Teach Boldly or Go Do All The Things!
Two years ago, I heard a low rumble among my students about this cool thing that they were doing in their English class. Everything that I knew about the projects, I had learned from the students. They were allowed to choose something that was interesting to them and spend the semester researching it. They would be given one English period each week to work on their research (hence, the 20% name, as they would be given 20% of the week for research). And of course, the English teachers had accountability measures in place to make sure that they were actually working on their research, and not just using the time as a study hall. Honesty time. I was floored. How was it okay to give up 20% of instructional time to let kids work on "stuff that interests them?" And how in the world would they teach all of the standards that had to be met if they were giving up 20% of their time? Surely I had misunderstood something. I started investigating. Sure enough, students could research a...
