Recent heb ik hier geschreven over Genius Hour, tijd die door leerlingen volledig zelf mag worden ingevuld. Genius Hour gaat uit van het principe dat elke leerling unieke kwaliteiten bezit en geeft een keuze in wat en hoe te leren. Genius Hour wordt ook wel 20Time genoemd. Momenteel ben ik bezig met het schrijven van een vervolgpost over de presentaties van de leerlingen en de ervaringen die zij en ik hebben opgedaan. Maar dat gaat nog even duren.
Tot die tijd wil ik graag het woord geven aan één van die geniën. Het is niet een van mijn leerlingen, maar wel een leerling die perfect weet te beschrijven wat het belang is van het geven aan ruimte voor leerlingen:
“Find your mountain. Go climb it.
The road to Mount Kilimanjaro”
door Kittie McKay
“
“I have gone to school my whole life. But this year something strange happened to me. I didn’t just learn, I got inspired. Inspiration is the key to this whole education process.”
“And we have this teacher. And he presents this assignment, where you can do anything, be anyone, go anywhere, and most importantly, dream anything.”
“How do you choose? What are my goals? What is my passion?”
“So, I did my homework.” 🙂
“It may sound pretty easy but it was a huge learning experience for me.”
“But I am telling you this because this whole experience has forced me out of my comfort zone. I was, quite literally, selling my goals and dreams to people.”
“I learned that in order to find your mountain, that may involve stressing your very ideas in your head, on the computer, on paper, in order to come up with something pretty awesome. But then you will be able to take it to your marketplace with all the enthusiasm and passion you have to get the job done.”
“This has been the biggest growing experience I have ever had in a eight month time period. I learned about my strengths, my weaknesses, what I am truly passionate about, who I want to become, and how to overal I can become the best Kitty McKay I can be.”
“I worked harder socially, academically, physically and spiritually.”
“Not only does this opportunity give kids time to discover something that they love, it may also be the biggest growing experience that they ever have.”
“Kid’s creativity needs to be nurtured, not trained out of them.”
“We need a chance to learn in our own way, not the standard.”
“Why not be more than the product of mass production?”
“So often, kids just go through the motions of everyday schoolday, and never even realize their full potential.”
“And that is why 20Time should be implemented in all schools, because the opportunity to find your mountain is priceless.”