#Geniushour, Publishing and CrossFit

This week my students were deep in two projects. They were publishing their latest non-fiction chapter books for Writers Workshop, and working on genius hour projects, both the planning process, creating the deliverable and giving the 'showcase'. They also played host to a 4th grade class that was looking forward to starting their own genius hour, too. Publishing and Genius hour allow the children to exercise a few transferable skills (thanks CrossFit for that term) that are applicable in many different places.

Publishing

Each child chooses 'The One' lucky paper from a stack of stories that he or she has written during the past few months that will become the published story. To choose this story, they must have many ideas (create) and make several stories (try), followed a plan where editing and revising are rampant (review/reflect), get peer support ("Nice work, go for it!" or "Pretty good, here are some suggestions" and Collaboration), then go through it for final fixes before adding the flourishes. This is an intense process that the children have learned through the months and they are living for it. They want it. They ask for time to finish their projects during rainy day recess instead of legos. They are talking about it as they enter the door from PE. They are psyched to work really hard on a project of their choice (autonomy) under real deadlines while pushing for excellence. 

Genius Hour

Each Friday, from 12:45-2:19 we are doing something with Genius Hour. From 12:45-1:45 the kids create, iterate, get frustrated, try again, succeed etc (create and try)... During this time, they ask each other constant questions. I, also ask them constant questions. "Why this project and not ___?" or "What is the question you are trying to answer?" or "Who might be helped from this project?"(review/reflect). [note: Then we clean. I needed to emphasize this during my last post but forgot. Here it is. Remember to ask your children to help you clean up. Genius hour is messy learning at it's finest, and I truly think it needs to be. The iteration process is messy, but that doesn't mean the classroom has to be.] We clean for about 8 minutes, then get presentations prepared. The kids have a short time to present and they are getting better at keeping the talk to about one minute, sometimes two. 

CrossFit and Transferable Skills

When I first started CrossFit in August '13, I didn't get transferable skills. I was just doing stuff, and it was hard and seemed to lack connectivity. It wasn't until I watched a lot of Mobility WOD  that I finally realized it was all connected. The kip position for a pull-up is the same as a hollow is the same posture needed for a double-under. Exercises went from really really hard, to hard because I could see the transferable skills that connected each exercise. 

When I see my students revising their writers workshop, then revising their math journals, then I see them revising their Genius hour projects, I get chills. They are taking the difficult skill of revising- looking critically at their work, changing mistakes, highlighting success- and applying it across the curriculum. When I see my students planning for Genius hour and writers workshop and reading, it's the same chills. With connectivity in lessons and skills, children learn that skills are not independent, but rather they can be applied in a variety of settings. These skills go way across the curriculum, cover multiple CCSS and, bonus, they go straight into the real world. 

Be Great Today.