Week 5: Documentary and How I would use Genius Hour

This week for my research into Genius Hour I watched a documentary called Blackfish, which illustrates the mistreatment of animals in aquariums. The documentary focuses on killer whales and Tilikum a famous whale that lived and preformed at SeaWorld. It is a truly saddening documentary that shows a lot of the truth behind these large aquariums. I learned a lot of facts about whales in captivity like killer whales suffer extreme psychological damage due to life in captivity. Tilikum, the whale focused on in this documentary, lived in captivity all his life and was significantly psychologically harmed, which lead to him killing three people. This documentary shows how damaging captivity can be to these large animals. Below is a trailer for the documentary.

Movieclips Trailers. (June 3, 2013). Blackfish Official Trailer [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLOeH-Oq_1Y 

Besides my own Genius Hour research I want to reflect on Genius Hour and how I would use it in my own classroom. I really like Genius Hour because it gives students something to research that truly interests them. With my own Genius Hour I am way more interested when working on it than other school activities because I was able to pick a topic that I knew I would be interested in. Through Genius Hour students will be able to explore their interests and passions. As a teacher I would use Genius Hour by having my students learn about what a good question to research might be and then choosing their own. Afterwards they would get a set amount of time each day to do research on their topic. Once their research is done the students will present their findings to the class so that we all learn about the cool and interesting topics that everyone has been researching. In my own experience I have seen a grade 2 class do a type of Genius Hour called "I Wonder" where students research a topic they are interested in for a period of time each day and then present it to their peers. While observing this class going "I Wonder" it was amazing how focused and engaged the students were in their own research. I think that the way the students were engaged in their research shows how powerful Genius Hour can be to motivate students through their passions, and this is exactly why I will use Genius Hour in my own classroom as a teacher!