One of my most exciting moments in education was when I found the book The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers. When I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down. It was filled with great new ideas on how to spark student interest, how to use what students want to learn to engage and excite them, and how to guide and facilitate a love of learning!
In her book, Angela outlines how to set up your classroom so that students are regularly invested in what is going on in the world and want to be global learners. I encouraged my students to come to class with one new thing they had learned within the past 24 hours and share that with our class. That new thing could be as simple as something they learned about their best friend the night before, or something they learned from watching the news or visiting Happy News to discover what good things were happening around the world. We would then journal about a topic that a student came in with and brainstorm our thoughts, our feelings, our questions, and how we thought the topic impacted not only us, but the world at large.
This was a time when I heard more insightful and thoughtful conversation than I had ever heard before. Students were really invested in what they were discussing and listening to what their peers had to say! They shared new ideas and even got Genius Hour ideas from some of those conversations!
If there is one thing I learned from The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers, it is that the spark of excitement that comes from students investigating their interests is the most powerful tool I have in my toolbox. My students waited all week for time to work on Passion Projects, they talked about Genius Hour in their off time, and they eagerly came into the classroom to share with me what they had learned in the past 24 hours.
Melding together Genius Hour ( a period of time where students have the opportunity to investigate any inquiry-based question they want ) and Passion Projects ( same idea but with specific time to discuss what is happening in the world and work in a clubhouse format to find out new things and be exposed to new topics ) was the best thing I have ever done for my students. We were all rejuvenated and excited to jump in and we used things we did in other classes to motivate us during Genius Hour time! Students were taking Science projects further, developing and conducting experiments they thought up on their own, inventing new products to make people's lives better and creating commercials to share out their invention, and even take time to work on creative writing of their choosing.
If there is one new project you do with your students this year, one thing you do that is new and challenging, one endeavor that takes time but pays off big, it needs to be some combination of using The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Genius Hour!
In her book, Angela outlines how to set up your classroom so that students are regularly invested in what is going on in the world and want to be global learners. I encouraged my students to come to class with one new thing they had learned within the past 24 hours and share that with our class. That new thing could be as simple as something they learned about their best friend the night before, or something they learned from watching the news or visiting Happy News to discover what good things were happening around the world. We would then journal about a topic that a student came in with and brainstorm our thoughts, our feelings, our questions, and how we thought the topic impacted not only us, but the world at large.
This was a time when I heard more insightful and thoughtful conversation than I had ever heard before. Students were really invested in what they were discussing and listening to what their peers had to say! They shared new ideas and even got Genius Hour ideas from some of those conversations!
If there is one thing I learned from The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers, it is that the spark of excitement that comes from students investigating their interests is the most powerful tool I have in my toolbox. My students waited all week for time to work on Passion Projects, they talked about Genius Hour in their off time, and they eagerly came into the classroom to share with me what they had learned in the past 24 hours.
Melding together Genius Hour ( a period of time where students have the opportunity to investigate any inquiry-based question they want ) and Passion Projects ( same idea but with specific time to discuss what is happening in the world and work in a clubhouse format to find out new things and be exposed to new topics ) was the best thing I have ever done for my students. We were all rejuvenated and excited to jump in and we used things we did in other classes to motivate us during Genius Hour time! Students were taking Science projects further, developing and conducting experiments they thought up on their own, inventing new products to make people's lives better and creating commercials to share out their invention, and even take time to work on creative writing of their choosing.
If there is one new project you do with your students this year, one thing you do that is new and challenging, one endeavor that takes time but pays off big, it needs to be some combination of using The Passion Driven Classroom by Angela Maiers and Genius Hour!