Today was my turn to present at the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project. The directions were simple: choose a topic to present that revolved around the teaching of writing or the use of writing to learn. It needed to be a 75 minute presentation that could easily be expanded into a 2-3 hour presentation for a workshop class.
I bounced around a lot of ideas with my group and mentor, eventually settling on digital collaboration (think Google Drive and Google Classroom). I chose this because I think it is a skill that many students aren't quite sure how to use, but also because many teachers aren't comfortable with letting students work digitally.
I created a presentation and presented it at ActivLoudoun...and hated it...
While I am a huge supporter of this and hope teachers take the steps forward to use technology for collaboration, I couldn't figure out how to elaborate int 2-3 hours. Honestly, it was the type of thing that I could write up some instructions and share it out. There really wouldn't be a need for expansion. There really wasn't even a need for a presentation!
So, I switched gears and listened to my students. At the end of the year I asked my students to complete several surveys regarding our class. There were two projects that came up repeatedly: NaNoWriMo and Genius Hour. I thought hard about which one would be the best for a 2-3 hour presentation and knew it was Genius Hour. This was a passion of mine that I knew created a giant shift in my classroom and the attitudes of my students. I wanted to share what they shared and convince other teachers to take a leap of faith with me and implement Genius Hour.
It went really well! There were a lot of questions and the teachers were receptive. I think my students would be happy to hear that their thoughts were heard and that other teachers are taking this into consideration for their classrooms.
If you feel like checking it out, the link for my presentation is below. Although it goes against my views on presenting in a Ted Talk fashion, professional development for teachers needs to have pieces they can return back to and work with later. Don't worry--I spent way more time sharing my experience than I did reading off the presentation!!
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