Angie Siegfried - Blog #4 - Genius Hour Reflection
I incorporated Genius Hour with my 8th-period class during On Track time, which is about an hour per week. I initiated Genius Hour on October 23, 2018, and we have continued every Tuesday since then. I had the students plan an 8th grade trip to Disney World, and compile the information into a presentation that they will present to administration. We have discussed a group of students on the trip if they meet certain criteria that will be set forth by the administration. The students were extremely excited and dove in head first! Some students decided to work on fundraising ideas while others focused on the specifics of the trip. I appointed groups leaders who then delegated responsibilities to the rest of the group. The students are still working to complete the assignment; two groups are almost there!
Next time I may allow the students to choose their groups. One of the groups contained students that had issues with each other, and I was not aware of the issue. I learned that students will work hard for something they are interested in! My challenge is how to make all mathematical concepts as interesting. I am very hopeful as I gear up to introduce the Pythagorean Theorem PBL.
Hi Angie,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you were able to incorporate Genius Hour with your 8th period class. I know your middle school students were motivated by the opportunity to create a travel itinerary to go to Disney World to present to the administration. I like that you had some practical thinking students who wanted to focus on fundraising efforts in order to make the trip more of a practical possibility than a potential fantasy. I enjoyed watching the four videos you uploaded of students working in their groups on this project to your Google Drive folder. I am looking forward to hearing more about the specifics of this project. When students finish their travel plans please upload some of these as implementation evidence as well as any instructional plans you created for this such as a lesson plan outline, checklist, presentation criteria, etc.
I am glad you were able to implement this Genius Hour project first prior to your Pythagorean Theorem PBL.
Thanks,
Dawn