Final Post for EDU 699–2

I think writing about the Genius Hour helped open my eyes the most of any of the topics written about for this class. The idea of having students create their own pet projects and have time to work on them daily had really never occurred to me, and helped show me some different ways to interact with my students.

Since I am not in control of the schedule and setup of our district, the only thing I can do is to institute some sort of genius time in my individual classroom. It wouldn’t be able to happen every day, but maybe I can create time every Friday for a pet project that is math related.

I think it would be hardest for the first few years as I started to work on the rules and orientation of the time, but once students got the hang of it and started to see examples of other students work, it might help benefit their math understanding in a whole new way.

The exciting part about genius time is that it creates a situation that students can look forward to at the end of the week. I can see at least a few students who are trying to work on that rather than their actual homework, but the goal would be to create excitement, not just structured learning.