The process of this Genius Hour project was both strenuous and rewarding. I was able to take something I am truly passionate about and educate myself more about it, as well as share my findings with my students, family, and friends. The last few weeks have opened my eyes to not only the grave truths of the hunger crisis in Cook County, but also all the efforts being made to alleviate the problem. Perhaps my biggest celebration with this Genius Hour is what is to come--on December 7, a group of friends and I are going to volunteer at the Chicago Food Depository. I’ve thought about inviting people to volunteer with me in the past, but if it wasn’t for this project, I’m not sure I would have ever truly taken the steps necessary to rally a group like this. To make it even better, they seem to be more excited than me--which is so awesome to see!
I feel so fortunate that I’ve already begun to take bits and pieces of my passion back to my classroom. I’ve been able to help my students learn about what food insecurity is, and how to help support the cause--whether it be through volunteering at our school’s food pantry or at various charity events, like Hoops for Hope, which our school hosted on November 14. I’m proud of myself that I committed time each week to researching and bringing awareness of this issue, and I’m so grateful this course gave me the opportunity to participate in my first Genius Hour project!
Over the past few weeks, I spent time researching and spreading awareness for the fight against hunger across Cook County. Although my “final product” will not technically happen until December 7, I still feel a sense of accomplishment through this Genius Hour Project. (I rallied a group of friends to join me in volunteering at the Greater Chicago Food Depository on this date.)
Aside from the volunteer event in December, another product that came out of this Genius Hour was the opportunity to share information with my students at the junior high I teach at. It worked out that throughout the month of October and November, we had a school-wide initiative to educate our students on being charitable, and we focused on collecting donated items for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, as well as items for our own food pantry within our school.
Our school hosted Hoops for Hope, an event that took place on Nov. 14 where our students, staff, and their families participated in a series of basketball games and all the money raised that evening went towards the Greater Chicago Food Depository. While I helped work the event, I was able to have conversations with my students and their families about the cause and about the hunger problem in Cook County. They were not only shocked to know how many of our district’s students are food insecure, but also to learn that it is a significant problem across the entire county. These conversations then allowed me to let families know about our school’s food pantry and how to get connected should they ever need it as a resource.
Finally, about a week after the Hoops for Hope event, a smaller group of choir students (different from Club Unify) participated in a service opportunity in which they helped organize and stock our food pantry. I’ve included a photo of our food pantry below. This Genius Project couldn’t have happened at a better time. It allowed me to invest time and energy into something I am truly passionate about, AND share my findings and passion with the students and staff at my school.
As I worked through this project, although at times it honestly felt a bit like a chore to devote 30-40 minutes each evening on it, I never felt “frustrated” by the process. Something I noticed about my learning while I researched facts and statistics on hunger, I realized my stamina is not very strong. Some evenings after getting home from a long day of teaching (and usually a meeting or two after school), I felt my learning was not always as valuable as it could have been. It felt like I had hit a wall and was no longer processing new information as I browsed websites.
Something that I started doing was listening to soft music as I spent time researching and learning. When I was in college, I always listened to music while studying, so I had a feeling this addition to my routine would be beneficial. I also had to situate myself somewhere with limited distractions. I mentioned in an earlier post that my phone is an easy distraction, so I make sure to put it away (on silent and out of sight). Beyond that though, I also had to change up the location of where I worked on my project. I used to work in the living room--the common area my boyfriend would also use when he got home. He used to sit on the couch next to me and I’d update him on where I was at with my project. However, this week I realized this type of interaction actually slowed my productivity, so I decided on days when we were both home and I had to work on my project, I moved myself to the spare bedroom, shut the door, and truly devoted some quiet, isolated time to get some work done. Between the music and new location, these two adjustments to my routine has helped focus my learning overall.
Something that I learned this week was actually part of an experience I was fortunate to have with some of my students. My school has an after-school club called Club Unify. The club consists of students with special needs, as well as “mainstream” student mentors. The purpose of the club is for these students to build friendships and support for one another while fostering acceptance of students with special needs. This past Thursday, the group spent an hour after school organizing the food pantry that is located in our school. This food pantry serves many families within our entire district, and it was so inspiring to see these 7th and 8th grade students work together to organize the pantry. I think it was a great chance for them to partake in something truly hands on and fulfilling.
This week, I took time to reflect on what is keeping me motivated with this genius hour project. Besides having a passion to help with hunger in Cook County--why else keeps me going? I kept coming back to this reason: my drive to educate. Being a teacher and educating people about what is going on in the world/in our community/in our school is something I do every single day, and raising awareness is doing just that--educating.
The sentence stem of “Why do you want to…” also kept me pushing forward with this project this week. “Why do I want to spread awareness of the fight for hunger?” “Why do I want other people to care?” “Why do I want to learn more about it myself?” These types of questions kept me focused this week and confident that by sticking to this genius hour project, I can make a difference.
Something I achieved this week that I couldn’t or didn’t last week was rallying together people for this cause--and in my case, these people were my students. This genius hour could come at a better time because right now our 7th and 8th graders at my school are collecting items to donate to our district’s food pantry and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. This past Tuesday, I gave a 30 minute lesson to my students about the hunger crisis in Cook County, I showed them an informational video produced by the Chicago Food Depository, and I hyped up our school’s charity event, Hoops for Hope, which is being held Thursday, Nov. 14. The event will be in our school’s gym and involves a series of basketball games where all our students, staff and their families are invited to play. We will be selling game cards, concessions, t-shirts, bracelets, and raffle prizes--and all proceeds go toward the fight for hunger. The students are getting more excited for the event as we get closer, and I had the opportunity to teach them about why the topic of hunger is so important.
Something I could do now that I couldn’t last week ties in with what I know now. I spent some time researching statistics about hunger and I expressed what I learned through an infographic that I designed and created. I tried to focus my research on the food insecurity data specific to Cook County, and I took a look at multiple website / sources. What I learned was quite eye-opening and honestly the information only heightened my passion to help in the fight for hunger. One statistic that I found especially concerning was that 65% of children in public schools in Cook County are eligible for Free & Reduced Lunch, and in Illinois, 1.4 million people are food insecure and one third of them are children. (http://www.advocatedocs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Health-Hunger-Food-Insecurity-in-Cook-County-Across-Illinois.pdf)
I also learned about some of the physical and mental impairments that are caused by hunger, which just made me think about the students who sit in my class every day, and that some of them might be experiencing this struggle. Not only does hunger negatively impact students’ ability to concentrate and process information, but it is also linked to cases of depression and anxiety. Knowing that there is research to support the implications of hunger on children makes me feel more sympathetic and understanding of some of my students who may have behavior or academic challenges. There is always a reason behind our most challenging students, and it is possible hunger is one of those reasons--Just something to think about.
While I was researching about hunger and as my drive to do something about it grew, I decided to create the infographic below as means to help synthesize my learning and spread awareness.
The routine aspect of the genius hour project is definitely one of my biggest challenges--but to be honest I feel like I have no excuse. Without any children to take care of, or a coaching position that requires me to stay after school constantly, or even a pet to come home to...15-20 minutes a day is SO doable. That being said, adding something new to my daily routine is a true struggle and adjustment. However, I am trying my best to stick with a daily 20-minute period where I can work at this passion project.
Eliminating distractions has been the most beneficial way to truly focus and commit to the 20 minutes a day I am spending researching and learning about the issue of hunger in the Chicagoland area. When I sit down and take out my laptop, I put my phone on airplane mode, and I do not allow myself to get tab-happy--only tabs relevant to my research are open. No Facebook, Youtube, email--nothing else is open. I do not have the TV on in the background and I don’t even play music, for fear of getting sucked into the world of Spotify playlists.
The time of day that has been working best for me to devote to this project is when I get home from work (typically around 4pm). I make it a priority before I start grading papers, lesson planning, or napping. This is the time of day I still have a slight bit of motivation left. When I have commitments after school (like tutoring or chaperoning a basketball game), this can throw off my routine. By the time I get home around 5-6pm, I am exhausted, and the true intrinsic motivation has to kick in. The good news is I love this project! Yes, some evenings I would rather lay in bed and binge Netflix, but since the foundation of this experience is something I am genuinely passionate about, it makes the 20 minutes a day seem less of a “to do” and more of a “may do” and making the conscious choice each day to learn more about the fight against hunger.
Also, I rallied 4 friends to volunteer with me at the Chicago Food Depository in December, so recruitment has been a success!
After reading the quote by Mark Twain, I sat down and began to reflect on what are my true passions in life (aside from teaching), and within minutes, it became quite clear. My first passion lies in creativity. I like repurposing objects--turning “old things” into aesthetically pleasing, purposeful transformations. I love to draw, paint, and build things and devote my weekends to projects.
Another passion I have revolves around ways to build up my community. I volunteer at the Chicago Food Depository a couple times a year, and the mission to end hunger in the Chicago region is something that has become of high interest to me. The junior high that I teach at hosts a food drive every year in the fall, and we have a food bank within out building that serves families within our district in Schaumburg, Elk Grove, and Hoffman Estates. I think when I started teaching, I learned just how serious and unfortunate the problem is with families struggling to put food on the table. It affects not only the family’s health, but the children’s ability to focus in school, as well as an emotional impact when a child feels food insecure.
For my genius hour, I want to explore and learn more about the fight against hunger, specifically in the Chicago area. I want to educate myself and groups I am connected to (family, friends, coworkers) about the seriousness of hunger and why it is a cause worth fighting for. Additionally, by the end of my genius hour, I’d like to rally a group of friends and family members who will commit to volunteering a Saturday of their time to volunteer at the Chicago Food Depository with me. I think once they have this experience, it will not only make a positive impact for our community, but for them as individuals as well.
This week, I began researching statistics and information about the types of groups who suffer from hunger and food insecurity. The Greater Chicago Food Depository’s website contains lots of useful information on the topic, and I learned that 1 in 7 people in Cook County currently experience food insecurity. The Food Depository serves more than 213,100 households each year, and many households who are food insecure do not qualify for federal nutrition assistance programs. Furthermore, although we know poverty and food insecurity are often linked, many people living above the poverty level remain food insecure--this may be due to factors such as “unemployment, lack of access to transportation and health problems.”
Learning these statistics was quite alarming to me, and although I knew hunger was a huge problem Cook County faces, I now feel more knowledgeable about the situation--and more eager to keep learning and to do something about it. Moving into the next couple weeks, I plan to pick a date to plan a group outing to the Food Depository, make a list of people to invite, and with my interest in creativity, design posters centered around the statistics of hunger in order to spread awareness (and hopefully convince people to join my volunteer group).
This assignment challenged me to re-work an assignment I use in my classroom regularly so that it contained a collaborative component in order to increase engagement. The assignment that I chose was a writing assignment that assessed the students' argumentative writing skills. After reading the short story, "A Retrieved Reformation" by O. Henry, students had to answer the following prompt: Was Ben Price justified in his decision to let Jimmy Valentine walk away and continue his life as Ralph D. Spencer?
Students then had to use the writing format ACES (Assertion, Citation, Explanation, Summarizing Statement) to argue whether or not they felt Ben Price was justified. Initially, this assignment did not contain a collaboration piece in the rubric, however through this module I learned how important (and easy) it is to add this component. So, I added to the assignment that once the students completed their written response, they were to share their document with the members of their writing group. This assignment was pushed out as a Google Doc, so it is very easy for students to hit the Share button and add their group members to their Doc. They then had to make comments on each other's writing with suggestions or specific pieces of praise they found the writer did well. This was a fast and efficient way for the students to peer edit the work of the others in their writing group.
Once they were done peer editing, then they were able to officially turn the assignment in for me to grade it. I found that adding this one piece of peer collaboration and feedback added more meaning and engagement to the overall lesson and assignment.
Throughout the course, one assignment that taught me the most about online collaboration was the "Using Google as Collaborative Tool" assignment. While working with 4 other group members from the course, we had to create an "interactive story" using Google Slides. We first brainstormed together ideas for a story in which our characters faced a problem that they'd work through the Google Slides to determine a solution. Our group decided to go with a story where the main character is a student who moves to a new school and needs to decide which sports team to join in order to get more involved. Along the way, the reader discovers different scenarios that may happen to the main character based on his/her decisions.
After experiencing this type of collaborative work, it started to make me think about ways I could utilize Google Slides and Google Docs in my classroom in a similar manner. Although I think the logistics of how to create the interactive story would be a lot for my students to handle, I think using Google Slides in general for a group presentation is a great idea. Instead of requiring my students to create links to slides, I would just simplify this activity and require the students to contribute equal amounts of work to the overall slide deck (each student required to create a certain amount of slides).
Without a doubt, G-Suite comes with endless amount of opportunities for students to collaborate online, and Google Slides is definitely a frontrunner for tools that work well for this objective.
Another resource that I found useful and something I plan to incorporate in my own classroom is Flipgrid. I know of a couple other teachers who use Flipgrid at my school, but I never took the time to explore what it was all about until this course (MSED-675Z), and I am grateful that now I have some experience with it! My students are 1-to-1 with Chromebooks, which makes it easy to Flipgrid, a website that allows students to record videos of themselves and post them in a group where they can see all of their classmates' responses, as well as any videos I post. I think Flipgrid is a more engaging and fun way for students to respond to questions I may post, to post reflections on a unit or book they have read, etc. It can be used as a formative assessment as well, since the students individually record, respond, and post. Instead of having students provide a written response to a question, this is a way they can orally respond, which requires them to practice slightly different communication skills than are normally required in a traditional classroom setting or activity. Click to see my Flipgrid response.
One of my favorite assignments in this course (MSED-675Z) was creating a Guidelines Poster for my students to help remind them of the classroom technology expectations. I loved the creative freedom I had to create a visually appealing list of expectations. I plan to get the poster printed and laminated to hang in my classroom, in hopes that this upcoming school year, my management with regards to technology and the Chromebooks will run smoother. I plan to address these expectations in the first week of school and refer to the poster throughout the school year if any behavior problems arise (and I am sure they will!). I used the website Canva to create the poster, which was a site I had never heard of or explored before. However, now I plan to create a few more posters using their templates and tools. It's definitely one of the more impressive online poster-creating websites I've come across.
My journey through this course
was a fun yet eye-opening one. This course was so engaging and allowed me to
explore various apps, websites, and online tools that I plan to try in my own
classroom. While it allowed me to add to my tool belt of tech resources, it
also was a space where I could reflect on how technology is already being
utilized in my classroom, and where I plan to take it in the upcoming school
years. It was also interesting to hear from teachers all across Chicagoland
about their experiences with technology, their struggles, their gains, and how
we all can keep growing in our practices.
One focus of the course that led
me to go most out of my comfort zone was when we discussed our involvement with
online PLNs. While I embrace the use of technology in my classroom, I never
took the time to consider how I could grow my professional network and
community of educators via online. I was never big on blogging, the social
media platform I use most is Instagram—and I wasn’t even following other fellow
educators. A goal I have for myself moving forward is to keep building my connections
with educators online because I now understand how useful it is to be able to
collaborate and share ideas with people that are all advocating for education
in ways that I may not have thought of or tried before. Thanks to this course—and
my classmates—I am now following educators on Instagram and Twitter that I
probably would not have discovered on my own.
Another takeaway I have from this
course is the importance of using technology as a tool with the intention of
enhancing and enriching the learning environment—and not to use it as a
substitution just because it is more flashy or appears more engaging. Unless it
is serving a true purpose for the learning experience of the student and is an
effective way to meet their goals, technology is not the end all be all. Even
though our students may be one-to-one with Chromebooks, it is still okay to
conduct activities or assessments with paper/pencil if it is a better option.
It is crucial to provide an appropriate balance—however that may look for each
teacher’s own classroom.
Our current digital age is not
going to come to halt, nor does it appear to slow down. Therefore, this course
has taught me the value in appreciating, accepting, and embracing the tech
tools our students now have access to. It also has shown me how important it is
for us teachers to be positive role models and mentors when it comes to digital
citizenship and responsibility online. If we can educate our students on how to
ethically, appropriately, and efficiently access technology, we will mold them
into the type of students that will be prepared to navigate this tech-heavy
world once they leave our classrooms.
