Friday, May 27, 2016

Genius Hour Project

The Faculty Excellence Grant was created in 2014 to enhance the quality of the liberal arts program at Maclay School in a meaningful and substantial way. Stipends are offered to faculty or staff members who have the potential and desire to make a meaningful impact and sustain the excellence of the Maclay academic program. Any employee of the school may apply, but preference is given to applications in the areas of differentiation, technology integration, or innovation. Grants were awarded for those proposals leading to significant curricular innovation beyond the normal annual revision or growth. A committee reviewed the submitted proposals and the following grants were awarded for the 2016-17 school year.


Why am I blogging about this you ask? Well, my friend BH had a great idea to implement a Genius Hour Passion Project at Maclay for next year. You see, with this idea and research she needed a way super cool logo or "Brand" for the class. We have a super talented artist in 8th grade that took on the challenge with her very own artsy vision. What do you think? I was most impressed with her detail of painting.
  
Genius Hour gives students time to explore their own interests, wonders and passions. It gives them autonomy over their learning and time to be creative. This idea is credited to Google, who asks its employees to spend 20% of their time working on a pet project, a project that their job description doesn’t cover, which has produced amazing results (Gmail!). Every Friday afternoon, the entire Lower School will be participating in our own Genius Hour at Maclay. Bentley's grant includes professional development training for teachers, including workshops and books, as well as materials for student projects. Beginning in fall 2016, students will be given the time, freedom, and resources to deeply explore topics that may eventually become a job they love; time to learn a topic, hobby, skill that defines who they are and who they might become; a time to learn and share with fellow students and others in the world who share their passions. In short, it builds knowledge, connections and possibilities. 

Other schools have done this and have their own "Brands" check them out in the links below:






Super excited to see this in action next year -1969

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