Creating Opportunities for Students to Explore and Develop Their Strengths and Interests- Genius Hour

As an educator, how do you promote and create opportunities for students to explore and develop their strengths and interests?  Does every student get the same as every other student? Are opportunities infused into the classroom that support passion and promote individual growth? 

 Looking for opportunities for students to develop upon their strengths in order to enhance their school experience is essential.  Every student has a different experience throughout their years of schooling.  For some, each day is a new challenge and embraced with enthusiasm and delight.  Whereas other may find it more challenging to face each new day and may require additional supports.  The one consistent in making both sets of students the most successful is finding what they are passionate about and building upon it.  When a student feels connected and has ownership of something they truly care about, the more present in all aspects of the school day will be seen.  

Students learn best when they feel in control of their learning process.  This starts in early childhood education and extends throughout high school.  What is students had a choice in what they learn?  What is students were able to create passion projects as part of their own learning journey?  

A passion project is a personal journey usually aligning to a Genius Hour that is driven through a students desire to learn, create, or contribute to the world.  This can take many forms including writing a blog, creating a short film or even creating a community garden.   

By creating a format for students to have choice, to research a topic of choice, to design a project then to create and share their ideas with the world creates forever learning.  Lessons that will be generalized and remembered far beyond June.  

As the school year starts to wrap up, what about aligning time for your students very own Genius Hour?  Lets provide opportunity for choice, opportunity for autonomy and opportunity above all for passion.