Genius Hour?

This summer while learning how to use Twitter for professional development, I happened upon the term genius hour.  I found it when following links related to project based learning and design thinking.  

Even if you teach in a traditional setting, it only takes one teacher with one innovative idea to make a tremendous difference in the lives of your students.  By reading this today and following these links, YOU could be the one to start something wonderful in your classroom or school this year.

The more I read about genius hour, the more interested I become.  

I'm not sure how this looks in practice, but I'm sure the links below can shed more light on the subject.  

What if, for one period per week, your students were allowed to create a project based on their individual passions?  

I posed the question to my son, who will be starting middle school this year.  I asked him what he would want to learn more about.  Connor replied as I predicted with "pugs."  For quite some time now, Connor has been in love with pug dogs.  Well, what about them?  "Everything!" he replied. He wants to pull together his favorite pug photos, resources about their care and training, and where to find one locally.  This led to a conversation about the varied projects he could create around his topic.  Academic skills could include reading, research, critical thinking, validity and credibility of sources, writing (grammar and usage), presentation skills, tech skills related to the format of the presentation or project method he chooses to share his learning, and so much more. 

My son immediately began creating a PowerPoint presentation featuring his favorite pictures of pugs.  His audience is himself.  It's July, he's not in school yet, and he took it upon himself to do this. Just the mention of creating something based on his passion inspired him to get started right away.  

If this is presented in the classroom, think of how students will react to being encouraged to pursue their passions within the school day.  

Follow some of these links below to learn so much more from educators who have already implemented this plan in their schools.  

http://www.geniushour.com/

http://cybraryman.com/geniushour.html

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=829279

http://ajjuliani.com/the-research-behind-20-time/

Genius Hour Newsletter Link:

  https://stemgeniushour.bloomfire.com/posts/832288-genius-hour-newsletter/public

Compassion Based Learning: 

 http://compassionbasedlearning.blogspot.com/2014/06/are-you-part-of-this-if-so-help.html

Mr. Solarz Genius Site:

  http://psolarz.weebly.com/2013-2014-passion-projects.html

More Solarz Passion:

  http://psolarz.weebly.com/passion-time.html

More Solarz Passion - Getting Started:

  http://psolarz.weebly.com/mr-solarz-eportfolio/creating-passion-projects-genius-hour

Wonder Wall: 

 http://www.geniushour.com/2013/10/06/a-constructivist-take-on-genius-hour-using-wonder-wall/

I Love Edmodo!

I don't remember when or how I first discovered www.edmodo.com, but I love it and want every teacher to know about it. 

In the past, I found it to be most beneficial for collaboration with faculty and staff at the school level.  I don't know about you, but when people send me emails during the school day, I don't typically have time to give them my full attention, and they get buried.  I probably need to spend time figuring out how to flag them or color code them for better efficiency.  So, instead of sharing great ideas, blogs, websites, and projects with my co-workers via email, I started up a group for my faculty and staff.  I posted the links in our group, lobbied with administration to use the group more often, and I organized the shared links in the library in categorized file folders to make the group user-friendly.

This system made me feel so much more organized.  Our staff now has the ability to document the completion of certain school-wide requirements in the files, in addition to collaborating within the group setting.

Being a teacher in a private school, collaboration opportunities with other teachers in my grade level were extremely limited.  Our Diocese did catch on to the Edmodo opportunity for collaboration, yet participation was limited.  Hopefully over time, more teachers will see the positive benefits of group collaboration.  

This summer I am learning more about the apps offered within Edmodo.  I stumbled upon them just by clicking various buttons on the tool bars within my groups.  I started using Twitter for professional development, and stumbled upon a tweet inviting users to apply to become an Edmodo Ambassador. https://blog.edmodo.com/2014/06/30/calling-all-aspiring-edmodo-ambassadors/comment-page-1/#comment-184972 Because I wanted to learn as much as possible about how I can best use all the features, I signed up right away.  I was put into an 8-module webinar series, and I HIGHLY recommend every teacher who wants to be more aware of the options to follow the link and get started!

The look and feel of the group section of Edmodo is very similar to Facebook.  When using the groups with students, however, there are some key differences:
*Parents can see all direct one-on-one communications between teacher and student.  Parents can also see grades and assignments, plus the status of assignments that are turned in or still outstanding.
*Students cannot send direct private messages to each other.
*Groups are closed, which means they are not open to the public.  The audience is limited to the teacher, classmates, and administration.  I personally like this for my fifth graders, as they are learning how to positively interact in digital situations.

These are great safety features, and any teacher using the groups for classroom assignments and collaboration will certainly want to add digital citizenship lessons at the start of using Edmodo or any other blog space, and ongoing as needed.  There are moderation features available.  This means that new students or students who might have made unfortunate choices in their collaboration can be moderated, and posts will not be published until the teacher approves them.  

I am looking forward to creating quizzes and assignments within my student groups. I can create small groups within my classes for language arts and social studies projects and discussions.  

If you are a veteran Edmodo user, I would love to hear from you with project ideas!

Coding Classes - A Couple of Free Options

My boys, like many teens and pre-teens, are interested in video games, computer games, and robotics.  Summer camps that address these interests tend to be more expensive than my budget allows, so this summer I have discovered several options for learning coding at home.  None of my friends have ever mentioned the word "coding" in "What to do with the kids this summer" conversations, yet I know they are always looking for new ideas.

The easiest place to start is www.code.org.  

Create a free account and take classes on a variety of topics:

Tutorials for Beginners
-Write Your First Computer Program
-Create a Holiday Card with "Scratch"
-Build Your Own Game (Tynker)
-Lightbot
-AppInventor Hour of Code

Tutorials That Teach JavaScript
-An Introduction to JavaScript (KhanAcademy)
-Codecademy
-Learn to Code with Karel the Dog
-Build a Game with JavaScript (Code Avengers)
-Code Combat

"Unplugged" Computer Science for people who don't have a device handy.  


I found a great option for teachers through www.Edmodo.com.  As a teacher, I was able to download the free "Coding Made Easy" app from LearnStreet. 

 I assigned the apps (which include Python, Ruby, and JavaScript) to the class or "group" I set up.  For summer "at home camp" purposes, I invited some of my friends to create student accounts for their children.  I invited those children along with my own to join our class so they could access the courses.  After the students complete the courses, there are dozens of projects they can create from Minesweeper to Sudoku games!

Check out these links for more options, and please add any you know about in the comments section below!  
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/coding-apps-and-websites

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/7-apps-teaching-children-coding-anna-adam

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hopscotch-programming-designed/id617098629?mt=8

http://readwrite.com/2013/04/19/how-to-raise-the-next-zuck-6-coding-apps-for-kids#awesm=~oILDugO83dFmHK

http://www.graphite.org/blog/12-best-apps-and-websites-for-learning-programming-and-coding

Evernote

If you are not already using Evernote, I have a few personal and educational uses that work for me, and may be beneficial to you as well!

Step 1:  Go to www.evernote.com and create a free account.  On my personal laptop, I downloaded the "webclipper" tool that puts a little elephant icon in my tool bar, so I can click it to capture screenshots and save to my Evernote "Notebooks."

Step 2:  Decide what kind of "Notebooks" you want to create.  I just created a new account that will apply directly to my new grade level, so all of the notebooks I create will relate to the units I want to create for my new fifth grade class.

Do you ever see recipes on Facebook that look amazing, but you just don't want to "share" them in order to save to your wall?  I created a Notebook in Evernote and named it "Recipes Captured Online."  It's not unlike pinning to your recipe page on Pinterest.  I open the Recipes Captured Online notebook and click the + New Note button.  I title the note the title of the recipe, then copy and paste from Facebook.  Voila!  Captured for my future browsing or cooking attempts.  

EVERNOTE - FOR UNIT PLANNING

Teachers, I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before, but Evernote is making it SO much easier for me to wrap my mind around unit planning.  The first unit I am working on for the beginning of the school year is a 5th grade literature unit based on the novel Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper.  As part of this unit, I will be doing an assistive technology project.  As I browse the web finding resources, one way I'm finding to organize my data is by copying and pasting into my applicable Evernote files.  If you are anything like me, when you start to Google your topic, you will most likely come across topics and great blogs and sites that will help you in other areas.  To avoid losing those great resources, simply create more Notebooks and save everything that looks like it truly will be helpful in the future.  Just take the time to organize them as you go.  

Once I have a nice assortment of resources in my various notebooks, I'm ready to refer to them easily to help me as I write my unit plans.  This will help me to avoid the distraction of browsing online at the time I need to just focus on the writing, with the resources close at hand.

TAGGING

If you know you are going to be adding a lot of notes, it will be helpful to find just the right post later on by tagging your notes as you go.  I put any and all keywords I might later think of to describe the material in each note.  

This is what my Evernote page looked like after just thirty minutes of browsing and saving to my notebooks:

OTHER USES

• Save a copy of all your receipts.  Add the Evernote app to your Smartphone, take a photo of your receipts, store them in a Notebook and tag as personal, school-related, or other.  
• Create a Notebook for each student in your class.  Save work samples, audio files, and conference notes.  There is a feature to email directly from Evernote, so you can share work with parents quickly and easily while you are conferring with students.
• 10 Tips for Teachers Using Evernote
• Prezi to illustrate features of Evernote

Keeping Track of Links & Blogs

One of the great websites I found this week to help me keep track of the amazing websites, articles, and blogs I'm finding while I have some free time this summer is Symbaloo.  

The picture above shows you how you can arrange each link on a "tile."  You can find it by icon and you can also have the title of the page printed in text along the front of the tile.  


This is the "mix" page where I am currently adding my links as I find them (through my Twitter activities).  As I add tiles, I am thinking about color coding.  I will go back and color code by subject, maybe.  The Symbaloo mix page shared by SimpleK12, where I first heard about Symbaloo is here.  VERY much worth adding to your own account for future reference.

I know I have several teacher-friends who will want to take a look at these at their convenience, rather than have me send them a hundred random links to their email or Facebook accounts.   

I love that it has tabs across the top so I can organize by subject area.  That might be easier than color coding.  One tab or "mix" for blogs, one tab for tech tools, another for family and personal sites.  I love the idea of being this organized!

Do you have a great Symbaloo Mix you'd like to share here?  If so, please post your link in the comments below!

Scratching the Surface of Google

This is just the best way to learn during summer vacation.  Many thanks to SimpleK12 for the day of Google learning!  I have had a gmail account for years and I used it a little through my masters work at USF, but I didn't know all the features that would make life a little easier and more organized until today.  

Disclaimer:  None of this is likely to be helpful to anyone, other than the links.  I like to post my notes here so there will be a good chance of finding them again!  Information overload, anyone??

Session 1:  Productivity and Collaboration in the Cloud With Google Drive
More learning to follow with the resources provided by the presenter, Kyle Pace:  Google Drive Resources

I learned a new trick to keep my school and my personal Google accounts easily accessible.  While in one Google account, do the following:
1.  Click on your picture.
2.  Click on "Add Account."  
After adding the details of the second account (email address and password), both are easy to view in the top of each Google App you might be using.

Sharing documents from Google Docs with a link seems like fewer steps to take than adding as attachments to emails and within websites like TeacherWeb.  

I found last year that I filled my Dropbox account very quickly with videos and pictures.  I learned that Google Docs has a 30 gig max capacity.  However, what does NOT count toward the 30 gigs would be any docs created in Google Docs, any docs or files uploaded and converted into Google Docs.  This is good news for me, since I neared my max capacity with Dropbox last year.

Session 2:  Simplify Data Collection and Documentation with Google Forms
Monica Burns' Blog
classtechtips.com/2014/01/23/25-more-ways-to-become-a-tech-savvy-teacher/
I am looking forward to creating forms to use in a variety of subject areas.  Creating docs for those observations we need to make regularly throughout the year will be so convenient when, at the push of a button, the data can be sent directly to a spreadsheet.  

This past school year I kept daily anecdotal records about the behaviors of a couple of students.  This would have been great for me to use collaboratively with the parents.  Type up the text within the form, save, and share with parents, with each days' data saved in a spreadsheet.  

I can envision a few ideas right off the top of my head related to tracking student needs and progress within the writing workshop.  If I were teaching Everyday Math again this year (which I am not), I would make a checklist of skills each child mastered at the end of each unit.  There are papers in the assessment binder, but this would be a better snapshot, I think.

Session3:  Going Google:  the Quick Start Guide to Getting Started with Google Tools
Kimber Thompson
This is kind of cool.  When searching with kids, you can click Search Tools then narrow the search results by readability level.  

Safe Search - Turn off/on as needed to keep explicit video and images OUT of the search results.

Virtual Field Trips:   Cultural Institute/Virtual Field Trip

Professional Development

After spending the day watching educational webinars, I feel the need to gather all my notes and links together in one place.  This will help me refer back easily in order to better utilize the links I learned about.  Keeping it closed up in my scribbled handwriting in the composition book will probably not be terribly effective!

First, I started following the webinar presenters on Twitter.  I know, who has the time for Twitter?  I am slowly starting to see the benefits of connecting to educators on Twitter as a new (to me) place to collaborate and find new ideas.  If you want to connect with me, I am @twimom23.  (" Twi-tter" mom?  No, it's from my Twi-light phase, of course!)

Digital Storytelling:  tinyurl.com/dsthilt  Excellent assortment of digital storytelling tools.

Facilitate a Writing Workshop Using Google Docs:  I loved this session, since I am still learning all that Google Docs has to offer.  Susan Oxnevad's blog is full of great ideas:   http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com.
Notes:  The writing workshop can include lessons on sharing and commenting, peer editing, and the use of the amazing research tools available via Google Docs.  Hello?? Citations inserts?  Where was this class when I was writing those college research papers???

A tip for helping students create projects in Slides is to have them begin their writing in Docs, then copy and paste into the Slides program.

Students within the workshop should have lots and lots of opportunities to write, write, write!  Meanwhile, students are peer editing, and completing specific jobs related to peer editing.  (See Peer Editing Job Descriptions here:   http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2011/09/google-docs-to-facilitate-writing.html#.U6HyFfldWa8)

I am very excited about the Assignment Tracker - a simple form created in Google Docs.  http://d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2011/10/create-assignment-tracker-to-manage.html#.U6Hyy_ldWa8

Love this idea for language arts and social studies:  Go to www.Fakebook.com and create "fakebook" pages based on a character in a story or in history.  

Teaching about dialogue?  www.toondoo.com
Need a comic strip format?  www.makebeliefscomix.com
Creative uses of timelines: Timelines

The final link to share is a wonderful visual "favorites" page where we can store our links. Symbaloo!  I am working on creating my own pages, but this is too good not to share!  http://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/freewebtoolwebmix