I am participating again this year in the Slice of Life challenge in which we write a slice every day in March. If you are interested in joining in, visit the Two Writing Teachers blog for more information.
Two years ago, I attended EdCamp Milwaukee. It was an amazing experience and I had a wonderful day of learning. While I was there, I attended a session on Genius Hour. I had never heard of this idea but I was impressed by all the great ideas.
I went back to my school and immediately worked on a plan of how to incorporate Genius Hour into my day at school. Last year, I had my middle school ELA students work on individual projects. I loved the days that we worked on Genius hour and so did all of my students. This year, I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate this idea into my fourth grade classroom. I can’t believe it took me this long to get it started, but now I am so excited to start.
Today we had our second brainstorming session for my students to come up with their ideas for genius time. I suggested learning to code as one of the suggestions. I was so impressed with how focused my students were. It was so fun to hear how excited some students got when they wrote code and were able to draw pictures on the computer. I loved how engaged my students were today. It really turned my whole mood around.
I am looking forward to learning all about the topics they picked.
