Genius Hour & PBL !

Genius Hour & PBL

Oh Oh Oh!

 Pick me!

 Pick ME!

Insert cute little smile here

Hand is raised

"Yes? Maria?"

I want to do a speech on Ghosts!

Teacher looking straight at me with a straight face.

"Ghosts are not real. Pick something real".

This conversation sent me on a whirl wind. So many thoughts running through my mind as a young ten year old girl.  Although this conversation was about a speech topic it really resounded with me. I had so many questions! I had to choose something else though because according to the teacher "Ghosts are not real". (Ten year old me wanted to shout out- How do you know?!)

In that moment a little spark was snuffed. She didn't mean to. She was trying to help me find an appropriate speech topic (according to ?). This is why Genius Hour is one of my favourite trends in education right now.

Two years ago I stumbled across the topic accidentally via twitter. There were no resources out there available. I didn't know anyone else who was doing it.  Yet, I was so intrigued. At the time I taught a classroom full of teenage boys who were interested in all sorts of topics that quite frankly I didn't know much about. If they were given the time to research these or other hidden interests would they learn or would it be a goof off period? Read about how I introduced it here.  Not only was it not a goof off period but became a desired part of class time. Here is the kicker....students were learning!

Benefits of Genius Hour?

1. Student engagement was high! They couldn't wait for their 20% time.
2. Students were critically examining the websites/resources they were using for their research
3. Students were genuinely interested in what other students were doing.
4. Students explored new ways to present their information
5. Students were learning at their own pace about topics that interested them.

Genius hour goes hand in hand with PBL. Exploring concepts & topics through problem based learning makes the learning more genuine, authentic and valid. I plan to do more PBL this year as well as continue to implement Genius Hour.
 I already am looking forward to our Genius Hour Expo that will occur in the spring! Read about that here.

If you want more resources for Genius Hour check out the live binder here by @JoyKirr

(Thanks Joy!) or check out the website by @iamkesler. (Thanks Chris).

What trend are you interested in right now in education? 

Sharing Genius Hour at the Expo

Sharing Genius Hour at the Expo

At the end of the year last year I had read about an idea....a genius idea....it is called genius hour.  See my original post here.

Do you know how many AMAZING things were created, developed and explored during genius hour in my classroom?  Well....I had 26 students so there were 26 amazing discoveries. 

Genius Hour honestly was one of my proudest teaching moments in the classroom, and yet I didn't plan for it. Well, I planned to give them time to explore. I provided times in the computer lab, the net books and ipads. I released my classroom to mess as students got hands on with some interesting builds.

I scaffolded by giving them a brainstorming sheet to track their individual learning. You can find a copy of that here if you would like. (shameless plug)

I circulated the room, conferenced, discussed, questioned and admired.  I interacted with the students and their own student lead learning.

 Were there times when I wanted to pull my hair out? YES

Were there times when the mess was driving me nuts? YES

Were there times when I wanted to throw my hands in the air and say enough? YES

Was it worth it in the end for students? 

YES

What would I do different?  

The sharing!

I think that this part is so vital to students and the whole process.  It is more then just filling time in the classroom it is genuine passion driven learning. 

I had students share in the classroom with their peers and myself.  It went well. 

I called it the GENIUS HOUR EXPO.  

I had an idea of my own. This school year....maybe in the spring...I am going to make the EXPO bigger. I am thinking of taking over the gym (sorry PE department) and setting up tables for students to share. I will invite the other classes in my division to also participate in Genius Hour and have them share at the EXPO as well.  Similar to a science fair but the displays are not marked....but a chance to share.  We can invite other classes in the school to circulate and parents to attend.  

I am excited!  

I had Genius Hour Expo stuff from our classroom this year. I added a letter, table numbers etc. You can grab your own copy here if you are interested in your own genius hour expo.  

What do you think? Do you think the EXPO is a good idea?

Passionate Teaching

Passionate Teaching.....Do you have the PASSION?

While I am off on maternity I thought about using some of  my spare time to create.  

Spare time?  What is that?  

 I personally create many items in my classroom, share them and use them again.  I enjoy creating, brainstorming and seeing how it turns out with my students.

This past week and a half I have tried to expand some of my creativity to a primary french resource.  I thought to myself...hey...no problem....you speak french....you have taught primary.....how hard can it be?

Wrong. It took me soooooooo much longer to put together the ideas.  Seems silly when you think about primary and the concepts are relatively easy. I should be able to put together a little booklet no problem!  I couldn't believe that I was having this road block.  

Was this mommy brain I was facing?   I love to create right?  So, why then was this so difficult?

One word.  

PASSION!

I have no passion for primary. I don't do cutsy in my creations and I struggled with now adding the cute clip art, fonts and details.  I struggled with creating something that would be "out of the box". Is this creation of mine even useful to a primary teacher? I will get back to you on that as I have a classroom trying it out in the next couple of days.

I enjoy the teenage years.  I like the challenge of engaging them with technology or other creative ways. I enjoy thinking outside the box to reach students who at times don't want to be at school, don't have the materials they need or the motivation to finish a project to the end. That is my passion.  That is what gets me thinking.  

This ties back to the thought of the genius hour.  If it took me, an adult and a professional an extra week to find motivation to do something that I am not passionate about then just imagine what it is like to be a thirteen year old and trying to complete something you hate.  I realise we all have to do things we don't like at times but it gives me the motivation to try and find ways to motivate students.  

Are you passionate about your teaching?  Are you passionate about something in your life?

Yes! I am.  

I believe the next step would be to share your passions with your students.  Show them that you are human and have a desire to continue to learn, grow and create.  This too might motivate the students to learn outside of school and in school.  

Last year before my baby was born I decided that I wanted to learn to crochet. I watched a ton of you tube videos and taught myself some of the basic stitches.  I shared this little secret learning with one of my students.  She herself, laughed when she heard of my struggles with the tutorials because she could crochet.  She then opened up and shared with me that she had researched in her own spare time some art concepts and tutorials with youtube.  It was an amazing moment between teacher and student about learning.

Passionate learning takes time!

Here is a beautiful picture of my start of crochet experience.  It took a while to figure out how to crochet...straight.  

I persevered and I can now say I know a few basic stitches and how to crochet in a reasonably straight line.  Here is my finished blanket.

Finished product! A baby blanket for our new baby.

  

This learning did not occur in school.  It occurred outside of school, in my spare time about a topic I was passionate about. 

Could you just imagine what we would inspire students to do if they had the choice and the freedom to explore their own passions?

I get the goosebumps just thinking about it!

Genius Hour Questions

Asking Questions

After getting over the initial shock of understanding the concept of choice, students took off.  I gave the students a copy of the graphic organiser. I gave them a week to think about their research topic.  In the future, I would give the students more time to think.  Perhaps I will start the introduction to Genius Hour in September and we would not actually start until October.  I have the perfect spot in my room to post ideas.

The questions the students developed were all very unique.

For example, one female student is asking: " How does sound travel?".  I thought this one was really interesting as studying sound is covered in science at an early age.  When I asked her the rational she explained that she was curious how her cell phone worked.  This is a teen who loves her phone and now she is curious to how it actually works. 

Another student asked, " How could a zombie apocalypse really happen in real life?".  Okay. This one really caught me off guard. I asked where the question came from. She explained how she has been reading about zombies a lot lately and the cultures they originally came from.  She had read some scientific state of mind that some cultures believe is "zombie".  I am no "genius" on this topic, nor did I even know some of the things she already knew about zombies....but I was hooked in listening and she was inspired to learn.  

They are interested, curious and inspired.  We will begin our first actual genius hour time this Monday.  I can't wait!

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.

What is your passion?

Passion!

What is your passion?  I have been doing a lot of reading on other blogs and I am curious....what is your passion?  This video has had me thinking.....what is my passion?  

Passionate Teachers from Paul Bogush on Vimeo.


A few weeks ago my students enjoyed the pep talk from Kid president.  They have been saying quotes from his motivational speech.

Top 5 repeated quotes are:
5. “If there are two paths, I want to be on the one that leads to awesome”
4. “The world needs to stop being boring”
3. “Create something that will make the world awesome”
2.“You were made to be awesome”
1.“Don’t stop believing, unless your dream is stupid… then get a better dream and keep going, keep going, keep going…”






I wonder what path would lead them to awesome.  My student's "awesome" will be different from my awesome.  So what is awesome to my teens?  I believe somewhere in their awesome would be their passion.

I wonder what is their passion.  No matter how amazing my lesson is....how fascinating I can make history, math or science there still are students who are not going be intrigued because well quite frankly it does not interest them. It does not contain their passion. 

If I had a chance to be sitting in a classroom again. What would I want to learn?
Well, I can tell you.  I would want to learn about the "Genius Hour".

What is the "Genius Hour"? 
 I can tell you that I have been doing a lot of reading about it.  I have watched videos about it.  I can tell you that I want to know more....find out more...put it into practise.  Then I can tell you, show you, explain to you and explore more.

This very premise is the idea behind Genius Hour. One hour a week, I will give students a chance to explore what interests them.  There are not many weeks left in school so they have a few weeks to explore what ever it is that interests them.  It can be ANYTHING.

Freaky as a teacher to let go of one hour. One hour a week to actually research what it is that interests them.  The students will find their own injury question and dance with it.

Tomorrow they will be introduced to the idea.  Tomorrow the match will be struck!  Tomorrow they will be given the idea of Genius Hour and then time for the week to think about what question it is they want to discover.

 I will encourage my students to research their own passions, interests and what they want to learn about. 

 I am curious to see what their passions will be.

What is your passion this week?