Plato Would Have Loved Genius Hour

What is Genius Hour?

Genius Hour is a research project where students pursue topics of their own choosing. When following their passions, children are more engaged and they become more productive just as employees at Google did when participating in 20% time. The video below explains the roots of this exciting project and shows teachers how to get started.

Genius Hour – Where Passions Come Alive

https://www.haikudeck.com/p/iuwNYBcNPt

Genius Hour App Smashes

I created a beautiful Smore online flyer to introduce my students and their parents to Genius Hour. This mini website is the launchpad for this project. It includes links to videos describing this awesome project, a topic selection form created with google forms and a link to the amazing Blendspace application we use to curate project resources and create presentations of research findings. Students are then shown how to embed additional apps into their Blendspace lessons in order to create “Mega App Smashes” for their Genius Hour projects.

Click the image below to access this incredible digital tool and to see some of the applications that I encourage my students to SMASH.

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BlendSpace

Although this application was developed for teachers, I realized a few years ago that it is perfect for collecting digital resources in one location for Genius Hour. Students find it extremely easy to use and love its beautiful interface. This app allows teachers to create individual classes of student lessons where Genius Hour projects are automatically saved. These “canvases” can then be presented on a SmartBoard and shared via a link or embedded on our Kidblog class blog.

Click the image below to see an example of a lesson I created using this amazing tool.

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