Tweaking Genius Hour: Creating Flow

Three weeks ago I updated this blog for the first time since January.  I have two very good reasons for the four month delay (I don't have any good reasons for the current three-week gap).  First, my students worked on Genius Hour for three consecutive weeks in May so there weren't any Genius Hour happenings upon which to comment or analyze from January to May.  Second, a teaching schedule doesn't work that well with my writing style.  When I was I was an undergrad at Iowa or a graduate student at Ole Miss, my best writing always happened between midnight and 3 am and was done Hemingway style.  The major reasons for this is that there were no distractions at that time of night, I liked the idea that I was working when other people were sleeping or partying (which made me feel like I was getting something done when others weren't), and I was able to get into a groove and write and rewrite and write and rewrite.  If I wrote until 3 am at Iowa, it was no big deal because I probably didn't have class until late morning (or if I had a 9:30 am class at Schaeffer Hall, I could get up 9:17, leave Hillcrest at 9:22, and arrive right at 9:29.)  At Ole Miss, I only had one morning class ever....And there was plenty of time for naps.  Staying up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning doesn't work as well for a teacher so sometimes it makes it tougher for me to find time to write.

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Interestingly, the two reasons for not updating the blog more frequently are both related to psychological work by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (It's a Hungarian name. And there will be a spelling quiz at the end of the blog.) who emphasized the importance of "flow." Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."*  This is not a new concept since there have always been instances when people have completely involved in something and lost track of everything else.  Csikszentmihalyi originally studied flow because he wanted to understand why artists got lost in their work, but he found that it had practical applications to other areas of life.

Other psychologists have taken up his work, and one of them, Owen Schaffer, developed seven prerequisites to promote flow.

"1.     Knowing what to do

2.     Knowing how to do it

3.     Knowing how well you are doing

4.     Knowing where to go (if navigation is involved)

5.     High perceived challenges

6.     High perceived skills

7.     Freedom from distractions^"[22]

(Yes, I got this from Wikipedia.)

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This semester, I decided to change the structure of my Genius Hour.  The past two semesters in which students did Genius Hour, they usually did it every Friday during the course of the semester.  This semester, they researched or shared everyday for three consecutive weeks.  I found this immensely beneficial for several reasons

Benefit #1 (content-related): They have an established base of knowledge which helps in selection of topics since they will have hopefully had their interest sparked by something during the course of the semester that they would like to explore in depth.

Benefit #2 (logistic-related): May is a crazy month at school with lots of extra-curricular activities going on, students missing class, and me missing class for tennis meets.  Since there is a lot of self-pacing in Genius Hour, students can more easily make up the time they missed on their own.  And it is the easiest sub plans ever...

Benefit #3 (structure-related/flow-related): When students did Genius Hour once a week, it sometimes took a couple weeks for them to remember "what to do" and "how to do it."  If they didn't know those two, they certainly didn't "know how well [they] are doing" or "where to go."  Thus, there was sometimes more confusion than there should have been.  This semester, however, because students had Genius Hour everyday, they didn't forget as much "what to do," "how to do it," and "where to go" because they were doing it everyday.  Students seemed to work much better, more efficiently, and get into a flow.

I wish there was a picture or story to share to illustrate how students were more able to get into a flow and how much more effective Genius Hour is when student have three consecutive weeks to work rather than fifteen or so sporadic days.  Unfortunately, I don't have solid evidence so you'll just have to take my word for it...

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EPILOGUE: Being Distracted While Being Entertained
Author's Note: I was originally going to use the following content as part of the original but I went in a different direction.  Because I find these anecdotes so illuminating about the state of society, I decided to include them.

Last fall I was at a Gary Allan concert at the Clay County Fair.  For the last song (before the encore), he sang his signature song, "Watching Airplanes," which I had been waiting for all concert.  My parents and I were seated next to the aisle.  During the middle of the song, in the row in front of us, people from the center of the row wanted to leave which caused everyone else in that aisle to become distracted during the middle of the song.  I noted that I was fortunate they weren't in my row, but I didn't think too much about it because I'd waited the whole concert to enjoy this song and I wasn't about to let some idiots ruin it.

After the concert, my parents and walked back to our cars and we talked about the concert and how great it was (it was phenomenal!).  Then I brought up the mid-song leavers and I started to get mad and annoyed even though they were long gone.  I commented to my parents that if they had been in my row that I would have told them to "Sit back down. I've waited for this song the whole concert and you're not going to ruin it."  There also would have been some expletives in what I would have told them.

This incident reminded me of another concert "incident" a few years earlier.  Craig Morgan was playing at Preservation Plaza at Arnold's Park and we were listening from the boat.  He has about 6-8 well known songs, so a lot of the songs he played early in the concert weren't songs that were recognizable from the radio.  During the course of the string of unknown songs, one of my friends complained that the concert was boring or that it sucked or made some sort of immature complaint.  Later in the concert, when Morgan started playing his hit songs, what was my friend doing?  Talking on his phone... so I said something to him along the lines of "You were complaining about the songs earlier and now that he's playing good songs you're on your %@#%& phone!" There was a moment of uncomfortable silence and then everyone resumed enjoying the concert because they knew I was right.

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Spell the last name of the psychologist mentioned in this piece.

Tweaking Genius Hour: Properly Framing It

In the picture below, it looks like there are some bored or distracted students working on computers in a classroom.  In actuality, they are working on Genius Hour, they are participating in a revolution, and they are contributing to The End of Power.

 

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When students become frustrated about school, their complaints frequently fall into a few broad categories.  They question the purpose of what they're doing, what they're expected to do is not understood (sometimes this is the students' fault, sometimes the teachers'), they believe they are being treated unfairly, they're frustrated by the lack of independence in school, etc.  To me, one of the most enjoyable parts of teaching is preventing many of those complaints or providing a quick counter to them by making everything I do in the classroom purposeful.  Over the years, I have constantly refined and tweaked lessons, lesson titles, content within lessons, order of lessons, activities to learn content, length of lessons, types of assessments, assessments questions, length of assessments, feedback, assessment due dates, assessment redo policy, late work policy, discipline policy, etc.  These refinements are based on theories advanced in educational literature, popular social science literature, historical literature, and personal experience in the classroom.

When I started Genius Hour in the Spring semester of 2014, I had a theoretical basis (see my first post on this blog), but no experience doing it so I was bound to make some mistakes.  Overall, I thought that Genius Hour went well the first time students did it in my classroom in the Spring of 2014, but I made changes by limiting students' choice and providing them a clear template for the Fall of 2014.  I thought it went better in the Fall of 2014, but there were still changes to be made since I had some students this semester (Spring 2015) who had done Genius Hour before asking "Do we have to do Genius Hour?"  It was only a few students (who, for the record, I know are chronic complainers) making these complaints, but regardless, I reflected about why there any complaints.  After all, students should enjoy the opportunity to pursue a topic that interested them, and yet some were not enthusiastic about it.  Therefore, I realized there must be something I could do to make it more interesting.  And when I teach a topic that students don't end up finding interesting, I usually attribute it to me not setting an interesting or relevant purpose for the lesson.  So when a few complaints rolled in, I tried to figure out what I could do differently to frame Genius Hour.  In the week before introducing Genius Hour, I tried to develop a new way to frame it, but I couldn't develop something that I liked so I went with the old way.


The way that I have introduced Genius Hour to students is with this short video clip.  It's not really my approach or philosophy because the guy in the video is a sixth grade teacher, but like some old habits, I use it because I've always used it.  Having watched this video 20-30 times, I nearly have it memorized so I usually don't pay attention to it.  Most of the time, I'm watching the students to make sure that they're paying attention.  But for some reason during one of the periods last week when I was showing it, I thought to myself "If I was a student and didn't know what Genius Hour was, what would I think of Genius Hour?  Would I really think it was big of a deal as the guy in the video makes it out to be?" I didn't really answer the question because my mind moved on to thinking about me in high school.  Then I thought about some of the things I'd done or written about in junior high and high school.  There was a report on the ATF attack on the Branch Davidians in 7th grade, the Battle of Gettysburg in 8th grade, a report on Muhammad Ali in 9th or 10th grade, a report on on something about Russia, and my masterpiece of high school writing "A Comparative Analysis of the Dystopian Worlds in 1984 and A Brave New World."  Furthermore, in my senior year, my literature teacher let me take 4th period Mythology as independent study because she knew that the class would not challenge me enough.  She gave me a few big assignments with lots of choice and I had the freedom to work on them.  How was what I did in high school from the fall of 1994 to the spring of 1998 any different than what my students are doing in Genius Hour?  Isn't Genius Hour just a fancy name for something good teachers have always done?  Now I wasn't just questioning how I would frame Genius Hour, but whether it was that unique.

Fortunately my doubt about Genius Hour or the problem of framing it didn't last long as my questions were soon answered by a book I'm reading at home (courtesy of the Remsen Public Library) called The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn't What It Used To Be by Moises Naim. Naim's claim is that because of three related revolutions-- the More Revolution (people today have access to more goods and information), the Movement Revolution (people can move much more easily and freely than in the past), and the Mentality Revolution (people expect to have more and move more easily and freely)--that it is harder for centralized, hierarchical, top-down institutions to assert their force, values, ideas, or rewards on people.  Because of these changes, institutions have to adapt and change and understand that they are dealing with a different marketplace.  He focuses on business, military, religious and political power and how it is being lost, but his theory can be transferred to the classroom as well.

Every teacher at ELC has this poster hanging up in their classroom.

It's been hanging there for a few years so I don't even notice it anymore.  For some reason, however, The End of Power made me think of it, in particular the concept of the student-centered classroom.  In a student-centered classroom, students are active learners engaged in acquiring knowledge and performing critical thinking.  This is in contrast to the teacher-centered classroom that dominated the twentieth century in which students are passive recipients of information that they will later regurgitate and then forget forever.  (Most classrooms are actually a blend, but proponents of student-centered classrooms often portray teacher-centered classrooms that way in order to create a straw man.  This teacher-centered straw man is EXTREMELY ahistorical (as my experience as a student suggests), but that's another another blogpost for an entirely different blog.) Regardless, one of the goals of Genius Hour is to make classrooms more student-centered and this fits perfectly with Naim's observations.  In all areas of life, loci of power are losing it.  In the realm of education, teachers are losing power and students are acquiring it.  So my students on Chromebooks in the picture above are participating in a student-centered classroom.  They are slowly and surely acquiring more and more power at the expense of their teacher through the selected of their topic, content, and method of presentation.

And now I have a way to frame Genius Hour for the Fall 2015 semester (and perhaps I will still reframe it this semester).  A question that challenged me greatly was, in the end, so simple to answer.  Instead of showing that video, I will frame Genius Hour within the context of the gradual diminishment of institutional power, whether it is CEO's, the Pope, presidents, dictators, generals, superintendents, principals, and especially teachers.  Next time I introduce Genius Hour, the first thing students will do is analyze the START poster to understand the difference between the student-centered classroom that Genius Hour creates and the teacher-centered classroom of the past.  Then they will read an excerpt from Naim's The End of Power to understand that what they are doing is not just something teachers have them do, but that they are participating in profound historical changes.

EPILOGUE: Framing History Properly.
Author's Note: I was originally going to use the following content as part of the original essay since they also deal with the issue of framing. However, I realized it didn't exactly fit.  Because I enjoy using these pictures in class so much I didn't want to waste such interesting content or writing.

I use this next picture in class.  What is happening in this picture? What do you see?

To most people, there is no context in which to frame this picture this picture so it's just an old picture of some farmers with some horses and tractors.  Thus, without proper framing the picture has no meaning.  At this point, a frustrated student might be wondering "Why are we looking at this picture?"

When I tell students this is picture that hangs in my living room and it is of my maternal grandfather, Harold Dunn (Gramps) (left-center), his brother Darrell (right-center), and their father Peter (far-right) at their farm outside Meriden, Iowa in the 1930s, then they immediately recognize that it has sentimental value to me.  And besides the fact that it is old (relatively, speaking anyway), my feelings of sentimentality probably wouldn't be enough to provide a justifiable purpose for using this picture in class.

There is a third way of framing, this picture, however.  Besides the sentimental value, I love this picture because in it I see the transition from the Era of the Agricultural Revolution to the Industrial Revolution.  Horses, a major source of power for humans for 5000 years are visibly being replaced by tractors.  Though horses were in the process of being replaced as a power source, they still command the center of the image.  It is the sons, whose bodies have not been worn down by years of repeated toil, however, you give primacy to their horses.  Because they can still readily meet the physical demands of agrarian life, they still relate to the horse and the shared struggle of biological beings to use muscles to produce power.  Off to the side, however, is the wise father, whose body has strained under the burden of agriculture who values the tractor and the use of fossil fuels to produce power.

When framed this way, the picture now has a purpose within the classroom and acquires significant meaning to students.  They can see one of the real-life changes in the way humans lived because of the shift from muscle power to fossil fuel power during the Industrial Revolution.

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One family picture is probably enough to illustrate my point about the importance of framing, but let's play the game again. What is happening in this picture? What do you see?

This picture, like the previous one, could just be some American tourists in China with no meaning.  On another level, there is sentimental value in the picture if it happens to be your sister, Lindsay, and your brother-in-law/best friend, Garv, in Beijing.

Once again, however, there is a way to see this picture.  In the 20th century, China went through three major revolutions, all of which are represented in this picture.  Just to the left of Garv's head (as you're looking at it) and just below Mao's head there are tourists entering the Forbidden Palace.  It was "forbidden" because before 1911 it was the exclusive domain of the Chinese imperial family and retinue.  The imperial family was removed from power in 1911-1912, however, and the Forbidden Palace is now open to tourists.  A second revolution, the Communist Revolution, which lasted from 1949-1970s, is represented by Mao's head, the dictator who led the revolution.  The final revolution, the Western Revolution, is represented by the presence of Garv and Lindsay, Americans, in Beijing.  After the Communists won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the US did not recognize the Communist Chinese government.  In the 1970s, however, the US and China opened diplomatic relations allowing Americans from Forrest Gump to Garv and Lindsay to visit the "land of China."

Again, an historical topic that could be devoid of meaning or purpose for students unless it is framed the proper way.

Tweaking Genius Hour: The Benefit of Providing a Template

First semester is over and my students have completed another batch of Genius Hour projects.  Overall, they were excellent.


In my last post, I discussed how providing students parameters in selecting a topic was very beneficial.  Another way I tweaked Genius Hour was to provide students a template of six simple and broad requirements for World History and seven for Geography, plus a particular approach for structuring the presentation.




Though soundly based on research, my decision to implement Genius Hour last year was somewhat epiphanic in that I decided to do it and implement in less than a week.  Thus, I sometimes made things up as I went along. And I because I'd never had students do Genius Hour, I did not know how to properly give students the guidance they needed.  There were trials and error as I went along, but I learned a lot as I went along. When students presented their projects last May, I took notes on problems or issues I saw.  Here is the list of my observations:



Before implementing Genius Hour this semester, I reviewed my chicken scratches of notes from the previous semester.  Based on these observations, I devised a format and requirements that would guide students with their research.  In World History, each presentation required:


1. A quotation
2. A video clip
3. A picture
4. An event or story
5. A question to provoke thought
6. A big idea

Moreover, for each of the items above, I required students to provide an explanation of why they selected the quotation or video clip or whatever.  Finding one of the above items isn't very difficult but providing a justification for why they selected a particular picture or event was much challenging.  It was the process of EXPLAINING their selection in which students really thought about their topic.  For example, if a student's project was about Julius Caesar's conquests of Gaul and Britain, an appropriate picture would be a picture of Caesar in military dress instead of a picture of Caesar in a toga or being stabbed to death.


One of the problems with providing this structure is that it limits students' creativity in the presentation.  I'm not concerned with creativity, however.  I'm interested in historical explanation, and by providing this structure, the historical explanations that students provided was much better than the previous year.  In fact, based on the success of providing students a template, I'm adding three items to the template: a map, background information, and the significance of the person, event, or topic.

Tweaking Genius Hour: The Benefits of Limiting Choice

Genius Hour is about finished this semester and I realize I've completely neglected my blog.  So I'll try to post three or four times the rest of this semester on some of the big impressions I've observed.


Last semester (Spring 2014), I implemented Genius Hour in my Civics, World History, and Geography classes.   One of the components of Genius Hour is to provide student choice over the subject matter.  Last year, I learned, however, that there could be too much choice.



I'd already known that too much choice can be bad, however.  Though I'd never read it, I was aware of a book called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz (he also has a Ted Talk) in which he argues that too much choice paralyzes someone.  He argues, instead, that it would better off that instead of dozens of options of shampoo at Wal-mart or 5000 pairs of shoes on Amazon that we only had four or five.  Also, because a person is aware that there is so much choice, he or she often regrets the choice they do make because there seems to be so many other appealing alternatives.  Any limiting of choice, however, creates a tricky paradox in the realm of the political economy because the choices are available because there is a market for them.  People want choice and even though that choice can lead to some negative consequences, the alternative of too much control can be much worse (ask anyone who has lived under communism).


Fortunately, I'm not dealing with a national political economy, I'm dealing with my classroom.  And in my smaller world, things are much clearer and Schwartz's paradox doesn't have the same type of deleterious consequences.  Last year, when I introduced Genius Hour, some students were overwhelmed because they could choose any topic that interested them.  In fact, it took some students two or three Genius Hour periods to settle upon a topic and other students changed their topics several times.  Last year, I quickly noticed this was a problem, but since some students had had no problem with the wide range of choice, had selected their topic (many of which were very interesting and creative), and were eagerly researching it, I decided not to construct parameters mid-stream.  Instead, I simply helped those students who were struggling, narrow their choice.



This year, in order to prevent students from being overwhelmed, while still providing them a wide range of choice, I limited them to the subject we were studying.  For example, in World History students were limited to topics about World History before the year 1600 or in Geography they were limited to studying a particular place in the world.  Besides providing some boundaries, I had students do a couple activities that would help them identify a topic.  First, I had students examine the table of contents and write down five historical eras or topics that interested them.  From that list, I had students look through those particular chapters or sections.  As they examined their topics, they gradually narrowed it down.  As they were doing this, I circulated the room helping students that needed it.  At this stage in the process, students didn't need a tremendous amount of help.  In fact, they were very eager in pursuing this part of the task.




Once they selected the topic, I wanted to help them narrow their topic.  For example, instead of a student doing a project on Ancient Rome or Australia, I wanted to narrow it down to a particular person or event.  For the most part, this was not an issue and most students quickly arrived at a topic, some completely on their own and some with a little guidance from me.


I will continue doing Genius Hour in my classroom next semester and I will most definitely provide some very broad guidelines for students in the selection of their topics because of how successful it has been this semester.

Genius Hour Wrap-up

#geniushour
@tklein11

So how did Genius Hour finish up?  Better than my regularity in updating the blog.  I know that the key to being successful at blogging (or anything else) is consistency.  Oops.  Regardless, I am now writing this in the Atlanta airport on the Fourth of July as I wait for a flight to Santiago, Chile to see my sister and brother-in-law.

The Genius Hour projects can be classified into three major groups: a couple unmitigated disasters, most that were pretty good, and a dozen or so that were frickin' awesome ("frickin' awesome" is the highest form of praise I can heap on anything that is praise-worthy).

Some of the most important lessons were learned by me.  As I observed and assessed the hundred or so presentations, I not only provided feedback to students but catalogued the common things my students did poorly and how I would make changes to make next semester's genius hours better.  Among the ways I could organize Genius Hour to make it better for students is to...um...well my list is at school.  And besides I need to save some material for future blog posts.  So in the mean time, I would like to highlight two projects, both extremely well done, and on the same topic--music--that reached completely differed conclusions.

One project explored four different popular genres of music in United States: rock, country, rap, and blues. For each genre, the student first presented the common stereotypes associated with the genre and then presented how the stereotype was not accurate.  For her section on country music, she played a twangy song and showed pictures of musicians and fans in cowboy hats, boots, buckles, etc.  Then she showed some country music artists and fans (including me) and played some music that wasn't so stereotypically country.  My brief description does not do justice to the brilliance of this project in all regards: its concept, research, presentation (her classmates and I were riveted), and most importantly, theoretical implications of her findings (whether she intended this or not).  The implications of this project is, obviously, that stereotypes, when scrutinized do not always portray an accurate picture--an especially important idea for high school freshmen and sophomores to understand.

Ironically, another great presentation reached a completely opposite conclusion, but it was great because of the concept.  The project explored whether or not Taylor Swift's stereotype as someone who sings mostly break-up songs was true.  The student listened to all sixty-four songs on her four studio albums and categorized her songs based on four categories.  She found that of the sixty-four songs, about half were break-up songs, which seemed to her (and me) that Taylor Swift, indeed, sings about break-ups.  A LOT.

One of the reasons I highlighted these two projects is that they were both from the same class period even though the students had no idea what the implication of their projects would mean.  As the Taylor Swift project was being presented (a day or two after the music genre project), I was jumping out of skin because I knew its implications could promote an interesting (and informal and unplanned (always the best kind)) class discussion when juxtaposed with the presentation on music genre stereotypes.  Are stereotypes inaccurate?  Are they based on truth?  It was a good discussion that went in many directions.  And like the best questions, there was no correct answer as long as opinions were well-considered and supported with evidence.

Though the spontaneous, teachable moments are always the best, a teacher cannot count of them.  Therefore, one of the changes I will be making next year is to create more time for students to discuss each others' projects.  I will also be doing different forms of genius hour and look forward to sharing (more regularly!) how it goes.

Google is NOT an Answer Generating Machine!: Grit and Too Much Google

@tklein11
#geniushour


In Genius Hour, I hope that students learn about more than just their topics.  In an earlier post, I noted that students can learn more profound lessons from their projects.  I am also hoping that students learn more about the nature of research.

After students selected their topic, it was time to begin research (January 31 was the first day we conducted research).  Invariably the first place they went was Google.  Google searches are very useful, but there are three major problems with the way students search Google.

The first problem is that students often type full questions for their search query: "Who is X?" "Where is Y?" "What is Z?" "What is a 9/11 Genius Hour project?"   I knew this would be a problem so before unleashing them to conduct their research so we had a short lesson on the best search strategies.  Nevertheless, when students began researching, some students immediately reverted to asking full questions as if they would be able to find an entire Genius Hour project online that they could then use as their own.  As I circulated the room in first period, I calmly reminded the first two or three students what we had just talked about concerning search strategies. After spotting another student conducting a ridiculous search, I exclaimed "Google is NOT an answer generating machine!  You will not find YOUR project online."  I then proceeded to very adamantly explain in more depth how search engines work.  In subsequent class periods on that late January day, I used that line as part of the lesson on search strategies.  How have students done in subsequent research sessions?  We've had five Fridays of reseach since and I have noticed that students have done more refined searches.  Occasionally, I'll encounter a student with overly verbose search terms, but overall I'm pleased with how student have done searching.


The second major problem is when students perform a reasonable Google search and after looking at one website and doing one search, they claim they can't find anything.  If this happens, I ask students what their original search terms were.  Then we discuss the merits and problems of those terms and if there could be better search terms.  Then we work on looking at several webpages or modifying the search terms.  But most of all we work on grit.  Grit simply means perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness, determination, etc.  More formally, according to Angela Duckworth, who popularized the term in a Ted talk, grit is "passion and perseverance for very long-term goals."  Using that definition, the passion comes from the students as they were able to select their topic.  The next part of the definition is perseverance and for some students, it must be taught.  Genius Hour is the perfect opportunity for students to learn grit because they are learning about something they are interested in.  Therefore, when they get stuck, they're much more likely to keep searching when they hit a wall.  Some students may need some help pushing through the wall, but once they're pushed they've been getting through, around, and over (or pick your favorite preposition) the wall.


The third major problem of Google is Google.  For the first research session, the ONLY resources students consulted were those that they found through Google searches.  This wasn't a problem for one period of work because students were becoming more familiar with their topic and gathering basic information.  However, one of the important lessons students should learn is that there are resources besides those online.  One of the requirements of my students' Genius Hour projects is that they consult an actual person who is an expert on their chosen topic. Usually this is done through email and this is important because students have to compose well-written and polite letters in order to ask someone else to help them.  Students are reaching way outside their comfort zones when they do this.  Doing a Google search is easy.  Emailing someone who is an expert is not easy or comfortable.  One of the thrilling things is how much help some experts have provided.  And if experts haven't provided very much help, I encourage students to write a follow-up email or consult other experts. Another source I am requiring students to consult is an actual book.  In expanding the realm of possible resources, I have seen tremendous growth among students.  Moreover, from using multiple types of sources, students learn that creating a project must have a broad-based foundation of information.

In the past six weeks, I've seen notable improvements in how students use online sources to learn more about their topics.  I've seen students more determined in learning about their topic.  I've seen students consult a wider variety of sources.  I've seen budding geniuses.

The Lego Movie and Genius Hour

#geniushour My twitter handle is @tklein11

I'm not the only teacher using Genius Hour.  Joy Kirr has compiled a very extensive Live Binder list of teachers using a version of Genius Hour their classrooms and resources for teachers and students.  There is clearly a movement going on.  What type of movement is it?  What are its origins?  Where else does the movement show up?  To find out, let's start in an unexpected place: The Lego Movie.

Over President's Day weekend, I saw The Lego Movie at the Mall of America. I loved it and disliked it simultaneously.  I loved it because I love Legos.  I also disliked it, however, because it vilified what I will call the "direction followers."  When I was young (and sometimes not-so-young) and built my Legos, I followed the directions.  I found it thrilling to create order out of the jumbled mess of pieces strewn across the floor.  I found it even more thrilling to complete Legos' original Pirate series, which was capped by the completion of El Dorado fortress during a very memorable Christmas.  (The previous sentence was exclusively for my mom and sister.)  In the Lego movie, however, it is those who do not follow the directions or care about completeness and order who are celebrated.  The heroes of the movie are those who follow their intuition, instincts, and passion to create whatever their heart can feel and their mind imagine.  Direction followers like myself are the bad guys because of our legalistic enthusiasm for the directions and our lack of creativity.   Thus, the The Lego Movie highlights a contrast between order and logic on one hand and imagination and passion on the other.  This juxtaposition is best illustrated in eighteenth and nineteenth century European intellectual culture.

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that flourished in eighteenth century Europe, especially among the bourgeoisie (roughly today's middle class) and aristocracy.  Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophes (a French term), believed that reason and rational thought were the keys to understanding and improving all aspects of humanity.  Philosophes believed it was possible to organize and categorize all the knowledge in the world.  They wanted to create order out of chaos and complexity and they produced many great advances such as the Encyclopedie, American Independence, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill or Rights, modern republicanism, the street pattern of Washington, DC, the grid pattern of Iowa and the Midwest, and the French Revolution. I am a self-described "Man of the Enlightenment."  When I first learned about the Enlightenment in undergrad, I had an a-ha moment and realized, "this is me."  Just like the philosophes, I valued logic, reason, order, organization, completeness, symmetry, and so on.  Thus, my desire to impose order on my Lego sets and follow the directions is very much rooted in characteristics that the philosophes valued.  The Enlightenment was not, unfortunately, a panacea.


Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Romanticism (this is distinct from what I call romance-icism) emerged in response to the more negative aspects of the Enlightenment, especially the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.  From September 1793-July 1794, supporters of the Revolution, many of whom were trained in Enlightenment thought, executed 50,000 or so of their political opponents, most famously via the guillotine.  Those who observed the Reign of Terror with horror noted the danger the cold rationality of Enlightenment thought could have.  Though they emerged from the same social and economic milieu as their Enlightenment predecessors, romanticists believed that humanity was about passion, imagination, and intuition--not a heartless adherence to a political philosophy.  They believed that the source of truth in the world was found within each individual, not in a political ideology.

The best example of Romanticist philosophy, ironically comes not from nineteenth century, but from 2014. Currently, Apple is airing this iPad Air commercial linked here and called "Your Verse." Watch it now!

Romanticists in the nineteenth century believed in the "powerful play," their preferred medium was poetry, and they believed that passion was at the heart (pun intended) of humanity. In modern popular culture, The Lego Movie urges its audience to use their imagination to create from within, rather than suffer the confinement of following directions from without.  In modern technology, the iPad, an instrument of science, is re-imagined into the tool of an artist.  The ideology of romanticism is powerful, eternal, and can show up in a variety times and places.

And finally, we get back to Genius Hour.  The iPad commercial concludes with: "The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.  What will your verse be?"  Genius Hour is about students following their passions and sharing their interests and causes with their peers and, hopefully, the world.  For four days a week they are following the "Lego directions," but on the fifth day they are creating whatever they can imagine.  My students who are diving deeper into the impact of the smallpox vaccine, the problems of poaching, cattle breeds from around the world, how to end bullying, and the significance of Youtube are certainly contributing their verse.

Genius Hour Topics: The Deeper Lessons Students Can Learn

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Overall, my students are working on approximately one hundred Genius Hour projects.  I am blown away at their creativity and range of topics they selected.

My goal for Genius Hour was for students to explore their interests.  But I also want students to justify why their friends, colleagues, parents, and teacher should know more about this topic.  I want there to be a larger lesson for each of these projects.  In some cases, I've had to focus students on a narrower topic and help them identify a lesson.  In most cases, students did this on their own.  Here are some of the prominent thematic lessons students are learning:


1. Success
Two projects stand out to me because they can help their peers understand the paths to success. One student is doing her project on Tom and Terry Brands because she likes wrestling.  (In fact, she likes wrestling so much that she's doing a project on two Hawkeyes even though she's a Cyclone fan.)  The underlying theme of her project will be that if two kids from a northwest Iowa town (Sheldon) can achieve great success, so can she and so can her classmates.  A second project deals with the Fox Racing Company, which is the best known brand in action sports and racing clothing and accessories.  By tracing the popularity of Fox and the reasons it has grown, this student can provide another lesson on success to her classmates.


2. Recent History
Among Civics students, a very popular topic is 9/11, whether it be a victim, a fire-fighter, why and how the buildings collapsed, or the conspiracy theories.  The reason for the interest is that we had just studied 9/11 in the lesson before I introduced Genius Hour (recency bias at its finest).  Morever, it's an event that happened in their lifetime, but they don't remember because they are too young.  (I know that previous statement will make most readers feel old.)

3. Distant History
I tried to read The Art of War by Sun Tzu.  Twice, in fact.  It's one of those texts that every historian feels like he or she should read. I wish I had a more elegant reasoning for why I still haven't completed it, but the only thing I can say about The Art of War is that I found it boring.  I'm very excited, however, that a student chose to read it and share with his colleages how an ancient Chinese military text is still so important today.  I'm even more excited that I can learn more about it without reading it.  My reading list is already filled with books that I actually want to read.

4. Identity
One of the reasons history is taught is to develop a national identify among citizens.  One student is studying diesel engines and why they're more popular in Europe than in the United States.  Another student is studying the differences in hunting practices and laws in Europe and United States.  The historiography on whether the United States is an extension or rejection of European society, culture, and politics is extensive.  These two projects will contribute to that debate.  More importantly, it will help students understand what America is and is not and what an American is.

5. Helping soldiers and veterans
It is very heartening that two students focused on issues related to our military.  One wants to organize care packages for current soldiers.  Another student is researching the effect that deployment had on returning soldiers and veterans.  In both cases, these topics are very personal to students because it involves family members.  These students are truly making a difference and improving lives.

6. The importance of utilities

Two students who struggled to find a project took me up on my suggestion that someone should consider the importance of running water and sewage systems in developing counties.  The effect of water-borne diseases has a horribly negative impact on cultures, societies, families, and economies.  Donations of food and clothing are often seen as the best solution to helping people in poorer areas.  Empirical studies and anecdotal evidence, however, has shown that donations of food and clothing have a deleterious effect on the intended beneficiaries because these products of goodwill actually reduce their self-efficacy and motivation.  Instead, these students are finding that people in developing countries are helped more if charity is directed at municipal/village level infrastructure projects.  They have also found that they can take action to help.

7-98.  In the interest of time, I skipped a bunch of lessons.  But I saved the best, and most important, lesson for last...

99. Don't be a Minnesota Vikings Fan

The most brilliant idea of all the Genius Hour projects is entitled "Minnesota Vikings Fans' Heartbreaks Over the Years."  (I'm probably not supposed to pick a favorite and my favorite probably shouldn't be a topic so superficial, but as a Viking fan, the son of a Viking fan, and nephew of a HUGE Viking fan, I can't help it).  He is going to show brief clips and descriptions of some of the worst losses in Vikings history, of which there are a lot.  Four Super Bowl Losses, five NFC championship games the Drew Pearson push-off, the Herschel Walker trade, and so on...  He is very excited about the project.  So am I.  So is my uncle.  Nothing exemplifies the psyche of the Viking fan better more than discovering or enjoying the reminisces of old heartbreaks.

The Ideological Origins of Genius Hour in Mr. Klein's Classroom

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I recently surrendered eighteen of the ninety school days this semester for my students to work on Genius Hour.  As it was, ninety days in a semester was not enough to teach all the lessons I would like to teach.  SO WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I DOING?  Implementing Genius Hour is a big change--revolutionary, perhaps--and like all big changes (such as the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution) there are many influences: Daniel Pink's Drive, a professional Development day with Angela Maiers, support from the administration, current trends in popular historiography, and most importantly, my instincts.

Genius Hour is, simply, the opportunity for students to spend twenty percent of their time on a topic that intersts, excites, and challenges them.  On Friday, January 24, 2014, I introduced Genius Hour to my Civics, Geography, and World History students.  Genius Hour in my classroom uses models other teacher have used, primarily Chris Kesler's "Genius Hour" website (http://www.geniushour.com).   There are three requirements:  1.  The students must choose a topic they are passionate about or interested in. 2. They must do research.  3. The students must have a larger purpose in choosing their topic, such as "How can I make a difference?" or "What do I want others to know about my topic?"

Now for the ideological origins of Genius Hour in my classroom...

1. I am currently taking courses for a second master's degree, this one an MS in Education through Southwest Minnesota State University.  Each month, a course requirement is to read a work on an educational topic.  During the first week of January, I read Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink, an option for our January meeting on motivation.  Pink hypothesizes that most people in our contemporary economy are motivated by the desire for more autonomy, the opportunity to achieve mastery, and doing work that is purposeful.  He argues, therefore, that a system of rewards and punishments, which dominated the twentieth-century business and education systems, no longer works today and must be replaced.  Among the alterations he suggests is Genius Hour, which originated with Google.  Though intrigued by this idea, Pink's argument was not enough to sway me to give up twenty percent of class time to my students' interests.

2. On Wednesday, January 15, Estherville-Lincoln Central teachers had a professional development day in which Angela Maiers, a nationally known educational consultant from Des Moines, was the key-note speaker.  Among Maiers's major messages was that students need to be told that they matter, they are geniuses, they have the opportunity to follow their passions, and they can make a difference in their world.  What really resonated with me was when she off-handedly mentioned how her vision for schools were similar to Pink's vision for businesses.  In a moment of extreme clairvoyance, I instantaneously committed myself to implementing Genius Hour in my classroom.  Whatever concerns I had vanished and I became certain of the benefits of providing students the time and support to pursue their interests and passions.

3. Pay close attention to the previous sentence: the words "I ...committed" imply autonomy.  So I have the autonomy to give students autonomy!  (There's a great lesson in classical early modern European political philosophy here, but I'll avoid that.) I have this autonomy because the leadership at ELC is reading and thinking the same way I am.  Or vice versa.  Regardless, I decided on my own without asking because I knew that I would have the support, and encouragement, of Mrs. Paul, Mr. Christenson, Mrs. Jensen, and Mrs. Nitchals.  They cultivated an atmosphere in which my ideas could be implemented in my classroom, and more importantly, students' ideas could be pursued to further their own learning.

4. So what will students be working on? (This will be the subject of my next post)  Won't they be pursue topics that are not academic, like wake-surfing, the history of volleyball, or Dr. Who?  Yes, they will.  Other students, however, are working on profound historical topics or projects that can help others, such as the origins of chess, the Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the Battle of Mogadishu.  But even the seemingly academically questionable topics ARE WORTHY of study because framed the right way, topics such as wake-surfing, volleyball, and Dr. Who can highlight much larger principles or trends in history or the contemporary world.  Moreover, having my students turn the superficially trivial into the deeply profound is a model that can be seen in the popular historiography today, which uses everyday objects, places, and events to illuminate larger concepts or principles in history.  Throughout my course, I have students read excerpts from works such as Tom Standage's A History of the World in Six Glasses, An Edible History of Humanity,  Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects, and Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The West and the Rest.  Each of these titles tells a world history through a series of everyday objects or ideas.  The authors use coffee, pop, canned food, fertilizer, plates and dishes, coins, blue jeans, and myriad other items to highlight larger forces in world history.  Thus, students exploring their own interests, with my guidance, can do the same kind of thinking as these renowned scholars.

5. Let's revisit the second sentence of this piece: "As it was, ninety days in a semester was not enough to teach all the lessons I would like to teach."  Did you catch that?  "...the lessons I would like to teach."  That statement encapsulates a perspective that values the teacher's interests more than students' interests.  I teach history and social studies, in part, because I love history and social studies.  My pleasure reading is almost exclusively history and social studies.   But what about students who do not love history and social studies?  As long as I've taught, I've recognized that no matter how relevant I try to make history to students' lives, some do not see the value of the social studies.  In the past I have tried to find manageable ways to make the subject matter more individualized, and I had never found something what seemed to balance teaching skills and content with student interests.  The genius of Genius Hour is that it recognizes that teachers still have four days a week to teach the content, skills, and lesson that s/he thinks will help students learn.  Genius Hour recognizes that there is value to very well-established academic disciplines such as history, but on one day of the week  students who may not enjoy history or the social studies have the opportunity to pursue a topic that they want to learn about it.  I believe Genius Hour will be a very worthwhile pursuit in my classroom because it recognizes students desire for autonomy (the opportunity to select a topic and the time to work on it), mastery (sharing the topic with their peers or the public), and purpose (the opportunity to select a topic that will inform or help others).


6.  So what about those eighteen or so lessons that won't be taught?  No problem.  The students are generating replacement lessons to share their learning with their peers.  They have the opportunity to do what I do everyday--share my passion with others.