The Day Before the Beginning of My Operation Genius

We are officially on the brink of February, and I am about to dive into a project that I have never done! It is known as 20Time and Genius Hour.  I am coining the project as “Operation Genius”.  The project is an inquiry-based learning project, where students research a passion.

I am terrified that my 8th graders are not going to buy into this project, and I am hoping to blog about my entire process. The third quarter begins tomorrow for my 8th graders, so I wanted to start at the beginning of the quarter.

So here is how I am going to try to hook them tomorrow.  I found a great article about how schools are killing creativity. It is a fabulous article, and it will definitely intrigue the students.  Following, there is an amazing TED talk by Ken Robinson, regarding the same subject.  In a nutshell, these two pieces discuss how we make students sit all day long, listen to what WE want them to hear, and we don’t let them invent, explore or create enough.

Tuesday, I have a great Prezi on explaining the 20Time/Genius Hour project with the help of Laura Randazzo (LOVE HER!).

If you have never heard of Genius Hour, you have to check it out. There are tons of materials out there that explains how to get started with the project, and A.J. Juliani is an amazing teacher who has done Webinars on this project.  Google him.  He has a ton of great materials.

This project is absolutely amazing, and it is going to make students think very differently.  It is about grading their process, not their product!

To be continued…

Kim