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A Peek in the Life of Innovation Lab

12/12/2019

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Thanks to WBTV engineering department for donating some old technology that has captivated the students for days now.
Adjacent to the media center lies Piedmont's new innovation lab. What goes on in an innovation lab? Showing might be easier than telling:
Below are just a few shots of the action in the lab this year. Hover over to view captions.
rigging a slow mo video
First minutes with the new old video camera
Beanie Baby Balance Board
Girls Who Game videoconference with a Dell exec
iPad filters while hairbraiding
Saidou records his podcast
all the kinetic toys at once
6th and 7th grade hooking up equipment
One taking apart, one putting together
laptop guts
Got it working with no instructions
Not pictured: The victory lap Brendan took when he firgured out how to hook up the ancient montor, video camera, and player.
Students visit during lunch, healthy kids, compacting and online time to work alone and together; to create and dissassemble; to relax and study. Yesterday in the lab, in addition to online classwork, scheduling foreign language speaking tests, and preparing schoolwork, students worked on diy projects, took apart old lapop, formed a "coconut" (nearly completely round smooth ball of kinetic sand), colored tape with sharpies to make a blacklight attachment for their phones then researched what glows in black light and why (they'd thought it was germs, but its phosphorus), braided hair, took photos, filmed video on iPad and vintage TV cameras, and video conferenced with a Dell executive.
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Panorama of some of the innovation lab regulars as they relax and explore
View this post on Instagram

I’m saying “This is the best innovation ever! Jamari is gonna be world famous.” #PiedmontIB #Innovation #Makerspace #ibschool

A post shared by Lisa Gurthie (@earthiegurthie) on Dec 13, 2019 at 8:48am PST

If you want to watch and learn from Jamari,  he advised a fellow student to "be one with the chair" 
And here's a student's iPad recording of the action with me tweeting the genius innovation as it occurs.
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Piedmont Family Funds Field Trips

12/9/2019

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Sam and Lia Beresford prepare to go on television to announce the founding of the Joe Beresford Field Trip Fund.

Fund celebrates one year anniversary 

One year ago, on December 14th, Piedmont's lobby was the setting for the press covereage the Joe Beresford Field Trip Fund. The setting was a meaningful one as the family is a longtime member of the Piedmont fam: Sam and Lia were students at Piedmont in the 80s and 90s and their mother Jackie Fishman taught at Piedmont in the 70s. They remember their father sending them to school with extra money to give their teacher to cover a student who couldn't afford the trip. After his death, they chose that simple yet meaningful way to honor his memory. Now almost a year into it's inception the fund has helped many students throughout CMS pay for a trip they otherwise could not have, including Piedmont students. 
After the interview, Lia and Sam toured Piedmont and even found their class photos still hanging on the lobby wall.  Below are some images of the family touring the school and reconnecting with old classmate Mr. O'Neill. 
Piedmont is proud of these alum and grateful for their gift. So they can show their Piedmont pride, we gifted them with a  hoodie and a "Piedmont You Know" T-shirt they admired in the case! 
Thank you and your family, Lia and Sam, from all of us at Piedmont! 
Piedmont, you know!

Watch the news story here https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/family-honors-father-with-school-trip-fund-for-cms-students-who-need-assistance/888978711
Related
Piedmont extends its sympathy for the recent loss of Lia and Sam's grandmother. The link below shows Ms. Czernak Spatz speaking to the 7th Grade about her experiences surviving Auschwitz-Berkenau. Her message is an important one today for all of us. We appreciate her sharing it with our students:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/holocaust-survivor-visits-piedmont-to-speak 
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Piedmont Salutes Veterans.

11/7/2019

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Congratulations to Ms. Brown and Saidou, Henry and Jackson for creating this great video to go along with tomorrow's breakfast celebration. Looking forward to seeing the veterans enjoy all the wonderful food and entertainment you've taken the lead to organize.

https://youtu.be/J21sJ-hI_3w

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Ms. Barone Wins CMS Principal Award

9/16/2019

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Ms. Barone is known for surprising teachers who win awards, (see here for just one clip) so it was fun to surprise her with flowers and cheers when CMS Regional administration came to announce she'd been named CMS Central Region Principal of the Year! 
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The busy day included getting drenched, not just congratulations but in rain! But that perfectly sums up one of many reasons we love working for her: Ms Barone is not a principal who stays behind a desk! She's out there with us, rain or shine!

As Ms. Clark wrote about the below photo in a letter to our staff, "She was out in the middle of the monsoon Friday during bus dismissal and didn't come inside until every bus had picked up the students.  Jackie, THANK YOU for all you do for these kids and our staff. ​"

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A few great clips only capture a snippet of all the fun and learning she brings to us over the years. Keep watching for much, much more!
https://youtu.be/3z43dtuqNS4
​https://youtu.be/L6C9rbAfALo
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8th Grade Civil Rights Museum

5/21/2019

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The gym was abuzz with 8th graders touring each other's handmade exhibits.  Students discussed what was happening in each tableau and decided together what was the message to take away. Ms. Hon, Ms. Styles, and Mr. Reddig facilitated the showcase and quizzed students while visiting teachers were amazed. Take a look at some of the work below.
Related Posts:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/2-distinguished-guests
​

http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/civil-rights-gymnasium

http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/students-build-a-civil-rights-museum

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    "Celebrating Piedmont" logs only a small fraction of the learning magic the teachers of CMS' Piedmont Middle School, an IB World School. create daily. In that sense, it is authored by all the staff and students of Piedmont.  It is curated by Ms. Gurthie who can be reached at the icons above. She'll be happy to brag about Piedmont's teachers and students any chance she gets!  Please note this blog has only just begun and we have so much to show off! Come back again soon!

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Photos used under Creative Commons from Yellow Sky Photography, Nicholas_T, Wendy Longo photography, Gidzy, Mara ~earth light~, seyed mostafa zamani, Y'amal, slopjop, Kevin Shorter, davecito, Nina Matthews Photography, Rob Stemple
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