NGUPLUS

Genius Hour! What is Your Passion

A new push in education the last few years has revolved around students recognizing their passions and deciding their own learning.  This is part of what we call "Genius Hour".  One of my favorite consultants in education, Angela Meiers,  goes around the US presenting to teachers and students encouraging them to share their passions.  She tells them, "You are a genius and the world expects your contribution".  Very powerful message if you think about it.

Genius Hour was a favorite of the students last year as well as the year before.  It is a time where students can decide what they would like to learn about, do research and hands on activities, and create something to share their learning with the class.  Their learning will revolve around key questions.

I kicked off genius hour by sharing two videos.  One is by my favorite, Kid President, in which he encourages students to go out and be awesome!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do in 3B.  It is titled "A Pep Talk from Kid President to You!".



The other video that I shared was about a boy who took his passions for arcades and created something wonderful.  This video is called "Canes Arcade".



After reading some books about presenting the idea of Genius Hour, the students started their own "Wonder Wall" in their Genius Hour notebook.  We have a "Wonder Wall" in the class that we started writing questions an things that come up during the day that we wonder about.  The students also have done this in their notebooks.

The next step was to think about what we are passionate about.  Students created a page that they will continue to add on to, listing their passions and what they would love to learn more about.   Next week we will talk about asking questions to set the stage for learning as well as internet safety.  The students will then be ready to decide their passion and learning.

This is a powerful time that I am always amazed at what the students can do. We will have Genius Hour every Friday morning from 10:00-10:45.   Last year I had students build wind turbines, lava lamps, video movies, and so much more through Genius Hour.  It is a powerful time of learning!

Below is a picture of students writing their passions in their writing notebooks.

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Genius Hour is Here! Students Have Begun Finding their Inner Genius!

In a previous post I mentioned that students were gearing up and learning about what Genius Hour was.  I found a wonderful video for those that are not familiar with Genius Hour as it does a great job explaining the basis for this change in education.  



After many weeks of preparing and gaining a better understanding of what Genius Hour is, students launched their own Genius Hour time last Friday.  It was amazing to see how engaged and eager they each were to learning about something they were interested in.  As with all Genius Hour projects, the students began with a question of something they wanted to learn more about.  After reviewing internet safety, they were off to explore their own topics and learning.  You could have heard a pin drop as they were so into their new learning.  Many comments were, "This is awesome!", "I dont want to stop!", "Can we do this every day?".  Music to my ears!!!  It was wonderful.


We still have some work to do on research skills and when do I have "enough" information?  They are 3rd graders after all and need guidance.  But I can tell this is going to be a powerful time in our day every Friday as it has been in the past.


I cant wait to hear what they are learning about and share it with you!  Some of their topics are wind turbine, race cars, lava lamps, video making, speed boats, light bulbs....just to name a few.

Available link for download