Tag: student engagement

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The Problem with Genius Hour

Shouldn’t every hour be a genius hour?

the problem with genius hourAnyone paying attention to education in the US lately has seen the proliferation of the “Genius Hour.” Presumably inspired by Google’s 20% rule, through which employees of the search engine giant spend a day a week on projects of their own choosing, many schools are adopting a model described by best selling author Daniel Pink as “60 minutes to work on new ideas or master new skills.” By setting aside an hour of instructional time, schools enable students to connect, construct or create, without the constraints or distractions of business-as-usual. What could be better than that?

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Blogger of the week: Phoebe Slater

Phoebe Slater teaches 7th grade at one of our partner schools, Peoples Academy Middle Level, over on her blog, Slaterspace, she compares traditional lesson plans with those incorporating iPads:

Using Skitch, students could take a picture of their work and mark up or comment on their or someone else’s writing. Using some other PDF reading tool, students could do the same with the sample pieces provided online. Yes, it is doing the same thing that we did…just with technology. But, perhaps some kids would have been more engaged, or hands-on, or receptive to really taking time to think through the structure and ideas presented before them instead of rushing through.

Read the rest of her iPad entries, Teacher’s Lament I and II over on her blog.