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"Denise Krebs, Hugh McDonald and Joy Kirr came together to discuss "Genius Hour". Each of these teachers has been running Genius Hour in his/her classroom and writing about their experiences online. This is the "Genius Hour Manifesto": A guide to anyone who wants to know WHAT Genius Hour is, WHERE the idea came from, HOW to facilitate it in the classroom, WHY it is a next-practice in education, and HOW to get involved. Enjoy!"

"Genius hour is trending in education, and for good reason. It is an attempt to restore the personalization, creativity, and authenticity that has been designed out of many schools and classrooms in the modern testing era of ed reform. We've offered a definition for genius hour in the past, and discussed the principles of genius hour before. Below we've listed 7 strengths and challenges of teaching with/through genius hour (we've used the simpler but slightly less accurate terms "pros" and "cons")."

"Although we tend to think of Genius Hour as a process for students, I want to explore how we might use Genius Hour in our own lives as educators as a form of professional development. Here, you might spend hour Genius Hour acquiring a new skill. You might learn a new language or learn how to play a new instrument. Or you might question you have and engage in your own personal Wonder Day project."

"Ed note: Part 1 of this 2-part series can be seen here; note that some of the language has been slightly revised from the original post by Nigel. He uses the term passion projects, which is very close to Genius Hour and Passion-Based Learning. The differences across the three terms are often a matter of individual use and interpretation, a point we wanted to help clarify by using the three terms interchangeably even though they may not be exactly the same-passion projects needn't use a Genius Hour format, nor does passion-based learning necessarily need to take the form of projects. In that way, the above model can be used for any of the three, but it felt most precise as a model for teachers to use to design Genius Hour projects. So, here we are. You can (and should!) read more from Nigel at thelearnersway.net. In an ongoing effort towards polishing the edges, over the years we have continued to refine the processes we apply to the Personal Passion Project. We have gained insights into the sorts of projects that work well and which will cause difficulties. We have added a degree of structure while maintaining the required degree of freedom necessary for a personalised project. The results of this learning are presented (in the model above and the text) below."

"In the past couple of weeks, I've been asked the same question multiple times after speaking, "Do you still believe Genius Hour and 20% Projects are the best way to engage students?" My initial response was to shout YES, without really thinking about my answer. But, as someone who ran the 20% Project with my students, wrote Genius Hour into our 9th grade English curriculum, has written a book on the subject, and speaks on its merit around the country…I thought it deserved some more thought. My answer, after much reflection, is still YES but with a small hesitation. A Genius Hour or 20% Time Project involves three of the main components that engage students (for clarification purposes, my definition of student engagement is "high attention" and "high commitment" throughout the learning process). The three components are: Student Choice Authentic Audience Intrinsic Reward When those three traits are present in the learning process students are most likely to have high attention and high commitment."

"Since starting teaching with Genius Hour, we have read so many inspirational books that have changed us and our pedagogy. With the help of my GH friends and fellow contributors - Joy Kirr, Hugh McDonald and Gallit Zvi - we have compiled this list of books that we know Genius Hour teachers love. Of course we know it is incomplete, as we haven't read all the great books out there, and new books are coming out regularly. We hope you will add to this list by sharing your favorite book in the comments section. We look forward to more great GH-friendly reading!"

""Miss, it's reading period," one student reminded me. That's the one period a week we all read together. This week, though, we're a bit behind. "Well," I said, we have to finish this section, and if we have reading period today, we will have to finish the section tomorrow…" my voice trailed off. Genius Hour was scheduled for the next day. Genius Hour is a relative of Project-Based Learning that allows students to work on a subject of interest to them."

"It is a new school year and I'm so excited to see many teachers and schools starting Genius Hour or 20% Projects for the first time! As I mentioned to Joy Kirr on Twitter a few weeks ago, I sense a tidal wave of student choice being unleashed in K-12 schools around the world this year. As someone who is passionate about letting our students choose their own learning paths, this has me pumped to be a part of the movement! I recently had a conversation with two teachers in my school district about start Genius Hour and wanted to share a few of the key takeaways from that talk. When you give students choice, amazing things happen. But it is also difficult as a teacher to support this type of learning. Here are five things to remember before you jump into Genius Hour:"

"Genius Hour in the classroom is an approach to learning built around student curiosity, self-directed learning, and passion-based work. In traditional learning, teachers map out academic standards, and plan units and lessons based around those standards. In Genius Hour, students are in control, choosing what they study, how they study it, and what they do, produce, or create as a result. As a learning model, it promotes inquiry, research, creativity, and self-directed learning."

"In my classroom over the last few years I've shown many Youtube videos to inspire resiliency, grit, hope, and discussion prior to guiding them in the creation of their inquiry questions about their passions and wonders during our weekly Genius Hour time.  This post is a follow up post to my post 23 Videos that Sparked Genius Hour Thinking, Collaboration, and Actions.  Many of those videos and the ones I am sharing now were shared with me through the wonderful connections I have made with educators learners on Twitter, Facebook, and at workshops.  I am continually inspired by the educators in my personal learning network.  Thank you to all of you who share your learning and inspirations daily.  You have helped me make sense of the ideas that are floating around in my head.  I am proud to say that students in my classes are constantly inspiring each other and their teacher.  Some of their work is shared on the list below."

"After teaching grades 7 and 8 for seven years, it was a challenge for me to go down to Kindergarten. The first few months, the way was treacherous. Now looking back, after eight months or so, I can say overall it has been a delight, and I know it was a gift I didn't even know I needed. I find I can practice what I learned in my Master's program; that is, teaching young children literacy. Most importantly, though, the children are "wonderful, marvelous, beautiful, magical, filled with curiosity and dreams." (Lyrics by Debbie Clement) They are loving and open. They are learning sponges with big, growing brains. But how can I do genius hour with them? I wondered. I loved the engaged ownership in junior highers when they were given a chance to learn what they wanted in what we call genius hour."

"I believe that every single child is gifted and that every kid has a talent which we as educators should help uncover. This is not easy when you have a curriculum to follow and tons of material to teach. But that given we need to make time to work with kids in a different and more creative setting. It's important to let them explore new things that may not be present in your curriculum but are in your students' heads all the time. This is how we can awaken curiosity in young children and help them develop creative thinking. Interestingly though, this idea does not originate in education or teaching practice. It was actually inspired by Google's "20% Time" rule, which encourages employees to spend 20% of their time working on their own projects and ideas outside Google. This concept inspired the idea of a "Genius Hour" at school."

"As the school year draws to a close, many reflections are running around in my brain. The biggest one though stemmed from a question I have asked myself about our school mascot, the penguin. Why a penguin? They are cute, and fun to observe; but where is the value in having this little formal wearing bird as a mascot? After much reading and many discussions all via twitter chats, I have come to discover that being a penguin is an amazing feat...maybe even more amazing than one may realize. I have observed and interacted with my students in new, scary, unchartered, and sometimes crazy fun waters this year (Genius Hour, Maker Space, STEAM, getting ipads, etc.) and through it all have come to  realize what it means for my students to Live Like a Penguin. I am sure many of you educators out there have heard of the author, Dave Burgess, who wrote "How to Teach Like a Pirate", "How to Learn Like a Pirate", etc. In his books he assigns term to each letter of PIRATE that encourage innovation, risk taking, and determination.  Taking inspiration from him, I have come up with an acronym for our mascot, the PENGUIN that seems to truly fit how my students and I lived this year of teaching and learning and how I hope we both continue to so in our futures. ​Live like a PENGUIN:"

"Genius hour is a great way to allow students to drive their own personalized instruction but where to begin such a big project? "

"I knew when we started our unit on neighborhoods that I wanted to add a Genius Hour component to it. Kinders are fascinated with building, making and designing with the various manipulatives they have available to them and the sheer joy of creating. Each piece they connect, whether on their own or with a friend, has a story: the how, the who and the what for about their structure/vehicle/invention. We introduced the idea of neighborhoods with brainstorming, read alouds and a Brainpopjr. We asked questions and created a Neighborhood Wonder Wall."

"What are you passionate about? What do you want to do more than anything in the world? Well I hope you said what you are doing right now. This is not always the case. Some people hate what they are doing. They may hate it because it pays too little, but being a teacher doesn't make me very wealthy and I love what I'm doing. More importantly, people may hate their job because they would rather be doing something else. This is where I think we can do better in education. As educators, we can help our students find and explore their passions. Once they discover what they're truly passionate about, the learning and engagement will never stop. The best way for students to explore their passions is through Genius Hour."

Genius Hour - The idea is simple, identify a block of time and give it over to the students as an opportunity for them to create a learning experience of their own. But while the idea is simple implementing such a plan can be challenging and there are aspects of such a project that require careful planning and a clear philosophical understanding before you begin.