It's Here! 20% Time 2014-15 Kick-Off!

Today we gathered our entire team of kids into one of our classrooms in order to kick off 20% Time for the year. We make it a point to present not only the "how" we'll be doing the project, but also the "why". We feel it is essential for kids to know that traditional schooling will not be enough to educate them for their futures and that the autonomy we give them on team this year will nurture their ingenuity, creativity, problem-solving and passion. Kids finding their talents and passions is what this project is all about.

During our presentation, we scanned the room. Only a few kids were not paying attention. For the most part, we could see the excitement on the kids' faces. They know that they will be able to create something based on their own interests, whether it is related to school or not. We talked about how traditional schools train all kids in the same way, learning the same material and at roughly the same pace. We told them that all of that was now out the window!

Some of the kids will not be equipped to handle this much freedom right off the bat. There is a different skill set that we must teach them but it is one that they pick up on very quickly. The danger is that once the kids experience this way of learning, it will make it so much harder to go back to the old way.

Here is the presentation, 20% Time Kick-Off Presentation, that we used in order to kick off the project. We used each slide as a talking point.