Investing in their Passions

This year I dove into Passion Projects with my class.  

Some folks call it Genius Hour.  I prefer Passion Projects.  I get a bit worried that the word genius puts  a lot of pressure on my students to create something that is the "be-all-and-end-all-perfect-project".  That's not what I was asking them for.  I wanted them to pursue something they are passionate about and find a way to show me what they'd learned.  I would be there for advice and help if needed, but mostly this was to be all on them (with a little scaffolding in some places and lots of scaffolding in others).

I'd heard about these Passion Projects through course work, colleagues and Twitter.  I did a bit of reading over the summer on them.  Come September, it was time to make the leap.  And leap we did.  I introduced the idea to them through a fun little PowToon creation.  I told them I was giving them 75 minutes (1 Period) a week on Fridays to work on it.  We did some activities to help them discover their interests and to help them decide what to focus on.  There were interest surveys.  We played some games where they had to complete sentence stems like:  'When I can do whatever I want, I like to..."  They created Popplets.  They discussed ideas with their elbow partners, the two Educational Assistants, and myself.

Then they had to commit to their project and Pitch it to the class.  Things got a bit bogged down here.  They wanted to get into the projects and didn't understand the idea of the pitch, despite lots of examples and interventions.  After a frustrating third Friday of working on these, we had a class discussion, where we collectively voted to toss out the pitch component.  We still needed some way of getting them to commit to and focus on their topic/guiding questions.  Our solution: they would blog or vlog about what their project would be in a minimum of 5 sentences.  Now we were cooking with gas!

Some of them got really involved in their projects.  They were working on them at home, at night and on weekends.  A student working on a Pixton.com Comic Book format on Monster Trucks for her project added all kinds of pictures she took when she went to these events - and lots from the Internet too. One of the girls was doing her project on the St. Thomas Stars hockey team.  She was meeting with the team coaches and players, conducting interviews and even talked her mom into getting her a Chromebook at home, so she wasn't hogging the family desktop to work on her project all the time.  One changed his mind midstream and completely revamped his project.  Two of them needed a lot of support and assistance to create their e-books using the Book Creator App.  One student with a lot of issues at home, and very low attendance, has not been able to produce a lot.  When he's at school, he does what he can.  He might not finish what he started.  And that's okay.

This week, about half of my class finished their Passion Projects.  In the next few weeks, hopefully they all finish, or get to a point where they can present their projects to each other.  It's hard to get parents in for these events, so I will record these and put them in each student's portfolio. You can see their portfolios and finished projects on our Passion Project Website (they were all excited when I asked them if I could share this in my blog.  They are very proud of these projects and the work that went into them).  The completed projects (as of April 20th, 2018) are those of: Deanna, Kalley, Dylan and Connor.

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There are no grades in my classroom.  Never really have been.  Everything is guided by the IEP and our report cards have no marks, only feedback and next steps for their individual goals.  (I might be ahead of the curve on the "no grading" trend.)  In their video reflection on the day they finish the project, I've asked them to assess their work skills and their final product by giving themselves a grade of A, B or C.  They will give each other some Peer feedback through FlipGrid.com and I have been giving feedback all through the process, so all that's left after that is to celebrate their success with a party on a Friday in late May.


Will our class be doing Passion Projects again in the fall?   Absolutely!  I will do more reflection on this over the summer and I know I will tweak things a bit, but overall, I think it went really well.  They were highly motivated, engaged and directing their own learning.  A few things I would change?  I need to have more structure for a few of them.  The wide open nature of the product was too much for them and seemed to paralyze them a bit.  When I gave those particular students a framework to go from, they were able to work more independently again.  The pitch portion needs to be scaled down - like I mentioned earlier, a blog or vlog will do in our room.  I thought they would be able to complete these projects within the semester and start a new one for semester 2.  Nope.  It takes time to do these well.  I'm glad I didn't push them to finish quicker, or to cut off their inquiry too soon.  It took almost the entire school year of Friday period 1s to get to where we got.  And that's okay with me, too.

To paraphrase Kid President, and Robert Frost (my apologies to Mr. Frost);
We came to where the road split into two paths and we took the one less travelled.
We wanted to be on the path that leads to awesome.
And we found a whole lotta awesome!

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SUMMER READING - PART I

So, I've been doing a lot of reading this summer and thought I would share my thoughts on some great resources with you.  This will be a two part post.  My reading pile seems to be growing faster than I can read the books on it.  Darn you Twitter for showing me all these great things to read!

First up:

TEACH LIKE A PIRATE By Dave Burgess

This book is all about ENGAGEMENT.  He gives great tips and tricks for teachers to get Students engaged in learning, and how to build positive relationships with them.  No learning can take place if a student doesn't feel that you care about them and are willing to get to know them.  Dave tells you how you can do this.

He also talks about the importance of good pedagogy and that this is not a natural talent...it takes work.  This really resonated with me.  Great teachers are great because they work hard at it!  They put in the time, they do the PD and they are not afraid to take risks, fail and learn from their mistakes.  I think my favourite line from the book is, "If you are afraid of looking silly in front of your students...GET OVER IT!"

He writes in a very easy to read style that I found super engaging as well.  I read this in a day - I couldn't put it down.  He is very active on Twitter @burgessdave.  In fact, he responded to my tweet about his book in literally minutes from my posting! 


GENIUS HOUR: PASSION PROJECTS THAT IGNITE INNOVATION AND STUDENT INQUIRY By And McNair

I've been looking for some resources to do a Genius Hour with my class this year and this one is fantastic.  Very easy to read, full of great ideas and activities.  It has lots of online links to resources, videos and additional reading and help for setting up Passion Projects in your classroom.

Andi is writing from the perspective of a Gifted classroom, but her ideas are easily adaptable to any classroom situation and she gives additional resources that can help with this as well.  If you are thinking of starting Passion Projects in your room, this is a great starting point and a must read!

She is also on Twitter @mcnairan3 and is great about responding to your questions.

CREATIVE SCHOOLS By Sir Ken Robinson

If you've watched his TED talk - this is an expansion of his research and work on how to change and improve schools that make kids want to go to them and prepare them for a future that is in no way like the Industrial model most of our schools were designed on in the last century.

He has lots of real world examples and his section on Teacher Professional Development and Training was very enlightened.  You can follow Sir Ken @SirKenRobinson

SocialLEADia By Jennifer Casa-Todd

 AMAZING read!  If you liked George Curous' The Innovators Mindset you will love this one too.  He even writes the forward.

Jennifer delves into all the issues, concerns, pros and cons of having students learn about Social Media and Teachers leading the charge to make them Digital Citizens.  If you haven't started your own or a classroom Twitter Account by the time you've read the first chapter, you are clearly not interested in Educational Technology or preparing your students for the future.   

She give lots of tricks and tips, explains how to use the various platforms and spotlights teachers and students who are true exemplars of the kind of 21st Century learners and teachers we want to support.  There are lots of additional resources and her work is very well researched and supported.  She's an Ontario gal and she is super approachable.  Follow her @JCasaTodd

THE GROWTH MINDSET COACH: A Teacher's Month-By-Month Handbook for Empowering Students to Achieve by Annie Brock 

Annie's book is, as promised, a great handbook for someone wanting a month by month guide to teaching students the power of a Growth Mindset.  She talks about Carol Dweck's research into Fixed and Growth Mindsets and embeds this in lessons and ideas that you can easily adapt to any classroom.

She sets the book up into an Introduction to Growth Mindset and then takes you on a month by month journey with lesson plans, ideas, resources and online help to get your students thinking "I can't do that...yet," instead of quiting or saying "I can't."

If you have read Carol Dweck's work, this is the perfect companion book to help teachers apply the research to the classroom.  Find her on Twitter @MsAnnieBrock

READY-TO-USE RESOURCES FOR MINDSETS IN THE CLASSROOM: Everything Educators Need for Building Growth Mindset Learning Communitiesby Mary Cay Ricci

Need more Growth Mindset resources?  Try this one.  Links, resources, activities, lesson plans, letters to parents - all ready to use, just like the cover promises.

She gives tips to get administrators on board and how to get students engaged in growing their brains.  

She has authored a few books on this, so check her out.  Follow her @MaryCayR

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

I read this because it is the book I have chosen to share with my class as a part of Pernille Ripp's Global Read Along Program this October.

Patrick Ness does a great job of telling the story of a young man who is dealing with his mother's fight with cancer.  He is dealing with monsters that are very real in his daily life and those that visit him at night.  I refuse to be a spoiler, so I can tell you no more, other than it is a very moving story that will open so many avenues of dialogue with your students.  And, if you join the Global Read Along, you can share these ideas and thoughts with classrooms around the world (including mine!).  I've already linked you to the Global Read Along Program, but you can also follow Pernille Ripp @pernilleripp and Patrick Ness @Patrick_Ness

That's all for now, but watch for my next post where I share some Google-y books, books on bridging poverty in the classroom, Inquiry Learning and more.  

Wow - I hope I get all these read before school starts in a few weeks!  Gotta run...I got some reading to do!