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.

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.

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.

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 

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

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. ​"

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

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

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