Genius Hour!
I feel that our traditional bell schedules and classes
taught in isolation at times contribute to our student’s not being able to
produce high level authentic creations that would truly wow us. I often wonder what we could do to try to rethink
our current structure while also preserving some of the pieces we know help our
students become productive citizens. I
believe that the structure that made our educational system a success now too
often gets in the way of what our students need to develop their problem
solving, collaboration and critical thinking skills. In order for our students to be globally
competitive and future ready we need to look for alternative opportunities for
our students to develop these traits and this could mean rethinking our
approach. If we hope to stay an economic
power our success depends on our students having the ability to move into jobs
that require higher level creative work.
If you question anything I just said, I would encourage you to read the
work of @mcleod and @danielpink. These
two show how jobs are changing and what plays into our motivation.
In July, a group of South East Junior High teachers
attended a four-day STEM Innovator and Entrepreneurship Institute sponsored by
the Jacobson Institute and College of Education at the University of Iowa.
Focused on the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math,
the teachers developed a plan to roll out the Genius Hour project for the
entire school. Based on the Genius Hour
concept made famous by employees at Google, students will spend 40 minutes
every other week focused on a topic of their choice. Using Design
Thinking and the Business Model Canvas taught by the University of Iowa
Business, students will identify a problem, plan their research process,
attempt to create a solution, and then share their results. The projects will
be entirely student-directed, with homeroom teachers available for
troubleshooting, guidance, and encouragement. (Thanks to @MsSimsICCSD for letting me steal
this from her press release.)
Check out our video here!
The goal will be to have our students solve real world
problems, explore their passions, and possibly fail in a productive way. We are hopeful that students will make community
connections and forge new relationships when solving their problem. These projects may be done in groups of
students or by individuals.
There will be several skeptics that wonder how this could
work if we are not grading the students work or monitoring them continuously. In fact some students will undoubtedly struggle
with this as well. We may run in to some
problems or challenges, but I am optimistic that we will be shocked by the
student’s ability to create high level solutions to problems that we encounter
on a daily basis. Stay tuned to see what
the students are doing @SouthEastJHIC!
Be Great!
Matt
