It's hard to believe that 8 weeks have passed. My Genius Hour project timeline has come to an end, but that doesn't mean I have to stop learning. There are many more things I want to learn about boating. I have a feeling that this learning journey will continue far beyond a Genius Hour project. When I first began this journey, I wasn't sure what to expect. My initial reaction was filled with dread, to be honest. I wasn't sure I could pull it off. I wasn't sure how I would find the time. I wasn't sure if I could stay motivated until the end. But all of those worries were for nothing. I did pull it off, and I have more ideas for where I want to take future learning. I made the time because it was important to me. My motivation pushed me through until the end. I spent quite a long time deciding on a topic. Once I determined my topic, I was glad to have the support of my husband who came along for the Genius Hour ride. It was so helpful to have a partner to maintain motivation and bounce ideas off of. Determining a timeline and outline of what I wanted to try to accomplish was important to my ultimate success. Even though both of those were tweaked along the way, without them, I would have floundered and had no end goal in mind. Throughout the process, I took important safety tidbits that I learned and created a Boating Safety Binder filled with some reminders, checklists, and visuals.
In the end, I feel a great deal of success. I'm ready to enthusiastically say,
"Let's Go Boating!"
10 Genius Hour Teaching Takeaways
My whole goal in completing a Genius Hour project of my own was to experience what my students feel embarking on what seems like a monumental task. Experiencing the pitfalls and productive struggle, helped me to better understand how to support my students through their own independent investigations. So, here are 10 of my biggest takeaways:
Ultimately, this was a great experience that every teacher who plans to have students engage in a Genius Hour should try for him/herself.
The End is Near With the end of my Genius Hour project timeline in sight, it's time to reflect on this experience. Learning with someone else, my hubby, kept me motivated and engaged. I had someone to discuss what I was learning about which helped me better understand. It also made me excited to share a video or article I found with him. Even talking to him about a part of my boating course that made no sense helped me understand it better. So, I learned that I learn better when I can do parts independently and have a partner to check in with. Having a timeline and an outline to guide me through the project was also very helpful - especially when trying to accomplish a big task over a longer time period within an already busy life. Knowing that I wanted to be able to enthusiastically say, "Let's go boating!" by the end of the eight-week time frame kept me motivated to routinely fit boating into my day. Not only did I learn a lot about myself as a learner, but so did my family who were witness to this entire process. My husband was thrilled that I took an interest in one of his passions. He tried to be helpful along the way by encouraging me, suggesting articles I could read, and even taking the boating course along with me. When I would find an interesting video, I'd be sure to show him, and we were able to learn together. He's excited that I might be more comfortable boating so he can enjoy it even more. My daughter commented that she observed my hard work and dedication. Being a positive life-long learning role model for my daughter filled me with pride. She also said that I devoted a lot of time to learning which left little time for other things. A slight pang of mom guilt set in right there. Probably the most meaningful comment she made was, "You learned a lot and hopefully will be less stressed the next time we are out on the water," which, of course, was my whole reasoning behind choosing this topic. This week, I spent time becoming more knowledgable about the practical task of tying off the boat and a fun task of planning possible boating locations.
Tying off your Boat
Thankfully, after watching a few really bad videos, I found this very helpful tutorial video from Annapolis Performance Sailing on YouTube to learn how to tie off the boat. Now, I feel much more confident that when I tie off the boat, it won't be likely to float away. I not only learned about 3 hitches but also the importance of the rope diameter. Who knew it mattered? Using the correct rope diameter to cleat length ratio is important when securing your boat. For every sixteenth of an inch in rope diameter, the cleat should be one inch. For example, if you use a 5/16 inch diameter rope, you should be tying up at a 5-inch cleat. Knowing what type of hitch to use in which situations is also important. You wouldn't want to come to the dock in the morning and find that your boat has drifted off. Now that wouldn't make for a pleasant and stressfree day of boating. So, here are the 3 main types of hitches that I learned and when to use them. The video below explains each hitch and how to tie them. Half Hitch - used when you are keeping the boat in sight. Maybe you are just fueling up or stopping for a quick bite, but the boat is always in your line of sight. Full wrap cleat hitch - used when you are tying the boat up for the night or you will be leaving the boat out of sight for an extended time. Multi-wrap cleat hitch - used when you do not have the appropriate diameter rope to match the length of the cleat.
Boating Bucket List
My family and I are interested in boating on lakes that are large enough to cruise around and enjoy water sports - swimming, water skiing, and tubing. Being able to enjoy the water with the whole family, including our dog, who loves the water more than anyone else, is very important to us.
After an initial investigation of boating locations, here are the locations currently on my Boating Bucket List. A few of them are closeby, so we can get our feet wet without extremely long road trips. Others would be part of trips already on our travel bucket list near our favorite travel destinations - the US National Parks.
Looking forward to where this final week of Genius Hour takes me.
