Angela maiers is igniting a fire around what she and others are calling Genuis Hour. She is a former teacher and now is a full time education advocate, activist,and consultant. Bringing her passion-based learning, activist learning, and peer learning of show and tell through choose2matter and quest2matter programs for students, teachers, parents, and schools together.
When asked "what is your favorite part of school?" A child will answer "recess." Angela says her favorite part of her early schooling was "show and tell." Where the students get a few minutes everyday to talk, and learn from each other before they went back to sitting quietly and listening to the teacher until called on. Genius Hour takes show and tell to the next level. Showing the students how they matter not just telling them. First ask them something they want to change in the world then help them do it. Genius Hour allows class time for students to explore and act on matters they care about. Similar to the way Google lets its employees work on their pet projects 20% of their time. The students are encouraged to explore the topics that they themselves want to learn about. If you search on the key phrase "genius hour" will see the fire. Angela Maiers gets the students started by asking them what breaks your hearts about the world then what they think they can do about it.
11 months in to it and students in more then 1,500 schools and 6,000 classrooms went through the process of asking " What breaks your heart about the world and what are going to do about it ?" According to Maiers, " these young activist world-change angents and fearless leaders tackle problems and topics that range from building a library in a rural village of Ghana; raising money to build a well in communities with out water; starting and scaling a non-profit organizations support issues of education. The environment and other social causes and developing approaches to support others."
Hello. My name is Sally Gajewski and I am a student in EDM310 at University of South Alabama. I agree after reading your article and listening to your video interview i have to agree. It does make sense what she has been doing it sends a powerful message to the students. I cant wait to try this in my classroom
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