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!