Week of December 13

Morning Meeting at Panera!

Hi Everyone,

I hope that everyone is ready to bundle up again this week. The wind on Sunday was pretty chilly!

Welcome New Students:

• We are so happy to welcome William and Anastasia Adams to the OH Institute. Both will be joining us after the winter break. Many of you know them already from the tennis courts which is where they connected with our students. They have already had the opportunity to "rock out" a couple of times with us as well. They are going to be a great addition to our OH family!
  

Things to ask your student about:

• HS: tell me about when you will be done with your FLVS coursework and tell me about the book that you have selected to read for your next literary analysis paper. Hint: they should be able to share two literary reflections that they have posted to their blogs
  

• MS: tell me about your project work and when your FLVS coursework will be done.

• Elem: tell me about your presentation.
  

PBL presentations this week/update:

• Elementary is presenting Wednesday morning. Please plan to stay a few minutes after drop off to provide them with an audience for their presentations.
  

• HS will be getting feedback on their civil war research papers this week and working on fine tuning the papers.
  

• Middle school is continuing their project work and will be preparing to send their work to experts this week for review.

• Project link for a presi on the causes, courses and consequences of the Civil War by Mira, Alex and Leah: http://prezi.com/9xj-xbctryti/house-divided-against-itself-cannot-stand/

• Project link for an interview with Abraham Lincoln video by Hunter and Kylie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlj9u1ksAVE

This week's schedule:

• HS students will have extra blocks to try and work on getting as much of their FLVS coursework done as possible this week.

• Thursday elementary will be visiting "Glass Fusion in Seaside to learn about the art of glass blowing."

• Thursday MS and HS will be having a field experience "in house" with Randy. He has planned a day of "learning about learning" that will entail a lot of writing and deep thinking (and fun).
  

Fundraising Update:

• All families have received raffle tickets to sell to offset costs for the Spring trips. We are asking each family to try and sell at least 10 tickets if possible.
  

• The next parent meeting is set for this Friday at Amavida 8:30am.
  

Coming Soon:

• Winter Break 12/20-1/2

• Marianna Caverns trip-whole school. We would like to go the week we come back from break on Friday (1/7) and need some help driving. Please let me know if you can help drive on this trip.
  

Things we need:

• Snacks- the healthier the better! Chex mix is being requested.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you Seacrest Dental for the gift of treating us to a movie last Thursday!
  

"Coming together, sharing together, working together, succeeding together."

Winter break will be nice but I will miss seeing everyone. Have safe and happy holidays!

Amy

Week of December 6

Hi Everyone,

My word for this week's blog is WOW! The reason why that is my word is because we have literally taken off with our network learning.

Here is a list of some of the things that our students are doing:

• HS students are doing discussion protocols using a shared google doc

• Both HS and MS students are receiving some impressive and good feedback from experts

• HS students are using the teaching resources of Khan academy and other open source online lessons to help them figure things out when their FLVS courses are confusing and they need another explanation
  

• Elementary blogs now include all their daily work.
  

• There is a lot of video conferencing going on at all levels.

• Use of web 2.0 tools has exploded. We are now using: symbaloo, google docs, bloggers, skype, presi, power point, PeBLr, capzles, gloogster, slideshare, photobucket, google calendar, google spreadsheets, online gaming, gmail, pbworks (wiki), youtube, screencast, online video editing ...and a whole lot more.
  

Things to ask your student about:

• HS: tell me about and share your chalktalk googledoc on Frederick Douglas.

• MS: tell me about your group and individual project.

• Elem: tell me about your elementary mythbuster.
  

PBL presentations this week/update:

• Elementary is working on getting their presentations ready to present next week.
  

• HS is working on their civil war papers which are due the Friday before winter break. They are also finalizing projects based on expert feedback.
  

• Middle school is working with Randy on a group project and Tim on an individual project.

This week's schedule:

• Please look at the email from me about our schedule change for Thursday. We will not be on the OH campus that day but we will still be doing our work.
  

SAT/ACT info:

• Spring ACT dates are: 2/12, 4/9 and 6/11.

Travel update:

• The younger students have come up with two potential trip ideas for the Spring. One idea is a trip to Washington D.C. and the other is a trip to the Grand Canyon and Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary to do some service learning.
  

Fundraising update:

• All families will be receiving Raffle tickets this week to try and sell to offset costs for the Spring trips. We are asking each family to try and sell at least 10 tickets if possible.
  

• The next meeting is set for this Friday at Amavida 8:30am.
  

Coming Soon:

• Winter Break 12/20-1/2

Things we need:

• Snacks- the healthier the better! Chex mix is being requested.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you Hunter, McKenzie, and Connor for giving OH the "gift" of making our school look so nice for the holidays! We love the decorations!!! Thank you Ms. Mel for the cleaning supplies!!!Thank you Mr. Tim and Mr. Randy for some amazing co teaching with MS PBL!!!
  

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn."
-Benjamin Franklin

I am looking forward to another great week!
Amy

Week of November 15

Alyssa and Hannah "playing with fire"

Hi Everyone,

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: What type of presentation are you planning?
  

• Middle School: What were some of your daily PBL goals?
  

• Elementary: Tell me about what you created in math with Mr. Tim.
  

Reminder:

• OH will be closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday from Friday 11/19-Sunday 11/28. We will see everyone back on Monday 11/29.
  

PBL update:

• Projects are being finished this week. We are encouraging the students to explore different options of ways to present their projects. Some students are working on a play that they are video taping and others are using a network tool called presi. These are shaping up to be our best projects by far and I cannot wait for the students to share them with you.
  

Fundraising update:

• Our next parent fundraising meeting will be Wednesday at 8:45am at Amavida. At this meeting we need to have all the details together for our upcoming raffle.
  

Trip update:

• a $395 deposit was due 11/15. Please send in a check made out to OH institute ASAP if you have not done so already. We have to make our first deposit to the tour company.
  

Community Service Hours:

• I have a form to document community service hours for any students that would like a formal documentation for their community service hours. Please email me if you would like a form. I sent a copy to all the high school students already.
  

Things we need:

• Disinfectant wipes.

• Snacks- the healthier the better!
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

This week I thought I would list some of our attitudes of gratitude that are on our "attitudes of gratitude" wall at OH:

• Go OH!
• Thank you Mira for your awesome sweeping skills!
• Thank you for being awesome students we are lucky to be here!
• Thank you Davis for cleaning before going to music.
• I love the blog song!
• Thanks for tennis!
• Attitudes rule!
• Thank you Sweet Jeni for the cupcakes!
  

"A teacher cannot build a community of learners unless the voices and lives of the students are an integral part of the curriculum."

Amy

Week of November 8

Hi Everyone,

Please remember that this week we have no school on Friday. MS and High school students should use this day as an FLVS/PBL work day from home.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: What was the one part of the Frederick Douglas book that you choose to talk about during your group book discussion?
  

• Middle School: What diary are you working on?
  

• Elementary: Tell me about the digestive tract and how it works.
  

PBL update:

• Middle school and high school are off and running with their new projects. We will be sending some work to experts to peer review this week.
  

Fundraising update:

• Our next parent fundraising meeting will be sometime this week at 8:45am at Amavida's. We will work on getting our next fundraiser "a chance to win trips" together. I will send out an email once the day is set.
  

Things we need:

• Disinfectant wipes.

• Snacks- the healthier the better!
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• An attitude of gratitude to Paige for helping us out and being our substitute last Wednesday! Thank you to Mira for bringing in more kickballs!

"Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enjoy your week and stay warm!

Amy

Week of November 1st

Hi Everyone,

Wow! What an incredible week and weekend OH had! It was so nice to spend time with everyone both in and out of school this past week. The feeling of community really settled in as we pulled together to get lots of things accomplished.

Please remember that this week we have no school on Thursday. MS and High school students should use this Thursday as an FLVS work day from home.We do have school Friday.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: What prompt did you select for your literary analysis paper?
  

• Middle School: What is the theme for PBL for the next four weeks and what is your essential question?
  

• Elementary: What are you doing with videos every morning?
  

PBL update:

• Both Middle School and High school are now officially starting their PBL "cycles." What this means is that they will be completing projects every 3-4 weeks.

Fundraising update:

• All I can say is that the scarecrOHs made the harvest festival a lot more festive. What a great way for us to show the community what OH Institute can do. There were a lot of compliments all around on the scarecrOHs and we raised some money along the way!

• Our next parent fundraising meeting will be this Friday at 9:00am at Amavida's. We will work on getting our next fundraiser "a chance to win trips" together.
  

Things we need:

• Snacks- the healthier the better!
  

• Cleaning supplies: we would love to get two more brooms and dust pans. We would also love two more swiffer wet mops. These things will allow for us to clean all areas of the school more efficiently.

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Huge attitudes of gratitude to everyone for helping to make our first fundraiser ScarecrOH lane a success. From the great signs made by Joe to all the hard work in designing, creating, hanging and working the bake sale every family played an integral part. Did you know that every family participated in working on the fundraiser and/or donated baked goods and other supplies? We are an awesome community!

Happy Birthday to Alex and Leah 11/3!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Creators love creations before they exist."
Robert Fritz

Enjoy your week!

Amy

Week of October 25

Off to sell some scarecrOHs

Want to Sponsor your own scarecrOH or know someone who wants to sponsor one?
See my sponsor a scarecrOH email sent out 10/22/10

Congratulations Nathan and Jordin for helping the South Walton golf team win a district championship. Jordin was the overall district champion and Natahn was 5th place overall. Next up they will travel to the regional meet in Tallahassee on Monday and Tuesday.

Hi Everyone,

This week we have a lot of wonderful things going on. We have been reminding students of schedule changes. We are encouraging them to front load a bit of extra FLVS work this weekend (Oct 23-24) because we have some great community building things happening this week.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: Tell me about the book you are reading. Share with me your first two literature responses that you wrote on your blog.
  

• Middle School: What part of the process are you working on this week for your PBL?
  

• Elementary: Tell me about Comic Life.
  

PBL update:

• Presentation next week High School hybrid car project on Wednesday at 8:35am.

Rock and Roll Academy Update:

• Mr. Mark is coming to town this week on Friday. He will be facilitating a great day of music for the students.

• Stay tuned for a new concert date. We had to change the 11/14 date because of schedule conflicts.
  

Community Support Please:

• It is now time for us to pull together and make our scarecrOH fundraiser and bake sale a success. Please send in the following things to help out: costumes (new or used), things to decorate the scarecrOHs with, newspaper to stuff the scarecrOHs. We also need people to send in two baked goods as well as work the bake sale on Saturday.
  

Things we need:

• We have a request from the students for chex mix as a snack.
  

• Cleaning supplies: we would love to get two more brooms and dust pans. We would also love two more swiffer wet mops. These things will allow for us to clean all areas of the school more efficiently.

• Dish towels: we would love about 3-4 for the kitchen.
  

Fundraising meetings update:

• ScarecrOH sales have been good so far. We will be working on building scarecrOHs on Thursday from 1:30-3:30pm.

Strep throat warning:

• We wanted to let you know that we have had two students come down with strep throat in the past two weeks.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Again an attitude of gratitude goes out to Slyvia Alf for taking the time to do revision round #2 with the HS hybrid car papers. A HUGE attitude of gratitude goes out to Paige for her hard work on the Costa Rica trip. She found a trip that meets our needs both as a service learning community experience and financially. Thank you to the Syed family for the snacks from Sam's. Thank you Lettye for the awesome pizza celebration on Friday!
  

"Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow."

~Fernanda Miramontes-Landerossure."

Enjoy your week!

Amy

Week of October 18th

Hi Everyone,

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: What is your next project you are working on? Have you gotten your copy of Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave?
  

• Middle School: How are you doing in the pocket tanks tournament and what is this teaching you?

• Elementary: What did you learn about cotton this week?
  

PBL update:

• Watch this video which came out of an "in house" social studies/science pbl the "choo choo cotton factory": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDldlv8Iiwk

• There are no formal presentations scheduled for this week.
  

Field Experience Update:

• Elementary and Middle school visited the Rosemary Beach post office today and we got a "behind the scenes" tour. It was pretty amazing to see what happens in our local post office.
  

Things we need:

• The students love to have snacks throughout the day. If you can send some in that would be great.

• The dishwashers have requested that we get some cloth dish towels for the kitchen area to help with drying dishes. I am happy to take these home each week and wash them. Please send some in if you have any extra.
  

Fundraising meetings update:

• The students met Thursday 10/15 to rework their mission statement.
  

• Parents will meet this Friday 10/22 at Amavida at 9:00am. This meeting will focus on deciding on and making a timeline for the rest of the year's fundraisers. If you were suppose to be following up on an idea please be prepared with information to share at this meeting.
  

Happy Birthday to Nathan 10/19!!!!

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to Sylivia Alf (Olivia's grandma) for taking the time to look over our hybrid car papers. She looked at all the papers, wrote extensive feedback on them, and met individually with the students that were here Friday to go over how to improve their writing. We are very lucky to have such a great resource for writing!! Thank you Claire for our post office tour this morning!!!
  

"Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure."
~Murphy's Law

Enjoy your week!

Amy

Week of October 11-15

Ready to present!

Hi Everyone,

I just got back from a fun afternoon of watching what I call the "OH magic" happen with our community. This afternoon many of the students and parents gathered to build our very own scarecrOH for our scarecrOH lane fundraiser. The theme that they decided on was a corpse bride and she was looking pretty great by the time I left.

It is so nice to be working with a group of students and parents that pull together in so many ways. I am constantly blown away by the "OH magic!"

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: Which side of the hybrid car argument did you chose for your paper and why?
  

• Middle School: What is your current social studies PBL?

• Elementary: What has playing the game Spore helped you learn this past week in science, social studies and language arts?
  

PBL update:

• Four middle school students defended their learning about tarantulas this past Friday and if you were there you know that they set the bar very high for future students to present. I was so impressed not only by their presenting skills but also by the variety of their presentation. This group of students held on to the audience's attention from start to finish and proved that they knew their stuff when it came to their science standards. BRAVO!!!

• This Thursday Nathan will be presenting his Great Depression project.

• Next group up for presenting will be the high school students and their hybrid car project.
  

PSAT:

• 10th and some 11th grade students will be taking the PSAT this Wednesday at South Walton High School.
  

Costa Rica:

• Please let me know ASAP if your student will be traveling to Costa Rica with us. We need to let the tour company know numbers.
  

Daily Reflective Blogs:

• I am still planning on sharing your child's blog address with you. High school has added a new post to their blog focused on their weekly literary reflections.
  

Field Experience Update:

• High school has submitted some ideas for a field experience and I will be working on getting something together for them in the next few weeks.
  

ITBS Testing update:

• We have one more make up exam to administer and once that is complete I will work on compiling scores to send home.
  

Fundraising meetings update:

• The students met Thursday 10/7 with Tim to work on tweaking the mission statement and think about ideas for ScarecrOH lane. They will meet again 10/14 at 8:00am.
  

• Parents will meet this Friday 10/15 at Amavida at 9:00am. This meeting will focus on deciding on and making a timeline for the rest of the year's fundraisers. If you were suppose to be following up on an idea please be prepared with information to share at this meeting.
  

Extra Help/Time:

• Remember that we are here to help if you feel like your student is getting behind or you need help understanding anything. Please let us know if you feel like there is something that your child (or you) needs.

December travel window:

• This is the week that we need to know what your tentative December plans are. Please send me an email letting me know what your child's schedule will be and where they are traveling during those weeks. This will allow us to start personalizing project work for their December trips.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to Mason, Hannah B., Mitchell, Davis and Alyssa for a phenomenal tarantula project!! You have set the bar high!! Thank you Amy and George Corchis for donating the first ScarecrOH for our students to decorate!!!Thank you to Denise for getting so many lovely accessories for our corpse bride, she looks marvelous! Thank you Lettye for being our "back up plan" for our scarecrOH building on Sunday!!!
  

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
— Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Alyssa, feel better soon! Leah we hope that you knee heals quickly!

Amy

Week of October 4-8

Hello Everyone,

We had another great week last week. Students are getting organized with their excel sheets and have started to write daily reflections about their perceptions of the "OH experience" to share on personal blogs.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• High School: What book did you select to read and write a literary analysis of?
  

• Middle School and Elementary: What did you take away from the field experience with Chef Nelson?
  

PBL update:

• We are starting formal presentations of our PBL work this week. Students will be working with Randy on how to present effectively before the presentations later this week. We also are excited to have several students traveling with Tim to Macon Georgia to present their guided PBL project.
  

Daily Reflective Blogs:

• This week I will be sharing your child's blog address with you to allow you to check in on what they have to say about OH each day.
  

Field Experience Update:

• Our trip to Chef Nelson's was amazing. The students cooked an incredible meal from start to finish including a scrumptious dessert. This week they will be taking the experience and doing either some writing about it or turning it in to a PBL project. What they do with what they experienced on the trip will be their choice with Randy facilitating the process as needed.
  

Testing update:

• We have a few make up ITBS to do this week. Once they are all completed and scored I will be sending your child's scores to you. I am also happy to sit and go over the scores and explain what they mean once all students have completed the testing.
  

Fundraising meetings update:

• The students met Thursday 9/30 to come up with a mission statement to present to the parent fundraising group.
  

• Parents will meet again this Friday 10/8 at Amavida at 9:00am. Our main task at this point is coordination of the "Hall- OH- ween" scarecrow fundraiser.
  

Extra Help/Time:

• Lots of students have taken advantage of coming early and staying late to get extra help. Thank you for taking the time to get your child to school a bit early or picking them up a bit later if they want to take advantage of some extra help.
  

November Calendar Dates:

• We have updated the calendar to add the dates that OH will be closed in November. These dates are: Thursday 11/4, Friday 11/12 and Friday 11/19.

• We have tentatively set 11/14 for a music and design showcase. The students will perform their songs from the Rock and Roll Academy and feature their design work.
  

December travel window:

• Please start making your plans now for travel and field experiences in the three weeks in December. We need to have everything arranged by mid October to be able to plan the students project work and start building background knowledge on their topics.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to all the parents that came to Chef Nelson's with us (Lettye, Mel, and Paige)!!! Thank you Rhonda for the great "Hall-OH-ween" fundraiser idea to start us raising some money for our trip!!!
  

"Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself. "

John Dewey

Alex and Hanna W. we missed you this week and are looking forward to hearing about your adventures away from OH! Mira we cannot wait to see your car!

Amy

Weekly Update 9/27-10/1

The passing of the inspiration book

Hello Everyone,

What a great week of project based learning we just had. All three divisions have completed guided inquiry based projects.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• What "monster" did you create during design this week?
  

• How are you doing with the pace/grades in your FLVS classes?
  

• Tell me about how you used slideshare, Youtube, flicker, google docs, evernote and other network learning tools while you were putting together your guided PBL project.
  

PBL update:

• All students have now completed a guided Project based learning assignment from start to finish. They will be starting on their individual PBLs in the next few weeks.
  

Project Feature:

• Please go to this link to see the middle school inquiry project that they completed this week:

• http://docs.google.com/a/oh-institute.org/present/edit?id=0AcahQgRWy2c2ZGQ0NzNydjdfMzUycnoyN3BkYg&hl=en

• They have completed their portions of the project and have contacted experts to review their work. They will being doing a formal presentation/defense of the project once the experts have reviewed it.
  

Parent Meeting Update:

• Thank you to everyone for attending our first parent meeting of the year. It was great to have the chance to showcase all of the exciting things that the students are accomplishing.

Five Week Family Meetings:

• I am happy to be meeting with everyone this week. Please remember to bring your child and a computer with you to the meeting.
  

Field Experience:

• Hannah B, Mitchell, Davis, Alyssa, Ellee and Jack will all be going on a field experience to Chef Nelson for a cooking lesson Friday October 1st. Each student will be making a plan of how to cover some of their standards using what they learn about cooking and the job of being a professional Chef.
  

Testing time:

• We will be taking the ITBS test this week starting on Tuesday.
  

Fundraising meetings update:

• The students met Thursday 9/23 to come up with some ideas about the trip and fundraising. This week we will be working on making a mission statement for our trip and talking more about what an educational philanthropic field experience really looks like.

• Parents will meet again this Friday at Amavida at 9:00am to go over the fundraising ideas that we came up with. Each parent that came up with an idea will bring details of what their proposed fundraising will take to accomplish. Students will most likely attend this meeting as well to present their mission statement for the trip.
  

Extra Help/Time:

• One piece of feedback that Randy and I both receive a lot from the MS and HS students is that they would like some extra time at school to work on and have help with their FLVS classes. There are two ways that students can receive this support. First, we are at school every afternoon until between 4:30-5:30 (and sometimes later) and both of us are happy to help. Some students like to stay for the extra work time which is fine too as long as they are working. The second way to receive extra support is for the students to let Randy know that they would like him to meet them in the morning and he can arrive early to allow for extra work time or help with coursework. We are here to help them succeed!
  

December travel window:

• Please start making your plans now for travel and field experiences in the three weeks in December. We need to have everything arranged by mid October to be able to plan the students project work and start building background knowledge on their topics.
  

Happy Birthday to : Ellee 10/1!!!!

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to all the parents that came to both the parent meeting 9/21 and the fundraising meeting 9/24!Thank you Denise for being the parent liaison for fundraising! Thank you Ruder family for the awesome snacks and sharpies!

"Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations."

Maya Angelou

I am looking forward to another great week of learning at OH!
Amy

Weekly Update 9/20-9/24

Community that's what OH is all about

Hello Everyone,

This week we have a parent meeting Tuesday and I cannot wait to share all the exciting things that we have been doing so far this year!

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• Their excel progress/pace chart
  

• Design class
  

• Their group PBL work with Mr. Randy
  

Parent Meeting:

• 5:15pm Tuesday-We will start with one of our student projects.

Field Experience:

• I am waiting to hear back from Chef Nelson and am hopeful that some of us will be going to a cooking class/culinary institute tour this week on Thursday or Friday.

Testing time:

• We will be taking the ITBS test this Fall the week of 9/30/10.
  

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to Mr. Tim and Ms. Dana for the awesome Design class (this is from the students)!We love Ms. Lettye's Spanish! The Sweet Jeni's cupcakes rock! Thank you Weldon Family for the markers! Thank you Paige for all of your help this week!
  

Parent Feedback:

• Please take some time this weekend to fill out the parent feedback form for us. Thank you!

Five Week Family Meetings:

• Starting this week I will be setting up progress check meetings with each family. I want to make sure that you stay updated on your child's progress.
  

"Think you can or think you can't, either way you will be right."
Henry Ford

Shanna we missed you hope that you feel better soon!
Amy

Weekly Update 9/13-9/17

Just another day at OH Institute!

Hello Everyone,

We are in full swing with our project based learning, online classes and field experiences.

Here is this week's update:

Things to ask your student about:

• Daisy the rattlesnake

• Symbaloo

• What their first project is going to be about (hint: ask them what their topic is and what their essential question is.)

Field Experiences Coming Soon:

• Gellato factory tour
  

• Cooking lesson with Chef Nelson

• Once these dates are set up I will be emailing some of you for help with transportation.
  

• Attending field experiences will be based on student interest which means it will be their choice whether or not they attend. If they do choose to go they will have to do a project that covers some of their standards. All field experiences will start with preresearch done at OH, documenting their work "in the field", and then returning to synthesize and present what they learned.
  

Parent Meeting:

• Please mark your calendars for 5:15pm September 21st for our first parent meeting of the year. We will discuss our project based learning and trips for the year.

Attitudes of gratitude:

• Thank you to George Corchis for the generous kickball donation of both kick balls and a pump!We love tennis! To all the students for having a the best positive attitudes ever

SAT/PSAT/ACT:

• If you are looking for good resources to study for these tests go online to: http://www.kaptest.com/College/SAT/index.html

Help please:

• Here are some things that we need for our learning: pens and markers.

FLVS passwords:

• If you have not already emailed me your parent log on info for FLVS please do so right away.

Happy Birthday to:

• Hunter 9/18!!!

What OH Students liked this week:

• Davis, Shanna, McKenzie: Tennis
• Mason: Making the HOPE video today
• Jack: There was more candy and I had more fun working at OH Institute this week
• Mitchell, Kylie: kickball
• Ellee: Scooby Doo and Zoey's visit
• Jordin: I liked now that everyone is doing their classes that we got a feel for things and it is pretty well organized.
• Nate: Art class and music
• Leah: I liked it all! and music a lot.
• Mira: I like how I got more school done this week and I like our community music project.
• Hunter: The standards based project mini lesson was the best and finding our expert Bud.
• Alex: I liked a lot of things and the standards based learning was a good lesson.
• Connor: I liked the new kick balls we got and how we got competitive in kickball.

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children tomorrow."

-John Dewey

Hannah B, Hanna W. , Olivia and Alyssa we missed you and hope that you feel better soon,
Amy

Weekly Update 9/6-9/10

OH Institute Field Experience #1 or as Mr. Randy calls it, "just another day of learning at OH!"

Hi Everyone,

We are off to a great start at the OH Institute. This is my first weekly update for the year. These posts will keep you informed about all the exciting things going on during our week. I will send an email each week to remind you to check the blog for the updates.

Here is the update:

• Friday 9/3: There are some hard copy forms coming home with the students that need to be filled out and signed for our records. I apologize up front because with the transition in to my work at OH these are forms that typically would have been filled out before we started the year. Please take time to read them, fill them out and return them to me next Tuesday. Thank you!

• Monday 9/6: No school labor day/Happy Birthday Kylie!!!

• Tuesday 9/7 and Thursday 9/9: Tennis begins! Students need to wear tennis shoes and bring rackets if they have them.
  

• Attitudes of gratitude: Thank you to the Ruder family for all of the great supplies and snacks that they have provided (cleaning supplies,paper towels,bean bags, snacks etc.)!Thank you to the Weldon family for providing all the yummy snacks! Thank you to the McNamara family for starting this wonderful school and helping to bring the amazingly awesome Rock and Roll Academy (and Mr. Mark) to Rosemary beach! Thank you to Jennifer for the delicious cupcakes to celebrate birthdays and the end of our first week! And finally thank you to all of the families for providing such a strong support for both Randy and I as we work with your children-OH Institute is amazing!
  

• Schedule: Although we do have a weekly/daily schedule we strive to give the students voice in what is going on. We collect feedback from them weekly and they helped us to construct the schedule. We also stress to them that the schedule should be flexible and fluid to accommodate things that come up.

• Help please: Here are some things that we need for our learning: pens and markers.

• FLVS passwords: If you have not already emailed me your parent log on info for FLVS please do so right away.

• Doodle link: Thanks to everyone that has already responded to the doodle link about helping with transportation with field experiences. If you have not already done so please take a minute to respond by going to the link: http://www.doodle.com/g9fnt53rh34rtb3i

• Rock and Roll Academy Rosemary Beach: We had a super visit from Mr. Mark and now have the Rock and Roll Academy in full swing. It is going to be a rocking good year!

• Travel: Coming up in the next two weeks I should have more information to share with you about dates, prices and fund raising for our trip to Costa Rica in December.
  

Happy Birthday to:

• Hanna W 8/27
• Mason 8/28
• Kylie 9/7
• McKenzie 9/7

" We can change education because we are doing it."
-Mr. Tim

See you soon,
Amy

Welcome Back

Welcome Back OH Families!!!

Randy and I are so excited to be a part of the OH Institute family. It has been so much fun getting to know you over the summer and we are looking forward to a great year.

We want to make sure to say a huge thank you to our sponsor Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing the wonderful parent dinner at Onano, lunches for the first three days of school and tennis lessons through November.

I will be updating this blog weekly throughout the year to include information about what is going on at OH.

One cool thing to check out right away is our live axolotl cam (actually check it out tomorrow 8/20 as the axolotls are not in the aquarium today):

• http://www.ustream.tv/channel/axolotl-cam

This week at OH:

• 8/23 First day!

• 8/23, 8/24, and 8/25 Lunch at Summer Kitchen, Wild Olive, and Cowgirl Kitchen

• 8/27 cupcakes from Sweet Jeni's-yum!

Coming soon:

• Information about our Costa Rica Trip and fundraising opportunities.

• 9/7 Tennis begins

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams"

-Oprah Winfrey

Get ready for the best year ever!

Amy