20Time with YL6
Hello from the final week of the Winter Quarter in YL6!
In addition to English language learning this trimester, our students have participated in a project called 20Time, where they dedicated 20% of their class time each week to exploring and creating a unique topic of their choosing.
The idea for this project was born at Google, where they allow employees to use 20% of their time to work on any project they find interesting. The results of this experiment at Google? The invention of Gmail, among other things! Exciting things happen when you give people time and freedom to pursue what they are passionate about.
This trimester, our students took advantage of 20% of each class to research, discover, and create. One student chose to build a mini Tesla tower from scratch as an experiment in engineering, another student wanted to film and edit a documentary-style video uncovering some of Madrid's best kept secrets. Two girls in class discovered their mutual love for music and chose to create an original mashup of English songs. They studied each song's composition, found similar chord structures, and wrote music to connect them together. During our final class, they performed their creation live and it was fantastic!
This project enabled students to use their English language skills in a meaningful way, by fusing language and passion. Each student not only learned more about their chosen topic, but also gained invaluable vocabulary and real life language connected to what they love.
