Genius Hour Presentations and Flex

Hi everyone,

 I will be open for flex on Monday and before school Tuesday to help answer questions regarding Genius Hour Presentations.  However, I won't be giving you all the answers - you are in charge of this project. You own it.

"If parents [or teachers]  want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning." Carol Dweck

Learning is messy.  Our aim is progress, not perfection. 

Some of you are panicking that you are not or did not "do it right".  Each project and presentation will be different as they are based on your interests and skills - my biggest expectation is that you show new learning, growth and have evidence to support.

Just a reminder of my expectations for Genius Hour Process and your end product - these were the steps we followed and now that we are near the end,

1. Genius Hour Brainstorming
2. Proposal - with notes from our conferencing.  If this did not get done ages ago in class (February), you were expected to attend flex. If it is not done by now, it is too late for this step.
3. Log of your process and reflections along the way - don't try to make it up if you have not done so.  May be in many forms -dependent upon your project and how you said you would log your process.  It should include reasons for changes/decisions you made along the way, especially if you deterred greatly from your original proposal.
4. Peer Review - minimally 2 people (1 from our class) - you were told to ask specific questions and to record responses in some way.  
5. Your presentation - notes, script or other.  Again - will vary dependent upon your project.
6. Reflections - after your presentations.  I will post reflection questions this week and they will be due (with all your project process in one place) by next Friday (May 8).  This is an opportunity to further demonstrate your learning and your metacognitive (reflective thinking skills).  Even if your project or presentation does not go as planned, you can make up for it here as this is where the depth of your learning can be demonstrated.  

Need further encouragement? Consider these articles on a Growth Mindset to better understand why struggle and challenge are important to learning and growth.

What does it mean to have a growth mindset? 

Growth Mindset article - Carol Dweck