My Own Genius Hour

Back in December, I started my own passion project--to find out more about my heritage, DNA, and ancestors. I sent off my DNA to www.23andme.com and found out quite a bit about myself! I even got my dad to do it, so I could see my paternal DNA line (women have to do that, men don't). #biology

That led me to creating a family tree and researching the people who led to me! Then I presented my Genius Hour research to all my classes as a model for them to use. I followed the scoring rubric very closely to ensure I would "get an A." They liked it.

Well, learning is an addictive thing. I recently bought a concert ukulele, and thought I'd start learning this summer, but the thing about learning is there is no reason to wait. So I've begun. 

I use this guy's website. If you look on the left, he has a link just for ukulele lessons. His video lessons are fantastic, and the written portion has the visual for the chords, too, so you can "read" them instead of just playing and listening to them. I looked at several other ukulele instructor's videos, and they were either too fast or too simple. This guy's speed of instructional delivery is just right for me. He repeats what we just learned a lot. I'm thrilled to say I now know four chords--C, A minor, F, and G--well enough that they come easily, and I don't have to look down at my fingers to get to them, (except the F chord) and I'm adding a fifth one. My goal is to get the ten most common chords down pat, and then begin learning songs that use those chords. The other chords I am adding are C minor, C7, F minor, F7, G minor, and G7. With a total of ten chords, I can play hundreds of popular ukulele songs. 

One thing I learned is that I had to cut all my fingernails really short. I thought I could use my strumming hand nails to strum, but the uke's strings are thin enough that using your nails just sounds brassy, for lack of a better word. A guitar's strings are much thicker, and you can do that, but not on a uke. And the nails on my fingering hand just made things really difficult. Without them, it was much easier, though I have to say, my left hand fingertips were bruised and sore after a long session of chord playing.

Overall, the ukulele has been surprisingly easy to learn. If you ever want your hands to look GIANT, play the ukulele! This picture was taken before the Great Nail Cutting:

Keep Learning,

Mrs. H

In-class time was finished today...

We had our last Genius Hour in-class time today. Of course, that doesn't mean my students are done researching, blogging, vlogging, and creating and fine-tuning their presentation.

Today we talked about doing a "dress rehearsal" at home for their presentation. I strongly emphasized that the first time they present should not be in front of the class.

Their fourth blog entry is due this week, by Sunday at 7 pm, and then for their fifth entry, I have some questions I'd like them to answer in order to reflect on the entire learning process.

Harder Than I Thought...

Many of my students are writing blog entries with that sentiment..."this is harder than I thought."

I'm happy when I see that (it means they're really trying), but I'm even happier when I read that they are pushing through anyway. Sometimes learning is hard. Success doesn't look like a straight line. There are twists and turns, obstacles and hurdles, and unexpected problems all along the way. Those who persevere may not even reach their goal, but they will have learned quite a bit along the way--both about what they were researching and about themselves.

I can report the same thing--this is harder than I thought. I had no idea how long it would take to check and grade 90 + blog entries every Sunday. I can now tell you: approximately 3 1/2 hours. Because I wanted them to interact with each other, too, I required at least two comments on other students' blogs per week, so I must read and take note of every one of those, too. Sometimes I miss them, and the students correct me so that I can correct their grade. :)

But I've learned how to make things easier: I leave every blog that isn't updated in its own tab, open until 7 pm (the deadline each Sunday). Then at 7 pm, I click on each one and hit refresh. This way, I don't have to go through the entire list again, and I can get to watching Game of Thrones on time. Just kidding! (No, I'm not.)

On a final note, it's interesting when Genius Hour even affects people not in school. My husband has been inspired. At first, he was going to learn Spanish, but decided he didn't have the stamina or time to devote to it (it's good to acknowledge your constraints!). So he's seeing if he has what it takes (or can learn what it takes) to remodel a bathroom. Here's a picture of the destruction he has wrought just today in our bathroom. It looks awful, but hopefully by the end of May, there will be a gorgeous updated bathroom in its place! (This used to be a shower.)

Happy Learning! 

Getting into it...

Last night, all blog entries and comments were due at 8 pm. I've found I have to move that back to 7 pm, because reading and scoring 90+ blogs took far longer than I thought. It wasn't bad, it just took a while. This Sunday, I won't also have a driving question to grade, but I have told all my students I'm pushing it back to 7 pm.

I've also been talking about the importance of not waiting until the last minute. Especially with online assignments such as these (and most all of my students will use virtual learning in their future!), you have to be careful about getting assignments done on time. You could have wifi issues, Blogger could be buggy, your younger brother could be hogging the only working laptop in your house, any number of things could happen to add to your stress level and lower your grade.

This is week 2, and a lot of my students are in the "now what?" phase. They chose a passion, a driving question, did some initial research, and are now looking at me wanting to know what's next. As a teacher, I steer them in a direction, but refuse to tell them precisely what they should do, because part of this process is the learning journey itself--figuring out what to do when learning independently.

DJ Josh

I made a video on Animoto! I thought I got a trial of the pro version, but the Animoto watermark still shows up. Enjoy it, DJ Josh! <---that's the link

Today's Genius Hour Work!

Today, ninth grader Josh brought his DJ equipment (a sound/mixer board, and his laptop) and he worked on becoming a better DJ. He will also be reading up on advanced techniques and researching successful DJs. I hope he interviews one or two and shares those interviews with us!

Here he is in action:

Mystery Solved!

Thanks to our brilliant IMS (Instructional Media Specialist) Kathy, we figured out my tech problem, which is NOT a tech problem! The blogs that only go to HTML code are blogs without a blog entry yet. Once they write an entry, it'll show up. I knew Kathy would figure it out! Thank you!

Students, get that blog entry up so the world can see the emergence of your genius!