Preparing for a Genius Hour

I have been thinking about the idea of starting a "Genius Hour" in my classroom for next year.  I have been reading about what this is and trying to figure out what it would look like in my classroom.  I already love doing projects with my students during the year and this seems like the next step I need to take towards more control of learning in the hands of my students.

To prepare for this, I started trying out some new things last week (mentioned in my blog last week as well).  Not only did I love the work we did and learned a lot from the experiences, but I loved watching the excitment around learning my students had last week!  It left me wishing I had started this all sooner!  

On Wednesday, my kids and I participated in Wonderopolis' daily wonder that is posted each morning.  They spent about thirty minutes researching on their own and deciding how they wanted to share their learning with their classmates.  Each group shared their learning with the class and we tweeted to wonderopolis what we learned.  My class loved the researching, sharing, and the responses we got back from wonderopolis!  They couldn't stop talking about it all day!

On Friday, we tried our "In the News Friday."  In small groups, students read an article and participated in a discussion around two questions I provided them with.  This one is going to need more guidance than I originally thought.  Trying out these new ideas now has been a huge benefit in having time and practice for a learning curve before I jump into this "Genius Hour" idea.  

What have your experiences or thoughts been with or around a "Genius Hour?"