their future. I have one young lady who taught young children how to play the drums, she designed the weekly lessons, carried out the instruction and planned a final concert for them to showcase their newfound skills. She is graduating with a degree in Education, plans to teach 4th grade and found her career while in high school. I have another young man who wrote a novel for his project, he participated in a workshop group, went through edits, and presented a chapter for his final showcase. He just published his first book last year. I bought a copy from my local bookstore. Not everyone finds their life’s work, but some do, and that is more than most high school education offers.

Obviously, running a project like this virtually would need to look different than when I ran it in a traditional classroom. There are some cornerstones though that will help set teachers and students up for success.

Frontload for Motivation

“The Puzzle of Motivation” by Dan Pink

I used this TED Talk on the first day of class as an opener to talk about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as a segway into discussion of the 20 time project. I followed this up with Chris Kesler’s Youtube video “What is Genius Hour?”.

Another important step to getting this project off on the right foot, is to provide students real-world examples of people following their bliss and finding success. I showed Apple’s ipad commercial, “Slow Roll,” that features a Detroit entrepreneur working to revitalize his city with bike tours. I also showed them the Holstee Manifesto- another great resource for people running a company with passion. The “Ben and Jerry” story is another example of regular people following their passion. Two guys making ice cream in a gas station because they loved it, what better inspiration can you get? The point is to get students to see the value of doing something that you love and how the passion you have for an idea can drive success.

Teach Them How to Pitch

The next step once students decide on an idea is the pitch proposal. Most students have not learned how to sell a concept. Teaching them the art of pitching, is an important cornerstone to solidifying their idea, but teaches skills far beyond this project. They learn to research, write for an audience, backward design a project, create budgets, prepare a presentation, and gather resources.

Shark Tank has become an increasingly popular TV show and Business Insider wrote an article outlining some of the most successful pitches. I used this as a resource to help students prepare to pitch their ideas to peers and administration. Most students are readily familiar with the show though, and you could just talk them through a pitch. I also used a clip from “Thirteen Going on Thirty” where Jennifer Garner pitches her magazine idea to the think tank. It is a fun clip and focused less on funding, and more on concepts. This helped some of my students who plan less business-like projects.

Requirements for a successful pitch:

What is your project?

Who is the audience / user base / client base for this project?

Why is this project worthwhile?

What do you expect to learn from this project?

What PRODUCT will you have to show at the end of the year?

What sort of expenses will be involved in your project and how will you cover them?

What equipment will you need and where will you get it?

What is your timeline for completing (or launching) your project?

Set Up Accountability Systems

Not saying you need grades assigned to every aspect of the project, but teachers need a check-in system. Over the years, students often wrote on their feedback surveys that progress check-ins kept them motivated. They had an opportunity to share with a small group and myself challenges and victories they were having along the journey. Talking to somebody else about your project, helps remind why it is important. I have done blogs, journals, live group meets and any of these would work in the face-to-face scenario.

Virtually, this could be a quick Zoom where everyone can connect, a chat thread, or whatever works for the individual teacher and class. Another powerful check-in I did was bring people in to talk to them about their projects. I found students were fueled by outside interest in their work, they found renewed passion in what they were doing. With so many people staying home, reaching out for speakers should be very easy. Most universities have PR people whose sole job is to find avenues for their experts to speak gratis.

Teach Them How to Embrace Failure

The world’s best entrepreneurs embrace failure. Read Wired Magazine’s issue on the topic of “failure.”

The only truly failed project is the one that doesn’t get done. I want students to strive to show off a successful product at the end of the year, but I don’t want the quest for perfection to lead to an incomplete project. I want students to follow the advice plastered on the wall of Facebook’s headquarters. “Done is better than Perfect.” Many of my student’s projects from last year were not what they originally planned. They morphed, they restructured, they became something different than what was planned, and that was the beauty of it.

If students feel their project is a failure, talk to them. What did they learn about it? Watch Kathryn Schultz’s TED Talk: “On Being Wrong.”

Don’t strive for failure, but don’t be afraid of it either!

Teach Them How To Present

The next few months are spent with students doing the actual work of the project. As you near the end of whatever time table you set (I have run this as 9 weeks, full semester, and full year, it is time to turn to presentation planning. After experimenting with a number of TED Talks, I have whittled down my list to what I consider the most important ones and students plan presentations. Here they are in the order I think they should be shown and discussed:

“How to Live Before You Die”- Steve Jobs

“8 Secrets of Success”- Richard St. John

“What Fear Can Teach Us”- Karen Thompson Walker

“Teach Every Child About Food”- Jamie Oliver

“Start with Why”- Simon Sinek

“Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce”- Malcolm Gladwell

I also like the videos on Toastmasters. They have approachable tips for students about public speaking, AND they will speak to your students if you have a local chapter and ask far enough in advance. This is part of their outreach and a virtual session would be just as informative and entertaining as face-to-face.

Each video has something to offer for presentations, from structure, to catchphrases, to opening and closing effectively. Students are used to giving presentations to a comfortable group of peers, but many have never spoken in front of a large audience. This is scary, but happens a lot in the “real world” which makes public speaking an important skill for them to leave high school having acquired.

Preparation and practice are two things I can’t stress enough. They need dry runs, videos of themselves to critique and lots of feedback before the actual event. This easily converted to the virtual world and could be a great time to teach students to give critical feedback to each other.

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Trying to do school like an Industrial-Era factory will not work during a global pandemic. Allowing teachers and students choice and flexibility is necessary. 20 Time projects can be adapted to any subject area, could be modified to add more Math, Science, History, Music or any subject. It also is an opportunity for cross-curricular collaboration among teachers and students. School can be a source of inspiration rather than stress for all involved if we let go of the reins a little.

Here is a link to my 20 Time playlist on Youtube. It has beginning of project videos, shark tank examples, example finished project presentations etc. curated into a single collection. I ran this project with increasing success for five years, presented my findings at the local and state level to educators and administrators, and now I am no longer in a classroom, it is one of the things I miss the most.