20% Time

We had a reading on 20% Time and Genius hour. I think this would be wonderful and helpful to teachers and students. It would take a very concentrated effort to teach our high school students how to use this time wisely, stay on task, and not just play. I spend a lot of time trying to create "gotcha" moments when I plan lessons. I hated being  bored in school and seeing everything as irrelevant to life in general. I want to make learning meaningful and relevant and letting them take time to just think on how to use what we are learning, create something with it, apply it to another class or life situation, or just think/imagine, this would tap into those higher level thinking skills we always talk about but find so hard to reach. Unfortunately, we have done a good job of programing our kids to think a certain way, to stay only within our framework, giving just one correct answer, so much so that they so fear making mistakes or getting answers wrong. We have trapped them into thinking that school/education is just for a grade; do it the teacher's way or get a bad grade. I think that allowing students 20% time to create things, use what they have learned in a new way, just research and discover new information on their own would open up a huge learning curve. If only we can train them to see the big picture and not the here and now of I have this free time to do as I wish, with no accountability for how I use it. I think as we start the new semester I may try this in my classes and see what the students create.