Genius Hour

Passion - a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.

In creating a classroom environment where students are safe and have a sense of security, teachers are able to identify students' passion. In my class I can easily state who loves protecting endangered animals, floor plan design, wind instruments, 3D printing, prop design, or coding. However, when given a curriculum to follow, how can I incorporate the student’s passions. The obvious answer in which I aim to do is I can pull articles that we read on these topics, however this is only pleasing one-two students. How can I address each individual's passion? Thankfully, we are in a district which understands and provides us with an hour a week where we can have a hour designated to just this, diving into student’s passions.

Sharing out after Round 1 with a 3 minute post-it note presentation

In Sixth Grade, we call it Genius Hour. The first few weeks were an introduction to  investigate what passion is and to brainstorm potential ideas. Students then reach the point where they are able to make a decision on what they would like their project to be. Students use questioning to help with their research and guide their learning.

We complete two rounds of Genius Hour. The first round allows students to get their feet wet, see if this is truly their passion. Between round one and round two we shared out our progress through a three minute post-it note presentation. After, students can decide if they want to stick with their original plan or change to a new topic for round two. In the second round, they will need to dive even deeper because they will then present their research/project to the entire school through a Genius Hour Fair.

We love being able to engage our students in their passion and to have them share this with their peers and parents.