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