What I love most about doing Genius Hour every Friday is how motivated, engaged and EMPOWERED my students are becoming. As they take positive positive risks - sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing -- in their various inquiries they are becoming learner leaders. The cool thing is, not only are they learning, engaged, taking risks, and feeling empowered, but so am I. If you had asked me one year ago about #geniushour, padlets, Google Apps for Education, Socrative, QR Codes, bit.ly or Google Classroom I would have looked at you like you were speaking another language. Now, however, these ideas and applications have become a part of the culture in my classroom. This is a classroom of people that are engaged in their learning (most of the time!) and value creativity, critical thinking and positive risk taking.
The other day, after we were talking about a Scratch game that one of my students made and discussing the huge learning curve we have ALL had this year and one of my students yelled out, “I love learning!” That’s music to a teacher’s ears. Even if all my students don’t yell that out or even think that, I know that they are all located somewhere on the continuum of the learning process; and every day that we do our curricular or genius hour inquiries I like to think that they inch a little closer to the LOVE side of learning.
Teachers, If you were at my workshop on Genius Hour and wish to access my slides or documents, here is the link: Together We Are Genius Workshop (presented at the Sooke Teacher’s Association Locally Grown Conference, April 15, 2016).
Here is a video that Morgan and Harman created about Genius Hour:
The other day, after we were talking about a Scratch game that one of my students made and discussing the huge learning curve we have ALL had this year and one of my students yelled out, “I love learning!” That’s music to a teacher’s ears. Even if all my students don’t yell that out or even think that, I know that they are all located somewhere on the continuum of the learning process; and every day that we do our curricular or genius hour inquiries I like to think that they inch a little closer to the LOVE side of learning.
Teachers, If you were at my workshop on Genius Hour and wish to access my slides or documents, here is the link: Together We Are Genius Workshop (presented at the Sooke Teacher’s Association Locally Grown Conference, April 15, 2016).
Here is a video that Morgan and Harman created about Genius Hour: