Genius Hour

When trying to come up with a genius hour topic I tried to think of something that I am passionate about, and something that I can also use in the future to apply in the classroom. A topic which came to mind pretty quickly was my passion for animals, and the way that animals have been incorporated into the classroom in my own experience was by having a class pet. In my Kindergarten class, my favourite year of school, we had a class bunny named Thumper. He was a big, friendly bunny who I would put into the toy grocery cart and push around at play time. Now that I am heading into schools myself I wonder how we can use our students' interest in animals to not only excite them just by having a class pet, but by incorporating the class pet into lessons.

This ended up being: How can teachers effectively incorporate a class pet into their teaching?

At this point I have a number of goals. I would like to explore the different kinds of animals that have been incorporated into the classroom, what lessons students can learn from interacting with the animals, and also how the animals can be used in regular lessons in a way that may pique the interest of students and get them more involved. Basically, I don't think that a classroom pet should be there just for the sake of having an animal, but that they should be used as an opportunity to further learning.

Going forward I am going to begin to research the experiences that have been shared by other teachers. I also believe that I may need to narrow down my question so that it will be more specific, and pick a specific focus.