The World of Genius Hour / 20% time

It’s 2012 and my third & fourth graders are done with the STAAR. They have worked their tushes and fingers to the bone and are honestly wondering why there are two more months of school.

Working in one of the poorest areas of the inner city, it was all I could do to just get them reading, writing, and doing arithmetic close to the third and fourth grade level. (Most had started two years below level.) I had this vague idea of project-based learning. Let’s do that for the rest of the school year, I thought to myself. I’ll let them choose but we’ll cover the Social Studies and Science concepts we’ve pushed aside most of the year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been one to teach to the test. I’ve never thought worksheets grow dendrites, but the inner city world and struggles of the inner city teacher are … different. A topic for another blog on another day. My hope for humanity was waning. My vision of creating free thinkers- dwindling.

So I scrapped the textbooks and said let’s learn how to research. My third graders chose a famous American, my fourth graders chose a famous Texan and we researched away – even the kids who choose Bonnie & Clyde. We brainstormed questions and learned about sites and I went to the public library for extra resources. Mind you, we had four computers including my teacher computer. Students who had them brought their own devices.

They made posters of their people. I spent planning printing their requested pictures as we had four printers in the school- two of which were in the office, the other two in the teacher’s workroom.  We hung the posters (good and bad) in the hall outside our room.

Then it was a Science topic / animal of their choice. I scheduled as much time as I could in our computer lab.

I was given strange looks and sideways glances. My principal didn’t encourage or discourage. My students’ scores were the highest in the building so she kind of just left me alone.

Not many got on board though. Not many followed my lead. Most just said I was more dedicated or that it worked for me because I had the “easy” bilingual students. My purpose seemed like it was futile. Even though my co-workers nominated me three years in a row for teacher of the year, they still had excuses for why they couldn’t/wouldn’t change.

Fast forward to 2015, fifth grade Science teacher in a suburban school district, with a principal excited for pbl & the like, my regret is leaving those students who I had taught three years in a row, who I know were beginning to think. But I don’t regret the experiences of the last two years in suburban middle class America and what it has taught me.

I have a name for the kind of classroom I want to have. I have a clearer sense of why it is absolutely essential.  I have clarified my passion. I am excited again for the coming year.

I also have a new sense of purpose – to change the conversation regarding public education. A vague concept is beginning to take form in my mind that closing the achievement gap will not occur when we expect students from low income households to perform the same as students from higher income households by teaching the same way and ignoring all the outside factors influencing their academic ability. (Again a topic for another day)

For now, I am content to have found the World of Genius Hour and 20% time and inquiry based learning. I am content to know that there are many others who share my interests and concerns and passions.  While genius hour is not new in concept to me, it is new in name and I am ready to be all in.