Genius Hour- First Session Reflections

The students were introduced to their first Genius Hour session yesterday. We were extremely fortunate to have extra devices (thanks Year Four) which made the lesson much easier. A short
video was used as an introduction.

We then spoke about the origins of Genius Hour and the opportunities it presents and spoke about some of the ideas that I have seen used in the classroom before.

Before students were left to start their projects, a discussion was had about the 3 rules that guide Genius Hour.

1.What is the driving essential question?

2. You must use research.
3. The project must be shared.

At this point the students were starting to get really excited about their projects and they then had to work on developing a 'thick' question. Once they had a question they then had to post it onto the classes Google Classroom page so we as teachers could quickly ascertain what the students were undertaking. I look forward to seeing what they produce in the coming weeks.

Genius Hour Thoughts- January 27

The concept of 'Genius Hour' in the classroom across all grades is extremely exciting. On some levels, it goes against the very nature of what we as educators have learnt as 'best practice'. It eschews the idea that teachers have to give instruction based on a particular concept or topic and places that element of the lesson solely on the students. By doing this it somewhat changes the the notion of what we usually qualify as 'teaching'.

Genius Hour allows students to choose what they would like to learn about by asking a rich driving question (something that can't just be searched through Google with a one line answer). This changes the emphasis of the outcomes as the process of learning is placed at the forefront rather than being topic content driven. 

With our Year Six students, I believe the best way to implement Genius Hour will be by talking about the origins of the Genius Hour concept and show how a real life tangible product (GMAIL) came out of this simple idea of giving people a chance to follow an interest. The next phase will be to discuss how to come up with a rich 'essential question'.