Genius Hour: The Beginning

During this summer I began researching ways to increase my students’ learning and engagement in my classroom. My research began because of the success I had while adding a project-based learning component to my sophomore English class the last couple of years. Students were motivated and highly productive at a time of year when students are typically exhausted from multiple rounds of testing. I knew I was on to something, but I wanted to figure out how this might work throughout the year.

My research led me to discover 20% time or Genius Hour. Read more here. The more I read about genius hour and exchanged tweets with my PLN, the more excited I became. This way of teaching was very different from what I had been doing the first 13 years of my career, but I was ready for the challenge. Also, I knew my students were ready, too. Thankfully, there are some great online resources and people willing to help newbies like me.

 I decided to try genius hour with my Writing 101 class, an elective course open to 9^th through 12^th graders. One class felt very manageable. If all goes well then I will expand to my other classes in the spring. When I looked at my school’s schedule, it made sense to choose Fridays as our genius hour days. I see my students every other day, so we would have genius hour about twice a month.  So, last Friday, August 30^th I kicked off genius hour. The first Friday was an introduction. I explained the concept to my students. We viewed several videos about creativity. The students formed groups and then brainstormed possible topics and products.

At first, they struggled with the brainstorming, only suggesting minimal, surface level questions and projects that could be completed in one sitting. I kept encouraging them to think deeper and to work on something they felt passionate about. All the while, I withheld the urge to offer suggestions. I wanted the students to do the work—not me. I told them to think outside the bounds of school assignments. Quietly, I was worried. Could my students do this? Were they too grade-conscious to explore a topic on their own? Had they been conditioned to only try to figure out what the teacher wanted them to do? We ended the class with nothing definitively set. No solid groups. No project ideas.

I left that first Friday a little frustrated and unsure of what to do next. Over the weekend, students began messaging me through our school Edmodo account with project ideas and research questions. They were thinking about this on a long, holiday weekend AND they were getting excited about it. The ideas they were pitching were incredible. Many of them were still looking for my approval, but I reminded them that the class needed to approve their project—not me. 

This Friday, September 6^th, our class met again for Genius Hour.  I told the students they needed to finalize their project ideas and pitch them to the class. Students quickly formed their groups and began working through the project proposal handout I gave them. Then the magic began to happen.

One student came up and said she wanted to get published this semester. Did I think that was possible? Another student came up and said she had always wanted to write a novel. One group came up and said they wanted to see if they could make bent-glass ornaments in the school. Could I give them permission to talk to an art and science teacher to see if the project was possible?  Another group came up and asked if they could go ask the FACON teacher to be their mentor on their sewing project idea.  Yet another group said they were going to write, direct, and film their own superhero movie.

My room was chaotic. Students were grouped around tables. Some were sprawled out on the floor. Some were out in the hallway working on their proposal pitch. One student brought in pop tabs to begin working on her project since she had already created her proposal the night before. All students, and I mean ALL, were engaged. It was messy, but productive.

The last 20 minutes of class, I asked the students to post their project ideas up using giant post-it paper. Then I asked the students to provide feedback for each of the proposals. I gave them small post-its and told them to use these three sentence starters for their feedback: “I wonder”, “I think”, and “have you considered”. I wasn’t sure if students would give useful feedback, but they really surprised me. They encouraged my super-shy novelist. They called out the class clown who pitched a project that would only take a few hours. They gave honest, fair feedback.

The bell rung and I stood in the hall to look at their work. I was stunned, pumped and crazy giddy. I felt a goofy smile spreading over my face. Then I called over several of my colleagues and asked them to look at what my students were doing. I even bothered my janitor. It’s going to be a great year.