Thoughts on Genius Hour

Late last year, I was introduced to the Genius Hour movement that was developed from one of  

Google's business practices. After talking with several educators, I decided to try it out in one of my Scout Time classes. What the students learned and produced through the course of this class completely blew me away.  

What is Genius Hour? 

I'll be honest here. Giving students free reign to create, investigate, and explore basically any topic that they want is mildly scary. Giving MIDDLE SCHOOL students this freedom is down right terrifying. Or, so I thought. 

When I introduced this idea, many students were really confused. "So, what do you want me to make?" "Do you want me to write a paper?" "Is this a powerpoint thing or something?" These were just some of the many questions that students had for me. Many of them could not grasp the concept that the only thing I required of them was CURIOSITY at its purest form. I wasn't going to tell them to write a paper, to create a presentation, or even FINISH what they started. I simply wanted them to figure out something that they were passionate about and let that passion guide them. 

It took a few weeks for students to feel totally comfortable with this idea, but once they really started to understand this concept, they soared. 

I had students teaching themselves how to play instruments, taking a dabble in coding, designing websites, photographing different things, writing letters asking businesses how they make products, raising money for a charity, etc. 

Not a single student chose to write a paper. Interesting. 

Of all the things I hope to carry with me into this new year, this concept of Genius Hour is definitely something I do not want to leave behind. This is one of the many reasons why I LOVE my profession!

Learning Lately

    A month ago, our class was given the incredible gift of iPads. These amazing devices have changed virtually everything about how I teach, and how my students learn information. Worksheets and book assignments have been replaced by movie trailers, Keynote presentations, and so much more. The students are excited to come to class, and for an English and math teacher, that is a huge win. There is still so much to learn, but I feel like we are on the right track.

    My Scout Time class called Explore the World created digital projects on a country of their choice. Instead of individually sharing in front of the class, we did an iPad walk through of each presentation. The things these students created were incredible.

- L

Going Google

       When I first heard about Google offering something called "Google Classroom," I was instantly intrigued. Since the entire district has gone "Google," I knew that the transition to this new format had the potential to be very easy. Even though it did not become available to us until after school had already started, my students had no problem transitioning into this new program once they had it available to them.

        Google Classroom has helped me transform how I teach. My tasks for each class period look drastically different than they did before. For students' warm ups, they get a laptop, log-in to classroom, and start writing on the question of the day. They know exactly how Classroom works, and they ask very few questions. Everything they write is turned in through Classroom, and students are starting to post questions for the rest of the class in the Classroom as well. It is so exciting to see them learning and connecting with each other on English topics!

         I have found that this year, more and more students are not on Twitter. I have been tweeting questions for my classes periodically, but only a few actually see them, and only a handful even have a Twitter handle. I have started using Google Classroom in the same way as I used Twitter last year. I think students like that everything they need for my class is in one spot.

         There is so much potential with this site. I'm excited to explore more ways to utilize it in my classroom.

Oh, and if you want some really fun writing prompts to use in your classroom, I have included a link to it below. Even though it's written for high school students, middle school students can benefit from these as well. Enjoy.

http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/post/32343377489/the-180-prompts-i-actually-use

Happy Thursday!
     - L

New Beginnings

    I often find myself the most exhausted during the first week of school. Not necessarily because I am swamped with lesson plans and paperwork, but because I am so excited for the new year that I can rarely sleep. It doesn't matter how many years I've been a student or how many years I've been a teacher- I still love the first days of school!

    This year looks a little different for me. Instead of teaching four different courses, I only have two that I am teaching. Even though I have less preps, I find myself even more busy than the previous years. Why? Technology. There are so many things "out there" that I want to try. After pondering and searching, I discovered that I needed to put some goals in place, so that I don't become too overwhelmed. On day one, I had computers in students' hands which was definitely a "win" for me. I'm really trying to focus on what I can do to make my classes more enjoyable. I know that a lot of my students spent most of their summers on a smart device of some sort. I don't want the beginning of the school year to also be a time where their technological engagement is shut completely down. I'm still playing around with what that looks like for the year.

    As far as new things go, I have come across some incredible apps and website that I will be using. I am teaching a class called Explore the World where I am am going to take students on several virtual field trips across the globe. A couple apps I especially LOVE are the Arounder app and the Geoguessr app. These are incredible! The Geoguessr app is a really great app that is set up in a guessing game format. The app drops you somewhere in the world and allows you to take a 360 degree look at your surroundings. You are then able to guess (right down to the city) where you think you are in the world. The closer you guess to the actual location, the more points you receive. I used this the first day as a whole class activity, and then as a group activity (with two iPads and two computers), and my students absolutely LOVED it! I highly recommend both apps.

    So I guess I am just really excited to try new things this year. I think the most exciting thing about technology is that you never really "arrive." It's not like I will ever get to a point where I can say, "Gee, I really don't have any more to explore." But, really, I guess that's true about all learning.

   Happy first week of school!

        -L

Apple Foundations Training Day #5 and Day #6

    As my time in the Apple Foundations Class comes to a close, it's hard for me to process through all of the thoughts and ideas that I have after all of this. I have learned so much, and I am in a whirlwind of ideas and project pieces.

     Today, I was challenged after watching this video about how we really should think about technology in our classrooms. I was encouraged by the emphasis on quality teaching, and that technology without good lessons is meaningless. If you have some time, I would highly encourage you to watch and re-watch the video below. Prepare to be inspired.





     I created a presentation using Haiku Deck with some of my thoughts after watching the video. Feel free to check it out!

Educational Challenge- Haiku Deck
   
     I am so very grateful that I work for a district that offers not only the technology you need to support your classroom, but also offers the professional development needed to really understand and utilize these great pieces of technology correctly.

     Education is changing and changing fast. Even though it is a little scary to think about where we will be even in the next two years, I hope that we decide to view these changes as exciting. Just think about all the new ways we can reach kids and really prepare them for the future. Each year, we are entrusted with developing and challenging several world-changers. I don't know about you, but I don't think we can afford to take this huge responsibility lightly.

Apple Foundations Training Day #4

     When people talked about creating iBooks, I always thought "How in the world do they have time for that?" Creating a whole book just to teach a certain lesson differently seemed a little drastic. When the tech trainers told us that we would be creating iBooks in day #4 of AFT, I was forced to actually look at the app. I'll be honest, I liked what I saw! I still was skeptical, though. I was trying to figure out how I could possibly use it in my classroom, and it still seemed like a  whole lot of work. I put my headphones in, grabbed my English curriculum, and went to town. A couple hours later, I had this amazing grammar book that was both interactive and FUN!

     My goal for this AFT is to try to make grammar more entertaining and meaningful for my students. I think that iBooks could be a valuable piece of this puzzle. I never want to be a teacher that tells students to open up their books and lecture them on things that are right in front of them. I'm just not that type of teacher. I'm still not an expert in all things iBook, but I'm excited to start using it in my classroom.

Until next time,

L

Apple Foundations Training Day #3

     I don't know how everyone else feels about Powerpoint, but I think it is so ten years ago! I try to avoid Powerpoint, because I can see the effect they have on students. It's like the moment you pull up a Powerpoint, the eyes of the students sitting in front of you glaze over. Today in AFT, we have been focusing on all things Numbers, Keynote, and Pages. Since I am forcing myself to just focus on English during this training, I focused primarily on Pages and Keynote. My head is
still spinning from all the different ideas I have with using these two tools in the classroom. I think of them as a Microsoft revamping, and I LOVE it!

     The first thing I worked on today bulldozing and rebuilding my very "wordy" parent letter for the beginning of school. I have included my "before" and "after" below.

   

Before

After

                           

     This afternoon, I really started to dig into grammar curriculum. I decided to ditch the whiteboard, Powerpoints, and worksheets and dive straight into creating a presentation using keynote. After lots of playing and toying around, I finally produced my intro lesson to my nouns unit. It's far from perfect, but I'm learning to be okay with imperfection. 

Until tomorrow!

-L