Genius Hour Reflection

After reviewing the documents shared with us through USF about Genius Hour, I decided to recreate my own version of Genius Hour with my classroom. While the documents I created majorly mirrored the Genius Hour documents, I decided to call it DALY DEDICATION. I thought it was witty using the play-on-words with my last name and having student carve out some time daily to dedicate to their research.  When I first glanced a the Genius Hour set-up I was not certain that my students would understand the structure and movement and purpose of Genius Hour. However, as I walked myself through my own Genius Hour, I also launched the project with my students. This week and next week are optimal for trying something new because it is PARCC testing, which means that most of my students are completely brain fried and learning something new may be moot. My students are in the beginning stages of Genius Hour and I am just reviewing their choices of topics. I feel that a lot of my students are going to need a bit more guidance finding a good topic with enough fat to research. For the most part, the students have wrote down something interesting to learn, but they need more guidance find the question they want answered.

In my own experience of Genius Hour (Daly Dedication) I found it to be fairly smooth.  Mainly because, I am addicted to Google and spend a lot of time asking Google questions I want answers to, which often lead to different clarifying questions.  When I first started to brainstorm and write down my interests and what I wanted to research, I initially went with “Adult Bullies”. I find anything psychological and sociological fascinating. However, I already know A LOT about both subjects because I spend a lot of my free time reading about both topics, and to be honest, I already know why adults bully people, so I would not have truly gotten an organic and authentic experience from this Genius Hour. In turn, I decided to research something that I am interested in, but insecure about in my knowledge. I have always wanted to get involved with politics because I feel our system is so incredibly broken and corrupt, but I had zero idea where to start.  I do not know many people who are passionate about politics because so many people are disenchanted by the lies and manipulation (cannot say I blame them). Also, my fear of being ignorant, kept my efforts at bay. Which is where Genius Hour guided me along the path of exploration and discovery. I know that in order to truly understand the Beast of Government, is to begin on a smaller scale. Start with the house cat before trying to tame the tiger. So I chose to research “how to become more involved in local politics”.

Through the hour I dedicated to research I found there a lot more information I need collected before I move forward. I definitely will start by attending Town Hall meetings, but before I do that I know that I need to come prepared. I need to research the Village Trustees of Brookfield and what they have done and what they “stand for” before going. I also need to know what have their plans been to make the village better and what are they currently doing to see that through.  I do not want to attend a meeting unprepared and ignorant, and I presume that the first few meetings I will sit back like a wallflower and watch how a meeting is conducted. Additionally what I found in the hour of my research is that the College of Dupage is conducting a free seminar on April 14th called Local Government Candidacy for Beginners, which is time allows, I plan on attending. It is a great way to utilize FREE education about a topic I am interesting in learning more about. In regards to the struggles that I faced when researching, was that some questions I typed in did not really provide an answer, or if it did,it was vague and led me to asking different questions to try and figure it out.  I would become distracted momentarily, while even though focused, I needed to remind myself about the question I am trying to answer.

I think that Genius Hour really provides students an opportunity to look into something that truly interests them. For 180 school days, many students are told what to read, when to read, how to read, what math to learn, what math to solve, what science to research...that providing them an opportunity to explore something they are interested in can be extremely rewarding for both student and teacher!  I am currently utilizing Genius Hour, or Daly Dedication, with my students this week and the following week before Spring Break. This is a great time of the year because students have been PARCC testing for two weeks, and when they are done for the day, to try and tell them to read things they have no interest in is torture. At least with Genius Hour (Daly Dedication) they will be using instructional hours, or academic skills, BUT with topics that they are interested in. Interest creates desire, and desire fosters learning. It is a win-win for teachers and students. This could also be used for when students complete a task before their peers as a supplement and enrichment activity.

Overall, I think it is a great projet to allow students to experience and explore, but ultimately and unfortunately, I do not see this being utilized throughout the year due to having to follow curriculum and focus on skill mastery.  This is something that is great to launch during the school year’s static weeks.

Research question: How do I become more active in local politics?