What is Genius Hour?

Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. It’s not easy to determine where the idea was originally created, but there are at least two events that have impacted genius hour.

Genius Hour Origins

The search-engine giant, Google, allows it’s engineers to spend 20% of their time to work on any pet project that they want. The idea is very simple. Allow people to work on something that interests them, and productivity will go up. Google’s policy has worked so well that it has been said that 50% of Google’s projects have been created during this creative time period. Ever heard of Gmail or Google News? These projects are creations by passionate developers that blossomed from their their 20-time projects.

Another origin of genius hour projects came from the book Drive by best-selling author, Daniel Pink. In a blog post he writes about how the Google-time projects are also used in other corporations.

Each week, employees can take a Genius Hour — 60 minutes to work on new ideas or master new skills. They’ve used that precious sliver of autonomy well, coming up with a range of innovations including training tools for other branches.

Genius Hour in Education

The same genius hour principles apply in the classroom as they do in the corporate environment. The teacher provides a set amount of time for the students to work on their passion projects. Students are then challenged to explore something to do a project over that they want to learn about. They spend several weeks researching the topic before they start creating a product that will be shared with the class/school/world. Deadlines are limited and creativity is encouraged. Throughout the process the teacher facilitates the student projects to ensure that they are on task.

There are many educators leading the way with passion projects in their classes, but much of their inspiration came from the book The Passion-Driven Classroom: A Framework for Teaching & Learning by Angela Maiers and Amy Sandoval. A.J. Juliani also wrote a recent book about Genius Hour and 20% Time in education.

Many teachers are raving about the autonomy that students are finding in their classes, including myself. I have been leading a group of 6th graders through the genius hour process this year and it has been very rewarding to watch them learn. A goal of every teach should be to create lifelong learners. Genius hour projects are a huge step towards that goal.

Getting Started With Genius Hour

FREE Genius Hour Workshop

Want to start Genius Hour in your classroom but not sure where and how to begin? Already started Genius Hour and need a bit more guidance? A.J. Juliani and I are hosting a FREE webinar to jumpstart Genius Hour in your classroom. Click to grab a virtual seat now.

Resources Mentioned:

Genius Hour Journal: An interactive notebook and PPT for Genius Hour

The Complete Guide to Genius Hour and 20% Time Course

What to do when Genius Hour fails? (How to handle those students that aren’t sure what to do their project on)

6 Simple Strategies to Find Your Passion

The Research Behind Choice and Inquiry-Based Education (includes connection to State Standards)

Genius Hour Wikispaces

Joy Kirr’s Genius Hour LiveBinder

Books Mentioned:

Pure Genius by Don Wettrick

20Time Project by Kevin Brookhouser

The Genius Hour Handbook by Gallit Zvi and Denise Krebs

Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom: Using 20% Time, Genius Hour, and PBL to Drive Student Success (by me!)

Learning by Choice (by me!)

Drive by Daniel Pink

The Genius Hour Process

Making Time for Genius Hour

Approaching Your Administration About Genius Hour

How to Introduce Genius Hour to Students

Setting Genius Hour Expectations

Blog

Follow my Current Classroom Genius Hour

FREE Genius Hour Workshop

Want to start Genius Hour in your classroom but not sure where and how to begin? Already started Genius Hour and need a bit more guidance? A.J. Juliani and I are hosting a FREE webinar to jumpstart Genius Hour in your classroom. Click to grab a virtual seat now.

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