Genius Hour Undercover (Session One of GH)

I have been in education for 21 years, but this past summer was the first time I ever heard of Genius Hour.  I happened to come across a twitter feed and my curiosity caused me to start exploring.

"Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school." -Chris Kesler

I was instantly hooked and gathered as many resources as I could.  I teach 9th grade English, but I decided to implement Genius Hour in my Family Advocacy (FA).  FA creates an opportunity for teachers to build a strong relationship with a small group of students (18-20 students usually).  We are their academic advocate and an immediate point of contact for their parents.  Our FAs meet twice a week, every Monday and Friday, for 90 minutes each.  The first 30 minutes is spent in MIRP (monitored independent reading program) and the last hour is pretty open to teachers.  I have instituted character building curriculum, college/career readiness activities, and some study hall time.  I have never really been pleased with the outcome, so I decided this would be the perfect place to do some independent learning through Genius Hour.  Luckily, there are 8 other 9th grade teachers who are interested and have decided to step up with me.  We have already had lots of conversations and have agreed to share ideas as we move through this process.

This past Friday was our first session with Genius Hour.  We decided to go incognito.  We did not want students to be so worried about what their project was going to be about that they would limit themselves during the brainstorming. To avoid this tunnel vision, we decided to keep it all quiet for now.

I started the discussion in my classroom with the question "What is one adjective that you would use to describe school?"  The overwhelming answer was "boring".  I then asked why they felt school was boring.  For my students, very obvious answers began to pop up.  "It starts too early!"  "Teachers talk too much!"  "Too much homework."  Then, one young lady raised her hand and said, "Everything is decided by the teachers.  What we read, what we study, what we write about.  Why can't we talk about things that matter to us."  What a perfect answer.  We then watched "Pep Talk from Kid President" and discussed things that people have invented that make our world awesome.  (Cell phones, toilets, cars, etc.)

Finally, it was time to get the students up and moving.  We participated in a Graffiti Activity.  Six pieces of chart paper were placed around the room with a different question on each:

• What types of jobs are you interested in?
• What is something that really bothers you that you would like to see changed? (i.e.

  

  Posters with student responses

  homelessness in KCK)
• What is something you would like to try, but have been too afraid to attempt?  (i.e. parasailing)
• What is something others enjoy, but you despise?  (i.e. mushrooms, snow skiing)
•  What do you enjoy doing during your free time?
• What are some things you are really good at?

In small groups, students spent three minutes at each poster paper writing down as many ideas as they could. We will use these posters as we start to narrow down our ideas.

My reflection: students were very engaged in the entire process. They were most excited about participating in the graffiti activity. There were tons of very interesting answers (love playing the flute, enjoy writing my own music, create my own puppets, really disturbed by human trafficking, want to help teens who are suffering with depression). I learned so much about my students and it is only the first week of school.

Next steps: students will now work independently to write down their passions and the things that break their heart. I will give them the outline of each and the students will be creative about filling them in. I'm very excited to see each individual finished product and to have an authentic, one-on-one conversation with the students about their passions.

Link to lesson outline for session one.