Asia Habermeier

English 1101-092
Dr. Karin Evans
Profile Essay
Sept.23 2015

Genius Hour

Jolynn was sitting in the first row at the auditorium in Edina, MN.
This 50 years old teacher had a big smile on her face although she was
nervously looking around trying to calm herself down. Her blue eyes
were wandering in no particular direction, her hands unintentionally
were twirling her long blond hair. Looking around in the audience,
anyone will find faces of proud parents and friends of the students who
spent months on the Genius Hour project. When her last student, Lilly,
finished her PowerPoint presentation about growing her own herb
garden, Jolynn proudly stood up and applauded. She was working on
this project for over 18 weeks with her fifth-grade students. Today was
the day that everybody was waiting for: they wanted to show the world
what they were passionate about and demonstrate that every single
child has potential.
Jolynns fifth graders Genius Hour was inspired by Googles 20
percent time initiative, which allows employees to dedicate 20% of their
working hours to work on their own ideas: Genius Hour is a movement
that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages
creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they
learn during a set period of time during school (geniushour.com).

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Jolynn was so excited when she introduced that

idea to her students. She thinks that the
education and learning goes on behind the walls
of the classroom. In her opinion, we have the
opportunity to collaborate with students and
teachers from all over the world, and we can
Jolynn with one of her students

achieve that if we look at the education

standards kids needs to achieve - there isnt only one way to achieve it.
Just putting the textbook in front of the student is rote, it is not as
engaging; traditional education methods are not preparing students for
21st century jobs and demands.

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Jolynn stated with a passionate, strong

voice, What surprises me, as educators, is
comfortable to stay with status quo but the
reality of it is that everything is innovating, so
education a also needs to become innovative,
and thinking about engaging students in
higher level of education regardless of where
they at. So it gets back to equity and providing
equal opportunities to the kids, so every child
can achieve greatness. Thats when she
Jolynn engaging with students in decided to start a Genius Hour program in
after school activities
her class in January 2014 to promote

student-driven learning, ensuring that young people learn to think for

themselves.

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Each student had to come up with 20 things that they are passionate
about that they can research and learn more about that. The kids were
very excited after they created a brainstorm of the things that they are
passionate about. They had to develop a question on the higher level
that will be the thesis for the project. Their research was based not only
on internet, but also research journals, articles, periodicals and it had
to provide at least one interview on the subject matter. Then they had to
put a presentation on Google slides, have a question as a title, thesis
and state what the presentation will be about. Every week for five
months on Fridays they met and talked about research, the planning
and progression of the project. They loved the freedom to explore what
they are passionate about instead of just doing the work they have been
assigned by teacher, and that freedom is what continues to motivate
them to explore big ideas and take ownership of their learning, the
process of problem solving, researching and evaluating information
texts. The learning experience also includes identifying whats credible
information and what is not.
As a child growing up in Chicago area, as the daughter of
iImmigrants with strong Jehovahs Witness background, Jolynn Susan
Gamble le didnt have many opportunities to have a normal childhood.
In August of 1979, her freshmen year in high school, when her mother
was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, her father felt incapable of
raising three children, so alcohol consumed his life. He became very
abusive, especially to her younger brother, John, and her mother. They
practically raised themselves after Jolynns mother died; life was hard
for all of them. After her father tried to commit suicide, they all begged
for an intervention, but nobody helped. The family was so badly abused
that the school was taking pictures of them and tried to get them into
foster care. Nobody wanted to take them all together, so they stayed in

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the abusive environment. This negative experience had a positive

outcome, however. After high school Jolynn decided to leave home. She
went to Iowa State University, got engaged and moved to Arizona where
she finished working on her masters degree in education. Now, shes
been teaching for over 15 years.
I personally believe that education is the most important thing that
anyone can ever have, said Jolynn. You have to identify what are your
strengths and what are your passions. Ask yourself, what I want to
accomplish, how can I contribute to the society, what do I want to
dedicate my life into. Every child has potential despite their situation
and upbringing. Jolynn demonstrated her potential for overcoming
adversity and succeeded. She now wants to passionately help others,
realize and unlock their potential and she does this by looking to
unconventional and creative ways to teach students and inspire them to
achieve their greatness.