Oak Hall School students, staff and parents had another busy month in February. From wrangling at the OHS Corral to hosting Russian teachers, February was fun at Oak Hall. Here are some highlights.

Hoedown at OHS Corral
Oak Hall School held its annual fundraiser, which this year had a western theme — “Hoedown at the OHS Corral.” The event was held at the beautiful Rembert’s Farm, just north of Alachua (in previous years, it was called the Parents’ Prom and was held at Gainesville Country Club).

Almost everyone in attendance donned their best blue jeans and some put on their wide-brimmed hats. The event featured a live band “Crisis,” amazing live and silent auction items, a mechanical bull, a huge bonfire and an internationally renowned fiddler and cowboy poet.  The crowd was estimated at 300-400 guests.

Shae Laurel Folk Band
Oak Hall, in conjunction with the Bode Method led by Suzanne Bode, sponsored a concert by the Shae Laurel Folk Band at the Cofrin Center for the Performing Arts. It was foot-stomping family entertainment at its best. String students enrolled in the Bode Method from both Oak Hall School and Blessed Trinity School in Ocala had the opportunity to perform cameo numbers with Shae Laurel, after a “funshop” with the band.

Shae Laurel, comprised of six members of the same family, is a show band of folk, bluegrass and Celtic music. Their high-energy performance integrates traditional, contemporary and original music with a dynamic stage show featuring their own blend of traditional clogging, Irish step dancing and show-stopping musicianship. 

Russian Teachers Visit Oak Hall
Five Russian Secondary School teachers, one of whom also is the translator, had the opportunity to visit Oak Hall School to experience an American school and to exchange ideas with teachers and students in Gainesville. 

The delegates spent six days in Gainesville as part of the “Open World Program” at the Library of Congress and had a chance to sample some lessons at different divisions of the school, attend assembly, meet students and American teaching colleagues and even give three Kindergarten classes art lessons and tell some Russian folk stories.

The visitors were Svetlana Ivanova (computer science and information technologies), Maksim Ivantsov (economics and history), Irina Konovalova (mathematics and IT), Olga Stytsyuk (history and world artistic culture) and the facilitator, who is also an English teacher is Ms. Alina Levina.