Final Blog Post

Final Blog Post

My fourth and last blog post for my Genius Hour project made me reflect on the entire journey for this project. It was so interesting getting to see everyone’s different topics, trailers, and Ted Talks. Every one of the projects was unique in their own ways and I felt that I learned a lot from each one of them. I knew nothing about wine and wineries and Brooke’s project was well-informed, I also learned many cool dog tricks from Lauren and Rachel’s blog which I will be using with my dog. As a learner, I learned that I love to explore and not exactly follow guided and specific instructions but instead play around with the instructions and modify them to my liking. This is what I did with my Genius Hour Project, I modified each recipe until I found exactly what I wanted to be my final recipe. I think Genius Hour is a great instructional strategy because it allows students to independently work on a project that they are passionate about. Students are able to choose projects that appropriately meets their level of skill and goals for learning. Some recommendations which I have for the next cohort of teacher candidates are to take your time before choosing a project you want to work on. My friends and I in our cohort felt that we did not give much thought before choosing our topics. If we had spent more time choosing our projects carefully, there was such a great variety of other projects which we have been wanting to work on. Even though I was happy with my Genius Hour Project, I do wish I chose something more challenging and something that pushed me out of my comfort zone like being able to run a 5k. Another suggestion would be to use puppets for their ted talk project if someone feels uncomfortable talking straight to the camera. I struggled while recording my Ted Talk video and wish I had instead used puppets to talk. In conclusion, I wish the future teacher candidates all the best, be creative with your projects and have fun.