During a chat on #aussieED two weeks ago, several teaching colleagues were talking about an initiative called 'Genius Hour' and the amazing work that students had produced. Intrigued I went to the website www.geniushour.com and started to watch the videos, I was hooked. this was learning as it should be. Children choose a topic that they are interested in and work on a weekly project linked with that topic. I emailed my head with the link and spoke to Mike Fleetham @miketweetham on Twitter about it as I felt it was right up his street ( as they say in laymans terms). Mike loved it, my head loved it, so it was with great enthusiasm I started my first session with my children this week. I have a class of 33 Year two children of very mixed abilities and a majority of boys. Here is a very brief report on how the first session went.
I started the session by showing Dr. Seuss ‘The Places We’ll Go’ and asked the children what story or message the film was telling us. Through questioning and prompts the children said 'that it was about having dreams and overcoming problems'. I linked this to 'Genius Hour' and said this may happen to some of you over the next few weeks, but like in the video we must persevere. I then showed them this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o
Kid President (please watch it)
To help inspire the children (they loved it) then they looked at projects other children had done during Genius Hour, through a powerpoint, videos and blogs.
Children then went off and wrote down three things they were experts / interested in and ideas for projects linked to those (I have worksheet blanks and powerpoints if anybody is interested).
Here are a few that we have.
Leo - I Want to create a book with the history of Mario
Connor – I am going to make a lion pop up book
Bryson – Make a Batman cartoon film
Ashton – A website to teach you how to make the perfect milkshake.
Declan – A video showing people how to play video games
Harvey – Make a book about famous Youtubers
Emma – To make my own make-up using natural things
Jimmy – To make a football mini game
Steven – Invent a new Batman suit
Toby – A video game called ‘Dancing Dinosaurs’ !!!!!!
Bradley – A website about Red funnel ferries
Dolcie – Make a model of a dancer
Toby – Making a robot that does housework
Ewan – To make a fishing blog
Gracie – A guide to beating your brother or sister in a running race
Bonnie – Make a ‘Frozen 2’ movie
What surprised me was despite being the last hour on a Thursday afternoon, all children were engaged, there was not a child that couldn't think of an idea. The enthusiasm was great, while children were thinking of ideas and bringing them to me I was sharing them through mini plenaries. We finished by looking at our ideas and each child had to star the one project they would like to work on over the coming weeks.
Next week, I will be providing a bank of resources for the children to use but I am going to let them choose the best way to use the resources and begin to create their projects. Roll on next Thursday!!
I started the session by showing Dr. Seuss ‘The Places We’ll Go’ and asked the children what story or message the film was telling us. Through questioning and prompts the children said 'that it was about having dreams and overcoming problems'. I linked this to 'Genius Hour' and said this may happen to some of you over the next few weeks, but like in the video we must persevere. I then showed them this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o
Kid President (please watch it)
To help inspire the children (they loved it) then they looked at projects other children had done during Genius Hour, through a powerpoint, videos and blogs.
Children then went off and wrote down three things they were experts / interested in and ideas for projects linked to those (I have worksheet blanks and powerpoints if anybody is interested).
Here are a few that we have.
Leo - I Want to create a book with the history of Mario
Connor – I am going to make a lion pop up book
Bryson – Make a Batman cartoon film
Ashton – A website to teach you how to make the perfect milkshake.
Declan – A video showing people how to play video games
Harvey – Make a book about famous Youtubers
Emma – To make my own make-up using natural things
Jimmy – To make a football mini game
Steven – Invent a new Batman suit
Toby – A video game called ‘Dancing Dinosaurs’ !!!!!!
Bradley – A website about Red funnel ferries
Dolcie – Make a model of a dancer
Toby – Making a robot that does housework
Ewan – To make a fishing blog
Gracie – A guide to beating your brother or sister in a running race
Bonnie – Make a ‘Frozen 2’ movie
What surprised me was despite being the last hour on a Thursday afternoon, all children were engaged, there was not a child that couldn't think of an idea. The enthusiasm was great, while children were thinking of ideas and bringing them to me I was sharing them through mini plenaries. We finished by looking at our ideas and each child had to star the one project they would like to work on over the coming weeks.
Next week, I will be providing a bank of resources for the children to use but I am going to let them choose the best way to use the resources and begin to create their projects. Roll on next Thursday!!
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