From Reality TV to Growth Mindset

During the school year, I don't watch much TV, but I do indulge during the summer.

For those of us who love dance related of shows, World of Dance (WOD - the one with Jennifer Lopez) was an exciting new program this summer. The question among dance fans became - which is better - WOD or So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD)?

I gave WOD a few watches, but I didn't love it, and I couldn't figure out why.

The choreography was amazing.

The dancers were at the top of their genre.

The judges gave valuable, relevant, and well-thought out feedback.

Each piece of the show is excellent.

It took me awhile to pinpoint it, but I finally figured out that WOD doesn't have my favorite element of SYTYCD - growth.

In case you aren't familiar with SYTYCD, here's how it works:

In the beginning, dancers are experts in one style (jazz, animation, tap, etc). Over the course of the show, we see them forced out of their comfort zone, struggling with new, different, challenging work, and persevering over the struggle. They get feedback and use that to inform their future performances - they make changes, learn and grow. It's visible and the best part of the show for me. 

This summer I've also enjoyed catching up on old seasons of Project Runway and Food Network Star. On all of these creative based reality competition shows, it's not about the product (I'm vegan and not really into fashion), but I love to see how they tackle the problems, work (or struggle) together on teams, develop innovative solutions, and adapt to critique. When something doesn't work, they try something else. It's growth mindset in action.

It's all of the things that school should be about but sometimes isn't.

Schools should be places where kids want to be. Where they see the relevance of their work, and they want to do it.

We, as educators, must create space for this type of work, learning, and growth in our classrooms. They need to understand how the skills are transferable. 

If they can think creatively to solve this problem, here in our classroom - then they'll be able to think creatively to solve some other problem we can't even imagine yet in the future. We can't practice solving that problem because we don't know what it is, but we can help students get the tools they'll need with the time comes.

How can we take the spirit of these shows and embed them in our curriculum? Share your ideas!

Final Genius Hour Reflection and Wrap-Up

I've now wrapped up my first year implementing Genius Hour with my 8th graders. I jumped in with a few questions still on the table, but it was a risk I'm glad I took.

In the fall, students researched topics of their choosing, but I accidentally narrowed their output by giving too many specifics up front. In retrospect, I should have more work with some of the students to develop deeper questions.

With the second semester, I gave students a big goal - changing the world. I really enjoyed having a theme because it gave some focus to the projects, which we were missing previously. It also enabled me to do double duty with the argumentative research paper we needed to write third quarter.

The upside of the double duty was the students learned a lot about their topics leading up to the expo. The downside was that it sort of removed some of the "passion" for some of the students. Associating the project with the paper at all made it a challenge for some students to see the entire process in a positive light. Were I to do it again, this is something I would consider changing.

From the whole project, students gave the most positive feedback in regards to the actual Expo day. In my mind, the two (Genius Hour and the Genius Hour Expo) were one in the same. My students did not see it that way, and I'm not quite sure why that is.

I was really surprised by these results because I thought the two graphs would be more similar. I didn't quite get enough feedback from this survey, so I want to follow up with students. I need to understand the "why" behind some of their responses.

The most important part for me was seeing the importance of the "publishing" in action. Students need an audience beyond just their teacher. It was one of those things that though I've read it over and over again - seeing how much it changes the game for students made a real impact on me.

For the Expo, I had every one of my students give a presentation. Even students who have had a lot of struggles throughout the year gave great Expo presentations. One came to me prior to his class visiting and asked "Mrs. Reed, do you think I'm going to be successful at the Expo today? Have I done enough?" A different student who struggles in various areas with school had such a great project, I had two different teachers tell me how impressed they were with his work later on.

Did I have some students who didn't like the Expo? Yes. It certainly wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with all 77 of them, but with 8th graders, it's very difficult (if not impossible) to please all of them all of the time.

In the end, I don't think I've done a project in my teaching career that has allowed students to meet so many standards as once. Reading informational text - Check! Writing - Check! Research - Check! Speaking and listening - Check! I don't think students even realize just how much they've learned. That is something I would want to try to build in to future versions of Genius Hour.

One very rewarding thing was how many students reflected in their final blog post about how proud they were of the work they've done.

If I had the chance, I would certainly implement Genius Hour again next year. I would have a handful of things I'd want to change, but the overall premise is a very powerful idea. While I'm moving to a different position next year, I will work to involve as much student choice, project-based learning, and publishing of final products as I can. I was truly forever changed as an educator by this experience!

'Twas the Night Before Expo

Tomorrow is my students' Genius Hour Expo. The day we've been talking about since we returned to school in January has arrived.

After our first round of Genius Hour last semester, I realized something needed to change. My students spent a lot of time and energy on something that only I saw. The "share out" element of the Genius Hour process was clearly missing. Unsure I could manage filming videos to post online and unclear of how blogs might work for us, I decided to create the Genius Hour Expo.

In my initial vision, students would be presenting something related to their projects to other students at our school. I wanted them to research something that could "change the world" and share outside of our classroom walls.

Since we launched in January, students have written argumentative research papers related to their topics, and then later decided how to take their project forward.

For many students, this just meant preparing a tri-fold poster with the information they already researched for their papers. Others did additional research to add information or pictures to what they were sharing out.

Some students created projects that they implemented prior to Expo day. I had two students sell raffle tickets to raise money for an animal shelter. Another student documented random acts of kindness she did around town. Another student created a mini softball camp for students in our life skills class.

Others have created videos to embed in their projects; some have created interactive components, like surveys, to their Expo presentations. I was purposely vague in my expectations because I didn't want to limit them. For some, that was a challenge - for others it became an opportunity.

So now, Expo day is here. Some students were not as prepared as I would have liked when they left class today.

All students at our school will have the opportunity to attend at least one of the Expo presentations. A schedule has been created, but I still have a lot of unknowns. How exactly will we set up in the library? Should I have gotten some additional tables? Will I get to everyone's stations during our class times? Is there enough time for the visiting classes to see enough of the presentations?

I have asked my students to work through adversity and deal with challenges during this project, so I have to expect the same from myself.

If nothing else, I had a student say to me today, "I am so excited for Expo tomorrow. Like, I have never been this excited for something at school before."

And that makes it all worth it.

Genius Hour - My Personal Mid-Check

Although I know the idea is controversial for some, my students wrote research-based argument papers as the first part of their 2016 Genius Hour projects. I was on the fence about this. Would I really be holding up the idea of Genius Hour with this kind of assignment? Would students really feel the passion about the project if they were required to cite sources using MLA?

While I'm still not sure about the answers to those two questions, I am sure about one thing.

The argument papers I'm reading are among some of the best I have ever gotten from students.

I do realize there could be any number of variables in play here. However, I have to believe that having students select topics that they care about and giving them the time and space in school to explore those topics had to have contributed to this product in some way.

Between the quality of this work and the quality of their reflections after writing the paper, I already feel the project this far was a valuable use of our time.

I cannot wait to see what they come up with for our Genius Hour Expo in May!

We are Changing the World!

I am excited to announce that for 2016 - my classes have adopted a "Change the World" mindset for our Genius Hour.

We are currently deep into the topic selection process, and students will begin researching soon! (Would have been today...but then, snow day ❄.)

 THIS is the website I created for this project. I have combined our argument writing unit into this project. I know this is controversial for some Genius Hour advocates, but it is how I can tie it to the standards and make it happen in my school. We are calling this "Phase One".

Students have also created websites for their projects, which are viewable to each other. My district does not allow them to be visible to the world. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some screenshots as we get going.

 I am most excited about Phase Two of the projects. This is where students will take action! I cannot wait to see what students will come up with. Another exciting element of our new Genius Hour is the Change the World Expo. Here students will be sharing their projects (and the action they've taken) with other students in our school.

I can't wait to keep everyone update on how the projects are progressing!

Genius Hour - A Reflection of Sorts

Egads! I drafted this post two months ago, but I forgot to post it. Better late than never!

This year (2015) I jumped into Genius Hour. I didn't have everything completely planned ahead of time, which normally isn't how I operate. I thought I would get started and see where the kids took the project.

See this post for my thoughts about one month (halfway) in.

Now that we've wrapped our first round for the year, I have a few more ideas to add.

1. If I know what my goal is, I have to help students develop the skills to reach it.
I tied this to my curriculum standards by using Genius Hour as my informational text research and writing unit. At the end of the day, I wanted students to read some informational text and cite it appropriately.

I grossly underestimated how much work that would require upfront. I assumed some of the students had background knowledge in the area of citing their sources, but most were not able to draw from that.

I made available videos (flipped classroom style) for students to access if they needed help and support with MLA format. I provided mini-lessons to students who felt like they needed more direct instruction from me. I was available for students while they were working on their projects to answer questions related to citing sources.

In my end of project survey for students, a number of them expressed the project would have been better if they didn't have to worry about MLA. I was trying to mini-lesson on this as went along, but it clearly didn't work here.

Solution - Next year, I'm going to develop a pre-assessment for students to see where they are at on MLA format and citing sources well before the project even begins. Students who already have an understanding will be named experts to help their classmates. I will provide pre-teaching lessons whole group to have some exposure to MLA citations and works cited pages. I will still provide the videos and mini-lessons, but I will have a mid-check assessment to see where students are at before the project is due. This will enable me to see who needs a more direct check in.

I need to  do a better job at making clear the purpose of MLA and problems with plagiarism. I also plan to talk to our 7th grade ELA teachers to ask them to use the terminology MLA and Works Cited page so that it is familiar and consistent for students.

2. Give fewer specifics up front.
After we launched Genius Hour, I gave students the option to write a paper and/or create a video at the conclusion of their project.  Part way through the research process, I encouraged other options. A number of students expressed in my end of project survey that they wished they had known all of the options up front. Even though I thought I made clear they could do whatever they wanted to meet the criteria, I confused them by at the same time giving the options of paper or video.

Solution -  I will simply give them the requirements that they need to meet, and then allow them to create whatever they think will best meet those. I will want them to access their own creativity before I provide any specifics and/or sample products.

3. Embrace the idea that some students will get more out of Genius Hour than others.

This seems to be something that is difficult for  most teachers. We want all students to achieve at high levels, but we have to accept that that high level is going to be something that is different for all students. Also, as usual, there will be different levels of buy-in from all students.

I had this idealistic vision of what my students would achieve, but in reality, I didn't create the environment for that to happen for them.

Solution - I need to trust that each student will meet me where they are, and that I am able to help them grow from that point. I also need to do a better job of creating the environment I truly want - one of exploration and discovery. If I put too many constraints on the process, it is likely to hamper this process. I didn't let students struggle through enough, which I need to remember for next time.

I also tried to do too much in a short time frame. I had intended to have our projects stretch a semester, but I didn't get started soon enough. So, we worked twice a week for 9 weeks, instead of once a week for 18. In retrospect, we would have been better off with it stretched out for the semester to allow more time for thought and mini-lesson support between our workdays.

Lessons Learned: Genius Hour 2015

After launching into a modified Genius Hour without having all of my metaphorical ducks in a row, I've learned a few lessons.

1. Think about how you will keep track of everything.

Problem: I asked that all of my students have their Essential Questions for research approved by me. As I approved their questions, I typed something into their Google Doc that noted I had see it. I didn't, however, mark down anywhere that I had seen their question. This caused me to have no idea which of my 85 students had their questions approved and which had not. As a result, I had to reopen everyone EQ document to see if I had approved it.

Lesson Learned: Next time, I'll have a spreadsheet of all students so I can mark off when they've completed specific parts of the project. I've started it now, so we'll see how it goes for the rest.

2. My students don't really know how to research.

Problem: I've asked them to create complex Essential Questions, but a lot of my students don't have the research skills to break down their question into the necessary parts. They aren't able to select the key terms they'll need to search for while doing their research. Some of them aren't sure what I mean when I use the word "source". These are all issues I did not anticipate being so widespread.

Lesson Learned: Next time, I'll do some preassessment on research skills before beginning Genius Hour. And/Or I'll be sure to have mini-lessons closer to the start of the project. In the mean time, I've created a mini lesson on search terms, and made some videos to help them with some of their reseraching problems.

3. It's not as scary as I thought it would be.

Problem: I was hesisitant to jump into something without knowing exactly how it will end up. I didn't know what I wanted them to create at the end (I'm still not sure). I didn't know what sort of Essential Questions they would come up with. I didn't know how they'd use their time.

Lesson Learned: Kids are resiliant. They are willing to take chances with you if they know you'll be there for them. I did a lot of pre-activities about finding your passions, and talking about getting a chance to drive their own learning ahead of time. I think that really helped with the buy-in. Also, a number of students were way  more excited about getting to choose what to do at the end that I had aniticipated. Mark that as a win for student choice.

I need to do a better job of keeping up the intiial excitement. I had a number of inspirational videos to show, but I only did one. I can feel the excitement waining (the end of the Genius Hour time period is drawing slowly ever nearer), so I'm going to show another video tomorrow.

In the end, it's going so far much better than I had anticipated in some aspects and not really as much in others.

I'm going to do some surveying of my students tomorrow get their feelings on how everything is progressing. I'm sure after that I'll have even more lessons learned!