Genius Hour
Genius hour is a concept that has been gaining popularity in education circles recently. Also known as 20% time, it is a model that both businesses and educators have utilized to increase the productivity of their employees and students. The premise is that if you give people free time to pursue activities that are relevant and interesting to them, they will create and innovate. Usually the free time is limited to about 20% of what is available. (This can take the form of 1 day per week or 1 class period per cycle or 15 minutes in a 90 minute block, among others.) In an educational context, the free time is not anarchy; there are still some rules and regulations as to how to best utilize the time. The point is for students to explore new avenues of learning that are relevant to them, and come out of the process with a product of their learning. It is said that Google has been using this model for a while, and, as a result, Gmail has been born out of the process.
One may ask, “Doesn’t giving free time cut into our already overstuffed schedules and infringe on our learning objectives?” In short, no. A.J. Juliani has a nice post rounding up anecdotes, evidence, and educational genius hour entrepreneurs who all validate the effect of 20% time. Not only are the products of the actual hour interesting and important, but the “side-effects” of inquiry-based thinking include higher test, a deeper, richer experience of the process of thinking and increased engagement and responsibility.
So what does this actually look like in a school environment? Our vice principal, Tim Chace, started implementing a genius hour in the beginning of this school year as a next step in professional development. Faculty brainstormed issues, from creating interdisciplinary units to exploring technology to creating flipped classes. We were then able to group up to tackle these issues. Some groups had longer-term projects that are still being explored; others spent only a few weeks on a project and have moved on to new ones. We still have “traditional” faculty meeting times, but these genius hour mornings (each Wednesday for 30 minutes) do help the faculty the explore educational issues in an open way.
A colleague of mine who teaches Spanish has implemented a “Passion Project” in one of her classes. She notes that although there is a wide assortment of projects (e.g. painting a Spanish mural, writing a play based on a book, creating a Zumba class in Spanish), managing the time for her students is sometimes difficult. Because there is no set end goal, it can be difficult to judge students’ progress and how effectively they use their time. She notes that if she were to do it next year, she would create more benchmarks and due dates to create a structure, even though the topics themselves could still be quite diverse.
As for myself, I am trying a “Genius Quarter” in my Latin 4/5. The students are “Catullused-out” and when I mentioned Horace they all ingemuerunt. So I had them brainstorm topics they were interested in and tasked them with finding primary documents we could read. Each week we will cover a new topic through the lens of primary Latin sources. We will read, discuss (Latine, si possibile est), do activities, and assess. All of these things will be created by the students. My role is as a sounding board, a director, and a co-participant (much of the Latin they’ve found so far is completely foreign to me, and ranging from 50 BCE to 1700 CE.) My goal is for my students to engage with the material and have fun with it, and I am curious to read new authors.
Do you have any experience with the genius hour concept? Share any comments or concerns below.