GREAT THINKING THURSDAY
For Klein ISD Educators of Gifted
January 31, 2019
What Happened When I Dedicated Friday to Genius Hour
By Antoinette Sherman
Krimmel Intermediate Teacher
Explaining the concept of Genius Hour to my GT class was quite an experience in itself. I knew it was going to work when I saw eyes light up and heard gasps of excited energy.
At the beginning of this school year, I wanted to try something different and creative with my GT class. So, I thought to test the theory that says when kids are given the freedom and time to follow and explore their passion, they thrive and perform at their best. Therefore, I decided to dedicate each Friday to Genius Hour.
I laid out my expectations for the “experiment” and set mini-deadlines for them to meet. I was pleased to see how these kids went straight to the heart of the exercise, taking ownership of their learning. They knew what they were passionate about and dove deep into their research to learn more. “I love the fact that we are able to choose our own topic,” one student shared when they first embarked on their project.
We utilized Thrively.com and other credible websites to gather information and relevant data. I held them accountable for their time and assigned them weekly “reports” on their findings. Once the third report was completed, the students were ready to narrow their original list of 2-3 topics down to one.
Over the course of the semester, I conferenced with each student to assess and track their progress and to offer feedback and assistance where needed. Most worked independently, some in pairs. Some sought outside expertise, others surveyed teachers and students and asked well thought-out questions, while others relied on data from their research to complete their work. Yes, they were chatty and loud! Their reactions to whatever they were reading were highly audible, but it was heartening to see them so enthused and so involved in their learning.
When it finally came time for them to present to their classmates, their presentations were informative, detailed, and relevant to current issues affecting them, which captivated their audience. The Q&A that followed each presentation demonstrated the depth of their understanding on their chosen topic. One student shared, “I enjoyed other people’s presentations because I could tell they enjoyed the topic they were presenting.”
Overall, I was very pleased with my Genius Hour experience, and the students surpassed my expectations. What began as an experiment ended up a successful venture with proven results: the students demonstrated responsibility for their independent work, they valued the time dedicated to Genius Hour by meeting each deadline with passion, and they were successful in achieving their goal as illustrated through their final product. As one student put it, “Genius Hour gave me the freedom to research what I want, the way I want, and to choose how I want my product to look.”
This is Why I Teach
Klein Collins AP World History Teacher
This year is my 4th year at Klein Collins and 12th year overall in teaching. My career has spanned three different districts and four unique campuses, each with distinct ethnic and socio-economic populations. My desire to teach stems from my 5th grade teacher in Lago Vista, TX named Mrs. Taylor. I’ve wanted to teach since that age, yet it was leadership by my AP English II & IV teacher who convinced me to do high school, as well as Sam Houston State History Professor Emeritus Dr. Caroline Crimm-Castillo who fostered my love for the history discipline.
Teaching is most of the time overwhelming, sometimes informative, and often times transformative. I enjoy what I teach often way more than the profession. I have a passion for history and at the same time a passion to teach kids about it. The discipline is becoming a lost art and many view it as a subject to rote memorize facts and immediately followed by regurgitation. While there is a place for memorization, there is so much more to history.
History is experiential and complex; why something happened is more interesting to study than simply declaring “it happened on this date, here, with these people.” We all experience history differently and that is what I have a passion to illustrate to the children. This passion is very evident to anyone who has spent time in my class, ask any of my students!
The challenge in a history class is always: “I have all this content; how do I shove it in?” The issue with this mindset is expecting a younger mind, with less life experience, and contextual reference, to understand all those “facts.” Whether the student is advanced, gifted, or uses a modified curriculum due to an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), it is IMPERATIVE to teach and foster skills that allow them to understand how to write, read, and think analytically; then they can transcend the material and have success even if it was not something mentioned in class.
I reaffirm OFTEN with my students: “Trust the process, not always the product!” Every student is different, even the “Gen Ed” group that sits in the middle without an affixed, tested “label.” I drill them with skills, making them write often, and then discuss what they have read, watched, heard, etc. That communication in the written form helps them process their ideas and get everything out, even if they don’t know what to write I tell them to start with that statement, and then define terms in the sentence stem/prompt/question. Then let the response flow from there. Even in my gifted classes or AP classes or past Pre-AP classes, start small and build their skills, then they can handle content.
My students are given high expectations from day one. Both my Advanced Placement and Co-Teach kids receive homework on a consistent basis to train them on how to manage their time effectively and help build their skill set. Whether they are in AP reading 30-50 pages a week to prep for quizzes and writing assignments testing their retention and understanding of material, or my Co-Teach kids defining terms and categorizing them into economic, social, political, or environmental, then discuss in class why they put them in those categories. Along with this I back my methods up with real-world examples of why this type of work is applicable and why it is successful. Sharing studies, articles, and even personal examples of how this is applicable to them. Year after year students come back to me thankful, not always because I am their favorite teacher, yet because I found ways to connect what we were doing with them and help them see the value of their hard work. Challenging and pushing them beyond where they knew they thought they could be stretched and finding another level. I understand my role is to prepare them for the next level, whatever that may be: whether it’s the career field, college, to be a parent, or simply a productive member of a democratic-republican society that values their input in the decision-making process. Therefore, I continually keep up with my former students however I can, even the ones I taught or coached my first year as a teacher, one of which who got his first teaching job in Bryan ISD this past school year.
I’ll leave you with this example: six years ago I started at a middle school in Humble ISD and I had a student in a US History Pre-AP class who at the time I believed his effort and production led to him needing to be removed from the advanced class. However, I pushed him to do the work, which he initially struggled with, and kept on him because I told them I was preparing them for what it would be like in a high school AP class. He told me he hated my class because of how much I made him do. Things he was not used to, all while barely pulling a B and didn’t like it because he only was ever used to A’s. I left the school a year later after he had moved on to the high school. I went back to the high school last summer to watch those students graduate because I make it a point to be there, even years later to celebrate that with them. I caught up with him afterwards and the first thing out of his mouth: “Mr. Welchel, guess what, I made a 4 on the AP US History test!”
This, as well as many others, is why I teach!
Celebrating Black History: Feb 1: Langston Hughes
From the Kennedy Center: ArtsEdge
Resource Shared by:
Jessica Jasper, AA Program Coordinator
1902: From Busboy to Poet
Langston Hughes is born in Joplin, Missouri
After graduation, Hughes continued to write while holding down a series of odd jobs, from ship crewman to busboy at a Washington, DC hotel. One day while clearing dishes, he slipped a few of his poems to hotel guest, poet Vachel Lindsay. Lindsay was so impressed with what he read that he wasted little time in introducing Hughes to publishers, who embraced Hughes’ style and vibrant portrayals of African American life in America.
Hughes moved to Harlem in 1929, where he was a key figure in what’s known as the Harlem Renaissance, a time in the early 20th century when African American musicians, painters, writers, and other artists generated a rich array of artistic contributions to American culture.
SAT Linked Lessons: Feb 4-8: Reading, Writing and Math
February 4-February 8
Math Lesson 1- Feb 4
Math Lesson 2- Feb 5
Math Lesson 3- Feb 6
Math Lesson 4- Feb 7
Math Lesson 5- Feb 8 Khan Academy Practice
Reading Lesson 1- Feb 4
Reading Lesson 2- Feb 5
Reading Lesson 3- Feb 6
Reading Lesson 4- Feb 7
Reading Lesson 5: KhanAcademy Practice Day- Feb 8
Oscar Nominated Short Film: AMAZING!
From the source: The Kid Should See This
One Small Step is a touching and bittersweet story by Taiko Studios, a cross-cultural animation studio based in Los Angeles and Wuhan, China. Directed by Disney alums Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas, the award-winning animated short is Oscar-nominated for the 91st annual Academy Awards. Chesworth describes it as a “love letter to everyone who chased that impossible dream, and the family that supported them through it.”
Luna is a vibrant young Chinese American girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut. From the day she witnesses a rocket launching into space on TV, Luna is driven to reach for the stars. In the big city, Luna lives with her loving father Chu, who supports her with a humble shoe repair business he runs out of his garage. As Luna grows up, she enters college, facing adversity of all kinds in pursuit of her dreams.