Reflections on the first minutes of Genius Hour

New school year, new beginning!


Last year, I tried my very first genius hour and it was such a success that I decided to work on it for my final project.




[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="300"]_mg_2014 Cocochewy.fr via https://www.facebook.com/ChewyPhotos[/caption]

My plans were ready and I was hoping to follow this quiet path!


The brainstorming of the ideas went very well and we had a lot of topics to choose from.


I was concerned that this part of the project took a lot of time but my students were quick to pick up a topic and confident on how to approach it.


When my grade 5 students came into the classroom for the first session, I was delighted to use the new devices that the school acquired!




[caption id="attachment_459" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Photo by M. Brutel Photo by M. Brutel[/caption]

Why Genius hour in French class


Authenticity, engagement and students’ voices


It first brings authenticity in the classroom. And authenticity means purpose and engagement. That’s one of the main reason I choose this project. Conversations and discussions are always better and more passionate when my students choose the topic.


This well-known RSA animate: Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us from Dan H. Pink really explains best why choose Genius Hour.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/15488784[/vimeo]


New relationships with my students


Since we started the project, it feels like I know my students better and they know me better. Learning with them and along them changes the way we interact, we talk to each other. I’m no longer the leader (what I believe I never was) but a coach. To use Genius Hour effectively, get all your pieces together and ready to go so that you can use your valuable face-to-face time with the students. Your job is to coach and advise them through the process.


Genius Hour is personalized education as Nichole Carter explains in Genius Hour and the 6 essentials of personalized education.



Dual role teacher

Learn about your students

Create a culture of collaboration

Create an interactive learning environment

Build flexible pacing but with structure

Create authentic assessments

Digital literacy


Did it ever happen to you? You look up for information on the Internet, your read just the headlines of an article and you feel like an expert, like you know a lot! My students are no different!


With the Internet, we really have the world’s knowledge at fingertips. However, I’ve asked them to search deeper on their topics and while doing so I also teach them how to be safe online. The first links that came up may be not enough.


After each session, my students have to log their searches, their thoughts, their reflections and what comes next.


So far, journaling really helps them deeper their thinking and their understanding.




[caption id="attachment_460" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Photo by M. Brutel Photo by M. Brutel[/caption]

When the unexpected happened!


Too much freedom (risk-taking?) can be scary at times! I experienced it with one of my students. At the end of the second session, this student burst into tears:” I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to start, I don’t know what you want me to do!” I was so surprised that I felt like…bursting into tears too!!!


After some comforting words, I was saved by the bell. My student went to recess meanwhile I reached the Genius hour community. What I read and what teachers told me reassured me that it happened (and that I could expect some projects to fall through)


Next lesson, I started over with my student taking all the time he needed. I wanted to make sure that he understood what Genius hour was and I showed him some examples of what has been done already, explaining step by step how Genius hour could be built.


Learning is not easy task but it should always be fun!


Related topics


A.J. Juliani


Genius Hour


Joy Kirr’s live binder


Credit photos: Featured and top, photo under copyright used with the owner permission cocochewy.fr, https://www.facebook.com/ChewyPhotos
Middle and down : M. Brutel


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

de-VICES: how many are enough?

Image
Where am I now? [caption id="attachment_426" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by eSeL.at https://flickr.com/photos/eselat/5891486456 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license[/caption] While writing my posts for Course 4, I had a feeling of déjà vu ! So I went back to the Course 1 posts as it’s where the déjà vu comes from. What has changed for me? My use of technology was mainly teacher-centered. In my post TIOM Try It On Monday, I explained that I used my IWB as a TV screen, the SMART Notebook software for interactive game and “Plickers”. Since then I have introduced my students to “Quizzlet” that they play on the IWB and to “Kahoot”. That’s for the teacher part. I like those tools as the students are still very excited about it. At first I thought it was because it was new but the excitement and the engagement are still there! No, what has really changed is my way of thinking: it's me, technology and the students. I've re
Read more

One small step for the digital world, one giant leap for me!

Image
By now, we all have a digital footprint but is it a good thing or a bad thing? No need to look for a very long time to understand that every thing we do on the Internet is stored somewhere. We kept on hearing and reading that “The Internet is forever” . For me it seems that the Internet is the villain of the piece. If we misinterpret the message that the media send we could understand that the Internet is not a safe place, and that everybody knows everything about anybody including me! It also seems that even if I would stop right away to go online, erase all my accounts and activities, it wouldn’t be enough. That’s too late! Because all my friends would have post things about me. Should I become paranoid and should I feel worried about that? Shouldn’t I think the opposite? In the 21 st century, wouldn’t it be worst to not have a digital footprint at all? [caption id="attachment_95" align="aligncenter" width="186"] Image by Penny Bentley -Digital Footpri
Read more

Respect my privacy, hide my face!

Before starting my readings for this post, I was sure that I was fully managing my digital profile and therefore my privacy was respected. What makes me think that? As I explained in a previous post, ten years ago, I was a wannabe journalist. To promote myself I joined LinkedIn . As I wanted to grow my professional network and that I was on the look out for job opportunities, I used it to show case my works. So it made sense for me to be very careful about what to post online. Every once in a while, I checked my digital profile to make sure that I was easy to find and that there were no confusion. My full name is not that common. If you searched for it you were likely to find my LinkedIn profile and some articles that I wrote years ago. At the end of the search, you’d probably find this funny cartoon character from Brazil. This Magali has a passion for food! And then my surname gave approximate results with “brutal” so it linked to lots of news website. No worries that it could be me!
Read more