GRIT RubricThe GRIT Rubric A.J. mentions in the interview is one way teachers measure student effort and work habits during 20 percent time. If you want to add more structure and accountability to this time, this would be a great resource.
That’s What 20 Percent Time Is
Have you ever met an adult who doesn't really love what they do, but just goes through the motions in their job and everyday life? Have you spoken with men and women who constantly complain, showing no visible passion for anything in the world? I'm sure that, like me, you have met those people. I've also seen the making of these adults in schools across our country: students who are consistently being "prepared" for the next test, assessment, or grade level . . . only to find out after graduation that they don't really know what they are passionate about. These are the same students who are never allowed to learn what they want in school. Forced down a curriculum path that we believe is "best for them," they discover it is a path that offers very little choice in subject matter and learning outcomes.
What 20% time allows students to do is pick their own project and learning outcomes, while still hitting all the standards and skills for their grade level. In fact, these students often go "above and beyond" their standards by reaching for a greater depth of knowledge than most curriculum tends to allow. The idea for 20% time in schools comes from Google's own 20% policy, where employees are given twenty percent of their time to work and innovate on something else besides their current project. It's been very successful in business practice, and now we can say that it has been wildly successful in education practice.
It starts with the students. They are the reason we teach, and the future of our world. My daughter is four years old, and soon to be going through our public school system. I want her generation to have opportunities to explore, analyze and create projects that have unique meaning to each of them. Instead of answering a multiple choice test on The Great Gatsby, why can't my daughter have the opportunity to write, collaborate, sing and produce a song that explains in detail the major themes of the story. Through 20% time, we give our students a voice in their own learning path, and allow them to go into depth in subjects that we may skim over in our curriculum.
We've got a tough but extremely rewarding job. Great teachers inspire and make a difference, but great classrooms have students inspiring each other. I've never received a better response from my students than when we did 20% time. Our class came together and learned everyone's true interests and passions. We got over the fear of failing together. We cheered for each other during presentations, and picked each other up when things didn't go as planned. We had conversations about standards, skills and learning goals. Using 20% time allowed me to "teach above the test," and my students finally understood that learning doesn't start or end with schooling.
Remember that conversation starter, "What'd you do in school today?" It will lead to an actual conversation during 20% time projects! I talked to a parent (who is also an elementary teacher) just last week about her daughter's experience with Genius Hour. She said, "I always knew my daughter liked design and fashion magazines, but what girl doesn't? When she came home making and creating her own clothes, I was shocked. I went to the store with her to pick out patterns, helped her sew, and actually make a few outfits!" We want our children to be successful. Sometimes we equate that with an "A" on a test. But what 20% time does is make success something tangible. It drives their hidden passions to the surface, and reinvigorates conversation about purpose in their lives.
Finally, take a minute to look at all of the great projects students have done in the past year or two during 20% time and Genius Hour. The research backs experiential learning and user-generated education, but the projects show what research cannot: the passion and purpose of our students!
This may come as a surprise, but despite all the talk about life balance, you can benefit tremendously from introducing a little imbalance into your day. I'm referring to the 80/20 rule of time management, which is rooted in what is known as the Pareto Principle.
Simply put, the 80/20 rule states that the relationship between input and output is rarely, if ever, balanced. When applied to work, it means that approximately 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results. Learning to recognize and then focus on that 20 percent is the key to making the most effective use of your time. Here are two quick tips to develop 80/20 thinking:
If you'd like more information on this time management principle, I'd suggest The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less by Richard Koch (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing; 1998). However, you don't need to read the book to begin using the 80/20 rule. Gain more control over your time and your work by taking one small step right now. Simply begin to look for the signs that will tell you whether you're in your 20 percent or your 80 percent. This increased awareness of what's vital to your life and your life's work may be all you really need to start using your time more effectively.
"We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google," they wrote. "This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have happened in this manner."
However, whether or not 20% time actually exists anymore has been a matter of debate. In 2013, Chris Mims wrote for Quartz that 20% time was "as good as dead" because it became too difficult for employees to take time off from their normal jobs.
"In some ways, the idea of 20 percent time is more important than the reality of it," he writes. "It operates somewhat outside the lines of formal management oversight, and always will, because the most talented and creative people can't be forced to work."
Two-thirds of this potential value lies in improving collaboration and communication within and across enterprises. The average interaction worker spends an estimated 28 percent of the workweek managing e-mail and nearly 20 percent looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. But when companies use social media internally, messages become content; a searchable record of knowledge can reduce, by as much as 35 percent, the time employees spend searching for company information. Additional value can be realized through faster, more efficient, more effective collaboration, both within and between enterprises.
This combined guidance document does not have the force of law, nor does it have any binding effect on the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia or any other part of the Executive Branch. To the extent that the guidance relates to the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of registrations and reports, it will serve to inform the public as to how the Secretary and Clerk intend to carry out their responsibilities under the LDA.
The registration requirement of potential registrants is triggered either (1) on the date their employee/lobbyist is employed or retained to make more than one lobbying contact on behalf of a client (and meets the 20 percent of time threshold), or (2) on the date their employee/lobbyist (who meets the 20 percent of time threshold) in fact makes a second lobbying contact, whichever is earlier. In either case, registration is required within 45 days.
2 U.S.C. 1609(a) requires that any person making an oral lobbying contact with a covered official shall disclose, on the request of the covered official at the time of the lobbying contact: (a) whether that person is registered under this act; (b) the name of the client represented; (c) whether that client is a foreign entity; and (d) the name of any foreign entity that has a direct interest in the outcome of the lobbying activity who contributes more than $5,000 to the lobbying activities of the client and either holds at least 20 percent equitable ownership of the client or actively participates in the planning, supervision, or control of such lobbying activities.
Individuals making written contact with a covered official (including electronic communication) must disclose: (a) if the client on whose behalf the lobbying contact was made is a foreign entity and, if so, the name of the client represented and whether the writer is a registrant under the LDA and (b) any foreign entity that has a direct interest in the outcome of the lobbying activity who contributes more than $5,000 to the lobbying activities of the client and either holds at least 20 percent equitable ownership of the client or actively participates in the planning, supervision, or control of such lobbying activities.
The registration requirement of a potential registrant is triggered either (1) on the date its employee/lobbyist is employed or retained to make more than one lobbying contact on behalf of the client (and meets the 20 percent of time threshold), or (2) on the date their employee/lobbyist (who meets the 20 percent of time threshold) in fact makes a second lobbying contact, whichever is earlier. In either case, registration is required within 45 days of that date.
Each registration must contain the name, address, principal place of business, amount of any contribution greater than $5,000 to the lobbying activities of the registrant, and approximate percentage of ownership in the client of any foreign entity that: holds at least 20 percent equitable ownership in the client or any affiliate of the client required to be reported; or directly or indirectly, in whole or major part, plans, supervises, controls, directs, finances, or subsidizes the activities of the client or affiliate of the client required to be reported; or is an affiliate of either the client, or an organization affiliated with the client identified on the registration (LD-1) and has a direct interest in the outcome of the lobbying activity. The purpose of the disclosure is to identify the interests of the foreign entity that may be operating behind the registrant or client. 2ff7e9595c
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