Genius Hour

What is Genius Hour?

• Genius Hour is using 20% of the time in school on a project of the student's choosing
• It is time to be innovative
• The project must be researched, created, recorded, and presented to the class and to the world
• This is time for the students to find out what they're interested in

What does it look like in schools?

• Most teachers have Genius Hour on Fridays for 1-2 hours
• It is busy!
• Many things will be going on at once
• The community and school should be involved
• Sometimes experts come in to help guide students in a specific project
• Students are engaged

How does it work in the elementary level?

• Many elementary teachers are doing Genius Hour
• It is important the students know how to research
• Doing a PBL project or a research project before starting Genius Hour would help scaffold their learning

How to introduce Genius Hour
-Make it exciting
-Build the suspense throughout the week- but don't tell the students about it until you present it!
-Show inspiring videos
-Send a letter home to parents
-Give a few example projects
-Model the research process

Set expectations

• Make classroom expectations clear
• Students should set goals for themselves
• Set clear consequences for off task behavior
• Meet with students on a regular basis
• Students should check if they are on track to accomplish their goals

Choosing a topic

• It should be anything the student is interested in, as long as it's feasible
• Provide students with a list of ideas
• If anyone is stuck, give them a worksheet with question to get their brain going

Create a proprosal

• Students must make a proposal to present to the teacher and the class
• This should have their project idea, how they will do it, where they will get their resources, how they will research, and the end goal of their project.

Feasibility Study

• “The idea is simple… it tries to find out what might go wrong before it’s too late. You gather up everyone connected with a project and have them imagine that it launched and failed miserably. Now each write own the exact reasons for its failure" (Levitt & Dubner, Think Like a Freak)

Feasibility Study

• When the student is presenting their proposal they tell the class their idea
• The students will all brainstorm as a class all the possible ways the genius hour topic may fail
• From there the teacher and student will take that information and decide if their project is possible and not too hard.

Research Phase

• This must be modeled by the teacher before starting
• Books, podcasts, blogs and websites are all great resources
• This is usually the hardest stage for the elementary students

Recording data

• Each week students need to record what they're learning
• It could be a video, blog, journal, podcast, or more

Doing the project

• Expect it to be active/busy in your classroom!
• The students will need to bring in anything extra they need for their project
• Be the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage
• Make sure to have extra hands in the class to help

Present to the class

Present to the world!

• Encourage students to share with the world
• They could share on Facebook, a blog or podcast

How do I grade this?

• You don't!
• The students give themselves a grade
• This will be hard at first-but it will make the grading more authentic

Typical Problems

• Not enough support from school/home
• Lack of funds/supplies
• Research stage is passed over by students
• Teachers may not model well enough which make it hard to have a successful project
• The students may choose a project that isn't feasible

How to overcome problems

• Model, model, model everything before starting the first Genius Hour
• Ask family members or volunteers to come in and help at Genius hour time
• Assign jobs for each student for clean up time
• Make sure you are well prepared and understanding of the Genius hour process before introducing Genius hour.

Amazing resources!!

• http://www.geniushour.com/
• Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom: Using 20% Time, Genius Hour, and PBL to Drive Student Success By AJ Juliani
• Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level By Don Wettrick
• https://geniushour.wikispaces.com/
• http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=829279