Genius Hour

        For my final blog this week I have decided to focus my attention on one of our in class projects called “genius hour.” At first I was slightly confused why we were given such an open – ended assignment, but after watching YouTube clips and reading articles about this innovative assignment I realized it may pose many benefits. Although it is difficult to recall times where projects allowed for leniency I remember certain art classes in elementary school that did encourage creativity. Other than that I have always been given clear – cut topics to research and very specific guidelines to follow in order to complete for projects in elementary, high school and now University. So, naturally it seemed appropriate that I would be nervous to attempt such an innovative project.

            At first, our group decided to choose a topic that we would be able to definitely find result for either from an article or paper online however after thinking about it for a while we realized that this was our opportunity to take on a more interactive approach. It was the first time as a student that we were given the chance to explore something that truly interested us and we chose; how prepared do you feel for the “real world” after leaving Brock University. Now this was a question that as a student and future educator I have considered before and I was extremely curious to hear other individuals’ opinions. In order to go about truly finding answers to this topic there was no way to access a study highlighting students thoughts, so what better way than to collect data through face – to – face interviews with students around the school. After analyzing the results we integrated our interviews with the students to create a video in order to present our findings. With all of the other projects I had to complete in my other courses I was frustrated that this was just another thing on my plate. However, I was both shocked and pleasantly surprised that I was most excited to complete this project and actually “looking forward” to hearing what Brock students had to say; unlike the other projects that seem pointless and boring to complete.

I think this is a prime example of how inquiry- based learning can be successful within the classroom and really encourages me to integrate it with my future classes. Inquiry – based learning allows students to formulate questions, investigate and find answers, build new understanding, meanings and knowledge, and then communicate their learnings to others. There is also a strong emphasis on being actively involved in solving authentic (real – life) problem. Genius hour highlights all of these components as it offers a time for students to explore their own passions and helps motivate students to want to learn. Inquiry – based learning for me throughout the educational system was extremely rare, so having this opportunity to participate in this new style of teaching hands on during genius hour was eye – opening and exciting.

I believe it is extremely important for students to be given chances to seek knowledge on a topic that truly interests them in order to foster creativity, independence and motivation to learn; all qualities teachers are trying to instill in students. Inquiry – based learning for me throughout the educational system was very rare, so having this opportunity to participate in this new style of teaching hands on during genius hour was eye – opening and exciting. It definitely makes me want to incorporate this approach to teaching into my future classrooms. Many times in my educational experiences I would question why the teacher wanted me to research or learn about a certain topic that I was not interested in and would not even remember after I completed the project. Or even better, I was given the choice between three different things to complete. I guess by doing this the teacher felt like he / she was allowing student independence in a structured manner but I know now that was not displaying the true essence of independence and inquiry – based learning at all. If I really want to motivate my students and learn what sparks their interest then I need to allow them opportunities to research and communicate their knowledge in various methods. Taking this one step further, inquiry – based learning is a great way to get to know your students which I have previously mentioned about in earlier blogs and the many benefits that come with incorporating it.

On the other hand, the only concern I have with inquiry – based instruction is how to assess and evaluate students. For example, with projects like genius hour how can I evaluate and give a student a higher grade than someone else? The only way that I can see students being graded fairly is by following a very generic rubric that could be co – created by the students before beginning their assignments while still highlighting specific learning goals.Including a collaborative management approach within the classroom allows students to feel like matter as well as a sense of democracy within the class.

A sample rubric for Genius Hour is shown below:

            Overall, I feel Genius hour was a huge success in our class and I hope it to be a huge success in my future classes. There are many benefits to inquiry – based learning (Genius Hour being one of them) and very little down-sides to incorporating it into classrooms in the future. In addition, I feel these blogs have really made me question and analyze the type of teacher that I want to embody in the future. I think some of the most important concepts I have considered is switching from an old – style of teaching and really want to envision my class altering these views to the new style highlighting a more student – centered approach. Some of the ways this can be achieved is through the use of various assessment tools; especially AFL and AAL as well as inquiry – based or guided discovery learning, allowing student choice and the use of integrated curriculums. In conclusion, I feel as a future educator some of the most important things a teacher can provide is their passion for the profession as well as their overall drive for students to continue to be motivated and life – long learners. This ends my last blog and I hope you have gained a little more insight on me and some of the values and opinions I share as a future educator.

YouTube Video for Genius Hour:

 

Integrated Approach: Doable or Unrealistic?

It’s time for my next blog and it feels like it has been a long time since I have written one. After much reflection on the innovative approach of an integrated classroom, I feel it is appropriate to highlight this topic for this week’s blog. As a future high school physical education teacher I feel that encouraging an integrated curriculum would be a very challenging attempt. Typically multidisciplinary approaches are achieved in elementary schools since one teacher generally teaches more than one subject, however in high school that does not occur very often. Up until recently I was certain that incorporating an integrated approach in teaching was not feasible, however surprisingly it wasn’t until researching my google.doc assignment that I am now being convinced otherwise. In my google.doc research paper by Flinn and McInnis (2014) it followed an “Active science curriculum” that highlighted aspects of physical education and incorporated them into science material within an elementary school. In this study they described that students are more likely to have positive attitudes toward physical activity if they participate in activities that interest them, which then increase the likelihood of regular participation in physical activity. As well, students would participate in exercise lessons and then calculate data using technological devices. It was an amazing study that determined students have fun participating in these activities and it showed that the physical education and science curriculum are compatible together. After reading this case study I was still convinced that an integrated approach was only appropriate for elementary school settings. But as I read further and started thinking back to my high school experience I remember a project similar to that of the case.

In my grade eleven year I was taking physical education, exercise science and physics in the same semester. One of our projects was to determine the biomechanics of a fitness move into our physics class. Consequently, at the same time of my physics project in my exercise science class (which most students were taking all three at the same time) we had an assignment that focused on the bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves of a portion of the body. And on top of that, in my physical education class we were determining which body parts were being utilized to complete certain movements. So, in conjunction with my physics project and exercise science assignment, most of us just combined these three projects together to focus on the physical structures of one part of the body that you would utilize while completing different fitness moves. Coming from a small town school our class realized later that the teachers of these subjects came together to arrange these assignments at the same time in order to show us that physical education, science and math can work together. Although some of you may laugh when you read this, it truly got me thinking that integrating portions of the curriculum to different subject areas may actually be possible. Sure, this is an extremely small school where the teachers are more of a strong community, it is not hard to communicate and overlap assignments. But larger schools that have numerous courses would make an integrated approach extremely difficult as students are taking very different courses. I guess it was just fortunate for the teachers that most of us had the same schedule as there was limited courses offered at limited times.

In addition, although this may seem like a very simple example of combining three similar subject materials together there was an overarching theme; the human body.  If schools and teachers can focus more primarily on big ideas and themes that are relatable to multiple subject areas it makes me very confident that an integrated curriculum will be possible and manageable. But until this point where the teaching staff team is willing to experiment and collaborate with maximal efforts, I do not see a change to an integrated curriculum anytime soon. Elementary schools like I mentioned before make this challenge more realistic, however with the countless different subjects in high school, multiple teachers for one subject and the variations of students’ daily schedules it makes me question whether it will ever be established. Possibly, if similar content areas such as the math and sciences, the arts, or tech could collaborate I think this would be a start. Therefore, I believe that one day it may be possible to have certain subject areas collaborate like my physical education and science content, but integrating arts, sciences, maths, techs, languages, and others in a high school setting seems extremely difficult. My google.doc assignment makes me more confident, as well as my previous experience in my high school but I think it will take more than these two examples to make me certain that this integrated approach will work. Overall, being a future educator in physical education and science I feel I would most certainly be inclined to collaborate these subjects as childhood obesity continues to increase, and any way that we can combat this, simply even by incorporating physical education aspects into other subject areas is something I am hopeful of.

 

This is a video outlining an integrated curriculum.

 

Flinn.K.E. & McInnis. K.J. (2014). Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of the Active Science Curriculum: Incorporating Physical Activity into Middle School Science Classrooms. Physical Educator. 7(12). 234 – 253.