Monday 9 March 2015

Genius Hour

Although I am a frequent (everyday) user of Twitter, I post on my blog once or twice a decade, so this is a rare event. Bear with me....

I have been thinking about running a Genius Hour type programme in my class for a year or two, but am not really sure where to start. Today I sent out a request...




My thinking: I would get a couple of replies with some useful resources. Instead I got over 20 people sharing their experiences and expertise. I do love Twitter sometimes. No, that' not right. I love the way that people are so open and sharing on Twitter.

As a C.O.A., I haven't yet had a chance to look at most of these resource that have been shared with me. It's going to take me a while to get through all this stuff, but I see that as a pretty good "problem" to have.



Of course - Bridget knows heaps of great stuff. Check out her blog for some nuggets.



Simone has been running Adventure Based Learning programmes for a few years now, and has some great ideas for her class.



I tried rundesroom.com but couldn't get through - their pinterest page looks like it has lots of stuff though.



This video looked pretty cool. I like the way that she has shown the variety of different topics her students choose, and the different ways of presenting.



After a quick look, I could see that this site has a lot of useful resources - definitely on my read-asap list.



I think that no matter what age students you teach, the same principles apply. I look forward to getting into this - another entry on read-asap list.



Another mention for Paul Solraz - he must be great!





I had a little search and found this page belonging to @JoyKirr with her blogs - looks good, more to explore.


Yes, I will be checking out that class blog. Thanks!



KidsedchatNZ is fantastic! Unfortunately my class won't be able to take part this week, but this is right up the right street.



Seems like great advice to me.


Now that sounds cool!



This looks to have a LOT of useful resources. It will take a while to get through this site.











What I take out of these messages is empowerment - the shy students are able to express themselves and take control of their own learning.



I don't really have the writing skills (as you can tell) to document like this, but I will certainly be having a look at this.





My very own hashtag!? I'm going to need verification soon ;)

There were a few small conversations that grew out of these tweets, and others wanting to hear about the responses it got, hence this blog post.

I'm sorry it's such a mess, but I wanted to get this out asap while it was still fresh in my mind. To be honest, the writing will only get worse if I think about it for longer.

I hope some of you find this helpful and/or useful. And please comment - I'd love to hear of any other ideas or experiences that you've had.


Ps


Just as I posted this, another tweet came through for me. I've had a quick look, and this looks to be some very good advice for those of us just starting out - Thank you, Joy.

4 comments:

  1. Mark,
    Way to go! You have quite a PLN to come up with so many responses! That's awesome! In the future, besides the #helpingmark hashtag :), be sure to use #geniushour too. There is passionate community there who loves to help!

    You can also check out geniushour.wikispaces.com, where we keep the archives of our monthly Twitter chats. (First Thursday of the month at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.)

    By the way, the writing is fine. I hope you'll keep blogging!

    Warm regards,
    Denise

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment, Denise. I am very lucky to have such helpful and sharing people in my PLN - I'll make sure to look out for and use #geniushour in the future, and will check out the wiki very soon.
      Thanks again, Denise!

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  2. Thanks Mark. This is an excellent illustration of how a PLN works. I will use this when I am 'converting' teachers new to twitter.

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  3. Thanks, Gin. As I said before, I'm very lucky to have such a supporting PLN. If it gets more teachers using twitter, sweet as! Cheers.

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