Passion-Based Projects

When I was in grade 6 I specifically remember a project that some what resembles a passion-based project. For a presentation to the rest of my peers I got the opportunity to choose what I wanted to present on. Since my parents had recently taken me to an Aboriginal museum with a recreated village I decided to present on Aboriginal spiritual ceremonies and actually made a peace pipe to show my classmates. This project had such an impact on me and I am still able to remember it to this day simply because it was something that I was very interested in at the time. I was able to explore a topic that I was intrigued by and because of this I enjoyed it much more. I remember having a sense of pride when presenting my presentation and peace pipe because it was something I was passionate about. From this experience I can see the great benefits of using passion-based projects or "genius hour" to help motivate students and allow them to explore their own interests. Is it not the goal of a teacher to motivate students to want to learn? Well I believe that passion-based projects are a great way to do this.

A great method of implementing passion-based learning into classrooms is through genius hour. Genius hour was originally used with Google to allow their employees to take 20% of their work time to work on their own projects, and as a result many great advancements have come from this (L. Lane, Personal Communication. March 16, 2016). Genius our has since been incorporated by many teachers into classrooms to allow students to have student-cantered inquiry (L. Lane, Personal Communication. March 16, 2016). I believe that students would really shine when given this time to research this own passions and interests. Schools too often force certain topics that society values as important in education, but students deserve a time to truly embrace their own learning into what they want to know about.

Below is a short clip just to explain in more detail about what genius hour is.

Chris Kesler [Video]. (2013). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMFQUtHsWhc

Within this video it makes a great point that often students are unmotivated by the traditional classroom. This is extremely true because teacher and curriculum often tell students what is important for them to know. However, isn't it just as important to allow students to research their own interests to truly find things that they love? Or find out that they don't really like some things that they thought they would love after researching it? Genius hour allows students to explore this and really find their passions. 

As a teacher I would definitely use genius hour within my classroom. I believe it is such an awesome way to get students engaged and motivated to learn. Even students that may not always excel could be given the opportunity to show something that they are good at. Students would feel proud to be given the chance to show off their talents and interests to the rest of the class. 

Genius Hour [Image]. (2015). Retrieved from: http://www.theprimaryprofessor.com/genius-hour-success/

The photo above simply shows some steps that I thought were great for when I implement genius hour into my classroom to give me guidance about how to go about doing it.

From a personal experience while helping out in a grade 2 classroom I was able to see a kind of genius hour that the teacher called "I Wonder". For one hour a day the students were able to research a topic that they had chosen on their school I Pads. After a certain amount of time the students would present what they found to the rest of their classmates. While seeing this activity happen I saw the students extremely engaged and focused on researching their topic. Even before when the teacher told the students it was time to do "I Wonder" they were extremely excited! I could clearly see how motivated the students were through this activity. From seeing a kind of genius hour in action it makes me want to use it in my own practice as a future educator even more. 

Additionally, within the textbook it talks about a teacher, Gallit Zvi, that teaches 6 and 7 and uses genius hour with her students (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). Avi states that her students really enjoy genius hour and that it develops their inquiry. Through genius hour she has had students create their own websites, learn about other countries, and created their own movies (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). Clearly genius hour can produce very impressive work that students wouldn't normally be given the opportunity to do. I think many people would be surprised with the incredible things that students can produce when they are given the chance to do something they choose and are interested in. 

Genius Hour Examples [Image]. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.averybunch.com/2013/03/12/genius/

The above photo shows some examples of amazing things that students are able to create during genius hour! 

In conclusion, I truly believe that passion-based projects and genius hour are a great tool for teachers to motivate their students and allow them to research their interests. Even writing this now I am really passionate about this topic and it is much easier to write this blog since I am so interested int the topic. Although I was given a similar project in grade 6 I really wish that I was given more opportunities to do things like genius hour. I struggled a lot in elementary school since I was behind in reading, and I really think that more passion-based projects or having genius hour would have improved my confidence in school because I'd be able to show off my talents and things that I am interested in. As a future teacher I want to give that opportunity to my students. Instead of deciding everything that is important for them to learn I want to give them a chance to have student-cantered inquiry that focuses on what they are passionate about. Students will truly be more motivated and engaged when doing things like genius hour because they are given agency and choice in their education. 

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and assessment: Engaging 21st Century Learners. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press. 

Media Literacy in the Classroom

Living today in the 21st century it is evident that media literacy is more essential than ever because the media is all around us. It is unlikely that you can go a day without seeing some form of media and because of this it is important to give students the tools in order to critically think and ask questions about them. Media literacy is the ability to analyze, interpret, and create meanings from media such as television, advertisements, video games, books, etc (L. Lane, Personal Communication. March 4, 2016). Students need to be able to interpret these different forms of media and deconstruct the underlying meanings behind them.

From my own personal experience a project that I can vividly remember from a high school english class was when we were asked to critically think about different forms of media and present them to the class. The reason I can remember this project so well is because I choose to look at sexism and how media portrayed women, and I was shocked at what I saw. The ketchup ad below was one of the ads that I critiqued for this project and it is evident when seeing this image how blatantly they mocking females and making them seem unintelligent in the ad.

Ketchup Ad[Imagine]. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.contagious.com/blogs/news-and-views/14026621-advertising-why-so-many-men

Clearly this ad is offensive and it is a reason I can still remember my project from english class to this day. From this project I personally think that media literacy is so essential to teach students so that they can critically think about media images that they view daily. Students need to be able to think deeply and ask questions about the media that they see so that they can break down the hidden meanings and understand how it effects our society. 

Do we really want students passively viewing these types of ads in their daily lives, or do we want then to critically analyze them and break down the demeaning messages that it is sending? 

Aside from my own experience with media literacy within an english class setting, in lecture it was discussed that media literacy can be incorporated into almost all of the curriculums in different ways. Media literacy can be used in a math class by counting the amount of ads seen on television in a day and graphing them into categories such as television ads, newspaper ads, radio ads, etc (L. Lane, Personal Communication, March 4, 2016). By doing this it is a simple way of incorporating media literacy into everyday lessons in subjects that you otherwise wouldn't think that you could teach media literacy in. Media literacy involves the skills of analysis and production by being able to analyze the media and gain an understanding of the underlying message, but also through production to think of ways the message could be portrayed effectively (L. Lane, Personal Communication, March 4, 2016). In the video below it shows a Ted Talks with a teacher that uses media literacy within her own classroom. She says that she tried to get her students to understand the subtext of media, or the underlying messages, as well as understand the target audience and how the media might impact our general society. 

TEDx Talks [Video]. (2013). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHAApvHZ6XE

In addition, after watching the video you can see that she actually teaches media literacy by having students break down the meanings of media and recreating the ads to show the real message they are portraying. By not only having students express a underlying meaning to a form of media, but also having them change the media to show what it is really saying allows students to use both analysis and production skills. I think this is a great way to show and teach media literacy in classrooms to get students critically thinking about the different media they see everyday. 

As a future teacher I would definitely want to incorporate this idea of having students  recreating the ads to show the real message that it is sending. The example that I used earlier from my own experience in an english class may be too advanced for some younger grades looking into how females may be represented in media, however I would want to do something similar. Maybe looking at toy ads as a class and having students ask questions like "Who is this ad directed towards?" or "Is there anything misleading about the ad?". By doing this students might begin to understand media literacy and see different underlying meanings in media content, such as gender bias within toy ads. In addition, instead of just having the students analyze media or recreate them to show their real meanings, I would also want students to use their production skills to recreate the ad in a way that doesn't have problematic messages. For example, talking with my class about how a toy ad can be changed so that it is not directed at one particular gender and the photo below gives and vision to this idea and something I would potentially show to a class. That way students can be imaginative and actively think of ways that media can be changed to send better messages. As a teacher I not only want my students to critically think about media, but I want them to take an active role in trying to change the problematic messages that some forms of media may have. 

Toy Ad [Image]. (2012). Retrieved from: http://saptk.ee/naited/

Although the textbook does not talk specifically about media literacy, it does give an example of a teacher using digital literacy in their class. Digital literacy is similar to media literacy since it is both about technology, although digital literacy can be seen as more of how you utilize digital technologies. David Truss created a digital literacy course where he has students about their digital footprint and responsible usage of social networks (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). I think this is relevant to talking about media literacy because it is important that we not only teach students how media messages you view online can impact society, but also the way you individually use technology can have an impact on yourself. Students need to be aware that what they themselves post or how they use technology can impact others and themselves. 

We must ask ourselves as teachers, do students really know the ramifications of what they post online? To be it is essential that students not only are able to break down the messages of media, but also understand their role with technology and how the things that they post online can have consequences. 

As a future teacher I would want to bring in lessons on cyber bullying and how hurtful comments online can be harmful to others, and have consequences for the bullies. I think this would be important because cyber bullying is so prevalent today and students often do not understand the implications of their actions when they bully others over the internet. 

Overall, as a future teacher I definitely see the importance in educating students on media and digital literacy. Both are essential to how students not only view media, but how they use technology. Through my own experience with learning about media literacy through my english project, it showed by how essential it is that we give students the tools to be able to break down messages in media and ask questions about them. 

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and assessment: Engaging 21st Century Learners. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.