Another Week Worth Celebrating

Our new Magnet School of Distinction Award

Do you realize how much awesomeness we pack into a one-week span here at Piedmont?  This only scratches the surface yet again!! Highlights of this week include Science Olympiad, the new World Cup at Piedmont, Art class makes some STEAM in our MakeSpace and out in the yard, new Test Prep and stress reduction ideas, a "Go Piedmont" to our National History Day team from a world renown scholar and more!

Science Olympiad Returns from Win at Nationals in Orlando

The big news this week is Piedmont took first place in the nation in Small Machines and 9th place overall in the NATION for Science Olympiad this year. The team won the opportunity to compete in Nationals by winning first place in the state of North Carolina earlier this month.  We are so proud of the team and Mr. Clark, Ms. Burick and Mr. Fatzinger for their work.

One half of the victorious Small Machines Duo arrives back at school to a hero's welcome in the car lot after taking first place in the Nation at Science Olympiad! Check out all those medals!

Ms. Gorman loves words numbers and art and what could be better than putting them all together by decorating the school in honor of Piedmont's big win? 6th Graders check out the decorations as they walk in from recess.

National History Day Team Cheered on by Henry Louis Gates

Henry Louis Gates, one of the nation's foremost historians and television star tweeted encouragement to Mr. Reddig's team this week as they prepare for their national competiton in June after I told him how the team had been inspired by his Many Rivers Series on PBS!  Learn more about the team's project and state win here http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/state-champ-history-team-heads-to-nationals

@LisGurthie Go Piedmont!!!

— Henry Louis Gates Jr (@HenryLouisGates) May 16, 2014

Art Class gets STEAMed in our new Makerspace

Small groups of Ms. Czerwinski's honors art students learned about 3D printing in our media Center MakerSpace this week as they tried out Autodesk Cad-ding apps, chose a 3D geometric design on Thingiverse, and learned how to export and print CAD files as SDK. They really enjoyed manipulating the designs on the app and learning how a 3D printer works, and getting to take home a few of the prints!

While part of their class was 3D printing, the other group was working with Ms. Czerwinski outside designing and painting their original "Green Guy" comic strip for the Decorate the Dumpster Contest! Check it out next time you are on the way to the field!

Sixth Grader Starts a New World Cup Tradition at Piedmont

Sixth Grader Morgan single handedly inspired a World Cup Soccer Tournament at Piedmont. Here she is this week arriving with the handmade trophies that will be part of the intramural tradition for many years to come! Check out her clever design- just a ball, a cup, a block and some spray paint! Not every school would let a sixth grader create tournament! That is empowerment!

Test Prep Improvements- Piedmont Style

Just because it's testing time, doesn't mean the creativity stops as Mr. Miller's Science class knows. Students show off their ecosystems with pride as they arrive this week on project day!

Ms. Lyttle and Ms. McCarthy spent the day on the field with students on their scavenger hunt. Their idea got re-tweeted by none other than Cool Cat Teacher who is a bit of an edTech celbrity and garnered the attention of Discovery Ed who plan to interview the duo on the lesson soon! Click this image to go to the page with more info on the scavenger hunt test prep.

This student approves of Ms. Bailey's new use of Blendspace to Personalize learning. Click his thumb to learn more about her lessons!

Summer is Almost Here!

Our book discussions and great presentations came to a conclusion this week, thus wrapping up another year of Wednesday faculty meetings! This image reminded me of day two of our book talks when we discussed fairness verses sameness and I am putting it here if you haven't seen it yet.

Thanks to Ms. Delaney and Ms. Gialombardo for taking a minute in our last meetings to make sure we remember to take care of our stress by eating right as per their table cards. Who knew their gift of chocolate and almonds could be helping us out in more ways than one?