Genius Hour

Yesterday, I did some PD through our board's Summer Institute around technology in the classroom. I went to 2 different modules that were awesome and gave me some great ideas to use this year! This is where teaching intermediate is exciting to me.... previously, with the little nuggets in primary, I had to do a lot of hand holding and all of these wonderful project based learning ideas were lost on them (and me). Now, I have a class of older students who can work more independently and I really can take on the role of facilitator with them.

The first module I attended talked about creating a group of students to teach the teachers. Students who are interested (and willing to give up a few recesses, etc.) were going to spend time learning different apps on the iPads that teachers can use in the classrooms. These students then become the "experts" and then can teach other teachers in the school how to use it. The geniuses also got the opportunity to go into the classroom when the teacher was using the app with their students, and the genius could help through the lesson. Love this idea!

The next module I attended was about Genius Hour. If you haven't heard of it, here's a video you can watch that explains it nicely. I think I would even show this video with my grade 7/8 class.

Incorporating the two ideas, I plan to have my "expert squad" learn about the different presentation apps and work as the experts during our Genius Hours. These "experts" can teach their peers how to use the different apps to make their presentation awesome. I will post more and more as I move along with this process. We are now only 12 days away from the start of school!!!