This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 55 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast.

In this episode, my guest, AJ Giuliani, will be answering your top 10 questions about genius hour.

Okay, I'm going to assume that most of you already know what genius hour is.

If you don't, then props to you for sticking with the podcast on a topic you know nothing about.

Very briefly, genius hour is a teaching practice that has absolutely exploded in popularity over

the last couple of years. It's where the teacher sets aside a certain amount of time every week

or every day, maybe one class period per week or one hour per day in an all-day classroom setting,

for students to learn about whatever they want. Now to someone who hasn't learned much about it,

that can sound like a scary prospect. And teachers who were thinking about trying genius hour

have a lot of questions. So I invited my friend, AJ Giuliani, to come onto the show to answer those

questions. AJ is the director of technology and innovation for Centennial School District in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He did his first genius hour project back when he was in 11th grade

English teacher. And since then, he has supported many other teachers as they implement genius hour

in their own classrooms. He was actually a guest on episode five of this podcast,

where we talked about 20% time, which is basically another name for genius hour.

Now, AJ has created a full online course called the Genius Hour Master Course, where he walks

teachers step by step through the implementation process. The teachers who are already enrolled

are seeing incredible results with their students. So I wanted to share some of AJ's wisdom with

you and maybe get you one step closer to trying genius hour in your own classroom.

Before I start two things, first I'd like to thank Kidham for sponsoring this episode. Kidham

is a free platform that helps you personalize learning for every student. A lot of teachers love

the idea of personalized learning, but without the right tools, it's still just a buzzword.

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