Oakwood High School Newsletter

September 2023 Edition

Notes from the Principal - Erin Smith

It was a great month at Oakwood High School in September. Homecoming week was very busy, and it was a great time for all of our students. Thank you to all of the parents that participated in SWAP day on Wednesday Sept 20th. We enjoyed hosting all of you and hope you come back next year.

Thank you to the OGS Administration Nicole Lapenas, Nicole Johnson, and Lisa Acton for working with OHS Administration Zach Steele and me for an outstanding Homecoming event where Football Players and Cheerleaders from OHS greeted OGS students and shared the love of Homecoming week. Check out the pictures in this Newsletter. Go COMETS!

Pink Out Night - October 2nd, 2023

"Pink Out" night will be observed Monday night October 2nd at the Oakwood/Judah Christian Volleyball Match. Shirts will be sold to be worn that night or Friday night. The Volleyball team will be selling pink bracelets. The money collected will be donated to a classmate here at OHS!

What You Can Do to Protect Youth From the Harms of Vaping

CDC's Office on Smoking and Health offers information related to smoking and tobacco use.

cdc.gov

Notes from the School Counselor - Stephanie Marsh

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!!

Senior Parents: This is just a reminder that our first Financial Aid Night will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. in the OHS library. Due to the FAFSA opening date being pushed back, we had to break this into two separate nights, the second one will be held on Dec. 13, which will be when you actually fill out the FAFSA.

On Oct. 11 we will have a short presentation about all things financial aid related. You will also have an opportunity to ask any questions that you may have. You will create your FSA ID on this night as well. The FSA ID is REQUIRED BEFORE you can fill out the FAFSA and can NOT be done on the same night. I would highly recommend that you do this on Oct. 11th, while we have help, in case you run into any problems. This will allow you to be fully prepared to fill out the FAFSA on Dec. 13!

To create the FSA ID both parent and student need to have their social security numbers and their own personal email addresses.

This is a great opportunity to have sources ready and available to help you with the FAFSA process!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Notes from Mrs. Brant

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September was a very busy month for the business students at OHS. Besides working through daily lessons revolving around marketing and business management, the students were hard at work designing shirts for Homecoming week. Once the designs were created, the students worked together to make class shirts, the Powderpuff shirts, the Homecoming themed shirts, and any shirt orders that came through the Booster Club Comet Country Store. Students who had good grades and were caught up on their assignments were allowed to make some of the shirts during their Study Hall times throughout Homecoming week. The students at OHS get very excited about seeing their work brought to life through items the community is able to purchase. During the month of September, the students also designed new logos and shirt designs for Comet Country, which will soon be voted on. The winners will be revealed in the next few weeks

Notes from Mrs. Davis

Biology class has recently finished a large experiment! Within this experiment, students chose a product they wanted to test, then purchased both a name-brand and off-brand of that particular product. Students then created an experiment to test whether the on-brand product is better and worth the extra money. Great work to all Biology students for completing this fun lab!

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Notes from the School Social Worker - Marcy Nicoson

We all have mental health. Some days are "healthier" than others. Ups and downs in mood or energy levels can be typical for teenagers. At times, we are uncertain if a low is too low. Please keep an open dialogue going with your students on their mental health. Here is a resource from Erika's Lighthouse to help families have conversations about mental health. Please reach out to me anytime for additional resources to support healthy conversations for all things mental health. I can be reached at nicosonm@oakwood76.or or 217-354-2358 ext. 4144.

Notes from Mrs. Sandiford

We had the FFA State Officers come to Animal Science for a visit. The students participated in a team building activity and talked about Core Values as well as their short and long term goals.

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Notes from ELA

Mrs. Wilson's and Mr. Blair's English 4 students have been learning about the Anglo Saxons in preparation for Beowulf. Last week, we studied and solved Anglo Saxon riddles as well as writing our own riddles! We also learned about the Anglo Saxon Trial by Ordeal, and we practiced our own version of "Ordeal By Cake" in class. Thankfully ours was much more enjoyable than the original medieval practice.

The junior class has been working on persuasive writing skills and pulling evidence from research with silly prompts about birthdays, walking around barefoot, and super powers. The students have passionate opinions on these, especially debating super powers! Their evidence-based claims are strong and their SAT skills are developing with these activities!

Notes from Ms. Nichols

In Studio 16, aka the Art Room, students have been learning different ways to express their creativity. At any given time you will find many types of projects going on, including collage, graphite drawing, colored pencil pieces, painting, and sculpting. In Art I students learned about ways in which we collect data, and how some artists use data to create their artwork. The attached image is an Abstract Data Self-Portrait created by Ella Hance. The students used a form to collect data with symbols that represent each item turning them into a cardboard relief. While it may look like an ocean scene, each piece represents something specific to the student.