Genius Hour to Maker Ed

This has been a crazy, amazing, exhausting and exciting year, and it's only been 70+ days! My kids and I began the year working on Genius Hour projects, feverishly polishing up research and getting presentations ready. It was good and it was how I envisioned the beginning of my year. However, I knew it wasn't going to stay the same for long. What if there were tools and wood scraps? What about a hand saw? What if there was tape, cardboard, MakeDo Kits, tubes and marble run walls? And, what if this was all tied together with Design Thinking? What if Genius Hour was really Maker Time in room 26?







The Start
Getting the kids amped about working independently on a project of their choosing was more difficult than I thought. I jumped from 1st grade to 3rd grade and the difference was noticeable. After some work thinking big with a WonderWall (huge thanks to @bertoson81 for the inspiration) the kids started to get that when I said, "Go forth and learn about anything" I meant Anything. Like all Genius Hour's, some were great, like a perfect cup of coffee in the morning. Others, were not so good (gas station coffee?). Guiding 3rd graders through a less than structured learning process is hard work, but can be done when high standards and expectations, mini-lessons and check-in meetings are put into place.


Starting to Change
"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."
—General Eric Shinseki, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff

I will admit, the move to MakerEd was strategic. Our district had raised money for a Maker program and I was excited. I was totally on board. I had no idea where Maker would take my class, but knew it was an idea that would lead to countless learning opportunities for my students. It was hands on, engaging, a little messy and "mostly safe" (@pgoetz6). I couldn't pass it up. So we made stuff.

We started with the Design Thinking approach and made some Maker Journals to start. Then the kids started getting into cardboard prototyping (cheap and fast model that functions). We crushed tape- it was ridiculous. (We got Make Do kits and life has been better ever since).

We made a lot. There were planes, a stool, a chair, wrecking machines, boats, stuffed animal houses. The room was messy, but learning was taking place in each nook and cranny. (How did I know? This blog will have to be next up.)

The Big Shift

About a month ago I had the privlege of visiting the The Cove School to see what we might want to copy/steal as we move forward with a bond. (Watch a video about the school here). While there, I learned about the Making they are trying to implement with their students. Tinker. Make. Do. While Tinkering, students are playing with materials, experiencing and experimenting with motion and force, adhesion, overall design or aesthetics. When Making, students are actually creating something. This can be a prototype, or an actual functioning thing. Do- this is where I'm a little foggy, so I just made this up with my students to fit our needs and classroom culture. If you are Doing, you are focused on a big project, perhaps writing a play, researching Ice Cream (back to Genius Hour) or how planes fly. For me, this was a big "ah ha". I can offer my students a developmentally appropriate Maker time that includes hands on learning, collaborative problem solving, highly engaging work that each student chose to tackle, very rigorous standards of completion and high expectations. 

This Scooter rack filled a need at our school. Created by students.
Note the prototype in green. Fully functioning as I write this. 

Making the Maker Ed program for a classroom or school is never really done. The iterative step in Design Thinking allows for testing and retesting, always looking for a better way to learn, teach and think. I leave school most days thinking about change in big and small ways, searching for new ways to engage students and create more and more learning opportunities. Putting Maker Ed and Genius Hour together seems to work, so I suppose that won't change for now. 

The Day the Kid Threw the Lego Spaceship & 61 Tries

April 23rd- This was one of the best experiences of my teaching career. Granted I've been teaching for 7 years and hope to have more moments like this and better, but this one was special. Genius Hour has created a developmental divide in my class where some children are investigating bugs and Capoeira, and others are tinkering away and creating. I have enjoyed watching this evolution happen and feel confident that deep learning is happening at both ends of the divide. Some need to make and build, others need to create, some start a movement and others want deep learning.

For the builders, a hot topic has been rapid prototyping and the test-retest cycle of iteration. JR took some time to create his spaceship model and claimed he was 'done'. "Great," I said. "Test it." He wasn't quite sure what that meant. It can't fly to the moon, this was obvious, but it did have to be quite strong to make a possible journey. So, I suggested he do the throw test. It's a pretty simple test for strength. Step 1) take object/ship/thing. Step 2) throw in a safe direction. Step 3) assess damage and rebuild to address weakness. The thing is, I can't believe he actually chucked the thing! He had so much pride in his initial build, I was sure I'd get some flack. But he has trust in this process and he has trust in the class culture of creating and innovating.

I'm coming to realize that Genius Hour isn't a thing or a kit to be made available. There isn't a formula for all. Rather, it is a frame of mind that a curious educator can embody. This is a time and place for educators who believe in self-led learning, wondering and creating to show trust in their students ideas and passions. Teachers can learn with students, coach their efforts and help them to make their learning or creation the ideal of what the students wants.

The girls tried 6 more times. 

April 30th- LP and EL worked together today to perfect a chain reaction using dominoes and a few other items. They worked feverishly and carefully for over 90 minutes, continuously knocking their reaction down accidentally (or not). When all was said and done, they didn't have a thing to present after Genius Hour came to a close, instead, they shared their experiences and wisdom after failing so many times. What did they come up with? Rapid prototyping worked well, they figured out what worked (some dominoes) and what didn't (too many is a problem). They wanted to use clay next time as well as more marbles. They shared eloquently and with some frustration. They were loud and proud. The class was proud of them, constantly telling the girls, 'we saw it or heard it work', as if to say- we've got your back, it's happened to us, too. If this isn't grit x perseverance= awesome, I don't know what it...

Kids, Learning and Compassion

This past Wednesday, I had some big takeaways from Genius Hour. I usually set up the work flow by asking kids Who their partner will be, What project do they want to undertake, Why this is important to them and whether they intend to inform, persuade, entertain or, new today, Share some love and compassion with others. To my excitement, two girls paired together to create a poster for friendship, complete with original art, a detailed handshake and a story to go with it. The whole class is very proud to have this on display and hopefully make a difference for someone who needs a friend or compassion.

 

#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. 

Genius Hour, First Grade

When I first started to hear about Genius Hour in the fall of ‘13, I immediately wanted to know more. Let the kids create, question and learn and do on their own? I’m in.

1st and 4th graders gathered to hear about the bridge
that failed. It was a great dam, bad bridge.

I have always been a huge fan of choice time and firmly believe in the lost art of ‘letting children play’. However, I was noticing that our choice time was getting competitive. “He has more lego people than I do” or “I wanted to play with the marble run!”. There were some victories, friends made and some much needed unwinding for my students.  It was also a very social, which was great, but I wanted more. Being ever curious about how I might be able to get more from a school day, create a more autonomous learning environment for my students, encourage creativity and collaboration it became clear - Genius Hour.

Searching twitter (#geniushour) I found @joykirr, then her LiveBinder, drifting further down the bunny hole, I started connecting previous ideas from Google (20% time), Daniel Pink, Ken Robinson and IDEO. For teachers reading this, the first three connections stated are probably known entities. But IDEO? A cutting edge design firm located in the Bay Area founded by David Kelley, IDEO became famous for bringing design thinking into all avenues of life. How might a shopping cart be better? “How might we” questions became the trendy in and around SF and the greater Bay Area. I read Change By Design a few years back and absolutely loved it, thinking the whole time, how I might be able to do this in my classroom? How might I encourage creativity (Sir Ken), create learning autonomy (Mr. Pink), and manage 21 six year-olds (me)?

Unstable boxes meets stability.

Fast forward to November ‘13 and I jumped into Genius Hour with both feet. The first try was clunky on my end, trying to intervene little at times, then too much at other times. My efforts, both good and bad, didn’t seem to hamper the kids efforts as they created oceanscapes, explored a planter searching for bugs, created lego creatures, created a slideshow telling all about different ships, choreographed a dance to Firework and wrote, sang and performed a rap song. Deliverables were delivered and presented. The presentations were shy and quiet. Some natural speakers were found, others were emerging from their shells. Process was the king/queen of the day. Truthfully, I wasn’t concerned about the quality of the deliverable. So long as the process was collaborative, positive, driven by personal curiosity and enjoyable, I felt that the mission was accomlished. The room was buzzing with energy... “When can we do this again?” “Is it on the schedule today?” “I have an idea for next week!” became the language of the week. Kids were thinking about this before they left for the day, at morning meeting, during lunch and executing ideas during the Hour itself. I was hooked. They were hooked.

Getting Started

I won’t lie, this can get messy. It can get loud. Failure is often. Start with a thinking session. Kate Petty said to make a Bad Idea board full of ideas that aren’t really genius worthy. For instance, How deep is the SF Bay? In .56 seconds, Google told me that it was 360 ft deep under the Golden Gate. Instead, what about Shark species of the SF Bay, or How is the depth determined, or Why isn’t the SF Bay deeper?? You might have to tell your students, No, but make sure to say why their current idea isn’t Genius Hour worthy, and perhaps offer a suggestion. The first few weeks, I let a lot slide, and I suggest you do the same (remember, first grade). 
Note: I didn’t make a bad idea board because I only heard about it a few months in.

Automatic fly swatter

Solid, liquid, gas demo

Give a Framework

Each week the children have to determine three things:

1. Who will be part of their team? Solo, two or three? Four is pushing it.

2. What will you be doing, learning, creating? There must be accountability. A week ago, three girls were going to choreograph a dragon dance. They announced it and the class was fired up! When they presented a 20 second skit about a restaurant, the children did all the talking. “Wait, where is the dragon dance?!” They were disappointed, and the three girls were embarrassed. We made a rule- if you say you’re going to do it, do it. If you’re going to change, tell the project manager, me.

3. How will you share out? Each group or child only has one minute (approx) to share out what they did, how it worked, what didn’t work etc. All eyes are on the presenters and the class acts proud and respectful. Thus far we are using Explain Everything for digital presentations, Doc Cam and live Demo’s to share out.

Could look something like this...

Who?	What?	How?

Use Big Words

Why not sneak in some content specific vocabulary? Stabilize, water-proof, attracted, iterate. Last week I tried to describe the term iterate with 21 six year-olds. I got this drawing.

Process of iteration in First Grade

What’s Come Up?

Genius Hour has broken language barriers, made friends from unlikely pairs and given me goosebumps at the way the children describe their work. No tears yet, but we have had at least a failure or two each hour. The kids are prepared for this, they know that as we fail, we answer the question- Why did this happen?  Then try again. The process of iterating continues.

What Do I Need?

Remember to be brave while doing this. The worst thing an educator can do is NOT try this out. It might be bad, but it’s a start. Develop some possible ideas with the kids, keep these ideas and grow a list. I encourage the kids to redo past projects in order to improve them, learn more from them, or redo a presentation that went haywire. Collect boxes, TP rolls, blocks and other random stuff to help the kids create. They are also writing lists of things they might want in order to get future projects done. This list will live on our class website for all to see and donate.

A Note of Caution
This is not a 'sit back and watch' kind of thing. The teacher is the project manager. It is very important to be a sounding board to the kids, ask them questions that make them really think deeply and have conversations with their team, let doubt creep in, let excitement creep in, help them make connections and increase inspiration. 

Genius Hour for First Grade. Give it a whirl, let me know what you think, how it went and what victories your kids experienced.