Antonella asked a genius hour question this morning:
@mrsdkrebs @JoyKirr @coolcatteacher @hughtheteacher @RobynThiessen What do u find the hardest aspect of #geniushour?
— Antonella albini (@antos_twitt) May 6, 2013
I answered with this:
@antos_twitt @JoyKirr @coolcatteacher @hughtheteacher @RobynThiessen I hope Ss would dig deeper into learning before jumping into a project.
— Denise Krebs (@mrsdkrebs) May 6, 2013
She asked me for further clarification:
@mrsdkrebs @JoyKirr @coolcatteacher @hughtheteacher @RobynThiessen apologies. not sure i understand r u saying ur high expectations?
— Antonella albini (@antos_twitt) May 6, 2013
I’m sure I can’t explain my convoluted thinking in a tweet, Antonella, so I thought I would try to expound here. This is not the first time I’ve been confused about genius hour.
When I began doing genius hour, I told students they could learn, create, or master a skill. I was inspired by Dan Pink’s three things that motivate — autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
It’s hard for us as teachers to let go and let students learn. I seem to go through these lapses in genius to try to control the learning environment, even during genius hour.
I really did mean it when I said they could “Do the Stuff.” Then a few months later when someone asked about doing something like physical education for genius hour, I said no. After further inspiration by Sir Ken Robinson and the encouragement of my PLN, I changed my mind and told J he could practice his physical intelligence.
So, today when Antonella asked about what the hardest aspect of genius hour is, I attempted to comment in a few short characters that I want them to research and learn more. (I guess that’s why I have been experimenting with researcher’s workshop in social studies and science classes. When we do researcher’s workshop, I explain it’s like genius hour within the confines of the content standards.)
During regular genius hour, sometimes students choose to create a video, or learn to edit photos, or bake, or create art or music. What I tried to tell Antonella this morning was I wanted them to learn, for instance, about an event in history and then make a video to show their learning. I guess I was again looking at the ideas of creating and producing for the learning of those skills as second-class genius hour.
Another example is that I’ve been trying all year to inspire students to take action in solving heart-breaking problems. I don’t want to try to force them to do that for genius hour, though. They have to choose to take action. Sometimes it happens when we least expect it.
I want to let them be productive and creative, but I forget. Like this morning when answering Antonella’s tweet without thinking.
Do I really trust that I can give up 20% of my control? Many people share this adage about Google Time: In 20% of the time Google gives them to work on projects of their choice, Google’s engineers have created 50% of the most popular Google products.
One thing I do know, students will someday look back and remember lessons learned during genius hour. I know it.
I’m not so sure they will remember much about the other 80% of their work in my classes.
