In order to keep your Genius Hour running smoothly, it is essential that you set up a routine for your students and set clear expectations. One of the important components of Genius Hour is that students are learning to self-direct their own learning and manage their own time. As the teacher, you now become the facilitator of that learning. You are there as a resource to them and help them to meet their individual goals. Try and meet with each student each work session briefly to check in on progress.
You may want to consider setting up some kind of calendar/log for students to keep students accountable for the work they are doing each week.
The core of Passion Projects as mentioned in Phase 1, is the blogging component. This is where students will be sharing and reflecting on their learning process throughout the year. This is also what will be a location for teachers to assess all of the work behind student projects. Setting up a schedule or expectation for when blog posts will be written will allow it to become part of the Genius Hour routine.
For example, the expectation should be that after every Genius Hour, each student is to write a blog post. Within this blog post the following should be expressed:
- What was your plan for the genius hour session?
- What did you accomplish?
- What worked well?
- What didn't work well or failed completely?
- What are you going to do next time?
Another example of a structure/expectations is to check blogs twice a month for progress. The posts may look something like this:
- Post #1: Introduce your topic (What and Why)
- Post #2: Initial Research-What have you found out about your topic?
- Post #3: Reflection on the Pitch
- Post #4-#6: Updates on your project and Interview with an expert (optional)
- Post #7: Reflection on Passion Project 2016 (Successes and Failures)
Expectations/prompts can be adjusted to fit the needs of your students. However, the idea is that every student is reflecting and documenting on their learning process after each session.
Connect With Others:
If you know other classes (local or globally) that are doing Genius hour, have your students connect with them. One way to do this is by implementing a concept like 'Genius Buddies' where students virtually connect with peers on a monthly basis throughout the span of their projects to share their progress and gain valuable feedback from others. This does not have to be students within the same grade level, connections can be made and feedback can be given from students of all grade levels.
Lessons Learned:
- Document everything!
- Allow students to change topic at any time
- Have open communication with administrators, colleagues and parents about the project
- Encourage colleagues, parents, and peers to engage in projects and comment via blogs
- Don’t focus too much on the grade
- Connect with others doing Genius Hour on Twitter and Google+
- Failure is an OPTION-it’s about the process not the final product!