Genius Hour Handbook

This paper explores the research on the benefits of student-centered learning in the 21st century classroom. The idea behind student-centered is not for the teacher to give up total control but to guide students through their learning by identifying student interests and leading students to more critical thinking. Student-centered learning can be implemented in classrooms through Genius Hour which allows students to research, build, create, and/or present anything of their choice with parameters set by the teacher. In October 2019, a faculty meeting at Silver Spring Elementary was held to see what teachers needed to know more about Genius Hour before they started implementing it in their classroom schedules. Based on the information needed from the teachers at Silver Spring, the project that was created was a handbook on how to start implementing Genius Hour in their classrooms. The handbook was designed with activities for the teachers to start using along with videos to introduce the concept of Genius Hour and templates for student journaling and reflection.