Genius Hour - Round 6

This week was very interesting. Students really started to think about their topics. I had 3 students approach me about changing their topics. While they were very excited about the topics, they realized through their research that some of them may have been not been going in the direction they had hoped for. I thought this was great! I was thrilled to see them thinking deeply about their topics and the direction they wanted to go with them.

To start Genius Hour, we read Going Places by Peter and Paul Reynolds. The kids really enjoyed this book, as they have all of our Genius Hour read alouds thus far.

Students got right to work researching and I began pulling them over to conference. Conferencing provided great one on one time that allowed me to teach the students where they are at and what they needed to learn from me at that time. For example, one student wants to conduct an interview. This is probably the hardest topic for me to wrap my head around out of all of the topics in our class. However, the little girls is SO EXCITED - that was the goal! We conferenced and decided that she would begin researching good interview questions and jotting them down. She wants to interview Katy Perry. We posted on her FB page and also sent her a Tweet from our class Twitter account. Fingers crossed - please reply Katy Perry!

My daughter attends a project based learning charter school in our district. She works within 6 week project cycles. During each cycle she is expected to research 60 facts on her topic from a variety of resources. This got me thinking about Genius Hour....when could students start working on their projects? I had not set any guidelines for them. Should I have? I decided to tell them that they needed at least 5 facts about their topic to start. We will evaluate after they have obtained 5 facts whether or not they should continue on researching.

Genius Hour 5

This week, we moved to the Library Research Center for a change of scenery. Our amazing Library Director, Ms. Davis, read us Anything is Possible by Giulia Belloni. The kids love listening to picture books during Genius Hour. Reading these inspirational books has made me realize that I do not read aloud to my class enough and am going to make time to do it more.

This week, was very eye opening to me, as I saw the powering of conferencing with individuals first hand. We came to the Library Research Center for a change of scenery and to take advantage of Ms. Davis' expertise in online Databases. She showed us how to use them and we went to work. Many kids had difficulty finding information about their topic in the databases. We practiced searching for related things. Students then went on to conduct more online searches using Google.

I encouraged students to take notes on anything exciting they found. As I walked around and checked on students' progress, I started jotting down notes that they dictated to me. I realized that this was something we would need to work on - note taking. Thus far, I had modeled it at the beginning of every Genius Hour class and throughout the week when we were working on other subjects. It was something that students struggled with and we would need to continue to practice.

I enjoyed conferencing and felt that it was extremely beneficial to students and so much more than just monitoring their progress. I was able to work one on one with students and guide them in their note taking and in generating questions. Side note - this month I participated in the #geniushour Twitter chat. Something I will be investigating is rightquestion.org to search for resources to help me ask thought provoking questions that encourage students to continue questioning. I will also be creating a form to track conferences.

We also discussed our experts. It was interesting to me that many students did not think past their families. I encouraged them to think BIG! We have the world at our fingertips via technology. It doesn't hurt to try, right? As one of my friends and colleagues says, "You won't receive unless you ask!"

Plan of attack for week 6: continue researching, conferencing, and generating lists of experts to contact.

*On conference sheet - include "expert" and "final project ideas".

Genius Hour - Take 4

This week, we kicked off Genius Hour by reading But I Read It on the Internet by Toni Buzzeo and Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey by Serge Bloch. Both great books and highly recommended! Buzzeo's book laid the ground work for great discussion about researching on the internet. Very appropriate for 3rd grade and they were all very engaged! In the book, the awesome librarian shares a "Gizmo" with students - a website evaluation tool. This is something I want to create for Genius Hour research for my kids. Need to think about it and how I want it to look... Perhaps even a half sheet of laminated paper with a checklist to refer to?

After our inspirational reads, we moved on to internet searches. We practiced searching for a topic and citing our source. In Buzzeo's book, the librarian teaches kids to check out the "URL". Today's GH goal: find one fact on and write it on a piece of loose leaf paper. Underneath your fact, write the URL. We practiced shortening it up a bit and only writing until the first slash. This seemed to work well with the kids.

After we searched on our Chromebooks for a bit, we took a shot at our new reflection page. Two simple questions:
1. What is one thing that went GREAT today?
2. What is one thing that was challenging today?

Heartbreak of the day, right here folks...

We then excitedly got our new folders. I gave each student a plastic, 3 pronged folder to keep their GH work in each week. Passing out folders and practicing putting our papers in was pretty exciting stuff! I really liked the folders and I think they will definitely help keep these third graders much better organized.

Overall, today's Genius Hour session went much smoother. Every single child was engaged and excited. I feel like that makes it a success in and of itself.

I have recruited my dear friend and Library Media Specialists for next week's Genius Hour....(insert music and dun, dun, dun sound). We are going to collaborate this week and decide - explore databases? Practice internet research? Practice book research?

Genius Hour 3

This week's Genius Hour Plan: Complete a Project Proposal. We first read two great books: The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and 11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill. The kids enjoyed them both. They especially loved 11 Experiments that Failed, as we have been conducting experiments about the states of matter.

Students were asked to complete the following questions:

• Name
• Date
• Topic
• My INQUIRY question will be (What are you wondering about?):
• Materials I need for my research (How do you plan to find the answer to your question?):
• How do you plan to show/share/present your research findings?
• Teacher Approval

By the end of last week, I had conferenced with each student and worked with them to create an inquiry question. This week, two students had completely forgotten their topics! Most of them did however, remember their exact question. Overall, students had difficulty answering these questions - even with modeling and assistance. Many students were demonstrating the exact reason that I wanted to implement Genius Hour - they were scared to take a risk. This task wasn't a workbook page or a defined set of problems, this was open ended and much more difficult for them. 

We worked on these proposals for most of the period. With about 15 minutes left, I asked students to complete the daily log reflection (posted last week). This was a complete flop. I am going to take off the "Notes" and "Resources" boxes and simply create a new form that focusing on reflection. The theme of Genius Hour Week 3 was - HOT MESS. I felt a little discouraged, but then remembered our classroom's precept of the month...

Genius Hour 2

Today we had our 2nd Genius Hour. We read The Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires and Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf by Olivia Bouler. Many of the kids had read The Magnificent Thing, which surprised me because I had not heard of it before exploring Genius Hour this summer.The kids LOVED both books. They were very engaged and amazed that an eleven-year-old girl wrote a book! Some got a twinkle in their eyes.... You could see them thinking, "Hey, I could do that!"

I then told the kids that we were going to continue brainstorming using our electronic "Wonder Wall" - a shared Google Doc. The kids were immediately excited - time to use their Chromebooks! They weren't quite excited about what we were actually doing yet. This was a great idea. Or, so I thought... The kids were not focused on brainstorming, they were very concerned about what other kids were doing and who was writing in their "box" (I created a table and each student was designated a box to brainstorm in). The shared Doc was also updating a little slowly and lagging in updating, which is completely understandable as there were 20 people using it at the same time! I decided to pull the plug about half way through and have the kids create their own Google Doc and share it with me. I told them to type in "Sarah Simac". They were amazed that I had a first name! The stress level in the room instantly decreased.

I want to note that before we began brainstorming, I told the kids that we would decide at the end of the period if we were going to do one group project or individual projects.

As our Genius Hour went on, the kids became more and more interested in their own ideas. I then began conferencing with each student. There were some kids that definitely needed more modeling and prompting through the brainstorming process. There were also some kids that completely blew me away. My favorite was a little girl who recently donated her hair to an organization that makes wigs for children with Cancer and other diseases. She wanted to learn, "How can I get other kids to cut their hair?" She will be making a PSA that we are going to share with the school and world on Youtube! I just finished individually emailing parents about their child's choice of topic for Genius Hour. The goal for next week: tweak our big QUESTION and work on a Project Plan. I also want students to reflect and complete our Genius Hour Project Log.

Genius Hour 1

Today marks the end of our first week of school, and what an amazing week it was! The students were eager to learn and ready to go! I have to note that this year, I believe the beginning of the week went exceptionally well. I am so lucky that I have taught this group in kindergarten, 2nd grade, and now 3rd grade! I have had over half of the students in class before. I have been fortunate enough to work with the rest of the students in other grade level activities. Needless to say, I not only know all of my students - I have relationships with them. I was not going to start Genius Hour this early in the year, but decided to jump right in!

On the 2nd day of school, the students carried their "Chrome Eggs" around. These were hardboiled eggs that we pretended were our Chromebooks. There were a lot of cracked "Chromebooks"; however, I believe the activity was extremely successful. We reflected as a class and came up with great lists of how to handle our Chromebooks appropriately and what not to do. The next day, students were given their Chromebooks and taught the basics. Today, they learned how to access Drive, how to create a Google Doc, and how to share a Doc with others. During this lesson a light bulb went off in my head... we would brainstorm on a shared Google Doc!

This afternoon, we started our FIRST Genius Hour! We began by watching and discussing a Prezi that I made - click HERE to view. We then looked up the word Genius and found the following definition:
: a very smart or talented person : a person who has a level of talent or intelligence that is very rare or remarkable

: a person who is very good at doing something
: great natural ability : remarkable talent or intelligence

We had a great discussion about what genius was, that led naturally into an in depth about passion and things that got us excited!

I had students fill out an interest survey:

Name: _______________________Date: ________________
Think FAST! What are 3 things you wonder about?
1._______________________________________________

2. .______________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________
What do you like to do most at home?
________________________________________________
What are your favorite hobbies?
________________________________________________
What are your favorite books or magazines?
________________________________________________
My Favorite:
Team: ______________________________________________
Game:  _____________________________________________
Animal:  ____________________________________________
Musical Group:  ______________________________________
Sport:  _____________________________________________
Subject in School:  ____________________________________

This was a great idea; however, it was overwhelming for some of my students who have difficulty reading and writing. I did write for some students, but decided to scrap it about half way through. I then opened up a Google Doc that I named "Genius Hour - Wonder Wall" and shared with students. Click HERE to view our shared Doc. Unfortunately, we only had about 10 minutes to work on the shared Doc and we had to go to P.E., Power Hour, then HOME! I did share the Doc with parents and invited them to check their child's progress and add ideas with their child whenever they'd like.

Excited for next week!

Student Reflection

Our elementary school currently uses a daily planner in grades 3-5 to record activities and assignments. True to the title of my blog, I have moved on up again. This year, I will begin my first 3rd/4th grade loop. I am very excited and could go on forever about that excitement, but back to reflection!

Our principal has already ordered us planners. Our PBIS committee has been brainstorming ways to incorporate a spot for our students to reflect on our expected behaviors: be safe, be responsible, and be respectful. Last year, one of our amazing teachers created and combined a planner and behavior reflection piece all into one. Using her planner would entail weekly copying for each student.

In an attempt to save resources and utilize our chromebooks (newly 1:1 in grades 3-5), I have created a google form. My thought is to make a copy of the form for each student, and share it with them and their families. This is a snapshot of the form, but not the entire thing. It also got distorted when taking the screenshot. There is an additional text response box for students to tell something they learned or something exciting from the day. I love this piece and am excited to use it as an exit ticket for students. We are meeting as a grade level next week, and I am excited to share this with my co-workers! Please feel free to offer any feedback or suggestions, thanks!