Hi everyone!

I just wanted to quickly share a new resource that Denise Krebs and I put together. This is the new rubric that we are using for Genius Hour. We hope you like it and find it useful to use with your students!

FYI, I don't focus on each characteristic with each session of Genius Hour, but rather I have had students reflect on a couple at a time. But you could use all of it at once--totally up to you! You know your students best!

We use the acronym G.E.N.I.U.S.  H.O.U.R. to spell out these Genius Hour characteristics:

You can access our new Genius Hour rubric here. 
You can access more information about the 2nd Edition of The Genius Hour Guidebook here. 

Implementing Genius Hour in your classroom? Here are the 6 steps that Denise Krebs and I have laid out in the NEW 2nd edition of The Genius Hour Guidebook! We hope this helps as you implement this amazing passion/inquiry based learning in your classroom.  

Click here to hear Denise explain how she uses the 6 steps while teaching remotely during Covid19. 

I am so excited to share that the 2nd Edition of The Genius Hour Guidebook is now out!

In this edition, Denise and I update each chapter with new stories and new quotes from many teachers who have been implementing Genius Hour in their classrooms.  We have also added a couple of new chapters based on reader feedback and have included update lesson plans and handouts. 

We really appreciate the support of all the readers that have used the 1st edition and we hope that you love the 2nd edition even more!

Click here to purchase the book on amazon.
Click here to purchase the book on routledge.

As always, please keep using the #geniushour hashtag on twitter to engage with the Genius Hour community and keep the conversation going! And visit our book website, www.geniushourguide.org for more info.

​And yes, that is what many, many of my students have done in the past. But not all of them. Some don't do any "research" during their Genius Hour time. Some have used their time to create unique art projects where they explore using a variety of mediums and then share about that. Some have used their time to invent new sports and then shared an infomercial that taught the rest of the class how to play that new sport. And some have spent their time thinking up random acts of kindness initiatives because their passion was making people happy. All of these were fantastic Genius Hour projects in my eyes--but they didn't contain any traditional research--and I am totally OK with that!  But after reading other people's descriptions of Genius Hour, I began to second guess what I was doing. Should I force my students to do "research" as well?  I don't feel like that necessarily needs to be a part of a good Genius Hour project (because that doesn't leave room for the cool art projects, or the kid writing a book, etc, etc.)


​And what is research anyway? Does research have to be done with a computer or a book? What about surveying people? That is a type of research too, so would that count for people? I guess ultimately we all create our own parameters for our students. But I am really curious about what others are doing...I am happy continuing Genius Hour the way I do it now. For me, it is important that the students truly be able to do what they are passionate about, and if that is a compassion-based project that has no research then I am super thrilled! No need for traditional research in every project, in my opinion. But if as student wants to do a research project then that is great too! I am happy with all projects.

What do you think? Does every Genius Hour project need to include traditional research? 

*It was a little more structured than that, of course. Classes explored other classes on a timed rotation. We rang the bell every 10 minutes so your class knew that it was time to go to the next class and explore another set of projects. Teachers had the rotation schedule and map ahead of time so everyone knew where they were going. Parents were given the schedule ahead of time so that they could join us during the exploration times as well.

I wrote a blog post about my thoughts on spelling many years ago. It was 2013 and I was teaching a grade 5/6 class. I never published the blog because I felt like it was too short and wasn't quite finished. And so it sat in my drafts for 5 years. I think it is time to push publish. I didn't add anything. I left it the way it was, so it is still short and maybe not quite finished...but as I tell my students, sometimes done is better than perfect. So, here it is. What do you think about spelling programs? 
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As a vice principal, I have the wonderful opportunity to spend time in many different classes over the school year and I always find it so exciting to see what folks are doing with their students!  Of course I get especially excited when teachers invite me into their classrooms to participate during Genius Hour.  Last year (the 2016-17 school year) I had several different teachers ask me to join in during Genius Hour and it was great to see how they all approached it in slightly different ways.  The overall structure was similar in each room: students were given time to brainstorm lists of things they were interested in, passionate about, cared about, etc and then students designed a project around one of these topics starting with an inquiry question that they would pursue.  Students were then given the opportunity to share their learning in a way that they chose–a fairly typical Genius Hour structure. Good stuff!

However, one teacher structured it a bit differently. Before introducing the concept of Genius Hour to her class, she noticed that students really wanted the opportunity to become the teacher and teach the class themselves. And so, in order to be responsive to this authentic enthusiasm in her class, she introduced Genius Hour and asked them to prepare a lesson at the end. She told them they would all get to be teacher! This is what they had been begging for!

So, we introduced Genius Hour in the same way as the other classes (following these steps). But she added that at the end they would have the opportunity to teach something to the rest of the class as part of their project.  Students in her grade 4/5 class were very excited about this presentation format.  They were thrilled to plan lessons and teach their peers a new skill, some new information, etc.

So, why am I writing about this now? I was recently perusing an article by Parker Palmer and was struck again by one of his famous quotes, “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher”, and was reminded once again, how there cannot be one prescribed way to do Genius Hour. Like Denise Krebs and I state in our book, you have to make it your own and do what works for you.  I love that this teacher was in tune with what her students wanted to do and made that connection to what she wanted to do–Genius Hour.

It was a win-win for everyone. And I was thrilled to be able to support the learning in her classroom-so a win for me too.
​

 I have had a lot of really great conversations with people about Genius Hour. I am passionate about helping kids find their passions, explore their interests and inquire into their wonders. So I love these chats!

But sometimes people ask: is it rigorous enough? is their topic deep enough? important enough? Stuff like that...

And I talk about the difference between googleable and non-googleable questions, and teaching inquiry in other subjects and then reminding students of those lessons and skills during Genius Hour. Or I might share Paul Solarz's acronym for PHAT questions: Pretty Hard and Tough.  All things that I have done with my own class when I try to steer them toward a more rigorous inquiry.

But sometimes I just want to say: 
Why does everything have to be so serious?
How about play for the sake of play?
Does everything have to be tough?

Maybe we are over-thinking and over-managing Genius Hour a bit too much? 

People ask me for worksheets to support Genius Hour, and I have some. And I am happy to share. But I also don't want kids to have to fill out too many of these forms...because I wonder if then Genius Hour has become just like every other course/subject...and isn't fun anymore!  Now when we do inquiry projects in Social Studies or Science or anything else, then we definitely make sure that there is a certain level of "tough-ness" or rigour. I want them to struggle a bit, to push themselves and think hard. That is important to me. And we do that for every other hour of the week. But for the 1 hour of Genius Hour...I wonder if we are getting too unnecessarily worried?

So sometimes I just ask: are they having fun? Yes? Then--great! Perhaps it is okay to just learn and make things and do things and have fun. For the sake of fun. 

For example:
--They made a lego stop motion video. Fun!
--They designed iPod touch covers and want to become fashion designers when they grow up. Fun!
--They baked a cake and learned how hard it was to make it look like pinterest. Fun!
--They cut open an old book and built a spy camera inside. Fun!

These are all projects my students have done before. And they had fun. And they loved it. And I loved it. 
And they were definitely learning (especially in regards to the core competencies of communication and creative thinking). Without having to fill out too many forms.

You may disagree. And on some days I might even disagree. But this is how I feel today. 
Sometimes it is OK to just have fun in our learning! For the sake of fun!

Ideally, we want everything our students do/learn/make at school to be meaningful experiences. And please don't get me wrong--we spend plenty of time pushing ourselves, problem solving, thinking critically and focusing on the tough stuff. But...

I think fun/play is meaningful too.

​----
Side note: A friend of mine was talking to me about how some of his fellow parent-friends were talking about putting their kids into music classes because they have heard that will make their kids good at math. And he said: or how about just because music is fun!  

Yeah. How about that? Music is fun.

A little while ago, Denise Krebs and I wrote an article for MiddleWeb.com called "Idea Starters for the Genius Hour Classroom". It was written in response to a question we get a lot: