INFOhio Resources for Research

1) What is one thing you are already doing in your classroom that will make implementing Genius Hour easier?

When I taught 8th grade language arts, I would have students do webquests. Students have experience delving into technology to find resources and answers, so I think the Genius Hour would have been a natural progression for my students. 

2) What is one challenge you anticipate when implementing Genius Hour in your classroom? 

As with any other technical adventure I send students on, I worry about engagement. There are tools I can use to monitor student activity, but we know that inevitably some students will abuse the privilege of autonomous work. I think the engagement of Genius Hour helps mitigate some of that desire to go elsewhere. I think giving students the opportunity to pursue their passions helps keep students on task; however, it will take work on the teacher's end to scaffold this in a way that students respect the process. 

3) What steps will you take to overcome this challenge? 

As I stated above, I think there will need to be some scaffolding involved on the teacher's end. This isn't something you can just "throw" and students and expect them to just do it. I actually envisioned myself modeling this process for students - working through it together first. I think doing this will also help them foster an inquiry mindset.

1. What is one thing you are already doing in your classroom that will make implementing Genius Hour easier?  As a technology integration specialist, I don't technically have a classroom, but I could see genius hour being implemented during our advisory period.

2. What is one challenge you anticipate when implementing Genius Hour in your classroom?  I think the concept of genius hour is a paradigm shift more many teachers in that they must relinquish some control over the content they teach.  It is also important for teachers to have established routines and systems in place to support student choice in learning to keep students on track and accountable.  

3.  What steps will you take to overcome this challenge?  I think the Genius Hour worksheet provided for students to track their research and findings would provide some structure.  I also think that if teachers could encourage students to explore within their respective content area they would be more comfortable devoting class time to this sort of exploration.  

1. Multi-genre research papers can be reimagined with a Genius-Hour like focus. Having these common buckets for exploration makes it far easier to just letting the kids loose on a topic.

2. Making sure that there are attainable and flexible goals will help students move forward rather than frittering away their time (easy to get overwhelmed at this age).

3. Using a version of the Genius Hour worksheet to document progress should help, especially if it is attached to points.

I am an high school librarian, so I don't have a regular classroom of students coming in.  I work with classroom teachers to implement library resources and provide support for students when they are using library resources for projects.  I think that using the Library Learning Commons as a Genius Hour space for classroom teacher could be interesting.  Currently I work with an American History Teacher to create a more differentiated experience for her classes every Friday.  We teach the required concepts through Primary Source Gallery walks and source interpretation as well as webquests.  I think that using library resources for students to have time to exlpore their passions could be benefical - it could even be a good place to explore possible passions within different courses helping them to make more personal connection to the content and hopefully inspire students to be life-long learners when they discover these connections. 

I am only just now learning about this program.  

As the Librarian of the school I work with teachers, most who are always looking for new ideas and improved ways to help them with resorces for the students. 

I hope to be able to reach out to the teachers and students to explore all that this program has to offer.

1. What is one thing you are already doing in your classroom that will make implementing Genius Hour easier? I am intervention so the small group instruction for transition goals could be utilized.
2. What is one challenge you anticipate when implementing Genius Hour in your classroom? The challenge is not all students will have the transition goal if they don't turn 14 by the time their IEP is over in 6th grade.
3. What steps will you take to overcome this challenge? I will show the 7th grade how to utilize this area of the Genius Hour in terms of what they want to do.

I'm not currently a classroom teacher, but it can be a challenge to letting go and allowing students to work on passion projects If it takes time away from meeting the state standards. Teachers can make sure to implement the skills required for their classes into the projects the students are working on.