Category Archives: Genius Hour

#SatChat Share Out: Genius Hour LiveBinder Resource

This morning’s #SatChat (a live Twitter chat I like to join on Saturday mornings) was co-moderated by Don Wettrick whose new book “Pure Genius” was the basis for the chat theme. I’ve been following the trend of Genius Hour or 20% Time in classrooms for a long time, and I was motivated to blog about it after this morning’s chat.

The idea of Genius Hour is simple, but I suspect the application of it to your school or classroom is much more deep. Here’s the thought: let students CHOOSE what they want to learn for a portion of the time you have them under your supervision. If you see them one hour a day, five days a week, take one of those days a week and let them have voice in what they learn.

There are teachers in schools all across the country giving this a try in all subject areas and all grade levels. You’ll see the words and phrases like “wonder, student voice, authentic learning, and choice” sprinkled through blog posts, Pinterest pins and Instagram feeds that illustrate what innovative teachers are allowing students to try.

So, if I had one single resource I would suggest starting with to explore this concept, it would be the LiveBinder resource linked at the top of this post. I’ve dug into this resource before myself and briefly shared it at some small group meetings in our district, but when it was shared during today’s #SatChat, I knew I should share it again through a blog post. Explore the tabs and “get lost” in the research of what others are doing, then set the technology aside and dream for a bit about what it might look like if you listened to your students’ voices and gave them time and support to learn about what really interests them.