Wow! We're about halfway through our 20% time projects. It always sneaks up on us. I'm sure a lot of my students feel the same way - I can tell by their surprised looks when I told them we were halfway this morning!
For some reason, we always seem to pull everything together in the last few weeks and it's hard as a teacher to not be disappointed by this or think this is somehow a 'bad' thing that students are getting more done early on in this project. It makes me feel like I need to re-evaluate the value of 20% time and spending so much class time on something that hasn't produced much yet.
But - and this is a big but -
I remind myself of the successes of years' past and have to realize that these early weeks are filled with so much other types of learning that are valuable in different ways. Teaching is about what students are learning, what's going on inside their brains, NOT a quick product that I can see and grade. I have to let student experience and feel the amount of time they've been given. How can they discover their work habits and experience the roadblocks and difficulties of long-term goals if I micro-manage this time? It's surprisingly hard to remember this sometimes - even though this is at the very heart of this project.
Anyway, I ran out of time to post today. Check out the updates to student blogs on the left - there are some really cool projects that people have started!
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