Genius Hour - Week 4

Post #4 - Making a Plan

I've decided that Saturday and Sunday are the best days for me to devote to Genius Hour.  The weekdays get busy helping my kids with homework and running them to their activities, but the morning hours of the weekend, when they're sleeping in, allow me to be the most productive. So my plan is to devote Saturday morning to Genius Hour and Sunday afternoon to the rest of my class work.

This week was an interesting one. My husband and I met with a contractor to discuss our project.  I learned there are a lot of choices and decisions to make just to get an estimate.  Things I didn't considered were the size of the base, how to finish the stairs, and how we'll need access to certain utilities.  We did learn that our one clean-out drain could be moved so that it is not in the middle of the family room - so that's good news!

I have also been attempting to make some plans and have been fairly disappointed with the software.  The online version is okay but very limited.  My biggest problem has been the stairs.  I can't adjust the them to match our staircase or design a half-angled wall to meet the treads.  I might investigate different design software this week and see if there is anything better out there.

These are my designs so far and as you can see the labels and dimensions aren't readable.  I had to handwrite size information on the printout.  That is just one of the many disappointments of this 5D planner software.

Genius Hour - Week 2

Post #2 -What is My Sentence?

People imagine great spaces or dream of amazing places...I transform ordinary spaces into inviting and useable places.

That's my sentence...I know I sound like a reality house flipping show.  But, as I begin my journey I have realized that just coming up with the drawing plans for my contractor might be the easy part.  I decided to put together a project timeline with all the tasks I hope to accomplish to make our basement remodel a reality.  It's a hefty "To do" list, but I think that it will help to keep me on track.  Transforming our basement into a place that fits all of my families' needs while staying in a budget is a tall order.  I really hope at the end of this that it will be worth it, and we'll have a place for my teenagers to hang out with their friends that can change as they get older.  

Here's a few pics of our current basement.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do.  It's going to take some time and effort to clean it out and get it ready for remodeling.

I decided to make a schedule to help keep me on track during this project.  Here's the link to it.  Hopefully checking those boxes will give me the motivation that I need.

This week I dabbled with a few software programs.  I landed on using 5D Planner.  I practiced adding rooms, changing the measurement scale, and some of the zoom features.  I have a lot more to learn... 

Genius Hour - Week 1

Post #1b - The Truth Behind the Decision

After spending some time with each, it became clear to me what the right choice was for this particular time in my life.

Although I would love to work together on this passion project with my daughter and learn to play the ukulele, my gut is telling me that this would be better to do over the summer when both of our schedules calm down a little.  Between her busy teen life and my busy teacher life, finding mutual time for both of us would be challenging.  I often work on my stuff when she's gone at an activity or sleeping in on the weekends - as teenagers do, til noon!  (I'm really just jealous!). The other fear is  playing the ukulele live or well enough for any song to be recognized by my peers.  Don't laugh!   The thought sends me running.  So this is a passion I've decided to table for now.

It was a tough choice between the other two: architect and travel blogger.  I began looking at other travel blogs and reading up on what makes them well visited and what I came across was that they were always updating their blog.  This would definitely create a challenge for me.  Simply because I travel once or twice a year.  I could go back to do our road trips to date, but would I remember all the details of our journey?  I also came to realize that my blog would be focused on a special niche of people - road trips with children.  And although I think there are people out there who would certainly benefit, I'm not certain that I'd get the following that I would need to make it worth it.  There are so many bloggers already with much more time and experience under their belts.  Plus I'm kind of a private person, and I don't know how I feel about posting photos of my kids online.  I decided that taking my photos and organizing them into photo books would help to satisfy this urge as well as create lasting memories for my girls. So I'm putting this on my list of projects to work on...over the summer.

So the decision is architect or interior designer.  I started by looking into the software that I could learn to help me complete this project and there are a lot of different choices out there that are actually free.  I'm feeling a little intimidated in my ability to learn to use them, but I'm going into this genius hour confident that I can do it.  The exciting part is that after I finishing designing our basement space, it might actually become a reality.  Then maybe I'll have a place to learn the ukulele and work on my photo books.  I see it as a win-win and I'm excited to get started.

Genius Hour - Week 1

Post #1a - Discovering the Possibilities

What is my passion?  In the midst of wearing my many hats of mom, wife, and teacher I somehow feel overwhelmed by this question.  Have I lost it or maybe never fully realized it, or is it simply  because teaching is my passion and I'm living it?  Needless to say, I have very little time to just explore or do things for fun these days.  So this is quite an opportunity - to learn about something I'm really interested in.  An excuse to lock myself away for a few hours to work on "school" work - how delightful!

With that being said, I am contemplating travel blogger, designing a basement remodel, or learning how to play the ukulele.  All three have ulterior motives really.  Here are some of my thoughts on each:

Travel Blogger:
I love to travel and really have to have a trip to look forward to.  I love researching travel destinations and will spend hours planning out the drive, or surfing for best deals on airfare and hotels.  I enjoy travel of all kinds from camping to beach vacations and most recently national parks.  If I pursued this and created a travel blog, could it pay off?  Would I somehow attract a following and start getting free vacations?  It may be a pipe dream, but I'm thinking about it.

Architect:
When I'm not dreaming about my next vacation adventure, I'm forced to look around my 1986 home and think about our next remodeling project.  We have lived in our house for 13 years and slowly but surely we are redoing every square inch, and we've gone about it in various ways.  My incredibly talented husband is really a jack-of-all trades.  He's remodeled our two bathrooms and done various other projects from building a shed to replacing doors and floors, but as we've gotten older and busier, we now tend to want someone to do these projects for us.  We just spent a ton of money to remodel our kitchen and we love it, but the aggravation of it all was daunting.  So we're looking for a handy man for our next project - tackling our unfinished basement and turning it into a space for our teens.  The problem with handy men, come to find out, is the vision.  There is none.  So I need a way to show them mine.  If I can draw up some detailed plans, maybe it can become a reality for half the price.

Ukulele:
If I'm really honest - have no musical ability, but I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar.  Both of my daughters play the viola and my oldest taught herself how to play the ukulele from watching a Youtuber.  Now she really wants to teach me.  I've tried before and I just can't remember the fingering.  This would really be a challenge, but also a great stress reliever, since it really is unrelated to anything else in my life.  It also would really be a confidence booster for my daughter.

I'll be spending this week looking into each of these to make my decision.  The struggle is real...

Artifact 2: Technology and the 21st Century Learning Space Design

This was by far the most fun project that I worked on.  Thinking about and then designing a 21st century classroom lead me to think about how I use the classroom, but also on how I'd like to be able to use my classroom.  With 1:1 devices in my students' hands, the need to have access to chargers was a priority for my design.  After that I wanted to have a space for a green screen so that students weren't trying to record in the hallway or unsupervised in the MRC.  I also, wanted furniture that was flexible and could be moved as needed for group work, projects, or presentations.  Finally, I wanted my room to be cozy and able to meet the various movement needs of my students.  Some other great features are a printer, a pet, and couch!  Check it out:

Artifact 1: Educational Technology Leadership Slideshow

This first artifact was a report on the state of teacher needs in my district.  It points out the fact that even though we are an advantaged district with funds for technology, the need to provide teacher training in this area still exists.  Fancy tools alone don't increase student learning.  Teachers need to know how to implement tech tools within their lesson plans to engage learners and teach the standards in ways that develop critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.  This isn't a one and done staff development day.  It needs to be ongoing and differentiated to help teachers meet their goals and close the skills gap.  Below I've attached my slideshow pointing out this need in my school district.

Managing Educational Technology Services Reflection

This was by far my most challenging class for two reasons.  First off, hubs, firewalls, and data speed are not something that I deal with on a day to day basis.  These are the items that make me dial 9-1-1 to our tech department.  Secondly, working with a group of six busy adults, all who work at different buildings in our district, made completing a group project seem overwhelming at first.  However, as with each of these classes, the take-away has been tremendous and I felt like I really learned a lot.  I may not ever put to use the hardware side of this class, but by going through the process of developing a district-wide technology plan, I know have an even greater respect for what the coaches, technicians, and IT department do.  I had no idea what was truly involved in a technology plan.  From the teacher's perspective it seems simple; give us iPads, load them up with apps, have a parent consent form.  However, I discovered that budgeting, repairing, disposing, and providing for professional development all play key parts of a well run technology plan that prepares 21st century learners.  I was happy to discover some of the good things that our District has in place like a help desk, coaches, and hardware replacement cycle.  Moreover, I was also able to see some of the areas in need of improvement, such as: professional development, more technology coaches, the need to address the digital divide, and a better way to be sure that we are educating our students on digital citizenship as well as plagiarism and copyright laws.