credit to: http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/creativity/
Class Lessons: What do Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs all have in common? Well, these are some of the people that Division 2 students thought were geniuses. What characteristics do my students think they have in common? Student responses: creativity imagination passion intelligence never give up hard working determination This is how I began our lesson yesterday: "Imagine being able to choose your own subject to study, your own project ...pick whatever it is that you want to learn and work on this during class time." Immediately I felt the bubbling of excitement from my students and I knew I had made the right choice in trying Genius Hour. I asked my students to take the evening to think about their passions, interests and skills; re-watch their Passion Animotos that were done earlier in the year , and to think about their personal 'sentences'. I felt fairly confident that they were going to make decisions on their topics that night. Today I asked them to turn and talk about what they thought 'being a genius' means. Then they assessed their own traits using the self-assessment rubric, originally created by genius teacher, Denise Krebs. I wanted to use this as a pre and post assessment tool. I showed the kids two video clips (see below) I found from Hugh MacDonald's class site. Then I asked them how many had changed their minds about what project they were thinking about doing. About half the class put up their hands. Their weekend homework was to share their ideas and ask questions on our class site, ready to commit to one idea for next week. Lily asked if it had to be one of the school subjects and I replied, "No it doesn't need to have anything to do with school. Hmm, now I wonder if that was going too far. Then another responded, " I don't suppose I can bring my horse to school..." This is the conversation I see so far: Ms W's First Reflections: How I feel? Yes, I finally decided to take the plunge and dive into the world of Genius Hour! It is a tad daunting, because it is something I haven't tried...not that I fear trying new things (my colleagues know that I am always doing this)...but I know that I am heading to relatively unknown murky waters. I will have less control of the outcome and I am anxious about the self-direction and motivation of some of my students. That said, I just feel that this is the right thing to do for my students. They deserve this chance to play, to dream, to create and well just to put it simply...to 'muck about'. I have learned in my 25 years of teaching that it is way more rewarding as a teacher and for my students to ride the waves of paradigm shifts and new initiatives when they are changes for the better. I know I have much more studying to do on the topic but I am impressed by what I have read and watched to date, for example, Angela Maiers and Sir Ken Robinson. My students are familiar with choice in the representation of their learning, with project and inquiry-based learning and are dipping their toes into the sea of AFL, taking more responsibility for the awareness and direction of their own learning. I love trying new things but usually feel a greater sense of adequacy...I do have the philosophical connection though. At the beginning of the year we all produced passion animoto projects with our 'sentence' at the end. Believe me, there were no moans about this homework! Here are these passion projects. What a great way to get to know my students. It also gave me a glimpse of the power of students choosing their passions and identifying their skills. I will continue to document my reflections through this blog while traveling on this journey. Who inspires? My genius support network helped me get started. I love, love, love working and learning from the Hillcrest grade 6/7 genius leaders: Mrs M, Mr. H, Mrs. V, and Ms F, who are always willing to listen, share and collaborate. I have also received guidance, knowledge and support from 'genius' administrators such as Lynn Robertson, David White and Yrsa Jensen. I have always valued adapting ideas from my primary teaching colleagues and have learned a great deal from teachers like Gail, Carla, Laura and Laurel. The online support from teacher leader geniuses has been invaluable, especially in our district, Gallit Zvi and Hugh MacDonald, and from the past, those leaders who I have worked with and learned from, such as Joanie D, Kathy P, Leah C, Joanne H and Robin F, to name a few. There are also those in cyberspace, whom I feel I know personally because of their Twitter and blog posts over the past year. As well, there are endless edublogs, Tedtalks and articles to read and listen to. From the abundant professional opportunities, (for my own sanity), I had to pick and choose the few to attend...beginning at the end of last August when colleagues met in our library over juice and shared their thoughts about Dan Pink's book, Drive, and among other topics, discussed passion-based learning, then attending an after school talk by Shelley Wright on her inquiry-based projects, attending an after school district dinner meeting with speaker George Couros and most recently attending Gallit and Hugh's workshop on Genius Hour on our STA Convention day. Next steps:
Continue to read the discussion of ideas and prepare how students choose their genius projects. Kids come up with the greatest ideas. Here is the latest from Lily Seattle, "For my genius hour I'm going to take requests from my fellow classmates and ask for a very detailed description of what they want and I have to make it just like they described. The reason I chose this is that if I get a job making art for other people that pay me, I can get some experience from this. I will have 3 open "commission" slots and once I finish one I will take a request from the next person that asks (or if I make a list)" It looks like Denise Krebs' resource will be helpful. I feel like I am starting a new and exciting adventure...now how many people can say that about their jobs after 25 years!
2 Comments
Mr. Muffin
5/13/2013 04:05:45 pm
So, do we do same reflection you just did?
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the boss
5/26/2013 05:26:26 am
Hey Mr. Muffin,
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