It has been an intense week with all 3rd, 4th and 5th graders taking the STAAR test.  On testing days, there are no special areas except for PE for all students.  So not only does it make a long day for students taking the test but all students.  But it is Friday and we have made it through the test.  I am confident that all the hard work by teachers and students leading up to this day will prove worth it when we see the results. 

We did get to have some fun today when Spike from Round Rock Express visited OHE during assembly. For the past several years, OHE has won the Newspaper in Education Award and received $500.  Hopefully this summer will be no exception.  Look for more information in the next few weeks.

The Student Council also hosted movie night and those that came out watched Percy Jackson and the Olympians:  The Lightning Thief.  Thank you for supporting the OHE Student Council and the playground fund.

We continued with Silent Auction Winners. Brooke and Devin won "Eating with a Sheriff's Officer" (my husband). Not sure who had more fun him or the students. They loved asking questions about everything on his uniform.

For the Principal's Coffee this week, Mark Williams, School Board President came to speak and take a tour of the campus. It was also a tour and Q&A with incoming 1st grade parents.

More Silent Auction winners at assembly today. Sam read the names of Eagle of the Day. I must say he did a much better job than I do.

Will and Jonathan were our Silent Auction Mascot winners. They were great performers on stage.

Then of course, we recognized our wonderful OHE volunteers. Please go to the website and checkout the video. Our volunteers do so much for us. Thank you!

We continued this week celebrating silent auction winners. Below are the kindergartners who won a pizza lunch with their teachers and a friend.



Mrs. Lumbreras' class for the past few weeks has been studying the life cycle of chickens.



The class began with 17 eggs in the incubator and documented the temperature and humidity levels. (It was hard to take a picture but hopefully you can see one of the chicks.)



Then this week, 17 baby chicks were hatched. For the next week, the class will continue to observe the chicks. But stayed tuned because next they are studying the life cycle of butterflies!



We also celebrated Librarian Week and recognized both Ms. Underwood and Mrs. Lynch. Please checkout our website for their video. We appreciate all they do for us.

Many things are happening next week. Monday is a general PTA meeting and the topic will be on how to keeps students engaged in learning while having fun over the summer.

Tuesday at 6:00 in the OHE cafeteria will be the next Dual Language meeting. Please join us to learn more about the program.

Wednesday at 8:00 is the next Principal's Coffee. Mark Williams, the school board president, will be here. There will also be a tour of the school and an introduction to 1st grade for kinder parents. Come join us.

Lastly if you haven't seen the website, OHE can now earn money when you shop with amazon.com. Check the website for details.

Location:Patton Ranch Rd,Austin,United States

We have had a fun spring week. The 2nd graders performed their 18th annual Fairy Tale play. It was great to see the personalities of the students when they are on stage. There are some awesome performers, singers and dancers in the grade.
















If you haven't ever seen the Fairy Tale performance, make sure you come next year.
The week was also spent trying to schedule some of the silent auction items. One item was to record the message on my office phone. Drew, one of our kindergartners won. He had lots of fun and couldn't believe it was him on the phone.




Remember this is a long weekend and we are off Friday and Monday. Have a great Easter break and see you back on Tuesday.

We made it through our first week of STAAR testing. The students did a wonderful job staying focused and putting their best effort forward. I am sure when the results come back the data will show how great they did. The next round of assessments is the last week of April.

Many of you have seen the flags in the cafeteria or have heard the students discussing them. If you would like to keep up with the flags and what we are learning, the information is posted on our website. http://ohepta.org/Our_School_Our_World.html

This week was Wales and Guam. Students, whose families are from those countries, introduced them at assembly today. As I observe the students during these presentations, they appear interested and excited, especially when it comes to the food!

We ended today with our monthly Student Council Spirit Day - Hawaiian Day. There were lots of bright colors and flowers.

The week before testing can always be a little stressful, but here at OHE, we tried to have a little fun.
One of our kindergarten grandfathers is a beekeeper and brought his collection of bees for the kindergartners to observe.





They even were allowed to put on the correct safety gear.

Our kindergartners also performed their annual musical. It was a wonderful performance with lots of personalities.

As many of you have seen, the flags that represent the cultural backgrounds of our OHE students have all been displayed. (Each year we will update the flags with any new countries). During the assembly this morning with the help and support of the PTA's Our World, Our School committee, we kicked off the celebration. Each week with time permitting, a new country will be discussed. Today, we started with The United States of America. Interesting facts were presented like Americans made the first chocolate chip cookie and had the first man on the moon. The students like the cookie fact the best. We also had two girls, Audrey and Isabelle sing the National Anthem while another student, Gabby, accompanied them on the piano. It was an amazing performance.

Please remember that we are testing next week and visitors are not permitted on campus. Thank you.

In Mrs. Lagerquist's class yesterday. Presentations were made as part of a "Wax Museum" where students came to life as the people they studied.

Included were: Danica Patrick, Leonardo Da Vinci, John F. Kennedy, King Tut, Queen Elizabeth, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Adams and Helen Keller to name just a few!

Mrs. Nowakowski Grimm hosted a "Living Museum" with famous people from both the past and present.
Presentations were made to parents and other 3rd grade classes. As explained by a 3rd grade parent, "This was an awesome way to engage the students in history and LA with requirement to read, investigate and "live" people that have made significant contributions to society".

This morning in assembly, the OHE Student Council explained how with the A+ Federal Credit Union students could open savings accounts. The credit union will be here monthly in the mornings so students can make deposits. Please check the Eagle Eye for specific dates.

Also this morning in assembly, students were excited to see all of the flags hanging. It was fun to watch and listen to them as they entered the cafeteria. At lunch today, I was sitting next to a 1st grader. He asked, "Dr. Mitchell, do you know which flag that one is"? He was pointing to France, which I had just learned, so I said yes, France. He explained that France had a city named Paris and in Paris he had seen the Eiffel Tower. He then turned and pointed to "Italy" and said that is where I was born.



During lunch, I learned several things. First, the flags are going to be a great learning tool for the students. Second, many of our students have traveled and been able to experience the different cultures that make-up OHE and they are proud to share those experiences. Thank you PTA for helping to make this happen.

Have a safe and wonderful Spring Break. We will see you back on March 19th.

This week has been exploding with energy in preparations for our PTA Carnival. Plus at assembly Friday, we celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and Texas Independence Day.

Below Mr. Cumings dressed as Sam to not only celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday but with the help of the Cat in the Hat (Ms. Jodi) they demonstrated the correct way to break confetti eggs.



A special thanks goes to Annemarie Read and Paige Ott for organizing the carnival and silent Auction. The night was a huge success.

This year the silent auction brought in over $15,000! Thank you to everyone who purchased something. I can't wait to find out who gets to be the "Principal for the Day"!

New at carnival was the Petting Zoo. The children loved it. Squealing pigs, rabbits, donkeys, goats and more definitely were the hit of the carnival.

Below are 2 of our first graders who have made it almost to the top of the Rock Wall.

Also new this year was the Hamster Ball. The students loved rolling around inside.

Saturday, the Student Council had their first Neighborhood Clean-up. It was definitely needed after carnival night. Over 30 people came to clean,and Mr. Cumings had to jump in the trash barrel so all the bags would fit.

Members from the Oak Hill Rotary, who is partnering with our student council, also helped clean.

I am not sure we picked up every piece of confetti but we left the grounds much cleaner.

We only have one week before Spring Break and with all the excitement that has just happened hopefully there will be a calm week of learning.

Thank you for all your support. We couldn't do any of this without you.

This week Mr. Cumings' class has been working on measurement. In the pictures below, the students had made paper airplanes and were measuring the flight distance for each one.
Friday was Student Council Tie Day. It was fun to see all the different ties.
This year at OHE teachers have had the opportunity to use a day to plan. We call it a PLC - Professional Learning Community. Part of the reason it has been successful is due to our substitute teachers. Many of whom have been past OHE teachers and substituting for OHE for many years. It is great to walk classrooms with substitutes and still see rigorous learning happening. Below is Ms. Schorr,
Ms. Fritsch,
and Mrs. Ledbetter.

February 29th at 8:00 is my next Principal's Coffee. I will be sharing the Dual Language Program that OHE will offer to students next year. Please come and learn more about the program.

As you have seen in my blogs, OHE celebrated "No Name Calling" week by creating projects using technology. The projects are being posted to our website for your viewing (As long as everyone in the project had permission for it to be posted).

Lastly, next week is carnival week! If you haven't signed up to volunteer, please do. Information is available on our website.

OHE began the week celebrating Valentine's Day. It was great seeing so many family members on campus, and luckily I kept the chocolate to a minimum.

This week we continued with our MOY II testing. 4th graders have now taken the writing, reading, and math assessments. 5th graders have taken the reading and math. 3rd graders take both reading and math next week. The science MOY II will be taken by 4th and 5th graders the following week. Obviously, there have been lots of assessments. Teachers are working diligently to analyze all the results in order to modify instructional decisions and tutoring groups prior to the actual STAAR test. We have about 20 instructional days to make sure that our 4th and 5th grade students are ready. If you have any concerns, please make sure you have set up a conference with your child’s teacher.

Speaking of conferences, Monday is Parent Conference Day.

This week OHE celebrated National Counselor's Week. This morning during assembly Mrs. Caporal was recognized and received wonderful comments from students and teachers.

Last night, OHE hosted our first Family Fitness Night. Families had the opportunity to try Hip Hop, Martial Arts, and Yoga. The instructors were fabulous with the students. They were very entertaining and funny while teaching the techniques associated with the class.

For the past several weeks gymnastics has been the theme for PE. The students have lots of time to practice the techniques and then are quizzed on them.

This week at OHE was Science Fair Week. Projects were completed by every student in 3rd - 5th grades and by class in the primary grades. The older students presented their projects first to their class. Then all projects were displayed in the cafeteria for viewing.

Students who wanted their projects judged for the Austin Energy Regional Science Fair had the opportunity to discuss their projects with community members. I received great feedback from the students. One students said, "Dr. Mitchell, the first time someone came to me I just blurted all this stuff out. But then when the next person asked me questions, I was prepared".

There were about 300 projects on display and about 85 students wanted their projects judged for AERSF. OHE teachers judged those 85 projects and had to narrow it down to only 17! What a difficult job they had. Here are our winners.