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Division 6 had their first #geniushour!

1/11/2012

4 Comments

 
For term two, I have decided to focus my 2nd field study on doing a student-directed project called genius hour and our blogs about it.

Even though the term at SFU hasn't started yet, I was too anxious to wait so we began this week!  I explained what genius hour was to the class (an hour per week in which they would be able to learn about whatever they want; becoming a genius in whatever interests them and that after a few weeks we would present our learnings to the class) and their first task was to blog about what they wanted to focus on.

A few students needed some help coming up with ideas, but the rest were really excited to start learning about/doing what they were passionate about!  On Monday afternoon, I had some students in the computer lab researching and creating powerpoints, some students filming movies that they later wanted to create into iMovies, one student painting and some writing scripts for french cooking shows!  Everyone was excited and everyone was on task!  I helped out as needed but really tried to push the students to problem solve and troubleshoot on their own.  It was amazing!

As a teacher, I was a little apprehensive to give up so much of the control to the students, but I am now a firm believer in genius hour!

4 Comments
Jesse
1/11/2012 03:35:45 pm

It's great to see that your bringing in such an innovative idea into your classroom!

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Amy Newman link
1/12/2012 01:57:56 pm

Great idea for genius hour! I will be interested to see how it develops and whether or not you expand the time frame for the projects. Reminds me of Google's 20% time where employees are given 20% of their work week to explore, collaborate, self direct. As you may know, a number of their most innovative developments were a result of the 20% self-directed learning time.
Would love to come out and see it in action - feel free to contact me! Best of luck and congrats on continuing to shift ownership to your students!

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Gallit Zvi link
3/26/2012 08:53:41 am

Hi Amy,
I thought I had responded to this a long time ago, but apparently not...I am so sorry about the delay!
I would love to have you come out and see my little geniuses working on our projects. We do Genius Hour every Monday afternoon, I will email you and we can plan a date!

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Denise Krebs link
1/12/2012 07:45:04 pm

Gallit,
How exciting to read about your experiences with #geniushour! I can relate to your anxiousness and especially the exciting results that occurred.

I learned something new, though, which I may try--letting them work on the same project for a few weeks before sharing. We may have to try that model next.

This is definitely a way to do school that I will never give up. It will only grow more and more a part of our curriculum.

Thanks for participating and using the #geniushour hashtag so others can follow you!

Sincerely,
Denise

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    My name is Gallit Zvi and I am an Elementary School Teacher and Vice Principal in Surrey, BC. I am also a blogger and co-author of The Genius Hour Guidebook.
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