Genius Hour can be an enriching experience to add to a curriculum. Genius hour can be a time set aside for projects that are student centered and open ended. These projects encourage students to design meaningful and authentic work. For the classroom with an abundance of technology, a project can be tech oriented. However a Genius Hour project can also be designed for the tech limited classroom. This demonstrates the flexibility of a Genius Hour project. These projects also afford students the opportunity to navigate unfiltered and non academic content with the focus being on inquiry and research. Genius Hour is also a time where students can deviate from the typical part of the school day to do something they are invested in with a group of peers.
After researching Genius Hour, I feel that the main hurdle would be to convince the administration that this is a good use of time. Generally, a school administration does not like to have a curriculum altered as they tend to be rigid and fixed to the time available. I would approach the administration and parents with a detailed description of the benefits that can be gained by incorporating these projects into the school’s curriculum. I would showcase various interesting projects that are available online and the data showing how the experience enriched the curriculum that is already in place. Another hurdle could be that the students themselves might not be used to this style of learning and develop anxiety and view the project as yet another assignment that needs their attention in an already overpacked schedule. The teacher would have to spend time to ensure that the groups are working on a project that is truly in their best interest and something they want to do. Perhaps the grading could be more effort based and focus on the participation of the project to ease any concerns from the students.