Brandi Gibson These ideas help facilitate learning because children are encouraged to think about things on a deeper level. They are able to question and try to find the answer to who, what, where, why, and how questions. Students are able to figure out what interests them and as a result they are more engaged and take ownership in their learning. I agree with these practices and think that they are fantastic. These things also help facilitate cooperative learning, learning how to deal with people's different views and opinions, and teaches children how to resolve conflict and work with others in a positive manner. I don't know that it would work in our building at this point. Sometimes teachers are resistant to change because they have an idea like this one: "We've done things this way for years, and things have always worked out fine. " A lot of time people don't like to put the work into an idea, or they don't agree with a person's philosophy. I think until we are able to get everyone on board and thinking outside the box, people will resist the idea of change. For example, I did some "radical" things in my classroom structure the last part of the year, and teachers were not happy with the direction I decided to go in. It took some serious convincing and some radical learning results with my students to help convince the staff that this was the best way to teach my students.
When individuals have time to investigate and dig out information, it becomes learning that is retained, which can be built upon. State assessments tend to drive curriculum and we’re in a hurry to teach new concepts without giving students time to explore and learn independently. I think “genius hour,” Google work, and Makers Ed. would all be great practices to employ at school. Students have time to think and derive at information at a greater depth than when we “stuff” it into them. The only way any of these would work in our building is for the majority of teachers to buy in to the concepts. Plus, the administration would have to be a strong supporter to enforce the practice.
Students spend so much time on learning what we feel is important, that some lose sight of their passions. Giving students time to connect with their passions while planning, researching, writing, and presenting is time well-spent. They are given the time to apply the skills in a way that is meaningful to them. My son’s teachers have implemented genius hour for his class. He is so excited about it. He talks about this time of day more than any other class. Paul Solarz mentions genius hour in his book "Learn Like a Pirate;" he thinks that his students are more focused and driven during the week because they get to work on their project for a few hours on Friday. I’m a proponent. I’ve seen the start of the process; I'm curious if at the end everyone still feels it's successful.
I do believe it is important for students to have the time to investigate and produce their own learning but I can not seem to get that time built into my schedule! The closest I have come to this is when we do projects at end of every unit. Even then that is more structured to a specific outcome and not truely a free investigative time for independent learning. I have heard of Google Lounge from my principal. He did talk about how the employees of Google can go to the lounge and do nothing but plan, create, and invent. They can spend several hours there collaborating with other employees. My principal hs taken this idea and structured some of our inservices in a similar fashion. For example our inservice in March before spring break- in the afternoon he had designated sites around the school that teachers could go to for more learning in a certain area. I went to the one on Discovery Ed. Teachers were in charge of these sites and other teachers could go and learn from them. He called it KMS Cafe. We have done this in past inservices not knowing a connection to Google Lounge. I would like to create a Genius Hour in my class and a Google Lounge type environment. But I am not convinced that my middle school kids would do anything that didn't involve You Tube! It would, unfortuately, have to be heavily structured and then that probably would take away from the independent investigative piece! This reminds me of the school fairs I had when I was in school, science and social studies fairs. That practice is almost non-existant here!
My personal third grader is in a classroom where they are trying genius hour and a maker's space this year. She is excited and enthusiastic about having this time and I'm sure will make good use of it. I'm not sure I could say the same for my boys at the same age. I think they would have had to have guidelines for accountability, and guidance towards resources that could spark some higher level ideas. So many of the students we serve have strengths and interests outside of the three R's and this could give them an opportunity to share some of their skills and be recognized for their strengths.
I think that students learn better when they are learning something of value or interest. New for me this year is trying something similar to “genius hour.” In my classroom I have the students work on Passion Projects (stole the idea from Learn Like a Pirate). Since they do the passion projects every three weeks on a topic of their choice with little direction from the teacher, it is similar to the “genius hour.” My students have completed 9 successful passion projects this year and will hand in their final one in two weeks. Getting started was challenging since I had never done anything like this before and neither had the students. Tons of direction was given on the first project, but after a while they got the hang of it and it goes very smoothly now. Other teachers in my building were a little surprised that I have let the students have so much say over these projects but after sharing some of the results they seemed impressed at what my students were able to accomplish.
I think that time to investigate and produce facilitates learning, specifically student led learning, because they are teaching themselves and becoming more independent. They have to actively participate and focus on what they are doing, thus taking ownership of their learning. Many students, especially kinesthetic/hands-on learners, benefit greatly from this because it is not the traditional learning style of notes and lecture. Being responsible for the task requires them to be able to understand what they are doing beyond the surface level, taking them to a deeper level of learning.
I love the idea of Genius Hour and am doing something like it with my Study Skills students - they have to work as a group to design their own school system. I think that this level of critical thinking and creativity is phenomenal for students as it directly corresponds with learning in the real world. For our school, and most school early in developing programs like this, there would need to be a significant amount of structure (especially depending upon the maturity of the students involved). However, I do believe that students could eventually be responsible enough to function independently during this time.
I think that time to investigate and facilitate are a great idea. I especially think of SPED kids at this point because it would be a different type of learning that would not involve only reading or listening to a lecture. It involves more of a hands-on situation and the students would enjoy that.
I think these types of ideas are great. Students get to use prior knowledge and build on it.I think they would work well in our building if they were more of a teacher led program or a program for specific students. Some students would take the time and make it useful to work on a project and some students would use this time as a time to mess around and get in trouble. It would be a very useful tool though I believe if the time was used in the correct way and the students used it appropriately.
Anytime a student makes a product and it either works or does not work they learn from the process. My own boys have built various ramps for their bicycles, scooters, skateboards, etc. over the years. They have had some failures and wrecks, but it increased their knowledge and they have investigated other ways to construct the ramps. I had a similar experience in my death counseling group today. I wanted to cover the stages of grief and found a lesson in one of my books I liked. When I implemented it, it was less than successful. I think the content is still important for the students to know, but when I do another group I will find another method to present it.
I like the idea of a genius hour, but think it would be extremely difficult to implement in a school setting. I don't see it being truly successful without quite a bit of structure, but as more structure is provided you lose some of the benefits. Another reason I think it would be harder to implement in a school setting, is in a work environment everyone has similar interest and a similar goal. That is not true in a general education classroom.
I feel like giving students time to investigate and produce facilitate learning by giving them the opportunity to take more ownership in the learning process. They’re able to choose something they’re passionate about, direct how the research is going to look, and really dig down deep into the matter, rather than being told exactly what they need to do and how they need to do it. I think this also helps to facilitate learning because whatever the student chooses to do will likely be something meaningful to them, which will further assist with retention and transfer of the various concepts learned.
I think practices like Genius Hour, Google Work, and Makers Ed. would all be very beneficial to students, but I’m not sure how it would work out in some of the buildings I work in. Often times when it comes to implementing anything new, the first concern that gets brought up is time. Even though I think these things could somehow be incorporated into what teachers are already doing, I’m not sure it would be well received. Also, I can see some teachers who wouldn’t want to give up that much control to their students for fear they couldn’t be as productive as the teacher would like.
I think that Genius Hour is an awesome idea to facilitate learning. Our students spend a lot of time at school and at home learning what we tell them to because they will need to know it for a test but never learn about a lot of things that are out there. How many people do you know that grew up in Kansas but went to be a Marine Biologist somewhere? Probably none because that's not something that we learn much about in school out here. If we give students the opportunity to learn about things that are of interest to them during a Genius Hour chances are they will be more willing to learn the things that we deem necessary for them to learn. I think it's a great way to increase their productivity and still encourage them to be individuals.
How does time to investigate and produce facilitate learning? Time to investigate and produce facilitates learning because it allows time to use higher level critical thinking skills. Investigating allows us to analyze information to see if it is relevant reliable; which aids in comprehension and retention of material learned. Producing shows that we understand and can apply what we learned. Genius hour sounds like a great program, but difficult to use at the elementary level. With all programs, it is important to see if it applies to the audience who is going to use it. It is also important to see if it reliable and going to be used majority of staff.
Time to investigate and produce facilitates learning because it allows students to think outside the box; to think about a topic of interested and learn about it. It allows students to research interesting things in their world and make it applicable to their life. This facilitates learning because it uses all the senses, it uses all of their prior knowledge and current knowledge, and it allows them to use higher level thinking skills as they are working. Ultimately,that is the goal for all of our students,isn't it?
I think the ideas sound so cool; however, I think for some students it would be incredibly difficult to complete. Some students have a difficult time writing in a journal because they "don't know what to write about." I'm afraid that those same students would struggle with the genius hour because they wouldn't know what to investigate and would need lots and lots of guidance. At my level, I don't know that it would go over very well with some of the teachers in the building. At the upper level, I think it could be really neat!
By providing students with time to investigate, you are giving students the time and ability to become their own teachers and pursue their own learning. By providing students with a time to produce, you are providing structure to their learning, which helps them better understand what they know, questions they have, and ways to overcome obstacles. Like the example of the student staring off into space, "thinking," the use of production holds the student accountable for learning rather than just "thinking" about a topic for the whole time.
Genius hour sounds great! By providing students with time to research and learn things that interest them and produce solutions to problems, you are asking students to use many important skills. It also gives the students a vested interest and a reason to learn. I think that a program like this could work in any school or setting, provided there is clear structure and planning on the part of the teacher. The text does a good job pointing out that simply giving students genius hour without providing structure will probably look more like free time than a time of deep learning and acquisition. I would think that this would be something that would require a great deal of work on the teacher's part.
We learn best and remember longer when we are interested in what we are learning. Proving opportunity, though Genius Hour, for our students to work on their own learning could help them develop ownership and would more likely result in their being lifelong learners who don't have to be spoon fed and regurgitate information. However, the students we work with would have to be explicitly taught the skills and expectations needed to be productive. With mature individuals, such as Google engineers, oversight might not be needed, but the students in our public schools would require an oversight component as a form of accountability.
Brandi Gibson
ReplyDeleteThese ideas help facilitate learning because children are encouraged to think about things on a deeper level. They are able to question and try to find the answer to who, what, where, why, and how questions. Students are able to figure out what interests them and as a result they are more engaged and take ownership in their learning. I agree with these practices and think that they are fantastic. These things also help facilitate cooperative learning, learning how to deal with people's different views and opinions, and teaches children how to resolve conflict and work with others in a positive manner. I don't know that it would work in our building at this point. Sometimes teachers are resistant to change because they have an idea like this one: "We've done things this way for years, and things have always worked out fine. " A lot of time people don't like to put the work into an idea, or they don't agree with a person's philosophy. I think until we are able to get everyone on board and thinking outside the box, people will resist the idea of change. For example, I did some "radical" things in my classroom structure the last part of the year, and teachers were not happy with the direction I decided to go in. It took some serious convincing and some radical learning results with my students to help convince the staff that this was the best way to teach my students.
When individuals have time to investigate and dig out information, it becomes learning that is retained, which can be built upon. State assessments tend to drive curriculum and we’re in a hurry to teach new concepts without giving students time to explore and learn independently. I think “genius hour,” Google work, and Makers Ed. would all be great practices to employ at school. Students have time to think and derive at information at a greater depth than when we “stuff” it into them. The only way any of these would work in our building is for the majority of teachers to buy in to the concepts. Plus, the administration would have to be a strong supporter to enforce the practice.
ReplyDeleteStudents spend so much time on learning what we feel is important, that some lose sight of their passions. Giving students time to connect with their passions while planning, researching, writing, and presenting is time well-spent. They are given the time to apply the skills in a way that is meaningful to them.
ReplyDeleteMy son’s teachers have implemented genius hour for his class. He is so excited about it. He talks about this time of day more than any other class. Paul Solarz mentions genius hour in his book "Learn Like a Pirate;" he thinks that his students are more focused and driven during the week because they get to work on their project for a few hours on Friday.
I’m a proponent. I’ve seen the start of the process; I'm curious if at the end everyone still feels it's successful.
I do believe it is important for students to have the time to investigate and produce their own learning but I can not seem to get that time built into my schedule! The closest I have come to this is when we do projects at end of every unit. Even then that is more structured to a specific outcome and not truely a free investigative time for independent learning.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of Google Lounge from my principal. He did talk about how the employees of Google can go to the lounge and do nothing but plan, create, and invent. They can spend several hours there collaborating with other employees. My principal hs taken this idea and structured some of our inservices in a similar fashion. For example our inservice in March before spring break- in the afternoon he had designated sites around the school that teachers could go to for more learning in a certain area. I went to the one on Discovery Ed. Teachers were in charge of these sites and other teachers could go and learn from them. He called it KMS Cafe. We have done this in past inservices not knowing a connection to Google Lounge.
I would like to create a Genius Hour in my class and a Google Lounge type environment. But I am not convinced that my middle school kids would do anything that didn't involve You Tube! It would, unfortuately, have to be heavily structured and then that probably would take away from the independent investigative piece!
This reminds me of the school fairs I had when I was in school, science and social studies fairs. That practice is almost non-existant here!
My personal third grader is in a classroom where they are trying genius hour and a maker's space this year. She is excited and enthusiastic about having this time and I'm sure will make good use of it. I'm not sure I could say the same for my boys at the same age. I think they would have had to have guidelines for accountability, and guidance towards resources that could spark some higher level ideas. So many of the students we serve have strengths and interests outside of the three R's and this could give them an opportunity to share some of their skills and be recognized for their strengths.
ReplyDeleteI think that students learn better when they are learning something of value or interest. New for me this year is trying something similar to “genius hour.” In my classroom I have the students work on Passion Projects (stole the idea from Learn Like a Pirate). Since they do the passion projects every three weeks on a topic of their choice with little direction from the teacher, it is similar to the “genius hour.” My students have completed 9 successful passion projects this year and will hand in their final one in two weeks. Getting started was challenging since I had never done anything like this before and neither had the students. Tons of direction was given on the first project, but after a while they got the hang of it and it goes very smoothly now. Other teachers in my building were a little surprised that I have let the students have so much say over these projects but after sharing some of the results they seemed impressed at what my students were able to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI think that time to investigate and produce facilitates learning, specifically student led learning, because they are teaching themselves and becoming more independent. They have to actively participate and focus on what they are doing, thus taking ownership of their learning. Many students, especially kinesthetic/hands-on learners, benefit greatly from this because it is not the traditional learning style of notes and lecture. Being responsible for the task requires them to be able to understand what they are doing beyond the surface level, taking them to a deeper level of learning.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of Genius Hour and am doing something like it with my Study Skills students - they have to work as a group to design their own school system. I think that this level of critical thinking and creativity is phenomenal for students as it directly corresponds with learning in the real world. For our school, and most school early in developing programs like this, there would need to be a significant amount of structure (especially depending upon the maturity of the students involved). However, I do believe that students could eventually be responsible enough to function independently during this time.
I think that time to investigate and facilitate are a great idea. I especially think of SPED kids at this point because it would be a different type of learning that would not involve only reading or listening to a lecture. It involves more of a hands-on situation and the students would enjoy that.
ReplyDeleteI think these types of ideas are great. Students get to use prior knowledge and build on it.I think they would work well in our building if they were more of a teacher led program or a program for specific students. Some students would take the time and make it useful to work on a project and some students would use this time as a time to mess around and get in trouble. It would be a very useful tool though I believe if the time was used in the correct way and the students used it appropriately.
Anytime a student makes a product and it either works or does not work they learn from the process. My own boys have built various ramps for their bicycles, scooters, skateboards, etc. over the years. They have had some failures and wrecks, but it increased their knowledge and they have investigated other ways to construct the ramps. I had a similar experience in my death counseling group today. I wanted to cover the stages of grief and found a lesson in one of my books I liked. When I implemented it, it was less than successful. I think the content is still important for the students to know, but when I do another group I will find another method to present it.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a genius hour, but think it would be extremely difficult to implement in a school setting. I don't see it being truly successful without quite a bit of structure, but as more structure is provided you lose some of the benefits. Another reason I think it would be harder to implement in a school setting, is in a work environment everyone has similar interest and a similar goal. That is not true in a general education classroom.
I feel like giving students time to investigate and produce facilitate learning by giving them the opportunity to take more ownership in the learning process. They’re able to choose something they’re passionate about, direct how the research is going to look, and really dig down deep into the matter, rather than being told exactly what they need to do and how they need to do it. I think this also helps to facilitate learning because whatever the student chooses to do will likely be something meaningful to them, which will further assist with retention and transfer of the various concepts learned.
ReplyDeleteI think practices like Genius Hour, Google Work, and Makers Ed. would all be very beneficial to students, but I’m not sure how it would work out in some of the buildings I work in. Often times when it comes to implementing anything new, the first concern that gets brought up is time. Even though I think these things could somehow be incorporated into what teachers are already doing, I’m not sure it would be well received. Also, I can see some teachers who wouldn’t want to give up that much control to their students for fear they couldn’t be as productive as the teacher would like.
I think that Genius Hour is an awesome idea to facilitate learning. Our students spend a lot of time at school and at home learning what we tell them to because they will need to know it for a test but never learn about a lot of things that are out there. How many people do you know that grew up in Kansas but went to be a Marine Biologist somewhere? Probably none because that's not something that we learn much about in school out here. If we give students the opportunity to learn about things that are of interest to them during a Genius Hour chances are they will be more willing to learn the things that we deem necessary for them to learn. I think it's a great way to increase their productivity and still encourage them to be individuals.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say that I do not think it would be super useful in an elementary school but I think it would be GREAT in middle and high schools!
DeleteHow does time to investigate and produce facilitate learning? Time to investigate and produce facilitates learning because it allows time to use higher level critical thinking skills. Investigating allows us to analyze information to see if it is relevant reliable; which aids in comprehension and retention of material learned. Producing shows that we understand and can apply what we learned.
ReplyDeleteGenius hour sounds like a great program, but difficult to use at the elementary level. With all programs, it is important to see if it applies to the audience who is going to use it. It is also important to see if it reliable and going to be used majority of staff.
Time to investigate and produce facilitates learning because it allows students to think outside the box; to think about a topic of interested and learn about it. It allows students to research interesting things in their world and make it applicable to their life. This facilitates learning because it uses all the senses, it uses all of their prior knowledge and current knowledge, and it allows them to use higher level thinking skills as they are working. Ultimately,that is the goal for all of our students,isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think the ideas sound so cool; however, I think for some students it would be incredibly difficult to complete. Some students have a difficult time writing in a journal because they "don't know what to write about." I'm afraid that those same students would struggle with the genius hour because they wouldn't know what to investigate and would need lots and lots of guidance. At my level, I don't know that it would go over very well with some of the teachers in the building. At the upper level, I think it could be really neat!
By providing students with time to investigate, you are giving students the time and ability to become their own teachers and pursue their own learning. By providing students with a time to produce, you are providing structure to their learning, which helps them better understand what they know, questions they have, and ways to overcome obstacles. Like the example of the student staring off into space, "thinking," the use of production holds the student accountable for learning rather than just "thinking" about a topic for the whole time.
ReplyDeleteGenius hour sounds great! By providing students with time to research and learn things that interest them and produce solutions to problems, you are asking students to use many important skills. It also gives the students a vested interest and a reason to learn. I think that a program like this could work in any school or setting, provided there is clear structure and planning on the part of the teacher. The text does a good job pointing out that simply giving students genius hour without providing structure will probably look more like free time than a time of deep learning and acquisition. I would think that this would be something that would require a great deal of work on the teacher's part.
We learn best and remember longer when we are interested in what we are learning. Proving opportunity, though Genius Hour, for our students to work on their own learning could help them develop ownership and would more likely result in their being lifelong learners who don't have to be spoon fed and regurgitate information. However, the students we work with would have to be explicitly taught the skills and expectations needed to be productive. With mature individuals, such as Google engineers, oversight might not be needed, but the students in our public schools would require an oversight component as a form of accountability.
ReplyDelete