Heart Warming Video

This video is guaranteed to warm your heart! Thank you to George for sharing!

 

 

What an awesome day!

On Saturday, we held our 50th anniversary celebration here at Austin O’Brien. We were joined by former students and staff for a walk down memory lane and a celebration of “50 years of Crusader spirit”.

The formal program was MC’d by CBC radio’s Mark Connolly (grad ’78) who is the host of Edmonton AM.  His humour and personal commentaries were a huge hit!  During the formal program, we were also treated to an excellent keynote speech from John Stanton (grad ’66), the founder of the Running Room.  His words were truly inspirational!  Throughout the program, many great stories were told.  Current student, Katelyn Kuchta (grad ’14) told us how she walks down the hallway filled with grad photos every day but never really thought much about it until she was helping to plan the 50th anniversary.  It is amazing to think about how many students have walked the halls of this fine school and called themselves Crusaders.  Once a Crusader…always a Crusader!

Monsignor Fee Otterson is a man who made a considerable contribution to AOB.  He may have past away but his spirit lives in the hallways of this school.  We have dedicated our stage to his life and to his memory.  It was inspiring to hear stories of Father Fee.

After the formal program, the school was open so that Crusaders could walk around the school and reconnect with other Crusaders.  We had rooms set up commemorating each decade (60s – 2000s).  It was fantastic to walk around and see people congregating in these rooms, reliving old memories and telling stories.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate with us.  Also, a huge thanks to the organizing committee.  It truly was an amazing day!

AOB’s 50th Anniversary – November 23, 2013

We are so excited about our 50th anniversary celebration coming up on Saturday, November 23 from 1pm until 4pm.  We are looking forward to celebrating our 5 decades of history with our students, alumni, staff, and former staff members.  Austin O’Brien High School opened its doors in November 1963 when students moved over from St. Brendan’s.

We will start our formal program, hosted by CBC radio’s Mark Connolly (’77) at 1:15pm in the gymnasium.  This is guaranteed to be an awesome tribute to our great school!  It will be cool to see Pat Hauck (’65) from our first graduating class give a speech alongside Katelyn Kuchta (’14), a member of our 50th graduating class.  Also, we will have speakers giving a historical perspective of the schoool and there will be a digital presentation which was created by Raj Patel from Orange Fountain .  After the presentation in the gym, we will invite everyone to walk through the school and visit our “decade rooms”.  We have a room set up for each decade of our school’s history in which we will display photographs and other memorabilia from that time.

We will be selling some commemorative items throughout the day.  All of the proceeds from these items will go toward our legacy project which is improvement to the newly named “Msgr. Fee Otterson Stage”.  We will also be accepting donations to this project.

A special thanks to the organizing commitee and the current staff of AOB for all of their hard work and dedication!

Pep Rally, October 23, 2013

Pep Rally 2013

Block 1:  8:25-9:35

Block 2:  9:38-10:48

Pep Rally: 10:51-11:40

Lunch/Flex:  11:40-12:25

Block 4: 12:28-1:38

Block 5:  1:41-2:51 

Partner School – IES Valle de Aller

We are extremely proud to have been approved to enter a partnership with IES Valle de Aller. This High School is located in a small town in the province of Asturias, Spain called Moreda de Aller.

We are looking forward to connecting with the students and staff at this school. As you may know, Austin O’Brien is an ISA (International Spanish Academy) school and the only high school in Edmonton, AB which offers a Spanish Bilingual program.

We are looking forward to this partnership and all the learning that will come with it!

iPad/iPhone App of the Week – GETCA app

Teachers!! Use the GETCA app to help plan your convention (Feb. 28 and March 1). This app can be used to find sessions and add them to your “favourites”. You can also give feedback on the sessions you attend…if you include your name, you can win a prize.

App Support is available here.

MESSAGE FROM THE ADMIN TEAM – POWERSCHOOL

Hello Parents and Students,

As you may know, we unfortunately lost data from our PowerSchool data base toward the end of last semester. This data included student course marks.  We were able to restore the data to a backup server and we finished the semester using that server.  The grades have now been uploaded to the regular PowerSchool server (https://powerschool.ecsd.net) and they are accurate. The only drawback is that when you click on a mark, you will not see a complete history of scores that produced the final grade. If you wish to find out individual assessment (assignments/tests) scores, please contact the teacher directly.

It is great to know that students and parents are checking PowerSchool regularly…we thank you for your support and apologize for any inconvenience caused by this unfortunate data loss.

TA groups

Hello AOB students.

As you may have noticed on your PowerSchool accounts you have all been placed in an Advisor Counselor Holding Bin. This is not an error nor is it a class that you should be attending right now.

This Advisor Counselor Holding Bin simply indicates who your Teacher Advisor will be this year and every year until you graduate.

Next Thursday, February 21 between Block 4 and Block 5 we will be having our first Teacher Advisor meeting. Every student in the building has been assigned to a teacher in the building and this first meeting will simply be to meet your Advisor and all the other students in your Advisee Group.

If you are unsure of whom your Advisor is please check your PowerSchool account or look for the posters around the school indicating who your Advisor is and what room you will be meeting them in on Thursday.

Furthermore, if you have any questions please feel free to ask any of your current teachers.

Thanks You!!

Alex Buttigieg

Teacher, Graduation Coach

iPad app of the week – Skitch

Skitch is an app, made by Evernote, that allows you to write, draw and add pictures to photos, web pages and maps. It is so easy to easy and has tons of educational value. Rather than explain the things that you can do with Skitch, I will show you some creations.

Photos
This photo was taken at a recent PD session. With a few additions from Skitch, the photo takes on more personality…wouldn’t you agree? It also allows some lame attempts of humour.

I love the fact that you can fuzz things out to protect privacy. This is a great feature for school use.

Web pages
This is the site which we were introduced to at the PD session. Using Skitch, I can show how to use the web tool.

Maps
Skitch is easy to use with maps to show locations and to give directions.

All of your Skitch notes can be saved within the application and can be accessed on a computer. You can also save your Skitch photos to your Camera Roll on your iPad.

iPad App of the week – Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is an amazing presentation tool that is so easy to use. If you are tired of PowerPoint presentations, you will love Haiku Deck. This tool allows you pick a great, high definition image which is associated to the text that you use on the slide. You can also use your own images. When you add the text to a slide, the size is automatically adjusted so that everything fits. You can share your Haiku Deck creations easily and you can also embed them. The presentations look amazing on an iPad but they can also be accessed on the web.

This Haiku Deck was created yesterday after we attended the 21st Century Fluencies session hosted by Lee Crockett and Andrew Churches.

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/l4PjGJ0BAa/21st-century-learning

We look forward to seeing your Haiku Deck creations!