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20% Time Project: Longest Time Balancing A Shoe Upside Down On Top Of Your Head
By Ian Moore, III Form
20% Time Project: Longest Time Balancing A Shoe Upside Down On Top Of Your Head
Editors’ Note: In Ms. Amanda Hultin’s III Form English classes, her students pursue 20% Time (or “Genius Hour”) projects. Some essential elements include taking control of one’s own learning, choosing an individual topic, deciding how to learn and to produce a public product, and reflecting on the process.
Click on image to experience Ian’s Weebly pages.
Click on this image to see Ian’s time-lapse with the shoe on his head!
Reflection on learning:
*What content/information did you learn during this project?
I learned a lot of valuable information throughout this project. First, I learned about breaking a world record. I now know that there are a couple different ways to break a world record. First, you can apply on Guinness World Record to have an employee from their office come and watch you break the record. Then, you may have the opportunity to get into the Guinness World Records book. However, you can also do it online using a website called recordsetter.com. This is a very useful website and is the one that I used for my record. It relies on videos to see if you actually break the record. I also learned how to make a blog throughout this project. I used weebly.com to make my blog. It is a website that teaches you how to make and use a blog. This was a fun and interactive public product to make.
20% Time Project: Gardening–The Long Process of Planting
By Eve Elkins, III Form
20% Time Project: Gardening–The Long Process of Planting
Editors’ Note: In Ms. Amanda Hultin’s III Form English classes, her students pursue 20% Time (or “Genius Hour”) projects. Some essential elements include taking control of one’s own learning, choosing an individual topic, deciding how to learn and to produce a public product, and reflecting on the process.
Click on image to view Eve’s Padlet.
Reflection on learning:
*What content/information did you learn during this project?
I learned about gardening. I learned that the perfect time to water the plants is in the afternoon. If you water them at night or early morning, they are more likely to grow fungus. I also learned that snap peas, which was the vegetable I was growing, grow best in mid-spring, which was when we started this project. They also have the quickest growing rate which was about two months. That is how I came to choose snap peas. When I contacted the manager of Chestnut Hill Farms, I was able to find out about the evolution about gardening. Now, in current times, gardening has shifted to being grown indoors all year round. Gardening used to be seasonal but now, due to modern technology, there have been trucks and trailers developed to sustain plants even in winter. Lots of people still garden but the way we do it has changed. (more…)
20% Time (Genius Hour) With Freshmen: Civic Action
By Ms. Casey Pickett’s III Formers
20% Time (Genius Hour) With Freshmen: Civic Action
Editor’s Note: In Ms. Casey Pickett’s III Form English classes, her students pursue 20% Time (or “Genius Hour”) projects. Below are Ms. Pickett’s instructions, a student’s reflection, and several artifacts from the experience. Please keep scrolling!
Purpose:
The purpose of the project is to give you time to pursue something that you are passionate about, interested in, or something you’ve always wanted to do. It is a time for you to be creative and to take ownership of your learning AND your education. If it is important to you, it has value.
Essential Questions:
What does it mean to be a citizen (global, local, digital)?
What are civics? Why is it important that we are civically engaged?
How can I be a voice for and/or create social change?
Please click here for the full assignment explanation.
A Reflection by Paige LaMalva
As a student, I feel as though there isn’t enough time after academics and athletics to pursue something a student is interested in. At a school like St. Mark’s, for example, we are in class from 8:30am-3:00 pm and then at sports from 3:30-5:00 pm, which is followed by a short period of time to relax before study hall at 7:30 pm. With the 20% Time project, my fellow classmates and I were permitted to explore a topic of our interest. For me, I chose to research pancreatic cancer. Without the 45-minute block per week working on this, I wouldn’t have learned why pancreatic cancer is called “The Silent Cancer.” (more…)
Engaging in 20% Time for Lifelong Learning
By Casey Pickett, English Faculty
Engaging in 20% Time for Lifelong Learning
From the time I was in kindergarten, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. As a child, I spent 
countless hours in my basement forcing my four siblings to be my students while I taught them whatever lessons my teachers had taught me earlier in the day. So, as I entered my Masters in the Arts of Teaching (MAT) program at Northeastern in the Fall of 2013, I couldn’t have been more excited to FINALLY learn my craft. I showed up to my first class ready to write down the formula for becoming a good teacher. I was expecting my professor to tell me EXACTLY what I needed to do in order to teach my students everything there was to know about reading, writing, and analyzing literature. Throughout my 18 months in the MAT program, I never did get that formula. What I did get, however, was a constant reminder that my job as a teacher was to prepare my students to become lifelong learners. So, with lifelong learning in mind, I decided to have my students engage in a 20% Time project (based off of Google’s 20% Time policy). (more…)
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