Genius Hour
I find such value in the theory behind Genius Hour that no matter how many obstacles I am faced with, I will never give up on the idea of giving 20% of my instructional time to let their students explore their passions and curiosities. I am by no means an expert on implementing Genius Hour. This year I find myself wading the waters and seeing what will happen. With just one grading quarter under our belts, I have students starting campaigns for clean water in Africa, as well as fundraising for childhood cancer. These are the moments that make me feel connected and proud of my students. These ideas sprouted from their minds with no prompting of mine. How can one ever turn away the idea of Genius Hour when the products make such an impact on our world. On an even smaller scale, I had a student already make connections with beauticians she found on YouTube via Twitter. She did this all on her own...at home. Real life learning and self-motivation. Again, how can you say no? As their facilitator to Genius Hour, I need to work to expose them to more readings and technology tools relevant to their projects. I also need to work with some students on honing in on their passions, but I truly feel the students who struggle are not used to an educational system that lets THEM choose versus the teacher. I see great things coming from all of the students once they jump over that hurdle.
Donate to Colin's Clean Water Fund for Africa
Blended Learning Centers in Middle School
My 7th graders and I are going on a journey this year of a new learning experience with the implementation of technology, mobile furniture, and a flexible learning space. One of my goals has always been to implement elementary type learning centers into a middle school classroom, but I have always found the scheduling to be a hinderance. I am happy to say that my PLC partner and I have made great strides in planning student-directed learning stations in the form of choice boards, and now we are attempting actual physical learning spaces in our rooms that the students will rotate through each day for a period of 5 weeks or so (with the hopes of making it a more permanent classroom structure). Students will be utilizing their iPads to supplement the learning process, as well as provide clear-cut assessment data each day so I am able to plan my small group instruction accordingly. Creating learning centers has provided some obstacles as well, but we are working on cleaning up the management of the centers with the use of Google Forms and rubrics for students to self-assess each day. We will also post unit checkpoints in the form of "I can" statements around the room for students to track their progress. I have also found the Google Script titled "Doctopus" to be extremely beneficial in giving immediate feedback for writing assignments. Again, I feel it is a transition for students who are used to a traditional type classroom setting, so as we continue with this structure, we will continue to see growth in the student work and progress. One main thing to remember, obstacles are NO reason to give up, just reasons to grow.
Bringing Social Studies Alive
Ask any student (or even adult) what their most boring class was in school. Social studies. My goal as a social studies teacher is to bring the content alive. Even though adults say social studies was a boring class, they always say it would be their favorite subject as an adult. I would like to change this culture of a social studies classroom. No more simply reading from textbooks. Through the use of simulations, gamification, and role-playing, I have had some great feedback from my students on social studies class. Instead of reading about government types, we brought them alive by treating class as different forms of governments. My next step is to "gamify" our economics unit. Why not turn the classroom into different nations dealing with trade? Or how about a marketplace battling supply and demand? I have made some great connections with experts in this field, and I am excited to see where it goes. MinecraftEDU is also on my agenda for 2nd semester to supplement ancient civilization units.
Phew. This is why reflection is a good thing. Sometimes educators are so entranced in the day to day that they forget to look at the big picture. Success to me is hearing kids say "See.. this is why social studies is my favorite class". Or reading a blog about students enjoying a unit because "they could work at their own pace". And even better, working with a student today on setting up a campaign to bring clean water to Africa. That's what it's about.
Stop and reflect. Then continue forward. Because odds are, you ARE doing amazing things.
No comments:
Post a Comment