Releasing the 'Genius" in Our Schools
Aldous Huxley once said that the secret of genius is to carry the spirit of a child into an adult age, so that you will never lose your enthusiasm.
Think about the professional development that your teachers get over the course of each school year.
Then, think about the opportunities that you give your students to use their learning in meaningful, personal and engaging ways.
Are you wasting your school's true genius? How can you uncover it?
Think about the hours that pass everyone by each year in professional development days, in common planning time, in time used to "guard" hallways and bathrooms and ask yourself what percentage of it truly enhances your teacher's ability to empower themselves or their students or to make the school a better place to teach and to learn.
To paraphrase Dave Burgess, If teachers didn't have to be there, would you be professionally developing an empty room?
George Couros recently wrote about modern best practices for teaching and learning in his blog post, 8 Things to Look For in Today’s Classroom and I suspect that most professional development opportunities for teachers do not reflect what we want to see in our classrooms.
Here are our first steps to get rolling:
1. Begin Facilitating Connections
During the Summer, Brooke Macomber and I created a Google Slide Deck using the following format:
Heading:
Your Name, What You Teach/Do (COPY SLIDE) and a picture slot on the right hand side.
Body:
Tim Chace - Assistant Principal (Grades 9 & 11)
This process has multiple benefits. The first is that we have a ready made set of schoolwide connections that can be made for genius hour projects. An ancillary benefit is that as a community, we will learn a great number of things about our faculty and staff that we probably don't already know (win/win).
2. Finding the Time
Our school has a fairly unique weekly schedule. Every other day we have 85 minutes of advisory and academic lab time built into our schedule. 45 minutes are used for personalization and to assist students who are working towards graduation requirements. The other 40 minutes is used for student academic support or learning opportunities.
We also have 2 early release days each month, where students leave the building at 12:30 and teachers stay until 3:00 (in lieu of the advisory block).
We would like to turn over much of our PD time to Genius Hour/collaboration opportunities. In addition, projects that come out of Genius Hour time that would benefit or require student input and collaboration could flourish during advisory blocks/release time as well.
3. What's the Trade Off?
We need to ensure accountability and sharing of outcomes as part of the process. A big part of the framework will be sharing results back with the community and/or the world through:
I will blog about our progress on a more regular basis as well. This transparency will benefit others in the same ways.
I look forward to the year and the great things that we will innovate and accomplish as a faculty.
As Anna Pavlova said, "No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius." I am certain that you have a great deal of talent in your school community as well.
So, what are you going to do to release the genius within?
Please share it with the world.
Think about the professional development that your teachers get over the course of each school year.
Then, think about the opportunities that you give your students to use their learning in meaningful, personal and engaging ways.
Are you wasting your school's true genius? How can you uncover it?
Think about the hours that pass everyone by each year in professional development days, in common planning time, in time used to "guard" hallways and bathrooms and ask yourself what percentage of it truly enhances your teacher's ability to empower themselves or their students or to make the school a better place to teach and to learn.
- Does your professional development happen in an auditorium?
- Does everyone get the same message?
- From a speaker who lectures to them with a PowerPoint?
- Is one size fits all PD reaching people and changing their practice?
To paraphrase Dave Burgess, If teachers didn't have to be there, would you be professionally developing an empty room?
George Couros recently wrote about modern best practices for teaching and learning in his blog post, 8 Things to Look For in Today’s Classroom and I suspect that most professional development opportunities for teachers do not reflect what we want to see in our classrooms.
Voice – In your professional development opportunities, do your teachers have the opportunity to not only learn from others but also share their learning with others (or the community/the world) as well?
Do your students?
Choice – How do your teachers further their learning in areas of interests to them? Do they actually care about what you decided they needed to learn? Is it possible that they can better identify the things that will make them better or the school better than you could?
How about your students?
Time for Reflection– Do your teachers in PD have time to connect and reflect on what is being learned? To work with others, to discuss and evaluate what is being learned?
Do your students?
Opportunities for Innovation– If given the time and opportunity to work with people who have similar interests, similar passions, what could your teachers create together?
How about your students?
What could they improve upon? What could they make new or better?
What could they do to change the school? The community? The world?
Critical Thinkers– To paraphrase Couros further for the purpose of our exercise: In the “factory model” of professional development, teachers are meant to be compliant and basically listen“to what they were told.” As a result, the information taught by the outside "expert" (who is typically not a practicing educator) is not something that sticks with them, but creates “yes” people who tend to lose all originality. (see PD video above)
Rather than compliance, wouldn't your school benefit more from teachers and students who regularly practice the ability to research, to accumulate information and data, analyze and use it in order to make thoughtful choices and smart decisions about things that affect their learning, their practice and your school?
Problem Solvers/Finders – Does your PD allow teachers to examine their practice or a problem or challenge within the school/community/world and then work to solve those problems? Does it have a purpose of personal significance?
How about what goes on in your classrooms with your students?
Self-Assessment– Does your PD allow teachers to determine whether what was conveyed was successful or not in real world practice? Does it allow them to share their results with the school community and/or the world and get feedback and allow for reflection?
How about the learning experiences that your provide your students? Does the learning and assessment/feedback that your students experience extend beyond your classroom? Is it meaningful beyond simply pleasing you as the teacher, or merely getting a grade?
Connected Learning– Does your PD allow for teachers to connect with other practitioners and/or experts regularly to allow them to develop better outcomes?
Do your classroom experiences allow your students to communicate with and learn from experts? To receive guidance and networking to further their learning and build upon your work?
Can you see a possible connection?
Does your PD inform or improve your practice?
Does your PD inform or improve your practice?
Ours will. And we will continue to improve each year.
Would you like yours to as well?
If so, I would like you to consider the brave step of turning over that time and power and control to your teachers and allow them to use professional development days, common planning time, and whenever possible/necessary, time used to "guard" hallways and bathrooms to unlock your faculty's genius through the use of Genius Hour for your professional development.
What is Genius Hour? This video explains the framework nicely:
If you want to learn more, Joy Kirr has curated an amazing live binder with nearly every aspect that can be applied to Genius Hour, it is definitely a resource that you can use to get yourself started.
1. Begin Facilitating Connections
During the Summer, Brooke Macomber and I created a Google Slide Deck using the following format:
Heading:
Your Name, What You Teach/Do (COPY SLIDE) and a picture slot on the right hand side.
- I am here because….
- I can help people with….
- I could use help from people with….
- I am interested in… I want to learn how to… I want to develop…. I want to try….
- I would like to collaborate on a lesson/unit about…
Tim Chace - Assistant Principal (Grades 9 & 11)
- I am here because I love teaching and learning and the community that this school provides. Also, my kids will both be Oakers -I don’t want to miss a thing.
- I can help people with feedback, resources and supporting/recognizing your work.
- I could use help from people with opening your classrooms to share your practices, skills & talents with others to increase our capacity to continuously teach and learn together.
- I want to develop Genius Hour time for teachers to learn and share things that they are passionate about and that will benefit their classrooms, the school and maybe even teaching and learning around the world.
- I would like to collaborate on cross curricular lessons/units on social/emotional learning.
This process has multiple benefits. The first is that we have a ready made set of schoolwide connections that can be made for genius hour projects. An ancillary benefit is that as a community, we will learn a great number of things about our faculty and staff that we probably don't already know (win/win).
2. Finding the Time
Our school has a fairly unique weekly schedule. Every other day we have 85 minutes of advisory and academic lab time built into our schedule. 45 minutes are used for personalization and to assist students who are working towards graduation requirements. The other 40 minutes is used for student academic support or learning opportunities.
We also have 2 early release days each month, where students leave the building at 12:30 and teachers stay until 3:00 (in lieu of the advisory block).
We would like to turn over much of our PD time to Genius Hour/collaboration opportunities. In addition, projects that come out of Genius Hour time that would benefit or require student input and collaboration could flourish during advisory blocks/release time as well.
3. What's the Trade Off?
We need to ensure accountability and sharing of outcomes as part of the process. A big part of the framework will be sharing results back with the community and/or the world through:
- Devoting time during each faculty meetings for teachers to share what they have completed, what they are working on or where they are stuck. Feedback and assistance can benefit us all.
- Encouraging teachers to share their projects and work with a larger audience beyond the walls of the school on Twitter, Facebook, social media and through the Oaker Pride Blog.
I will blog about our progress on a more regular basis as well. This transparency will benefit others in the same ways.
I look forward to the year and the great things that we will innovate and accomplish as a faculty.
As Anna Pavlova said, "No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius." I am certain that you have a great deal of talent in your school community as well.
So, what are you going to do to release the genius within?
Please share it with the world.
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