20% Time- Genius Hour

As our district looks to add time to the instructional day, I found myself faced with reviewing what we would do with our additional 25 minutes of instruction. I am sure the district will come out with the “time standards” scripting out exactly how we should be spending our additional time. To go along with 90 minutes of reading, 60 minutes of math etc.

I found my self wondering…. what could we as a school community do with “extra” time?

What if…. we had boundless creativity to develop what ever WE wanted?

Do our kids need MORE intervention time? (Our data always says yes)

So I decided to survey our teachers using a google survey and see…. what would they like to do with the additional time that we might have in our schedule? We would also have additional resources in 3 extra “specialists” per day. (Specialists in our district teach music, art, gym and technology.)

This is our actual survey (take it if you wish, write in Genius Hour for the 20 percent project school wide!):

Extra Time for Specialists- New time schedule adds @ 25 minutes of extra time
What ideas do you have for the use of extra time? pick from ones you like OR add your own idea
  • Schedule, each classroom teachers gets one day of “extra help per week” for running experiments or projects
  • Specialists act as mentors for SST students
  • Push in intervention in classrooms
  • Run an “activity” block specialists offer and “extra” fun class to each gradelevel 1 time per week
  • Intervention for reading, writing, math
  • Use as computer lab “open” time, media center “open” time, comet cafe “open” for student choice areas
  • Run clubs or special interest activities that students earn 
  • Add 3 minutes to prep
  • Other:

But, really I am way off. It shouldn’t be what do the TEACHERS want to do with an extra 25 minutes. The real questions is:

What do the students want to do with extra time?

What if we took a page our of Daniel Pinks ideas, and innovation from the 1950’s 15 minutes….what if that extra time had NOTHING to do with us. What if it was ALL about the kids. I remember being part of school improvement team where we talked about creating that “nugget” for kids. The ONE thing they wanted to do and look forward to all day long. The ONE thing they wanted to learn, do and create. How would that change the culture of our school.

Here are some of the resources I have come across in the search for 25 extra minutes:

http://www.20timeineducation.com/

http://www.edudemic.com/10-reasons-to-try-20-time-in-the-classroom/

http://www.iteachithink.com/search/label/20%25%20time

 

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