 My name is Michelle Haken. I'm a middle school teacher in Rye, New York and an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College. Thank you for joining me and for being part of the 2014 K-12 online conference. This video will address how teachers can incorporate inquisitive learning with genius hour and passion projects in their own classrooms. During this presentation, I will address how teachers can inspire and ignite learning in their content area among the demands of the common core and 21st century literacy. What is passion driven learning and what does it look like in my own middle school classroom? Lastly, I will address how I implemented and facilitated genius hour into my classroom on a weekly basis. For teachers new to genius hour, I will share ideas how I introduced genius hour and supported my students throughout the school year. For veteran teachers of genius hour, I will address sticky questions like moving beyond making cupcakes, classroom behavior and technology challenges. Passion driven learning is essential today and it cannot just be teacher driven. Students are at the heart of the classroom and in building a community in your classroom all members voices and interests must be taken into consideration. Genius hour projects are one introductory step in helping to cultivate student-centered classrooms where curiosity and creativity are at the front and center. My own interest in genius hour stemmed from the buzz that teachers shared on social media. Last year, I jumped into a genius hour with gusto and my students followed. This year, the passion projects that my students will complete must meet the following requirements. First, the project must be something that is researchable and second, it must positively impact the community. Tom Driscoll author of the blog flipped history requires his high school students complete a genius hour project that will have a positive impact on the community. I was really interested in the idea of a genius hour project helping others because it supports my school and personal goal to create a culture of caring and teach empathy and social responsibility. Many times students study about historical and current events and ask why does this matter or why should I care what is happening around the world. It is essential to learn about others and to learn about different cultures. Also, we want to teach our students that they have the power to make a difference and their actions count. As author of the classroom habitudes, Angela Mayer states, you matter, you have influence, you are a genius, you have a contribution to make. The beginning of the school year is all about introducing the idea of genius hour to my students and building community and cultivating creativity. For the month of September, I began genius hour with different activities like a spaghetti tower challenge. Students worked in small groups to construct a free standing tower out of 20 pieces of spaghetti, one yard of tape, a yard of string and the tower had to hold a marshmallow on the top. For the first two weeks, we did small challenges like this to build community and inspire students thinking and building skills. I asked students to describe words that were synonymous with genius and passion and input their responses on a Google form using their mobile devices. Oftentimes, I asked students to complete Google forms on their device to catalog their responses. I create QR codes for my students to easily access the Google forms and other websites. I then took all their responses and created a taggle or word cloud of their ideas to share with the whole class. I share videos with students on a weekly basis and I've created a YouTube playlist of genius hour videos to encourage my students to think outside of the box, spark creativity and get them thinking about possible ideas for their own projects. Some of the popular videos include Keynes Arcade and Kid President. Many of these videos are shared on social media. I've compiled my students' favorite on my YouTube playlist along with some of my students' genius hour projects. The website I posted here tinyurl.com, inviting and igniting innovation 14 is how you could access my playlist and here's an example of one of the videos I might show them. I might start off class reading a loud-a-picture book. My two favorites so far this year are the most magnificent thing by Ashley Spires and What Do You Do With an Idea by Kobe Yamada. Both these books have great illustrations and promote the concept of cultivating an idea, trying it out and not giving up if the idea fails at first. And don't worry about middle and high school students not interested in read-alouds and picture books. Everyone loves a good story. It's also important to share with students inspiring teens and young people who are doing amazing things. Like Drake Andraka, the 17-year-old inventor and cancer researcher. When he was 15 he developed a new rapid and inexpensive method to detect pancreatic ovarian and lung cancer during their early stages. Mr. Corey is a nine-year-old boy from New Jersey who started his own cookie company with his mom. He spent his weekends baking cookies and selling them to local businesses. Shelter pups began with an idea from a young girl who loved dogs and her family had many dogs that came from local shelters. But she was always upset that the stuffed dogs in the toy store never looked like the mixed breed dog she had seen at the shelter or had at home. The idea for shelter pups was born. Theodora and her family created a company that made one-of-a-kind stuffed dogs that reflected real dogs living and being adopted in shelters. When you purchase one of the shelter pups that is made in America, a portion of the proceeds go to local animal shelters. What I want to share with my students is that it doesn't matter your age. If you have an idea, research it, pursue it, turn your idea into a product, a business, a cure, information to share, inspire, and help others. Students spend a few weeks researching and exploring possible topics and ideas before they write a proposal of their Genius Hour commitment. I have laptops in my classroom for students to access. All of the students' research is compiled in our Google classroom and every other week students are required to complete a self reflection the last ten minutes of class on the research that they have compiled and the status of their projects. These reflections can be completed on paper or online depending on your technology access. While students are working on their projects, I'm checking in and monitoring their projects. I expect that students will use class time efficiently and effectively. In reality, I know that doesn't always happen. I have had to conference with students about their use of class time and for those who struggle we make a checklist of what they need to do each Genius Hour to follow. Whereas last year I had a handful of students who made cakes and cupcakes, I really wanted to get away from the idea that Genius Hour was a baking project. With the requirements of the project this year having the component that it has to benefit the community in some way, students cannot just research the best recipes for brownies and bring them in and share them into class. Yes, that sounds delicious, but I currently have a student whose sister and father have celiac disease and he's going to research about the disease to raise awareness and also compile a kid's cookbook with recipes for families with celiac disease. So he's interested in food and throughout our discussions he's found a way to incorporate his love of food with educating and helping others. When I asked my students last year to stop by and share their thoughts and reflections about Genius Hour, this is what they had to say. My own students created passion projects that included coding a robotic hand, designing a fashion line to making a video on the connections between stress and school and young people. One of my students made a stop motion animation video for her final project and I currently have a student that is so passionate about animals. She created a website about animals and animal shelters and has now started a t-shirt campaign on booster.com to raise money to buy beds for animals that live in animal shelters. Genius Hour and passion projects are all about igniting innovation in the classroom. Genius Hour allows students to take the reign of their own learning and explore topics and subjects that are of interest to them. Teachers need to go beyond teaching a subject that they own students only know because there's a test to pass. School shouldn't just be about passing a test but rather creating a culture of learning where students are engaged making connections and helping to solve problems that will make the world a better place. Please feel free to contact me for more information about Genius Hour and updates on my students projects you can follow me on Twitter at teachingfactor or my blog at the teachingfactor.com. Thanks for watching and thank you to the K-12 online conference and all their sponsors.