Wednesday 15 May 2013

Genius Hour Introduced

Genius Hour Introduced

To introduce the idea of genius hour to my students I replayed the video from Kid President.  See previous post here for the link to the video.  

I asked my students what is the number one reason they don't always like school.  

My students looked at each other like it was a trick.  One student reluctantly said under his breath....It can be boring".  

I turned to him.  Everyone went quite.  They were not sure if he had offended me.  I smiled very sweetly and the room was still.

"You're right!" I exclaimed.  The students just looked at me.  I explained how it is true.  School can be boring at times.  At times you may like the math concept and be really into it....but the next concept you could dislike.  Some of you in the room might love history and learning about the war of 1812 but others of you can't stand it or could care less.

I told them how I totally get it.  I get it!  

Then I told them something they probably were shocked to hear.  In my spare time I am not looking these things up either.  I told them how I look at things that interest me.  Right now I read other blogs not only about teaching but how to improve my own blog.  I told them about how I researched how to snowboard and how I watched videos to improve my technique.  I wanted to know how to improve, so that I wouldn't eat as much snow when I try it for a second time next winter.(I tried snowboarding for the first time this year and as you can guess.  I fell on my face....A LOT!).

They laughed.  Then I asked the one question I was so curious to know.  

What would you do if you had an hour of your own time?  
What would you look at, practice, research, figure out, or create?
What would make you think?
What would give you the desire to want to learn?


Actually that was a lot of questions. I passed out the little package.  Check it out here.

Genius Hour...was GENIUS!

We discussed exactly what Genius Hour is and the expectations.

The students loved the idea.  

They started out with the brainstorming sheet and really took off.  Pencils were flying with ideas that they could do.  Their first official hour will be on Thursday. They can hardly wait.  I overheard conversations about physics and genetics.  Who knew?  

I am so excited to see what the students will be interested in and what their genius hour will look like.
Genius Hour

1 comment:

  1. I am so intrigued by the concept of Genius Hour, I have been following it on Twitter and Facebook. I am hoping to try it out next year, you will have to let me how it goes in your classroom! For now, teaching time is crazy, if you are not in testing mode like I am, you are in report card mode, or just plain when is this going to end mode! I wanted to invite you to drop by and enter the GIVEAWAY on my blog right now, just in case you missed it! It's a great 31Gifts organizer tote, I want all my Canadian blogger buddies to get in on the sale too! Jen the teacher sponsoring the party,is one of the first consultants for 31 Gifts in Canada! The prices are awesome...come and check it out!
    Sidney
    Teachingisagift

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...