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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Fold Over Elastic What The Hell is it Exactly

What on earth is Fold Over Elastic then?. This is a question that The Village Haberdashery were being frequently asked after they posted images of their awesome new range of FOE on social media recently. As a lover of the stuff, they turned to me to provide some explanation, which was originally posted here on the Daily Stitch blog last month. Here goes…

What is FOE?

Fold over elastic (as its mum would call it, FOE is its street name) is thin, flat elastic that has a line running along the centre of its length that makes it easy to fold in half. Sold by the metre, it can be bought in a variety of widths and textures, but commonly it is about 20mm when flat and has one matt and one shiny side. Its purpose is similar to bias binding in that it finishes raw edges, but has the added benefit of stretchiness and recovery.


How does it work?

The FOE is positioned so the centre line is aligned with the raw edge of the fabric. The left hand side of the elastic width will be underneath the fabric at this point. The right hand side of the elastic width now gets folded over on top of the fabric, so that the raw edge is entirely enclosed between the two halves of elastic. You will then zigzag stitch through this three-layered sandwich to keep it all together.


What is it used for?

Most typically FOE is used for making undies, both in mass manufacture and in home sewing. The likelihood is that there’s some FOE present in your undies-drawer as we speak. If you’re interested in giving it a try, there are two PDF sewing patterns available for free download on my blog here. One is for making pants/undies/knickers and one is for making a vest/camisole/singlet, both are designed for knit fabric. 

You could try using FOE as an alternative for finishing necklines and/or cuffs on knit tops on both women’s wear and children’s wear. Little girl’s gathered skirts can be made super quickly with FOE with either knit or light-to-medium weight woven fabric. This is a great video on Youtube by Angry Chicken on how to do that. Nappy/diaper covers can be made with FOE, but usually a specific wide variety that has a fuzzy/terrycloth-type texture is used for this.




Why should I use it?

There is a lot to love about FOE once you’ve got the hang of using it, but perhaps my favourite feature is that you apply the elastic whilst neatening a raw edge AT THE SAME TIME. A bit of fiddling and one row of stitching and both these tasks are complete, which makes for some speedy garment making. Available in a rainbow of colours and with two textures in each length (matt and shiny), there are so many possibilities for creating cool contrast finishes on suitable projects.


Any tips?

Through analyzing some shop-bought pants and a bit of experimentation, I figured out that a 3 step zigzag stitch works best when stitching through the sandwich of elastic and fabric. I like to use a stitch width of 5mm and stitch length of 1mm on my Janome sewing machine, but have a play about to see what you prefer.

Once you’ve mastered the basic ‘elastic/fabric sandwich and stitch’ application, you can amp things up by giving the elastic a slight tug as it passes through your machine. This creates a pleasing gathered effect. Experiment with tugging the elastic at various tensions to see how much or little gathering you are able to produce. A little gathering looks great on knickers, for example, and helps them to be snug when worn. A lot of gathering is great when creating gathered skirts or the cuffs for wide sleeves. See here (http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/how-to-construct-undies-with-serger-and.html) for my tips on using FOE to create pants/knickers/undies, and there are many more blog posts, tutorials and videos out there to help.

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