This post is part of an occasional series documenting my entry into project-based learning. This semester, my students are participating in a 20Time project, a 12-week experience where they choose a worthwhile project to complete (somewhat) on their own using 20 percent of our class time. You can read more about the path that led to this project here.
We’re a couple of weeks away from finishing our in-class work sessions and it’s time to start prepping students for their end-of-project speeches.
On Thursday, I’ll present my own 20Time speech to my classes, modeling what I hope to see in their presentations. After my speech, I’ll play “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on my ukulele as I lead a full-class sing-a-long – yikes! Yes, I’m feelin’ some butterflies.
We spent some class time earlier this month studying public speaking skills from Chris Anderson and the TED Talk superstars, and I want to show my kids how to put into practice the lessons they’ve hopefully learned. (Click here to check out my public speaking lesson materials and here for a FREE handout that makes viewing any TED Talk a rich experience.)
After I present my project wrap-up presentation to my students, I’m going to hand out this speech assignment and then assign speech dates via a lottery drawing. In a few weeks, students will each present their own three-to-five minute speech, explaining what they did and – more importantly – what they learned from the 20Time process. I’m definitely looking forward to those presentations.
That’s all for now. After this last big push, I’ll be back in mid-to-late May with my final thoughts/reflections on 20Time. Stay tuned…
Teach on, everyone!