A new school project has kids commit twenty percent of their time to volunteer efforts. The volunteerism can be just about anything that attracts their interest, from working with charities to fostering dogs and cats to developing products to sell and benefit non profits.
The project which involved students at the Bridge School is known as Bridge 20. Students were challenged to spend 20 percent of their class time looking for academic answers by themselves.
11 year old Declan Anderson decided to sponsor two cats at a Humane Society shelter, Homeword Bound. He spent time with 12 year old cats Molly and Cleo until they were adopted.
Declan makes regular visits to Homeward Bound, and he decided to spend his 20 percent looking after the cats. “I just love animals,” he said. “I like helping them.”
One of the innovations that Bridge School teacher Amanda Warren learned about is the “Google 20” project, where the company encourages workers to spend 20 percent of their office time working on outside projects. Warren decided that her fifth and sixth grade language arts students could benefit from this concept.
“I was looking for something that would really tap into those ideas of independent learning, independent scaffolding of a project, and allowing students to explore something they are passionate about and see where it took them,” Warren said.
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