A new component to the BHS Help Desk curriculum (introduced last year) is the Individual Learning Endeavor, or the 20% time project. Inspired in part by Google’s 20% time project, as well as the pilot program at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the ILE allows Help Desk students to devote 20% of their time to a project that is “unrelated” to the Help Desk day to day goals and objectives. ILEs vary student to student, however the common denominator is that all projects align with a student’s personal interests and passions.

Today, Help Desk students presented to me and to their peers their SMART Goal ILE presentations which required the following:

1. Specifics- the who, what, when, where, why and how of the ILE
2. Measurable- their plan for measuring progress and milestones towards achieving the goal
3. Attainable- analysis of how difficult the ILE will be to achieve
4. Realistic- an evaluation of the time frame, skills and resources needed and the student’s willingness to commit to the project
5. Timely & Tangible- a specific start and end time and a description of the final product that will be presented in January

In true Help Desk fashion, my students shattered my expectations, especially in regards to their creativity in the presentations. Perhaps it was because I had inspired them! On Monday, I had presented my students with the “mission” for the week which was to develop their SMART goal presentation. I did this through the use of PowToon and used the Mission Impossible template. Not only was the PowToon fun and easy to make, it was a great way to hook my students and ultimately serve as a model for creative presentations. I am incredibly proud to share several examples of what my students presented today. All of the students’ presentations can be found by viewing the Padlet wall I created.

Kristin Johnson- ILE Topic: To learn Ruby on Rails programming language

Michael Seleman-ILE Topic: To develop the HelpDeskDigital app

Cat Hoyt- ILE Topic: To Create 3 Videos for Various Contests on behalf of BHS & Help Desk

TJ Horgan- ILE Topic: To organize and plan “Red Devils Got Talent” show

I look forward to sharing additional updates about the Help Desk students’ ILE presentations as the semester progresses. Final presentations will be in mid-January so stay tuned!