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By Marc Skill
OHS Band Member
The Oakwood High School Marching Band packed their bags and departed to Sandusky, Ohio’s Cedar Point on May 25 for 2 days of thrills and excitement. The band, directed by Ron Nelson and led by Field Commander Katie Fritz, marched around the amusement park Friday morning filling the air with the rocking pep tune favorites “Louie-Louie” and “Free Ride.” Guests danced and clapped to the up-beat rhythms along the parade route.
This excursion was jam packed with fun and adventure. The Oakwood Band members received a VIP pass into the park.
Some students made Cedar Point history by being the first 3,000 riders on the newest roller coaster which opened on Saturday. This thrilling coaster, the Maverick, boasted a drop of 95 degrees with a top speed of over 70 miles per hour and several corkscrew loops. The Maverick was the talk of the bus on the ride home, and the 2 plus hour wait for the experience seemed to be well worth it.
“I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends; I bonded with band members, and I got to go on totally awesome rides,” says Lauren Shine, OHS assistant Field Commander.
The band enjoyed their 2 day journey at America’s Rockin’ Roller Coast and would like to thank the Oakwood Band Parent’s Association for their help in funding and organizing the trip.
By Jennifer Cantrell
On Wednesday, May 30, the Smith/Harman fifth and sixth grade band held a concert in the Harman School Auditorium. The show opened with a song written by Aric Anloage called “The Aric Song”. Sixty-nine talented students performed exciting and upbeat tunes such as” The Kitty Hawk March”, “American Control” and ended the concert with the crowd pleasing “Wipe Out.” Once again Ron Nelson, OHS Music Director, enriched our children by teaching team work and introducing different types of music. All of the hard work and dedication created a delightful performance which was enjoyed by all.
Six junior girls from Oakwood, Centerville, Kettering and Miami Valley School will be among the 900 girls participating in the 61st session of Buckeye Girls State at Ashland University. The session begins Sunday June 17 and concludes on Saturday, June 23.
The main objective of the Girls State program I to train young women who have completed their junior year in high school, in the rights, duties and privileges of citizenship. As the girls arrive at Girls State they are assigned to one of two political parties. The residence hall in which they live during the program is their designated county, and floor on which they live is their city. The students file petition for candidacy for a variety of offices, from governor to city council, and participate in the election process. Following elections and inaugurations, they will put the government in action.
By Jim Uphoff, Ed. D.
About two weeks ago I was watching from my backyard our OHS Varsity Baseball team playing Brookville. The Lumberjacks had let the Blue Devils get off to a 4-0 lead, but then had worked their way back to a tie score going into the bottom of the last inning. An RBI single brought in the winning OHS run. That was great, but what I saw AFTER the game was over was even more important to me!
After the handshakes and team meeting was over, I saw our high school players proceeding to work on “dragging” the infield and repairing/dressing the mound and batters’ box areas. When those duties were completed our young men then covered the mound and box areas by pulling the tarps over them.
Our varsity baseball team has had a very good season and at this writing are already into the third round of the tournament. But in addition to their success on the field, they have played a very key role throughout the season helping to be sure that our field was in top condition. While our Oakwood Schools Ground Crew led by the very talented Greg Goetz provide the year-round skillful care of the fields, these baseball players have become very involved after every home game and practice.
Not only do these young men take pride in their performance on the diamond, they take pride in the very quality of the diamond itself. Coach/teacher Eric
Oberding has made this “dual involvement” in the success of the team a key goal of his.
While I much enjoy the Oakwood hitting, pitching and fielding successes, I also enjoy and take much pride in the care given to making sure that our physical field is also of top quality. Other teams often remark on this, but few realize how much the players are a part of this quality process.
Last week our Oakwood community also showed its involvement in the care and upkeep of our physical facilities when the Replacement Permanent Improvement Levy passed with a little over 80 percent of the votes.
THANK YOU ALL FOR JOINING OUR BASEBALL PLAYERS AND BEING A PART OF THIS COMMUNITY TEAM!
Community members, parents, students, faculty, and staff are invited to join Oakwood Junior High Principal, Daniel K. Weckstein, at a “Getting to Know Each Other” Open House on Thursday, June 14, 2007 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Oakwood High School Library.
A Kindergarten Immersion class is being offered mornings or afternoons 5 days/week. An after school program will be held 2 days/week for 1st – 12th graders. The goal of the program is to expose students at an early age since early learning is a huge advantage in learning a “tonal” language like Mandarin. Emphasis will be placed on the spoken language and pronunciation, but written character recognition will also be introduced.
The immersion program will engage the children with methods similar to their kindergarten classes, and similar to other local successful immersion programs. Teachers will eventually speak only Chinese in class. Through songs, games and simple conversational expressions the students will gain confidence. Children will also be fascinated by experiencing one of the world’s oldest and richest cultures. The after school program will also use age-appropriate and fun language teaching methods.
OCLP was started and is run by a group of Oakwood parents familiar with Chinese language programs. OCLP teachers are bilingual native Mandarin speakers with experience teaching in the U.S. For more information about the Oakwood Chinese Language Program visit http://oclp.blogspot.com. This is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational program.
Oakwood Junior and Senior High School will offer summer school classes beginning Tuesday, June 12, 2007. Summer school packets are now available to students.
Open enrollment began on Monday, March 19. A completed registration form
with parent signature as well as full tuition and any fees for all classes must be paid in the form of cash or check at the time of registration.
Registration will take place in the Senior High Bookroom. For more information please call 297-5325.
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