​I am passionate about Genius Hour and have been since I first implemented it with my class during the 2011-12 school year. My students love working on their own inquiry/passion projects! Over the years, I have written several blog posts about Genius Hour, as well as guest posts on other sites. All of the links are below.

I am also the co-author of The Genius Hour Guidebook: Fostering Passion, Wonder and Inquiry in the Classroom. Denise Krebs and I wrote this book, published by Routledge, to help teachers learn why and how to set up Genius Hour in their classrooms. You can learn more about the book on our companion site, www.geniushourguide.org, and you can order the book on Amazon.

I hope the index of Genius Hour blog posts/websites below is helpful!

Be sure to check out the hashtag, #geniushour, on Twitter. There's so much great stuff being posted there daily!

Earlier this year I blogged about the power of visiting other classrooms and schools.  Well, since then I have had the opportunity to go on even more classroom visits and I just have to blog about it again!  There are so many amazing educators out there and they are doing amazing things in their classrooms!  Let me tell you about some of them:   

The iHub Inquiry School.  Have you heard of this place?  They are a tiny secondary school in Coquitlam that is doing some big things!  In their words, it is "an innovative, technology driven, full-time program which allows them to pursue their own learning questions by shaping their educational experience around their interests instead of structured classes".  Sounds like a full time Genius Hour program to me...I knew I was going to love it...and I did!  

We (I was visiting with Jesse McLean who organized the trip and was kind enough to invite me along) started the morning with a student-led tour of the school.  The 3 girls were great! They clearly explained the school's culture and Jesse and I were very impressed with the vocabulary they used to describe their learning.  The students went on to explain that they were in the middle of an Inquiry project on Urban Gardening.  These amazing 9th graders were planning a school garden, as well as a program that would teach primary students how to garden as well.  It was so inspiring to hear them talk about their learning. 

An important experience, the girls explained, was one that took place early on in the school year.  Their teachers set up an inquiry project for all of them to do, and made sure that their were opportunities throughout for the students to fail.  Yes, FAIL.  I almost cheered!  I have been trying all year to get my students comfortable with the learning process and the obstacles that they will face.  But my students struggle with this notion.  They prefer things to be clear, and for all experiences to be problem-free. We are still working toward being okay with ambiguity and taking risks with our learning.  I was really happy that the girls shared this experience with me.  Something to borrow for sure!  After some time with the students, we sat down to chat with VP, David Truss.  David, thank you so much for taking the time to explain your program to us!  We have so much to learn from what you are doing.

***Major Takeway***
Inquiry needs to be introduced, modeled and scaffolded for the students.  It pays to take the time to do it right!

After lunch, Jesse and I headed to Fraser Heights Secondary (back in my School District 36).  We wanted to visit Jess Pelat and Parm Brar because they are running a cross-curricular inquiry program with their grade 8s.  Basically, they teach English, Social Studies, Math and Science to the same group of students by doing inquiry projects.  So neat!  I love the idea of keeping those kids together as a cohort for all of their subjects.  And I also appreciated the emphasis on cross-curricular projects, something Hugh McDonald (my teaching partner) and I have been experimenting a lot with this year.  

Jess and Parm, thank you so much for opening up your classroom to us!

***Major Takeway***
Cross-curricular works!  But that doesn't mean you should feel guilty about teaching some stand-alone math lessons, because that is important too.

A few weeks later I had the opportunity to check out a few more schools.  This time they were elementary schools...a little bit more familiar!  First, I spent some time with Trish Miller and Chris Gauvin at Martha Currie. I just loved seeing how they were doing Genius Hour!  It is so great to just watch expert teachers do their thing!  I was so impressed with Trish's students and their projects!  The purpose of my visit to Trish's class was to help her young students get started with blogging, and we did...her adorable grade 3s and 4s took to kidblog immediately!  But while there I was reminded at how important a sense of community is.   Trish cares so much about her students, and it is immediately obvious.  There is such a sense of community and care in her classroom!  It is evident in the way she decorates her room (beautiful baskets of supplies, and student work displayed), in the way she teaches (science through hands on activities such as making a fruit salad while examining the various types of seeds in fruit) and the way she involves her students in the decision making (I watched the students make the decisions about their Genius Hour iMovie).  I am so glad that I got to visit!

I was also really eager to hear about the gardening project that Chris' students were starting.  His class is trying to figure out how to start an urban garden of their own!  These young 5th and 6th graders were sawing wood, taking measurements and building their own garden out of old pallets.  Reminded me a little of the wikiseat project we are doing at my school.  I just love these hands on activities that make math (measurement, angles, etc) come alive, and are also just perfect examples of authentic learning! 

***Major Takeway***
Community and relationship-building is key.
Other types of building (with a saw, hammer and nails) are also awesome!


Next up was a quick visit to Robyn Thiessen's class at Green Timbers.  Robyn is the Queen of making global connections!  I was so impressed with how her grade 3/4 students conducted themselves during a Mystery Skype call.  Her students were engaged and on task as they tried to guess where in the world the other class was.  

Have you tried Mystery Skype with your class yet? If not, you definitely want to consider it!  Students learn about world geography in the most exciting way!  Check out 6th chat and 4th chat for details! 

Below, is a video that Hugh made of our students during a recent mystery skype call.  

I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to visit colleagues from in and out of district.  None of this would be possible without the connections I have made through twitter.  Having a supportive PLN is amazing. Visiting them to learn through observation and conversation is even more amazing! 

On the first Wednesday of each month a bunch of fantastic educators get together on twitter for a chat about Genius Hour. The past two chats have been amazing!  We had a lot of experienced #geniushour teachers and a lot of newbies too!  It was a great mix! We had great conversations, but it was moving so fast that I thought I would summarize some it.

We talked about assessment and giving feedback.  Most agreed that they did not grade Genius Hour projects, but instead provided formative assessment only.  After re-reading over 50 pages of archived tweets, here are some highlights:

• 1.  Hugh McDonald reminded us of the wonderful creativity rubric that Denise Krebs made a couple of years ago.  Hugh and I both use it with our students so that they have something to self-assess with and also as a jumping off point for their blog-refections.  We love it! 

• 2.  Many teachers talked about blogging as a way for students to reflect on their projects, the experience and what went right/wrong.  It also provides, as Greg Miller reminded us, the opportunity for peer feedback as well. 

• 3.  A lot of teachers, Joy Kirr included, also mentioned the importance of informal conversations with students during Genius Hour.  She has meaningful, one-on-one chats while students are learning!

• 4.  John Stevens talked about using google docs as a method for giving feedback.  He also uses google forms for students to submit project ideas.  Check that out here.

• 5.  Jas Kooner and some others mentioned that they like to give written feedback to their students.  She also spoke about the importance of peer-feedback.  Many chimed in and agreed.  I would love to see any documents/links regarding the way in which people do this.  In my class, we comment on each others' blogs as a way of giving peer-to-peer feedback.  Any other ideas?  Comment below!

• 6.  My students also reflect on their Genius Hour projects on their ePortfolios (in the same way that they reflect on every subject). Some students have done great step by step reflections! This way you can track their progress and chat about it with students whenever you have time.

• 7.  Lindsey Bingley explained that she gives students "oral feedback, through short conferences during Genius Hour".  Sitting down with students for a few minutes to quickly conference is also something that Hugh and I do with our students.  This is probably the easiest way for me to touch base with all my students.

• 8.  Julie Jee talked about doing monthly journal entries with her high school students.

• 9.  Rory Newcomb talked about framing her feedback in a  5-4-3-2-1 format.  She blogs about it here.

• 10.  Robyn Thiessen told us that her students fill out an action plan each week where they write about what they plan to do and then they self-assess afterwards.  She also reminded us of the Global Genius Hour Project and that it can be used for students in other classes to give feedback to each other. Great idea!

There you have it!  10 ways to give feedback.  Do you have any others?  Comment below!

A lot of us shared that we struggled to find the time to connect with every single student.  I liked Angela Maiers' advice: "Commit to 5 min a day - make a schedule five learners in five minutes everyday, non-negotiable".  This was echoed by Kevin Ashworth when he said that he will often quickly conference with students about Genius Hour, during non-genius hour time!  Chris Kesler suggested having students reflect from home, if time is an issue in your classroom!

Another interesting point of discussion, brought up by Troy Cockrum, was that of bringing in mentors; parents or community members who could assist students with their projects and provide insight. This is something I am definitely going to look into!  This year, Hugh and I had students with skype with some experts for Health and Career class.  Why not have them join for Genius Hour too?  I love it!

We also talked about ways in which students can share their projects.  Some common responses:

• Ted Talk style speech about what they did/learned
  
• iMovies and other videos documenting their journey
• Show their model/creation/invention and talk about it
• Powerpoint, Keynote and other slide shows
• Create a website or page on their existing website
• Picture collage/photo journal

Thank you all for participating in the chat and for giving us some things to think about when we implement our next round of Genius Hour.  

PLN, did I miss anything?  Please comment below!  Would love to hear from you!