Genius Hour to Kids

Written by Sophia H.

“Mom, Dad, we started Genius Hour today in class!”

You’ve probably said something like this to your parents when you came from home from school one day that introduced Genius Hour, a new innovative activity that allows students to express their passions through small-or big-pet projects.

There are multiple questions that arise when parents hear the term “Genius Hour”. No, it does not mean that your child is sitting in an empty room for an hour straight completing algebraic equations. It means quite the opposite, actually.

Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in classrooms. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school.

This is not the usual book report that students are usually assigned. Instead of being given a rubric, guidelines, and a set of directions, kids whom partake in Genius Hour are encouraged to set their hearts on a specific topic. Learning how to animate, the art of knitting, calligraphy, are all excellent topics for Genius Hour.

In Genius Hour, students create and build a project based on their chosen interest, and once they are completed, share their projects with the class. This encourages sharing different cultures, different interests, and different ways of learning, with your child’s classmates.

Genius Hour first originated in the big name search engine company Google, when employers would give each worker 20% of their shift dedicated to Genius Hour. During that time, employers would do what many schools and other business encourage their employees and pupils during Genius Hour; work on their very own pet projects.

The practice was a huge successes. Gmail and Google News were both pure Genius Hour-also known as 20-time projects. It grew so popular in working environments that schools around the world incorporate Genius Hour into the school year.

Genius Hour may not take effect upon first glance to some students.They may say things like, “I don’t have any passions,” or “I don’t have time for Genius Hour.”

The thing is, Genius Hour doesn’t fail. 

There are three main issues students defend themselves with when they don’t wish to partake in Genius Hour. An article on when Genius Hour fails AJ Juliani, says,

“Problem #1: Students aren’t allowed to learn what they want. And instead learn to play the game of school.”

“When a student chooses to do nothing with their Genius Hour time, it is not a complete “failure”. It’s merely their reaction to “Problem #1”. They’ve spent much of their schooling either fighting for a grade, complaining about grades, or worrying about grades. Every paper, project, and assignment they’ve worked on has been crafted by a teacher (or textbook) with guidelines, steps, and usually a rubric for evaluation.”

It may take time for kids to accept the given freedom that they may be cautious about. They may have a mindset that says that they can only take part in an activity if it gets them an A+. These are problems that come with Genius Hour that can’t be solved overnight, but all that means is that students need to find-and identify-what their passions are. And that’s what Genius Hour is here to do. It’s to make your thinking visible,

 “Making your thinking visible” means demonstrating what’s going through a person’s head in the Genius Hour project. This is done in multiple ways. A student could put on a short skit, they could show us the process through a graph.. Making our thinking visible can allow us to pull people into our ideas and walk them through exactly what the person was doing when they said, “This is my Genius Hour project”, and allow other people or students to be encouraged by them.

Genius Hour to Parents

Written by Gabby G.

Parents are probably thinking, “What do we get out of genius hour as our kids do it?” Your children get many benefits of Genius Hour. Their main benefit is getting to focus on their own passion. They get to learn about what they want which could teach you something new too. A Genius Hour project is not meant to give your child the same burden that a science project or book report might. An article explaining what Genius Hour is by Kris Kesler says,

“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.”

Your child in the project will first take time researching their passion. After they find enough information they can start making their thinking visible like this. As your child makes their thinking visible the world can take ideas and you child gets the chance to inspire the world, through a movie, a website like this, or a presentation that they give to groups of people outside of the classroom.

In Genius Hour, your child gets freedom of speech for what they are learning about.There are not rules, guidelines, or a rubric.

Your child will be able to express themselves and feel more interested by their subject. By participating in Genius Hour, your child can do something that can be shared with everyone else.