Introduction to Genius Hour: Purolator "One-Hour Delivery" Project

We are starting a novel study next week on the book Shattered. I am planning to also try out the Genius Hour concept with a baby step.

On Saturday, I spent 3-hours learning about Genius Hour with Elementary and Secondary School colleagues.  We watched Daniel Pink's TedTalk about Motivation and explored a multitude of resources available on-line and off that support teachers' who want to incorporate Genius Hour into their learning environment. Several colleagues shared their early experiences with Genius Hour in their classrooms.  They shared some of their students' projects and definitely expressed enthusiasm.

I also heard about the ROWE business model (Results-Only Work Environment) and Fed-Ex Days (give people 24 hours to work on whatever they want — so long as it’s not part of their regular jobs and provided that they show what they’ve created to their colleagues when the 24 hours elapse).

I loved the ideas in theory, in principle. But I doubted their efficacy with most of my high school students.

My students are honest.

Me: If you had time to learn about anything, what would you do with it?
Student 1: Sleep.
Me: What are you interested in?
Student 1: Nothing.
Me: Anyone else?
Student 2: ...

So I try to assign meaningful work hoping to engage all students and excite them about learning.

I think I am a coward. I am afraid to relinquish control... I am afraid that it will fail... that it will be a huge waste of learning time... that students will do nothing... that I won't be able to keep up... that it will be disappointing... that Genius Hour is just another fad.

So this week I want to confront my fear and try a baby-step.  I want my students to build their background knowledge before beginning the novel Shattered. Last semester, I gave the students a chart of topics related to the novel and asked them to find out something about each of them.  We then presented these and students added to their own charts.

This week, I am going to give them a book, have some computers and tablets available, and challenge students to build their background in preparation for reading the novel. Students will be allowed to choose their time, task, team, and techniques. They can use anything to show their learning (i.e. chart paper, whiteboards, paper, video, photos, etc.), but they only have an hour to "deliver."

I have no idea about what the outcome will be. I expect my students will take longer to get on task because they are not used to the autonomy, but when they do eventually find their way, they will learn more.

Baby Steps for all of us...