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.