Last year I really started to see Tweets and blog posts about #geniushour taking off in classrooms. No teachers at John Swett hopped on board and in truth I didn't promote to them either. I did start thinking about making a 'Creative Space' for kids to hangout and learn but nothing got off the ground.
Then last summer @MrsRocheJSE + @CKolb01 and I attended @EdcampMarin where we REALLY heard a ton about #geniushour and my two 5th grade teachers took off with the idea. It's spread to our 4th grade teachers ( @Sarahwood712 + @JenniferDeWeerd + @MsLeonardJSE ) and I have to say, they love it and so do the kids.
But listen.....#geniushour is SO much more than just #geniushour! Yes the kids are given freedom to research a topic of their choice, trying to solve a problem, answer a question, prove their parents wrong, etc. #geniushour give kids that entrepreneurial spirit and unleashes so many other amazing attributes of education.
- Creativity
- Utilizing Advanced Google Search to find the BEST possible search results
- Being philanthropic while looking for new ideas
- Connecting our school and teachers with some in a totally different county, wow! ( @pennpanthers + @mrsnewman014 + @mcandersen88 )
- It literally opens kids brains to a new way of thinking!
- It's Common Core on SO many levels!
- If you haven't tried it, Tweet the teachers listed in this post and they'll help you get started!
Below are just a few Tweets from yesterday afternoon during #geniushour time, enjoy!
Adam, I just recently started seeing your tweets on the #geniushour hash tag - and I love it that you published this post! Teachers need to see that Genius Hour isn't really just one hour, or one time during the week. They need to realize that it ultimately makes us look at learning and student engagement very closely. I have a post about how it's affected my days: http://geniushour.blogspot.com/2013/09/genius-hour-has-gotten-lot-of-attention.html It's not just one time during the week... it's infectious, and in a good way! Thanks so much for sharing this - we'll keep passing it along!
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