At-Home Genius Hour

For many years, my favorite part of teaching has been doing Genius Hour with my students. Genius Hour is based on companies like Google or 3M who give time to their employees to work on passion projects. They allow for the time, choice, and space for people to use innovation to create. As teachers, we spend so much time with students on things we HAVE to do- genius hour gives some of their school time back to them to do with what they WANT. Giving freedom to my students is the best part of teaching for me. 

Now that my own children are at home with me doing distance learning, I was trying to figure out a way to allow them some voice and choice within our own school constraints. Nolan was my first guinea pig in bringing genius hour into our home.

Genius Hour At-Home

My whole family has been super into Hamilton since we saw it on Disney + over the summer. The soundtrack is on repeat and #hundtboysx4 dressed as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr, and King George for Halloween. Nolan, especially, has shown an incredible interest not just in the Hamilton storyline, but in the Revolutionary War in general. So, we capitalized on that opportunity; that's what genius hour is all about. You find an interest, a passion, and you dive right in! 

We checked out many books from the library (I was trying to keep the research as screen-free as possible) and Nolan got to work. Anytime he had a few minutes when work was done or if he was looking for something to do, he had resources at his finger tips to learn more about something he loved. He learned about secret militiamen, spies, battles, timelines, food, etc. He lit up sharing facts with us and I loved talking with him about the different directions his learning was going. 

Make an Impact

As with a lot of first genius hour projects, it eventually got stale so we problem solved, reflected, and refocused. It is a lot of supporting and then letting go. In the end, Nolan realized he was more interested in the various battles of the war so he stayed on that topic. When research is done, it's awesome when students get to present what they know to an authentic audience and even more great when there's a product/outcome/impact at the end. Nolan decided he wanted to make a recipe from a Revolutionary War cookbook we had checked out. So, one evening, he shared his favorite facts with us from his favorite battles he learned about. Then, we ate homemade Boston Baked Beans. Nolan was so proud and we loved learning from him. 

After celebrating, we went back to the drawing board thinking about what's next. That was a couple of weeks ago and Nolan still hasn't settled into anything. That's okay. He muddling through and figuring it out. He thought he might want to research ocean animals, but wasn't into it, for example. He'll land on something! I'll be here to support. 

Throughout this remote learning/quarantine/pandemic situation, there has been so much we have no control of. Giving some time back to our students or our kids to be able to learn about things they love and are interested in can help bring a little extra joy into this difficult time. 

Don't Know Where to Start?

Genius hour is scary and risky and messy, but so worth it! Giving your child more voice and choice in what they learn and how they learn it is going to pay off every single time. Start by having a conversation with your students or child. Observe them, brainstorm with them.

- Ask your child what they love to do. If it's art- have them try a new medium like sculpture or oil painting.  

- Ask your child what they've always wanted to learn how to do. This might be just the right time to try an instrument, knitting, skateboarding, a new sport. 

- Ask your child what animals or places they're interested in. Do they love ocean animals? Dive right in! Always wanted to go to a national park? Learn about it! 

- Take what your child is learning in school and see if there is anything they'd want to go deeper with. For example, last week my second grade twins were reading about natural disasters- what a cool opportunity to take one natural disaster and learn more. 

There are a lot of things my kids are missing right now, a lot of opportunities I can't give them, so much 'normal' that's been stripped away. Being able to have some extra experiences or some creative learning opportunities has helped so much!