Genius Hour Teach Thought

Ed reform and technology integration are topics I post about frequently.  The idea of genius hours combines both of those passions.  Genius hour evolved from the 20% time that Google employees had to work on independent projects to find solutions to bugs, issues or processes in their products.  20% time birthed many Google products over the years like Gmail, Ad Sense, Google talk and many others.   Educators have adopted the 20% time philosophy into their classrooms in the form of genius hours where students are able to work on independent projects that interest them.  This article on the Teach Thought is part 2 of the series (part 1 here ) discussing the design and planning of genius hour projects and what the authors call passion based learning.

Whenever I consider a new project, activity, or ed reform, I always ponder, “would I want this for my daughter and her school?”.  Genius hours allow kids to work on a topic of interest in an engaging activity like blogging, making movies or PSAs, animated cartoons, etc.  An opportunity for kids to get away from the “sit and get” while pursuing their passions in application based activities is the one of the goals of the Common Core standards.  Genius Hour activities can easily leverage the tech tools of the day, including Google Apps and many other free web based resources.  We have just run through our first round of some genius hours at some of our sites led by one of our awesome site coaches, Irene Valdez.  Students at Spanos, Skills, and Henry schools, investigated personally selected questions of study about forests and ecosystems which tied into field trips the classes would take later this year. The students investigated their questions and areas of interest and then presented their findings to their class.  This open ended activity is very different than what our students have been experiencing in class during the years of NCLB and some structure was needed to help scaffold and guide the students, much like what Google has recently instituted with the 20% time for their employees.  Would I want my daughter to have the ability to participate in genius hour?  Yes!  I cant wait to see what round 2 produces at our schools.