Genius Hour - Working with Student to Do Stuff - Social Entrepreneurship as an Experiment
Disclaimer: Here is my Genius Hour Project. I apologize that it just me writing about what I pursued over the last two weeks. I apologize again that I am not done. That is the great thing about good work, you never finish.
The students I have started working with will continue doing good things. We will finish this work and go on to do much more. We have plans to try for a TreesCanada grant in the fall, and who knows where we will go from there.
What Is My Passion?
That's the point of a Genius Hour - to work on something you are passionate about.
"Imagine if someone told you to take a whole day, once a week, to set your regular work aside and explore something you’re really passionate about. Want to learn to speak Italian? Go ahead. Always wished you could improve your photography? Get on it. Just think classic cars are really cool? Off you go, then." (What Is 20 Percent Time?, 2014)
I have pursued a variety of passions in my life. That's the thing, I love life, I love my job, and I love everyone. It is a problem. I find it hard to focus on one thing, and I am dedicated to everything I do.
For that reason, I ran through a list of things that I had wanted to do... to dedicate myself to for the next two weeks. When I phrased it to myself that way - dedicating myself to something for two week - I realized that I already knew.
I wanted to step further down the path of student driven, project-based learning. I have been inspired by parts of Yong Zhao's discussion of new pedagogies and I wanted to try things out.
This video in particular has been both inspiring and troublesome for me.
I love the idea of students who are motivated by desire to learn. I love the idea of students creating things that better their communities. But I do not give much credence to his views on hyper-specialization - that we should only do the things we are good at, to become amazing at those things and leave behind anything we are not.
But the idea that students can be driven by a question or a problem to solve, the idea that students can explore solutions and use or develop their strengths - that is an idea worth pursuing.
That is my passion - engaging students in interesting pursuits.
So that is what I did. I started working with students who were interested in creating meaningful change in their communities. We would look for some "good stuff" that needed doing and then we would find ways to "do good stuff"
What Good Stuff?
I had money from LSF (Learning for a Sustainable Future), after attending a Climate Action Summit with 4 students. We had yet to do the "action" part of that summit. In fact, the class I taught had ended with first semester, and I had no students to work with.
This last week, I put a call out. I was looking for a group who would be interested in doing some hard work to make something happen.
I didn't know what we would make happen yet. As Dickens wrote in a Christmas Carol, "That must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate." (STAVE I. Marley’s Ghost. Page 1, 2018)
That is an important part of how a project like this has to begin. If I knew the plan, then it would not be student directed.
My plan had to be to have no real plan at all. My plan had to be this:
1. Put an announcement on the school's PA system:
2. Show up and mention the money from LSF.
3. See what they wanted to do.
Issues.
There were issues with this approach.
- Not enough money: $500 isn't much money to get anything accomplished, so we would have to either raise more, or work within that limit.
- The type of project: The project must focus on sustainability. So, I had to hope that students who heard my announcement would be driven to work on a project with this focus, and with this amount of money.
- Deadlines - doing projects in the winter is tough - some of the examples have focused on planting trees and gardens. But I received the money with lots of snow on the ground. So, starting in the spring seemed like the smart thing, except there is a deadline - May 24th, 2023.
We Met:
But there was another problem. Some students were not making it to meetings:
How Do We Proceed?
We met. We outlines some ideas: Planting trees, planting a water garden to deal with excess surface ground water, starting a composting program, and encouraging more active transportation at our school.
We didn't decide anything at the first meeting. The kids who were at the second meeting decided to pursue the idea of encouraging active transportation.
Tree planting can be expensive, and we noted that we might have more luck in the fall with Trees Canada- a non-profit who provides grants for greening school grounds, or planting fruit bearing trees.
Water gardens are too expensive on this short timeline. But we can encourage active transportation in a variety of ways. First, we need bike racks. Kennebecasis Valley High School only has one bike rack. The pictures below effectively demonstrate the issue with it.
This lonely bike rack is positioned at the side of the school, not near the entrance. It is in the mud, making it a messy business to approach it. Lastly, there are many bikers, but only one rack.
The picture above does not do justice to the number of students who actually lock their bicycles to this. I went out on the wrong day, but there are often eight or more bikes attached to the rack, and to each other.
The students in our club - named the "Do Good Stuff Club" (they chose the name) - decided that we could get some new bike racks.
Of course, my job in this whole thing is to try and push them further, to see what they can accomplish. I asked, "Will that give us the result we want?"
After some moments of silence, one girl responded with, "It might get more people to use the new bike racks if we put them in a better place."
From there, we continued in the same manner, "Should we buy them or make them?" I'd ask. And a student would chime in with, "We might be able to get more bike racks if we can have them made by welding students at the school." EUREKA! Now the club is working with another class! Oh frabjous day!
Another student suggests that we might need a social media campaign with prizes for students who take pictures or videos riding with friends to school and using the bike racks. To which I remind them that we need to phrase the post carefully - we don't want students taking pictures of themselves in traffic, and putting themselves in danger after all.
And Now... What?
The fact is that the students will not be done before I need to submit my Genius Hour Project for class.
My students meet once a week - many of them are already involved in other projects. Some students are involved in Tech Crew, Anti-Racism Club, Spring Musical, Philosophy Club (which I also run), along with a host of other obligations.
But we have a great start.
- Students have chosen a path - encouraging active transportation (biking).
- They have decided to work with the welding class, contacted the teacher and are waiting to hear back from him about designs.
- They have started planning where to put the new bike racks. A place to the left of the main entrance. It is on pavement, not mud. It is more conveniently located.
- They have started planning what they will say to their principal, to gain permission to move forward.
That last part is an important hitch. We will need to get permission from the school's administration, and the cooperation of the facilities manager to place the bike racks where we want them.
Conclusion
This is my Genius Hour project. Working with students who are interested in doing good things. I put out a call and offered an opportunity. That reflects a lot of what I like about this course and what I have learned though the readings and the process of working through the associated assignments.
Social entrepreneurship is about making positive changes in our communities. It's about creating solutions, not profits. Netukulimk is an amazing Mi'kmaq word for sustainability. These are the things that the students are learning by doing as Yong Zhao suggests: engaging in learning by doing things they are interested in - by doing things they are good at.
What would I do differently?
I know that the only thing I would do differently is to start earlier. I
thought that starting later would give me more options when the ground thawed,
but if I had started working with students earlier, then I would have had more
time to develop more options.
Sources
STAVE I. Marley’s Ghost. Page 1. (2018, November 5). The Morgan Library & Museum. https://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/dickens/ChristmasCarol/4
What is 20 Percent Time? A Conversation with A.J. Juliani. (2014, October 16). Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/20-time-ajjuliani/
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