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!

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.

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

We always knew Officer Rorie was the best, but now the world knows, too!

Here is a photo of the multi-talented officer with Ms. Delaney and Mr. Tornfelt after receiving the Outstanding Police Community Relations Award at the 35th annual award dinner last night.

Thank you Officer Rorie for keeping our school safe and helping us grow to be our best. Your encouraging presence in all situations is a model to all of us, students and faculty both. We are so proud of you!

Oh no biggie, just THE Henry Louis Gates wishing Piedmont's team well as we head to Nationals:

It's not every day that middle schoolers feel any connection toward something that happened halfway across the country back in 1921. Events of only one generation ago in their hometown sometimes might as well be ancient history to them.

Not for Mr. Reddig's State Champion National History Day team here at Piedmont! Despite the distance of time and space, they are advancing to the National History Day competition this summer precisely because of their passionate connection to the events of the Tulsa Race Riot, their diligence in researching and finding those who had lived to tell the tale, and their insistence that they do what they can to make sure it never happened again. Read on for the press release on the topic and to see photos of the team on their winning day.

From the Press Release:

In their first year of entering the National History Day competition, a group of ambitious 8th grade students from Piedmont IB Middle School won the regional and state competition and will be competing at nationals at the University of Maryland on June 16,2014.  They won first place in the Junior Group Exhibit category at the North Carolina State Championships on April 26th at the NC Museum of History. 

Their unique exhibit which displayed an array of primary resources told the obscure story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.  Their topic was inspired by The African Americans:  Many Rivers to Cross PBS series created by Henry Louis Gates, JR.  Once known as the Black Wall Street, the Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma was the second most prominent black community in the United States in 1921 when it was burned to the ground as a result of segregation and racial tensions.

The competition required students to submit a process paper with an extensive list of primary and secondary sources, create an exhibit, and be interviewed by judges. The competitors' 8th grade social studies teacher and competition advisor Ronny Reddig stated, "It was really the interview at both competitions that I attribute to the group's victory.  The group did a tremendous amount of research, including calling historical record departments in Tulsa, searching out survivors and watching numerous videos relating to the event.  The judges could easily recognize how inspired they were by the event, and their passion to tell the story so that similar events would not be repeated by future generations.

Mr. Parkins' , Ms. Benfield's and Mr. Reddig's students took over the media center and for three days turned it into a civil rights museum. Sixties protest songs played soflty in the background as students toured the exhibits their classmates built from scratch.  Exhibits on topics such as Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man to the murder of Medgar Evers and Emmitt Till, from Hernandez v. Texas to Swan v. The Board of Education, students learned their power to question and to act.

These images of our team winning state are on the front page of the district website today along with a link to the Piedmont Science Olympiad website. Captured is the joy and excitement of heading to Science Olympiad Nationals! Good luck team and coaches! We are so proud of you.