One of my colleagues pointed out a couple of weeks ago that Instructables offers free classes on many “makerspace” related topics, such as laser cutting, mold making, and 3d design. I’ve used the site for a few DIY projects, but never knew I could dig deeper with these lessons. I plan to investigate several of … Read more
For her Genius Hour project, one of my 5th grade students questioned what the world would be like without creativity. Since she used Scratch for last year’s project (on Sleepwalking), I told her that she needed to present her information in a different way, but that she could still use Scratch for part of her … Read more
One of the biggest changes I made to our Genius Hour projects this year was to insist that the students do practice presentations for small audiences before they do the “real thing” – kind of like the “Alpha Testing” often used on products before they go on to “Beta Testing” and then full release. In … Read more
I’ve been doing Genius Hour for several years with my gifted and talented students in 3rd-5th grades. Yet, every year I end up thinking that I could have facilitated it better. Because I want to keep improving, I’ve documented some of my ups and downs on my Genius Hour Resources page. It helps to look … Read more
“Schoogle Your Content with Hyperdocs” was a TCEA presentation given this year by my illustrious NEISD colleague, Laura Moore. Laura, who is also the author of, “Rock the Lab” and “Learn Moore Stuff,” is a guru of technology integration. She is also an excellent presenter, so I knew that attending her session at TCEA would … Read more
Many of my 4th graders embarked on the “Presentation Planning” stage of their Genius Hour projects this week. I require their presentations include an interactive portion for the audience. When they saw “game show” as one of the choices, that became an instant favorite. The problem with this is that the default game show format … Read more