Genius Hour-- Where Passion Comes Alive

Genius Hour-- Where Passion Comes Alive

The short video that we watched in lecture taught us that the Genius Hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It is a movement ran by Google that provides children with a choice of learning whatever they would like to for an hour.  The video showed this technique in schools of the younger grades, such as a primary school.  I think this is a great idea to incorporate into the curriculum but at first I was unsure why and how this would be beneficial for the older grades in intermediate- senior.  Since the video only had examples of younger children, it didn't express the advantages that Genius Hour could provide to older students.  High school is a time in your life when you have to make a lot of difficult decisions, and often after the four years still don't know which path you should take for post secondary.  I believe that with incorporating Genius Hour to the high school curriculum it will allow students to explore what they're interested in without having to directly choose a path, this could potentially help them figure out what they want to do post secondary.  High school schedules are much more difficult to find the time to do activities such as these considering the 4 different classes that take place in a day.  However I believe that during the mandatory grade 10 class; civics and careers, would be an excellent time to incorporate the Genius Hour seeing as it fits into the curriculum and is not taking time away from other subjects.

Looking back at my high school career I believe that I never fully got the chance to explore other careers and interests that were not laid out in front of me.  I knew the basic careers such as teacher, lawyer, doctor, etc.  I decided on teaching because I knew that it was a good career, I love working with people and I am in a family full of teachers which definitely had a influence on me. To this day I feel comfortable with teaching as a career however I do not know if it is for me.  I have never had the 'ah ha' moment of where you know what you are meant to do until recently, and the career has nothing to do with teaching.  Although I know that Concurrent Education is an excellent program and extra education never hurts, it still took me 4 years in a program that is not right for me to realize this.  Looking back I wish that during the grade 10 careers class we were given an opportunity to research other careers and take time to really and truly understand where your interest lies.  The Genius Hour would provide students with an excellent opportunity to explore their interests and careers that are connected with those specific interests.