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