The Schoenblog

There are always things I want to do better. This morning, while prepping for a conference presentation on #GeniusHour, I realized that I had a pretty clear cut list for growth and reflection for next year.

I wrote a similar article last year in 1st Time #20Time: What I’ll Do Better Next Time. It’s interesting to reread this piece. I definitely improved in many areas--and so did my students. I succeeded in revamping my feedback and check in process with their work, made better use of modelling, and implemented Blogger for blogging.

Now that I have two years of successful projects, I need to use more models and a larger variety to show how diverse projects can be. Last year, I remarked that “I need to push more students to step away from the easy option. A Google Slides presentation is simply not the most effective way to present knowledge in most cases,” and I think we did well at this one. Form followed purpose and function with a new level of critical thought.

I still need to work with students to improve citations, editing, and hyperlinking for next year, but that’s a focus for all high school students, not just with #GeniusHour. I also want to empower students by having them create their deadlines and schedules. This was a great suggestion from a handful of them this year.

But as always, with success comes room for reflection and growth. Everything I’ve written about and summarized above matters, but they’re smaller, more isolated areas. In the end, there are 5 BIG things that I want to focus improving for next year’s #GeniusHour.

Find more of my recent writing on Genius Hour with Sharing Students' #GeniusHour Projects, What Students Think About #GeniusHour Part 1 and Part 2, or My Questions About #GeniusHour. To find all of my writing on #20Time and #GeniusHour, click here. For my students’ blogs and work, visit geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

5 Ways I Want to Improve #GeniusHour

1. Understanding Audience

This year’s students did a great job choosing formats that were effective for their projects. While there were still plenty of Google Slides presentations, they also included videos, interviews, letters, and no-tech creations.

Now we need to take it further and understand how to present to different audiences. Who is the audience for your work? How will you reach them? Why should your work matter to them? I ask my students to identify who their work will benefit; sometimes it’s themselves, other times the school, and yet others the world. I want to teach students to engage authentic audiences and to be more mindful of these choices.

2. Research Methodology

I teach English, so research and writing are essential in our #GeniusHour work. This year, students were asked to create annotated bibliographies, consult with experts, and to try to create their own action research. For many students, this action research was really successful and had a huge impact on their work.

I want to find more opportunities throughout the year for students to practice conducting original research and to understand more about basic research methodology and analysis.

3. Synthesizing & Creation

When you put all of that research together, it can be hard to organize it in meaningful and additive ways. I tell students that all of the sources should be present in the final product in some way, with the whole being stronger than the sum of its parts.

The research and writing needs to come together to create something greater. When any slide, idea, or paragraph can be removed without a loss, that’s a problem. I want to work more on developing real synthesis next year. The students’ ideas, research, and creations were excellent; now I want to help them build something new.

4. Why Blog?

Some of my students embrace the blogging but some just...don’t. For those who do, it’s authentic and powerful. This year, students received comments and feedback from their peers and from teachers and students across the world, and that was great. But for those who don’t like the blogging, it’s a burden. For some, I think it might be a major impediment to succeeding with their work.

I’m not sure how to deal with this one yet. I see great value and student growth from the reflection of blogging. I might make some posts optional. I’ve considered a class #GeniusHour blog as the requirement with the option for individual ones. I’m not sure blogging is absolutely necessary for success, but it definitely helps and documents growth with transparency and authenticity. But is it really authentic if I'm forcing students to do it? I need to put more thought into this one.

5. No One Fails

Last year, I discussed my appreciation for students’ honestly in their reflections and presentations. Some didn’t succeed because they were overly ambitious or didn’t realize the level of work they proposed. These students may not have completed the project they proposed exactly, but they learned, grew, and created nonetheless. This is not a failure.

The failure is with the students who gave up or chose never to begin. And that’s something I can’t let happen. My students are high schoolers, and they make their own choices as young adults. Still, I need to do more to reach those students who need the support and guidance, whether they are confused, resistant, reluctant or anything else. There are times when I need to put the student before the learning and try harder to reach them all. It’s a difficult goal but here it is: no one fails. At least not in the tradition sense. I want to teach students to fail forward and to help them all succeed.





In #GeniusHour, I’ve seen students grow, investigate, and learn with more interest, activity, and innovation than ever before. I’ve also seen some struggle and not recover. In August, I’ll likely write an updated version of 5 Big Shifts in My Classroom in 2015, and the ideas from this post will be there, starting with no one fails. I want to work harder to reach every single student as a person and learner, both in #GeniusHour and in life. 

As the end of the school year approaches, I can easily say that #GeniusHour was one of the projects I’m proudest of. My students investigated their passions with grit and curiosity, researched, wrote, and created products that they were proud of. Often, I’m proud of the work and want to share it. This time, many of them wanted to share it, too, and that was incredible rewarding. On their final blog posts and in their reflections, students demonstrated that they, too, understood the power of their work and were proud of their accomplishments.

It seems like I have an idea for a new article on #GeniusHour, #20Time Projects, or passion-based learning every week. I’m constantly reflecting on my challenges and successes this year and find it really helpful to share those thoughts here for reflection and growth.

With that in mind, I plan to share sample projects, discuss ideas for changes for the future, and more. But today, instead of focusing on my words and ideas, I want to focus more explicitly on my students and their ideas.

You all know what I think about #GeniusHour (but if not, be sure to check out some of the articles listed below). But what do my students think? What value did they find in their work? How have they grown as students, learners, and geniuses?

Below, I briefly discuss my students’ reflection process and then share excerpts from their writing. Too often, we hear from the adult stakeholders, and I think it’s essential to make sure our students’ voices are heard, too.

Anytime I think that my students have produced something interesting, I want to share it. Whenever I do something interesting in my teaching or professional development--success or failure, I want to share that, too. I love learning from and sharing our successes and challenges with an authentic audience with the hopes of connecting, inspiring, and sharing our awesome.

And this is one of the successes.

Last year, I shared my students’ #20Time work in a series called 1st Time #20Time, which culminated with Sharing Student Projects. Our projects wrap up this week with the last few presentations, and I plan to share those, along with reflections from me and my students soon.

At least one project really stood and was worth sharing on it’s own, though, as an example of what I think passion-based learning could produce. Early on, Lauren decided she wanted to study classroom spaces, wondering about the impact that architecture and design had on students. Her topic excited me, and I shared my experiences at the Corbett Experience Center (see Rethinking Learning Spaces at #EDnado) and connected her with teachers like Jimmy Sapia.

Lauren researched the topic, interviewed experts, conducted her own survey, and redesigned the classroom. She built a model of her ideas classroom and presented careful, thoughtful, and research-based arguments for every single decision. Next, I want to give Lauren my classroom to turn her ideas into reality.

The rest of this post is all Lauren. I asked her if I could share her reflections on her work, and she even wrote some additional thoughts on her process. Check out Lauren’s blog and her presentation, New and Improved Classrooms for more detail. Below, find a clip I filmed from her in class presentation.


Find more of my recent writing on Genius Hour check out Sharing Students’ Genius: A #GeniusHour Reflection, Developing Genius: Reflecting on Choice, Passion, and #GeniusHour, Teaching Students to Conduct Action Research, and My Questions About #GeniusHour. For my students’ blogs and work, visit geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

New and Improved Classrooms

By Lauren Herran


Genius Hour was a way for me to explore my passion for architecture. To start my journey of research, I first had to come up with a question. Coming up with my question wasn’t easy, however, what helped me was to connect something that I love and a current problem that affects me and others. I’m interested in architecture and uncomfortable in my classrooms, so I decided to ask: “How can the design of classrooms be changed to accommodate student’s comfort and learning?”

Before starting any research I first had to think about my purpose and who my audience was because this leads to a better understanding of what kind of goals you would want to achieve. Setting up a blog was my next step. My blog would allow anyone to see my thoughts and process. A teacher from Texas even commented on my blog saying that they were in the middle of redoing their school and that she was interested in seeing what I find out through my research. In a way, this motivated me to continue with my research.

The best way to display my learning was to make a visual representation of a model classroom. My research, interview, and survey had to be included in the making of the ideal classroom. I used articles for research and I learned about factors that influence students such as light, temperature, color and seat arrangement. It was recommended to use as much natural light possible, so I knew I had to include big windows in my classroom.



In my research I learned that colors have a connection with the mood and attitude of a student and teacher, such as green and blue having a calming effect and colors such as yellow and orange having a stimulating effect. So, for my ideal model a yellow tone wall color would make students feel more awake. For seating arrangements, I learned that rows work best for working individually and clusters are perfect for engagement with students.

Knowing that every student works differently, I used a combination of seating arrangements in my model. Although I did learned a lot from my research, I still needed information from someone who has experience with my topic. I ended up getting help from my teacher, who went on Twitter and found a teacher from Connecticut who was an expert on learning spaces. In my interview, I learned that standing desks are great for students who have more energy and prefer not to sit. Ideapaint plays a part in my classroom design, which is white board paint that students can use to show their work on using Expo Markers. Couches or a small living room space are also an ideal place for students to sit when working in group or they just want to feel comfortable when reading books.

My interview led me to create standing desks, a couch and coffee table in a corner and a wall that is painted by Ideapaint. My project was almost done, and the only thing I was missing was Ossining students’ voices. Students should be part of the design process because I am creating a classroom that can be used in Ossining High School. Creating a survey allowed me to get direct responses from many students.



The main thing I noticed was that almost everyone hated their classroom for being old and dull, which has a negative effect not just on their attitude but their teachers' teaching as well. Many students also hated their desks because since the chairs and desks were connected they couldn’t adjust it to their liking. I then made sure to make my model classroom look spacious and modern. After putting together my research, interview and survey I was able to create an ideal classroom for students and teachers to feel comfortable.

My project was a success because I did accomplish my goal which was to create a visual model of an ideal classroom. I put a lot of effort and time in building every single detail and making sure to explain its purpose. My project included many important factors such as color, lighting, seat arrangements, and organization.

Genius Hour helped me to become a better researcher, and now I have experienced conducting an interview with an expert. I wrote an annotated bibliography. I gained new knowledge on learning spaces. Due to the final product that I created, I have improved as a future architect. With these skills and knowledge, Genius Hour is something that will help me in the future.

More #GeniusHour Products

Thank you, Lauren.

Everything above since I introduced Lauren was her writing and reflection. I hope to have more students share their reflections and work, both individually and as a class, in the near future. Until then, you can go to http://geniushour.aschoenbart.com for more examples of our #GeniusHour process and products.

What are your favorite #GeniusHour projects? What are some of the challenges of helping students succeed with passion-based learning?

My students started presenting their #GeniusHour Projects in class today. I’ve asked them to talk to the class about their work, learning, and passion, and to share their final products. Many students created presentations, some created physical things, and a few wrote papers. The creations ranged from videos to models, and I’ll share them all here soon.

So far, I’ve been very impressed by my students’ knowledge and their ability to answer questions. While I often ask students to take notes on, respond to, and evaluate presentations, for Genius Hour, I just asked for their attention and interest. Everyone studied something they were passionate about, worked hard on, and created something cool; it’s sometimes nice to just share the accomplishments. Still, I was impressed with the conversation and questions that the presentations generated. These students learned a lot, developed genius, and knew their stuff.

As I move towards the end of this year’s passion projects, I’m left reflecting and reconsidering for next year. I like to use this space for note taking and analysis so that I can archive my successes and challenges to do it better in the future. In this post, I’ll ask and answer some of the big questions that I’m left with about Genius Hour, my planning, and my students work. Like always, my answers are a work in progress, but they they might address some of your ideas, questions or concerns, too. If not, please ask away on Twitter or in the comments below.

After two years of passion-based learning projects, what questions are still on my mind?

Find more of my recent writing on Genius Hour check out Sharing Students’ Genius: A #GeniusHour Reflection, Developing Genius: Reflecting on Choice, Passion, and #GeniusHour, and Teaching Students to Conduct Action Research. For my students’ blogs and work, visit geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

1. Do my students learn more with Genius Hour?

Yes. Probably. What I’ve concluded is that they certainly don’t learn less and they definitely learn differently. For me, the beauty of the learning with passion-based projects (Genius Hour/20 Time--take your pick!) is that students are in charge of their own learning experiences and that their interests and skill development can be explored through any content.

My students might not be learning about literature or literary analysis (or other English class topics) right now, but their knowledge is so much deeper and more complex about their research topics and interests in ways that I could never teach. Instead of some students succeeding in the content I direct, they’re succeeded more in the content they choose, with passion, purpose, and agency. The skills are stronger, too, since I’ve tied all of the steps in our Genius Hour process to standards and English, critical thinking, research, and writing.

While I can’t quite measure their learning--and I’m not sure I should want to or need to--I see it in their writing, contributions, and presentations. Genius Hour enables students to develop stronger understandings through subject-appropriate and 21st century skills, and I do think we learn more from it.

2. How should I grade and respond to Genius Hour work? Is process work feedback and grading different from the product?

This is a tough one. Should I evaluate a student’s genius or passion? Do we need to attach a grade to everything? I’m not sure I’ve worked this one out well enough just yet but I’ve tried to strike an effective balance. I’m not quite ready to throw out grades (that’s a whole different blog post) but I do want to shift the power dynamics and importance to learning and students.

To that end, this year I’ve established clear checkpoints for student work throughout the process, and graded it based on clear guidelines. Students had deadlines, models, and guidelines for blog posts, proposals, annotated bibliographies, and more. I graded them all and provided detailed feedback. My students provided feedback to each other, too.

The projects, though, are a little more complex. I wanted to value learning, critical thinking, hard work, and growth. What students proposed in February likely shifted since, and some changed dramatically. Therefore, measuring success based on the proposal seemed unfair. My solution? Once again this year, I had students evaluate themselves. With a specific and thorough rubric, they evaluated and graded their own work based on their work ethic, process work, and final products. Then, they reflected on the process in writing. This is what I graded. I evaluated their reflections for honesty, development, and critical thinking.

My students, parents, school, and our system value the grade. But I think this balance values the learning, too, by putting the onus on the student to really reflect on his or her work and to explain their successes, challenges, and progress, and really makes the learning clear.

Find my students’ #GeniusHour blogs and projects at http://geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

3. Should our work be based more concretely in the curriculum and standards?

I think that good teaching already meets the standards, whether I’m thinking about it or not. Maybe the liberal arts have biased my view, but when students are learning research skills, evaluating sources, synthesizing information, writing, and creating, they are always going to be meeting so many standards. In the future, I think a post addressing the specific Common Core State Standards in Genius Hour would be great to support what I already know: Good teaching beats the standards anytime.

I’m by no means saying to ignore standards or curriculum (but we could get rid of testing)--and I certainly do not do so. I’m lucky that teaching high school English gives me the flexibility to focus on content through skills. However, I truly believe that passion-based learning can be tied to any subject area, for any age level, and can always be designed to meet or exceed standards. We are speaking, listening, writing, reading, and thinking critically every day, along with creating, collaborating and so much more.

In the end, adapt and evolve to do better tomorrow. Take these big ideas and marry them to your own class, standards, or school policy. Empower students to explore their passions in whatever context you can. But don’t put standards before students, and their passions and growth.

4. How can I better prepare for success for all learners?

I think I had good answers for many of these questions. This is the one that gives me trouble, though.

In my two years of planning for passion-based learning, I've had a small group of students who do not complete the work. Some of them just don’t complete any work. Others fall behind and never catch up. A few have trouble with the abstract nature of finding passions. Many need guidance in shaping their plans and projects, since they vary to meet individual needs.

But because Genius Hour was a six-week process for my students, and because that process, practice, and skill development was essential in developing learning and products, there came a point where we had to only look forwards. There came a point where the few students who did not catch up on their work, accept help, or show real effort towards growth were cut off. Instead, I offered a more test-based project that was much more concrete and aligned to the class final. This argumentative essay was great practice for the state test and our next unit.

In some ways, it’s what I needed to do for these students to help them find some success and to prepare them for the next steps. But it also was no longer about passion. Everything I raved about above? Passion, agency, creativity, and empowerment? Gone.

How can I avoid this next year? How can I better prepare all students to succeed? Are all students ready for passion-based learning? What type of scaffolding could help students prepare for it?



These are some great questions. But I don’t have the answers--yet. I need more time to think and reflect, to view my students’ work and respond to it. I’ll share that work, my thoughts, and ideas from some of their reflections in the future. In the meantime, I’d love your thoughts on my questions--both the answered and unanswered.

What are your questions about Genius Hour? What are your answers? Share your experiences, questions, and reactions in the comments or on Twitter.

We are nearing the end of our Genius Hour journeys for this year. This week, I will ask students to complete a project check-in form reflecting on their growth and genius as the process turns towards the product.

In the process, students have researched, blogged, prepared elevator pitches, written proposals, and crafted an annotated bibliography. Now, they are in the last stages of structured research, class work, and analysis as they begin to use what they have learned to produce some sort of product to reflect that learning. And I’ll be sure to share those products in a few weeks. I’ll also blog about my students’ reflections and self-evaluations, and hope to have a few of them guest blog for me right here to share their experiences.

This year, I really pushed students to go beyond researching other people’s ideas to creating their own findings through action research. Most students either conducted surveys or interviewed experts, and the process of conducting this research was an interesting learning curve for us all. Below, I share some reflections on the action research process and some of my students surveys. It would be great if you could take a few minutes and respond to a few or share with your students and colleagues!

The Doctoral Influence

As a doctoral student, survey design and questioning is always on my mind. This certainly worked for my students because I was able to help them develop stronger and more objective questions. It also led me to probably hold them to higher standards. I asked all students to make an attempt at action research and required everyone to have their surveys, e-mails, or questions proofed and approved by me.

Some students ended up with projects that just didn’t need other people’s expertise. Others clearly favored one research tool over another. For some, their attempts at experts didn’t pan out and no one responded. I wanted to try to make research more real, living, and authentic for students--and for many, it really worked.

The Action Research

One student interviewed his mom and aunt to learn about a career in accounting. Another is in the process of filming interviews with students about their opinions on heavy metal music.

In one of my favorite examples, Lauren wanted to study classroom design and space. Her goal was to design a better classroom, considering aspects like light, furniture, space, color, etc. I told her that if her work is promising she can have my classroom and redesign it however her research conclusions and analysis show to be effective. Then, I demonstrated the power of social media to find experts to help Lauren. With a few Tweets, Lauren was well connected with teacher-experts on classroom design, and on her way. Find Lauren’s blog and work here.

Emma’s work took action research to another level. To study the hero’s journey and story structure, she created a Google Form and posed questions on popular Google+ Communities. Read her blog, take her poll, to learn more about the ingredients of a hero’s story. She is well on her way to having meaningful data from a range of authentic sources to analyze her audience's interest in heroes.

A screenshot from Emma's blog.

The Surveys

My students worked hard to ask meaningful questions to help them learn about their topics. In our meetings and e-mails designing and revising the forms, I focused on the following understandings:

• Ask questions that you need the answers to, and that previous research doesn’t answer as meaningfully
• Design questions that are as objective as possible
• Since our main data pool is students, surveys must be be short and easy to complete.
• Always consider question types with purpose; when and why should you ask a qualitative question vs. a quantitative one?

I also constantly framed design through my lens as a student: it’s difficult to get it right. The students’ work isn’t all perfect, but it’s thoughtful, purposeful, and interesting.

Please consider taking a closer look at some of the blogs and surveys below. For more on our Genius Hour work, visit geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

Developing Genius

The examples above are just some of the great ideas being explored by my students. They are also some of the ones that had surveys and action research ready to share. Through Genius Hour, I hope to not only push my students to develop important skills and passions, but to make research more authentic and meaningful.

I’m excited about their progress, about the variety of interesting topics, and about the results they are developing. I hope you will take some surveys, read some blogs, and help my students become geniuses.

How have you used action research in schools or with students? What advice do you have for teaching students to create, use, and analyze surveys or data? Please share in the comments or on Twitter.

We’re now at the halfway mark in this year’s #GeniusHour process for my English 10 students, and things are going well. Students are blogging regularly, completing research, and developing questions for experts and surveys. Next comes the project proposal, the first major checkpoint for my students.

Now that our topics are more concrete and the genius has begun its process, I started to share my students blogs and work. Find them at geniushour.aschoenbart.com, which I Tweet out from both my personal and school accounts, @MrSchoenbart and @SchoenTellOHS, respectively. Later this week, I want to start promoting individual blogs by tagging my students in the Tweets and sharing their topics to relevant groups and hashtags.

I wrote a lot about my work with #20Time last year, including a post on how I managed the workflow and feedback. This year, much of that has changed for the better. In this post, I’ll share the whys and hows of my students’ Genius Hour blogging. All of the blogs are works in progress but some are really great, and I’m always amazed by the range of my students’ topics, questions, and project ideas.

Find my articles on this year’s work with passion projects at From #20Time to #GeniusHour: Rethinking Passion Projects and Developing Genius: Reflecting on Choice, Passion, and #GeniusHour. Last year’s can be found in my series, 1st Time #20Time.

The Whys of Blogging

Most of my students are confused by blogging at first. They wonder what the purpose is and often think that the blog is the project; that the final product of Genius Hour is their blogs. And once in awhile, they might be. Around this time, though, it starts to click with more students.

In a project and process that involves so much freedom, abstract direction, and differentiation, students need scaffolding in reflection and time to process their ideas. Our interests and questions grow and change as the research and learning begins, and the work needs a place to become more refined. Like any authentic research process, there comes a point where it’s no longer practical to turn back or make major changes, and blogging really helps with this challenge.

Through blogging, my students have a formative place to share their learning and growth, ask questions, collaborate, and share. Instead of me reading 60 paragraphs, papers, or reflections, all of their voices are shared with audiences of my students and beyond. Already, students have received comments from one another and from other connected educators and students.

The blogs help students formulate their ideas and plans, documents their development, and pushes them to write, communicate effectively, and develop stronger digital citizenship skills. And they are another place to prove that all of us are smarter than any one of us.

Want to connect with my students and their Genius Hour Blogs?!? Check them out at geniushour.aschoenbart.com or reach out on Twitter at @MrSchoenbart.

The Hows of Blogging

Last year, my students mostly created blogs using Google Docs and set the sharing rights so that anyone can comment. It worked, but was largely inauthentic. This year, I decided that using Blogger was the way to go. I like Blogger because of its simplicity, integration of Google Apps, and the single log-on for my GAFE students.

I assign students blog posts weekly, focusing on that week’s work and growth. Some posts are very prescribed and others are open for the students to direct. For example, last week students wrote about their plans for their projects, detailing goals, surveys, etc. This week, their posts will simply be to reflect on growth or new research. They are required to find, create, or take an image or video to include in each post.

I collected the blog addresses on a Google Form, which I called the Blog Log. This form asked for their project’s topic/question, if they were working in a team, for the link, etc. The best thing I did was make this form so that students could edit their responses. Students are constantly going back and refining their answers, which feeds the sheet I Tweet out and promote. This way, my students topics are always up to date. I also can add new questions--like project check ins--later on to the same form.



The presentation above is my latest in the Genius Hour saga. It outlines the steps after blogging begins: developing surveys, conducting more research, proposing the project, and more. Also find links back to my slide decks introducing the task and blogging on the first slide.

The Feedback for Blogging

I want to provide my students with specific and timely feedback, which can be hard to do for so many blogs and posts. Last year, I used a really complicated Google Sheet for this--and it was too much. This year, I’ve simplified the approach.

I comment on most blog posts with feedback or follow up questions. My goals in these comments vary, but will not be negative. Instead, I use Google Classroom to deliver private feedback when it is personal or critical. I want my students’ blogs to be a public and positive place, and although I might post constructive ideas, I won’t post negative feedback for the world to see.

My obsession with Google Sheets hasn’t gone anywhere, though. I still use a new sheet within the Blog Log responses workbook to track my feedback. I simply have a column for each post and mark with with an A, C, F, or M (missing). The letters are just for me--and with Google Sheets’ conditional formatting, they change the color to green, yellow, red, or orange as appropriate. This way I can glance across a row and know immediately which students are successfully making blogging progress. It’s a little bit of work but it works well for me and I like the organization of the spreadsheet and the ability to easily analyze the data.

Sharing Genius

Whether its for Genius Hour or other purposes, blogging is another way to share and celebrate the awesome work students are doing and to connect with the world. I wish I had done it earlier and more often. I’m excited to see where my students’ blogs and projects take them, and love I’m blogging right alongside them.

Next time, I’ll share our process and progress in developing action research plans for finding experts, conducting surveys, and more.

Do your students blog? When? Why? How? Share your thoughts and process for student blogging in the comments or on Twitter at @MrSchoenbart.

It’s been about two weeks since I introduced #GeniusHour in my English 10 classes this year, and I’ve already seen some results worth writing about. The work is still in the hypothetical stages; we haven’t delivered pitches, created proposals, or even published a blog post yet, but I still have a few big take aways from the work. Find my reintroduction to passion projects in my recent article, From #20Time to #GeniusHour: Rethinking Passion Projects, and all of last year’s posts in my series, 1st Time #20Time.

English 10 students starting to blog for #GeniusHour #SchoenTell #OssiningPride pic.twitter.com/NqN1kcWd1a

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) February 2, 2016

For #GeniusHour, I want to study how social media changes personal traits and personalities #SchoenTell

— Nadia Lau (@nlau0327_) February 8, 2016

I will be studying ways to lower the cost of colleges for #geniushour #SchoenTell

— Grant McKee (@GrantMcKee1028) February 8, 2016

This is part 5 in a series of posts about my first time trying #20Time Projects with my English 10 Students. In this post, I'll be sharing students' reflections and ideas about their work and the process. Find the previous posts here: Part 1: My Intro to 20 Time Projects, Part 2: Managing Student Workflow, and Part 3: What I'll Do Better Next Time, and Part 4: Sharing Student Products.

Advice for Students:

"I would tell students doing the 20Time project to make sure they plan ahead and start on their project immediately. I would also suggest that students have at least 2 backup experts instead of just one, just in case one of them falls through or they decide to alter their topic. In addition to these tips I would tell other students to pick their partners wisely; without their full support and/or ideas you may not get anywhere with your topic."