1.  Sir Ken Robinson.

I love this Ted Talk and have probably watched it 20 times! The thing I don't like about it though is that he tells us about what we need in schools, that "creativity is as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status", but he doesn't give any examples as to how teachers can do that.  I have an idea though-- start with Genius Hour and go from there! 

If you love the talk then you should also check out his book, The Element-a great read!

2.  Daniel H Pink.

Daniel Pink's book Drive is a fantastic read! I definitely recommend reading it.  I think that the information he presents on what really motivates people is super helpful for thinking about motivation in our classrooms too. I also really like his RSA animate--a great video to watch before reading the book! I love what he says about autonomy as a motivator--this is why Genius Hour works--because our students have the autonomy to pick their own inquiry questions! 

3. Alfie Kohn.

I am so happy that I was able to find an Alfie Kohn clip of when he was on Oprah!! I think Alfie's research is really helpful and...I love Oprah--so a double win for me (and you)! Anyway, watch this clip to hear a bit about Kohn's book Punished by Rewards.  I totally agree with his point about finding authentic ways to encourage kids to learn, read, etc instead of relying on rewards.  In my opinion, Genius Hour, is indeed one of those student-centred, authentic ways! 

4. Angela Maiers.

Her "You Matter" Tedx Talk is fantastic! I love what she says about the power of noticing and sharing that with your students. A must-watch for teachers. This is where we got the brilliant quote "You are a genius and the world needs your contribution"--a quote that is posted in classrooms all over inspiring kids to find their passions and share with the world. And her book The Passion Based Learning is also very inspiring! We discussed her book during our #GeniusHour chat in May, 2013. You can check out the archive here. 

I could go on and on about other Education videos that I love...but this is probably a good start! I hope you find these as inspirational as I did! 

Also, I would love to know--what would you add? Perhaps post the link in the comments so that the rest of us can check it out!

The question that The Openspokes Fellowship is tackling this week is: How do you learn best?

I loved watching everyone's videos.  It was a wonderful reminder of the fact that everyone learns differently and we have to honour that, and be mindful of the diverse ways in which we all learn when we plan for our students.  

You can subsribe to the Fellowship and join in on the conversation here.

My weekly vlog:

So, how do you learn best?  I'd love to from you!

This blog entry was inspired by Ben Wilkoff's vlog below.  I watched it a few weeks ago and have been thinking about it since. 

Ben talks about how lucky he feels when he is within a school and he mentions those "moments when you hear someone say aha!" Those moments really are amazing!  I feel so lucky to be with the learners in my class and in my school, especially when I am a part of those aha moments.  It truly is amazing to watch someone learn something new, to see that look in their eyes when the connection is made, when they have created something new, or when they are proud of themselves for a job well done.  
Take a look at Ben's vlog:

"Those moments are real".  What a great line, Ben.  They are real.  Real and amazing and sometimes we get so used to them we forget to stop and treasure them.  We need to take pause in those moments though, and really recognize how wonderful they are.

I LOVE being a teacher and I LOVE being in school...spending time with children and helping them find their passions, explore their wonders is...well, it is just amazing!  I am so grateful.

A few weeks ago, I found out that I was successful in my application to be an FA at Simon Fraser University.  I am so excited to spend time with pre-service teachers and am looking forward to the new experience, but I do worry that I will miss being in my own elementary school.  I will miss being with my little group of 10-12 year olds when they get their first blog comment from outside of Canada, when they begin their first Genius Hour project or when they discover the strategy that works for them in Math.

My secondment starts in August and so I will have to soak in every moment with my students until then!  Thank you for this vlog post, Ben.  It is a good reminder to treasure our experiences in school and to remember that we are indeed fortunate to be able to work with these amazing, inspiring young minds.

So, in response to Ben's original question: "I feel lucky to be within a school.  Do you?"  The answer is YES!  And thank goodness I will still be in and out of schools regularly with my new position!

Why do you feel lucky when you are in a school?

I have been playing  (yes, playing, I think playtime is so important and necessary with new technology) with Digital Storytelling since I first got an iPad.  But my experience really changed after I heard Dean Shareski talk about the 60 one second movie.  Well my colleagues and I loved this idea and we got right on to playing with our iPads and making our own sample movies.   Making a movie myself was very important...at our school we talk a lot about the importance of going where we want out students to go!  My Thanksgiving 60 second movie is below. 

Our students then created their own 60 second iMovies.  The challenge: Tell the story of School in 60 seconds (thank you to our prinicipal, Antonio Vendramin, for leading this with the grade 6s while the teachers went to camp with the 7s).  The results were fantastic!  The kids told a story using short video clips.

We have also told the story of Healthy Living, using the Learning Outcome: "Describes the benefits of being physically active on attaining and maintaining a balanced, healthy lifestyle" (BC Prescribed Learning Outcome) as our inspiration.  Again, students used the 1 second clip type of iMovie to tell their stories.

And last week, in time for Valentine's Day, we told our stories through music by creating Friendship Music Parodies.  Our inspiration was the learning outcome, "identifies characteristics of healthy relationships" (BC Prescribed Learning Outcome) and of course Valentine's Day too.  

Well, we certainly discovered that this type of storytelling (music video) was very difficult!  Students had to:

-choose a song
-rewrite the lyrics so that they were about healthy friendships and relationships-storyboard the song, thinking about how they were going to make the video images consistent with the new lyrics and the music
-film the story 
-sing their parody version of the song and layer over their video
-edit and add in friendship quotes as they saw fit

Students love storytelling.  Next up for us, telling stories using book creator with our little buddies.  We did this last year and they loved it!  

And then I am looking forward to trying out some new ways of digital storytelling!  Obviously you can see what types I am most comfortable with, but thanks to #etmooc, I am learning about so many more methods!  More to come soon...

Last week I had a fascinating conversation with Ben Wilkoff and Sheri Edwards about the rewording of PLN from Personal Learning Network to Personal Learning Neighbourhood.  And it really struck a chord with me (see blog about that here).  Well, since that conversation, Ben and I had another conversation about Mr. Rogers and the power of a neighbourhood and Ben suggested we put together a little PLN/#etmooc theme song.  The recording of our duet is below and the lyrics to the song are below that.

For me, the making of the song was really a metaphor of the song's sentiment.  We are celebrating meaningful and professional connections by connecting and collaborating with each other.

It is one of the nicest things I have participated in online. 
Thank you all for being a part of my Personal Learning Neighbourhood.

We tried something new this past month in Health & Career 6/7.  Hugh McDonald and I wanted to give the students more opportunities to be creative (besides their Genius Hour time of course), so we gave groups of 4 students a Learning Outcome and an iPod and said make a short 60 second movie (inspired by Dean Shareski) proving your understand this Learning Outcome:

Students had a wonderful time creating these short movies.  They:

-COLLABORATED to decide on a story/scenes for their movies
-CRITICALLY THOUGHT about what the learning outcome meant to them.  Side note: many decided that although the learning outcome didn't mention healthy eating, they ought to include it because then it would be easier to be physically active, since they would have the energy from the nutritious food.  
-CREATED short skits and took turns filming 
-COMMUNICATED their thoughts through video and shared online

A nice, short unit that is very student-centred and encompasses many aspects of 21st Century Learning.  
I am so thankful that I have such a great teaching partner, Hugh McDonald, who thinks up great ideas like this all the time! 

Here are a few examples:

I have been planning this blog post, since having a very interesting conversation with twitter pal, Heidi Hass Gable (@HHG), a couple of weeks ago.  We talked about the benefits of WiFi and how my teaching has evolved since my school went wireless.  So, I have been thinking about this post since then and was planning on writing about my transformation from "teacher at the centre of it all" to another body blending into the crowd...you have heard it before-- "The guide on the side instead of the sage on the stage".  That sort of thing...and it is all true and it has been an amazing journey!

But then the nature of this post switched...

My friend and teaching partner, Hugh McDonald (@HughTheTeacher) gave our students WiFi as the topic for their blog post this week...and now my perspective doesn't seem as important anymore...instead here is what our students think about how WiFi and how it has changed their learning.

I absolutely love her thoughts on sharing her learning; "In our class we have e-portfolios and we put our best work and achievements online so the world can see them and inspire other people such as teachers.  Sharing your knowledge with people is a really important thing because you can help someone create something amazing just by sharing your ideas".  How brilliant!

Another 6th grade student, Sarah, wrote, "We need wifi in school because it’s You can talk to other people around the world about the project that we are doing like the globel read aloud about a book called the one and only ivan which is amazing talking to other schools about it".

And here is Indy's blog:

Amanjot, a grade 7 student, points out that  "With wifi you have a variety of ways of getting research done, you have pictures and videos. In math now we are making a arcade game and we need to learn all the learning outcomes. Most of the people in my class don’t know how to do circumference. So they search it on you tube".

Students taking charge of their own learning?  Sounds good to me!

Marianne, a grade 7 student brought up a few different benefits, one being presentations.  She stated, "We also use it a lot for presentations, such as PowerPoints, creating websites or just writing something on Word. It’s more interesting to be able to learn it by creating it and using many cool features than just writing it on a poster. Other students that may be watching the Powerpoint will be engaged in it and taking a lot of information in".

I could keep going and going, or if you are interested please check out all our blogs at kidblog.org/mrszisclass-2.  We would love to hear your comments!  

The children have spoken, and they see the benefits that WiFi has had on their education: the sharing with a global community, the ability to create and share their ePortfolios, iPad math games, etc.  It is a part of the way we learn now and gives us so many opportunities.

What do you think?  Has it changed the way you teach or the way your students learn?

October 3rd was our last #geniushour chat (click here to learn more about Genius Hour) on twitter.
We had a fantastic conversation and some great ideas were shared.   Since that chat (click here to see all archived chats), I have had a few more people ask me about how to introduce Genius Hour.  So I thought I would compile a list of all the wonderful strategies that were discussed. 

Here it goes…

• Danielle Porte tweeted about doing a guided Genius Hour to start her class off this year.  I love this idea!  What a fantastic way to be able to model the inquiry process for your class!
  

• Similarly, Katy Gartside tweeted, “this week they are brainstorming ideas with parents for their indiv proj. Then we'll share, post on wall & they can add ideas” Then they did a group project.  I love how she involved the parents into the process!    
  

• Robyn Thiessen’s students have passion portfolios and they store their thoughts and ideas for Genius Hour in them! She introduced inquiry to her young students (yes, it can be done in primary!) through ME projects (delving into topics like what are your values and what are you not...I just love that this is with grades 3s and 4s).
  

• Denise Krebs' students are researching and presenting their Genius Hour plan before they begin their actual projects. Denise also put together this Genius Hour creativity rubric that students use to show their growth

• Joy Kirr gets her students into the inquiry process by asking them to think not only about what they wonder about, but also to reflect on what really bothers them!  What a fabulous way to get students to start thinking.

• Katrina Ling tweeted, “I set up a wonder wall too for #geniushour, we watched videos and brainstormed ideas. There are some kids invention videos from Ellen show.” Watching videos is a great hook!  Kids love to see what others have done and it gets them thinking hey I could do that. 
  

• Hugh McDonald also shared how he likes to introduce Genius Hour with YouTube videos that inspire curiosity and talk about Genius.  Some videos he uses are:
  

This year, Hugh and I introduced Genius Hour together.  We showed our students the above videos, got them thinking about their passions and wonders and, finally, we modelled it. We both spent some time on a weekend creating our own little Genius Hour projects.  Neither of us had ever made a movie using iMovie for iPads and it was something we wanted to learn more about, so we both learned how and created a short iMovie each.  Perfect for sharing a little of our lives with our students and for modeling the inquiry process! Thank you Dean Shareski, Antonio Vendramin and Jodi Pulvers for the inspiration.

I am sure there are many more ideas out there from other great teachers about how to introduce Genius Hour.  Please comment below if you would like to add to this list!

And I hope this has helped any of you out there that have wanted to start Genius Hour, but didn’t know how.  Happy Inquiring :)