One of my goals as a teacher is to bring out the creativity and joy of learning out in students.  I like to pose questions, get them to think, and have them create.  I mean, that's what all of us want to do, right? But, honestly, it seems as though somewhere along the lines, the inquiry and ingenuity that kids should intrinsically show has disappeared.  They simply want to be TOLD what to do at all times.   I understand why.  In an age of testing and dog and pony shows and the need to "get stuff done", it has become easier for me everyone to just tell the kids what to do and be done with it.   But here is my problem.  The kids that sit in front of me have become regurgitators.  They wait for ME to give them directions.  They wait for ME to show them examples.  They wait for ME to lay everything out on the table for them.  Notice how it is ME that is doing all the work.  The kids need ME to do their thinking. ......

Over the past few months, my class and I have been wading into the waters of what is called " Genius Hour ". No doubt you have heard rumblings of this before, as it is not a new concept.  I had first heard about it when my friend Jen at Runde's Room had it set up in her classroom.  She has a great post on how to set it up here .  I highly recommend reading it.   But I am not here to talk about the very first day of getting started because, really, Jen explains it all in the link above...including some awesome videos to share with the kids (which of course I did.)  Rather, I am going to share with you some "in the trenches" advice I have now that Genius Hour has been running in my class for about 2 months.   What I am going to focus on are some of the Do's and Don'ts that I have discovered through my trial and error of implementing this program into my room. After I introduced the concept to the students (pretty much following what Jen does......