After some great inspiration from the MISA Innovation Conference in London last week, I've committed an hour every Wednesday to Genius Hour in my class. +Cindy Hughes shared some great resources she developed and used with her class in the fall and I've adopted them for my class. My students really embraced this idea and have leapt right in. I'm so excited about the amazing ideas for their passion projects - some including unsolvable math problems, how CEO's manage businesses, making a movie, perfecting a cookie recipe and hosting a cooking show, child labour, and even how to throw a perfect pitch. Presentations will be Catholic Education Week and I can't wait to see the products of student passion projects! In between now and then, I will lead students through various research and plagiarism lessons to help them navigate their projects.
I would love to hear about "Genius Hour" projects you and your students have done. What does learning look like when we "lose control" by letting students run with what they are interested in? I want to make this the rule of thumb - how can we allow students to make sense of the curriculum we teach and make it meaningful to them and their life experience? Let's get uncomfortable and make our student's more comfortable with making learning relevant to them and their interests. It's not about us, it's about students and learning.
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