Pinnacle Top 10

Today is the last day of Pinnacle training for Summer 2015. My Top 10 Takeaways are:

10. PBL and STEM stations were so much fun!
9. People Machine ~ Fun icebreaker and activity to think about how machines work.
8. Google moments ~ Extensions are my friend. Extensity helps keep them all organized and allows you to turn them on and off as needed.
7. AppMazing Race ~ Its fun being silly, while getting to know everyone and learning new apps.
6. Creating a game is challenging. So many things to think about and plan for.
5. Open Inquiry ~ Great way to introduce Genius Hour and help get ready for research projects later in the year.
4. Badges. Students and Adults will work for badges.
3. Gamification. Turning learning into a fun game
2. I discovered that I become very competitive with Mindcraft. I've never played Mindcraft before and it was SO. MUCH. FUN.
1. I love the FOOD!!!! The snacks and lunch were AMAZING. Felt so loved and gained a few pounds.

Ecosystems

My fifth graders have been studying ecosystems this month. They divided into different groups and created a diorama and a 2 page paper reporting what they learned. The projects took us a few weeks for the students to do the research, write the paper and to create the diorama. Students then presented the information to the class.

A few of my groups used an iPad and took pictures of their diorama. They used Balloon Stickies Plus or Skitch to annotate their picture. From there they brought their pictures into Show Me and recorded their presentation.

This helped many of my students that were not comfortable with getting up in front of the class to present. They were ok with watching their presentation, and the rest of the class was very supportive of them.

Here are a few of the presentations.

Saltwater

Taiga

Coniferous Forest

Enjoy!