I wanted to know about Genius Hour, I wanted to know how I could have my students who are in grades one and two really love what they were learning about and push themselves to want to know more, try harder and seek a higher bar. I have worked hard to develop a classroom community that is warm, inviting and where all learners feel they can explore learning at the place where they are at, but I was hungry for more...for them.
I pushed myself, read more, explored more twitter posts and decided to stop, step back and listen. My "kidwatching" changed to "kid listening" and then to listening to what wasn't being said. We explored questioning and talked about "surface" and "deep" questions and this is where things started to take off. I let go of the reigns and let them wonder, question, and have time to talk about this vast world that if there were no rules, what they could spend their time learning more about. I asked them "what does your heart break for?" What do you want to know more about, if you could pick anything?" "What do you wonder?"
We pulled out the "post-it" notes and started writing our wonders. I wrote some for those who were hindered by the writing element, but could orally express themselves, others wrote their own. We explored many great books about questions and I watched how their questions started to form a theme and become more specific and detailed. I grouped their "wonders" and eventually we all had a "big wonder" that we were going to explore.
So here we are, with our wonders... Now what!?
I pushed myself, read more, explored more twitter posts and decided to stop, step back and listen. My "kidwatching" changed to "kid listening" and then to listening to what wasn't being said. We explored questioning and talked about "surface" and "deep" questions and this is where things started to take off. I let go of the reigns and let them wonder, question, and have time to talk about this vast world that if there were no rules, what they could spend their time learning more about. I asked them "what does your heart break for?" What do you want to know more about, if you could pick anything?" "What do you wonder?"
We pulled out the "post-it" notes and started writing our wonders. I wrote some for those who were hindered by the writing element, but could orally express themselves, others wrote their own. We explored many great books about questions and I watched how their questions started to form a theme and become more specific and detailed. I grouped their "wonders" and eventually we all had a "big wonder" that we were going to explore.
So here we are, with our wonders... Now what!?
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