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Step-by-Step Directions for Creating Passion Projects in Our Classroom

Step-by-Step Directions for Creating Passion Projects in Our Classroom

These 20 Photographs Will Leave You Speechless. Especially The 11th One. There Are No Words. Take a look at these 20 powerful photos that will leave you speechless. Some of these photos are of truly historic moments, while others, are quite heartbreaking. World War II veteran from Belarus Konstantin Pronin, 86, sits on a bench as he waits for his comrades at Gorky park during Victory Day in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, May 9, 2011. This year he was the only person from the unit to show. Reddit 100s of galaxies seen through the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), as they were 10 billion years ago. Sunset on Mars, taken in 2005 by the Spirit rover. A soldier making the long walk to defuse a car bomb in Northern Ireland. wikipedia Neil Armstrong after his Moonwalk. This was taken moments after Jewish refugees realized they weren’t being sent to their deaths at the horrible concentration camps and were in fact being saved. Ignorance is bliss – Homeless man sleeps outside a diner in Milwaukee. Nazi rally at Nuremberg in 1937. Two engineers died when the windmill they were working on caught fire.

6 Principles Of Genius Hour In The Classroom Genius Hour In The Classroom: 6 Principles Of Genius Hour by Terry Heick Update: We did a t-shirt campaign of this graphic last year and it sold decently (if 13 t-shirts can be considered ‘decent.’). Genius Hour in the classroom is an approach to learning built around student curiosity, self-directed learning, and passion-based work. In traditional learning, teachers map out academic standards, and plan units and lessons based around those standards. Genius Hour is most notably associated with Google, where employees are able to spend up to 20% of their time working on projects they’re interested in and passionate about. What’s The Difference? Genius Hour provides students freedom to design their own learning during a set period of time during school. Sense of Purpose Students must find their own sense of purpose in what they study, make sense of, and create. Design Inquiry & Navigation Create Whether students “make,” publish, design, act, or do, “creating” is core to Genius Hour. 80/20 Rule

20-Time In Education Inspire. Create. Innovate. Why I Abandoned Genius Hour Genius hour is an amazing concept that children respond to because they get to learn about any topic they choose. I had a few rounds of Genius Hour last year and the kids thought it was awesome. On Fridays, the question was always, "Are we doing Genius Hour today?" With a grade 1/2 classroom last year, it got difficult to keep up with Genius Hour for a few reasons. 1. 2. 3. These were all minor issues, my major issue was that my students did not know how to properly research and I as their teacher did not effectively model this. I needed a better plan, I needed to be better prepared and I needed my students to have the skills needed to research an idea or topic, produce not only a product but also be able to share the information they learned from researching the topic. This year, Genius Hour turned into Wonder Workshop. This year I began the year teaching the skills needed for an inquiry based classroom. My students learned different ways to show their learning.

20 percent projects: 10 must-have tools Students engaging in 20 percent projects must gather and curate information, share it and present it. Here are 10 tools to help. Every good handyman (or handywoman) knows that having the right tool can save minutes — or hours — of work. Academic work is no exception. Students who engage in 20 percent projects — where 20 percent of class time is devoted to a project the student is passionate about — engage in certain activities to prepare for the culminating event: often a presentation in front of their peers. There’s content gathering and content curation to be done. 20 percent projects have been made famous recently by companies like Google — although 20 percent time isn’t like it used to be at Google anymore. As teachers plan or implement a 20 percent project program — or any sort of long-term project — here are some handy tools to integrate: 1. 2. 3. 4. [RELATED: 20 percent projects: 7 ideas to think about] 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. Related 20 percent projects: 7 ideas to think about In "Teaching"

Introducing Genius Hour (Passion Based Inquiry Projects) October 3rd was our last #geniushour chat (click here to learn more about Genius Hour) on twitter. We had a fantastic conversation and some great ideas were shared. Since that chat (click here to see all archived chats), I have had a few more people ask me about how to introduce Genius Hour. So I thought I would compile a list of all the wonderful strategies that were discussed. Here it goes… Danielle Porte tweeted about doing a guided Genius Hour to start her class off this year. This year, Hugh and I introduced Genius Hour together. I am sure there are many more ideas out there from other great teachers about how to introduce Genius Hour. How do you get students ready for Genius Hour/Inquiry Projects? Like this: Like Loading... About Gallit Zvi Teacher for SD36, Grad student at SFU, love learning, #geniushour chat co-moderator (see geniushour.wikispaces.com for details) I blog at gallitzvi.com I tweet from @gallit_z

What’s New in Evernote Web Clipper Capture articles to read later The Evernote Web Clipper will automatically detect the article on a page and create a beautiful rendering of it inside your Evernote account. You can expand or shrink the selection using the grab bars. Clip simplified articles Enjoy a better reading experience on your favorite blogs and news sources. Bookmark your favorites Want to remember a site without clipping the entire page? Take screenshots in your browser Capture the most important part of a page, crop it, and save it, or share with friends and colleagues. Beautiful list of tools The new sidebar design displays the Clip, Markup, File, Share and other options alongside the page you're reviewing without blocking any of the content so you can read, organize, and revisit relevant content from one screen. Organize your web clips A window displays all organization options and makes it easy to edit the clip title, add your comments, and adjust the organization options. Enjoy smart filing Set your preferences

The Research Behind Choice and Inquiry-Based Education Updated: I’ve updated this post and page since publishing my most recent book about student choice. I’d love for you to add resources you’ve found in the comments section of this post so I can add them to the list! Since experimenting with “Genius Hour and 20% Time” in my class a few years ago, I’ve been fascinated by the research and history of this practice in education and the business world. This has led me down a long road to eventually writing Inquiry & Innovation in the Classroom (published by Routledge) on inquiry-driven education and choice-based learning experiences. During that time I’ve had hundreds of conversations with fellow teachers practicing choice-based and inquiry-driven learning in some way shape or form (Genius Hour, 20% Time, Passion Projects, Choose2Matter etc). Today I want to shed some light on the research behind choice, and more broadly, inquiry-driven education. I’m breaking the post down into four sections. Inquiry Project Learning Research via Edutopia 1.

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