on their largest PBL project this year
following their first “Genius Hour.”
Genius Hour, a concept created by
Google that allows staff a portion
of their workday to be creative
and work on their passions, is
something Weatherford ISD has been
incorporating, in a modified format,
in the classroom for several years.
While teachers normally give
students one hour on Friday to
explore and be creative on their
own, Rogers, McCoy and Mask
decided to pool their classes together
for the inaugural Genius Hour this
year. The teachers asked students a
variety of questions, focusing on civic
mindedness and what they could
do to help the world. By the end of
the discussion, the kids honed in on
something most children enjoy —
parks.
Rogers said a “light bulb” went
off when she recalled Soldier
Spring Park was right behind Curtis.
Seizing the educational opportunity,
Rogers and the other two teachers
decided to make it more than just
an afternoon discussion by turning it
into a PBL activity. To start, they gave
their students a real world job. The
three picked photojournalist. From
there, the project took off and lasted
nearly six weeks, and everything the
teachers needed to cover folded into
the project while students mapped
out their learning journey.
Asked if every PBL runs for an
extended period, Rogers said no PBL
is the same.
“There are smaller PBLs
depending on how broad it is,” she
said. “It could be like a week long
if you were just asking them about
how we measure weather, if they
were just making a weather vane
or a thermometer or something like
that. [The Soldier Spring Park] project
was really long because everything
that we were studying we tried to
incorporate into Soldier Spring Park.
We had to do timelines, so we did
a timeline for Soldier Spring Park.
Summarizing, we summarized all the
articles from the newspapers about
the people that were for or against
[the recently proposed bike tr ails] at
Soldier Spring Park.”
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PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
worksheets, PBL focuses on children
discovering things for themselves, she
said.
“In a traditional classroom, on
Monday you’re learning XYZ. So, say
that [students] are learning how to
summarize on Monday, [with PBL]
one kid might not get to that until
Thursday,” Rogers said. “They’re
doing it on their own; they know
what task they need to complete,
but it’s through discovery instead
of through direct instructing. No
worksheets.”
Explaining her style in more
detail, Rogers said her role as an
educator is that of a facilitator,
a promoter of an atmosphere
conducive to learning.
Asked what PBL looks like
tangibly, Rogers provided an example
of a recent project revolving around
Soldier Spring Park in Weatherford,
bringing along for the ride two of the
teachers on her team who are also
excited about PBL.
Amanda Mask and Kristin
McCoy, both young educators like
Rogers, first collaborated with her
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