Last year, a friend of mine told me about Google’s 20% Policy, and I immediately thought of its applications for the classroom. It was among many of my ideas that I had for the new school year that just didn’t come to fruition. And now, I find that a teacher named AJ Juliani had the same inspiration – but is actually following through with it. You can read all about Google’s Policy, and how Mr. Juliani is applying it with his students here on the “Education is My Life” blog. Be sure to read the comments that follow, as well. It makes for an interesting discussion!
The Twenty Percent Project
You’d be amazed at how many teachers and students are now doing something very similar in the classroom. Teachers like Kevin Brookhouser and Juan De Luca are doing the 20% Time with their high school and older students. Other teachers like Denise Krebs and Gallit Zvi are tweaking the idea a bit for elementary students and calling it Genius Hour after a reference made in Daniel Pink’s book Drive.
You can check out the discussion on twitter using the #geniushour hashtag. Or join 20% Time in Education communities on Google+
I’d love it if there was a training so we could meet, network, collaborate and share rubrics and what works and the struggles that you all learned while implementing this idea. Is there anything like this out there to attend?
Hi Bryttni!
I’m not sure if you had a chance to check out my Genius Hour Resources page (the link is at the top of my blog) or the Genius Hour Twitter Chats (the 1st Thursday of every month) http://geniushour.wikispaces.com/
I don’t know of a particular face-to-face meeting for Genius Hour advocates, but you could check with @JoyKirr. She is a great source of information about all thinks Genius Hour-y!