Violin Lessons

This school year has been a challenge, to say the least, as you may have guessed by my lack of posts.  My school had a big population growth due to our district's changed boundaries.  We are a "priority watch" school which means our test scores are very low.  The second grade (which is what I teach) in my building has the highest number of office referrals in my building from all the grades K-8.  So, you may imagine how busy I have been.

In late August, Patrick found a Groupon for a place called  Vance Music.  In an effort to do something for myself that would be relaxing, I began violin lessons on August 20.  This is not the first time I have taken violin lessons. 

I began learning to play in the 4th grade at my public elementary school.  (Our district has made cut backs and now instrumental music doesn't begin until 6th grade.)  I played seriously until I was in the 7th grade.  I had many opportunities and experiences; I participated in several honor orchestras even traveling to Manhattan, KS to participate in a weekend honor orchestra performance.  Once in high school, I pursued other interested and only picked up my violin occasionally.  So, it has been over 20 years since I practiced and played on a regular basis.

At Vance Music, they hold a monthly recital.  Today was my third recital, but the first time I had memorized my song.  The song is a fiddle tune called, "Larry O'Gaff."  I played it better at home with no mistakes, but it's not too bad considering it's the first time I've performed from memory.

Special guests at Open House in my classroom

My Mom has not ever been inside Gordon Parks Academy and since this is my third year teaching there, she was determined to attend Open House.  I am SO glad my parents came--it was fun to show off!  I knew that my parents were planning to attend, so I wasn't TOO surprised when they arrived.  However, Patrick SURPRISED when he popped in, too!  (He didn't want to have his picture taken.)

My dad is letting me borrow my grandmother's dala horse to display in my classroom this year for my Swedish theme. The front of the dala horse says "Valkommen" which is Swedish for "welcome."  The back of the horse says "Good bye, come again" in Swedish.

I was TICKLED to have such a great turn out this year at my Open House/Meet Your Teacher/Drop off your school supplies night.  I had 18 students enrolled the day of Open House and 10 of the families came and met me!  I now have a total of 20 students enrolled.  I think it will be a GREAT year!  We have been very busy practicing procedures this week (Wed.-Friday) so that the rest of our school year will run more smoothly.

As promised, I will try to get pictures taken and posted of the whole classroom this coming week.  It has been very crazy around my school---we added new classrooms and I'm also a mentor and bus supervisor (we have 28 buses) this year.  :)

My 5th grader is now a teacher?!

This afternoon at the end of a district training, this beautiful young lady approached me.  She said, "You are Ms. ?" and I said, "Mrs. Konecny."  She replied with, "I'm T.V. (to protect her privacy, not naming her)."  Wow.  She was one of my 5th grade students at Stanley Elementary about 10 years ago...which is why she didn't know my married name.   She will be student-teaching in 2nd grade during the Spring Semester this year.  It was very fun to see her "all grown up" and know that she wanted to come over and say "hi" to me.  I gave her a little bit of advice, NETWORK and share things with others and then handed her my business card saying if she needed any thing, just ask I might have some resources.

Still not sure if I think that whole thing is "cool," or if it makes me feel OLD.  LOL

Can you believe it?

Today is my last day of "freedom" for the summer!  Where has all the time gone?  My last blog post was "School's Out for Summer."  I can see that I was not very faithful about posting. 

Well, hang on for a couple of days and I will be posting pictures of my classroom.  This year I am decorating with Sweden and bright colors/polka dots.  I teach in an I.B. school  and my teammate and I decided we would use a country for decoration and spring board to learning.  He is using the United Kingdom and I chose Sweden since that is the country that my father's family came from.  Today, I am ironing Swedish flags to use as curtains and hope to borrow my dad's dala horse to hang outside my classroom door. (I'll have to sweet-talk my dad into helping me install it, too.)

Speaking of "sweet-talking".....I am SO blessed that my family helps me with all of my classroom stuff!  Last night, Patrick was pounding grommets into my Swedish flags so that I can use them as curtains.  For 16 years my parents, husband, "other mother," bestie--Lisa, and others have been so kind and generous to help me make/build things, help with decor, and supplies for my classroom.  I couldn't have done it without you!  Oh, and don't worry, I'll keep asking for help, too!  :)

School's Out for Summer!

School's out for summer!  What are your plans?? 

I will be taking a couple of technology trainings this summer; Geo caching with Students & my Technology Master Teacher trainings.  I.B. training in Atlanta, GA will be a first for me.  I am excited to be planning my parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration.   I will be attending my nephew's wedding in July.   I will be attending the QuaPaw Pow Wow in July, too.

I MUST clean and organize my home office/stamp/craft room and would also like to clean out our storage room. It would be nice to have it use-able as a guest room/music room for our instruments.  Maybe I would even practice my violin, then.  ;)

I hope to be able to add more to this blog during summer time....so keep checking back.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

We have been working on ORGANIZATION in writing as far as putting things in order.  I am using the Daily Six Trait Writing book.  It had a lesson on how to make pine cone bird feeders.  This following video shows my class making the bird feeders.  We first tied a string to the top of the pine cone and then coated the pine cone with peanut butter.  Third, the students rolled the pine cone in mixed bird seed, and VIOLA, a pine cone bird feeder!

Amazingly, enough, it was not as messy as I had feared!  After we finished, I had a zip lock bag for each student to put their pine cones in to take home.  We then we outside to the front of our school to dump the extra bird seed off of our plates near some small trees for the birds.

The next day at school, one of my students announced loudly, "Mrs. Konecny, those bird feeders don't work!"  I asked him, "why not?" and he replied that he had not seen any birds eating it.  I told him that it may take a few days for the birds to find it and know it is there.  I should check back with him and see if he has seen any birds.

What's been happening in my classroom

Well, it has been awhile since I posted anything about my classroom.  I recently finished putting together two short videos and added them to my school website.  I figured that I might as well add them to my blog!

Gordon Parks Academy is a K-8 school.  My 2nd graders have worked with a middle school social studies class twice as our "buddy class."  This video shows us working with our buddies on a project about RESPECT.  I had the 2nd grader trace their hand and write ways to show respect on each finger.

Reflections on the beginning of Lent

Today is Fat Tuesday; the day we can have all of our indulgences before the beginning of Lent tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. As I am sitting at my computer, thinking of all the school projects that need to be finished and the housework that needs to be done, I'm pondering what to do for Lent.  Traditionally, folks "give up something" to show sacrifice for all that Jesus gave.  I once had a pastor who suggested we "take on something".  I had already decided that I will begin a devotional reading plan during Lent on my tablet computer.  I am also trying to be more principled at exercising, so I am going to add those two things to my daily routines during Lent.

What are your thoughts on Lent?  What is your "take" on the idea of giving up something vs. taking on something?

Toshiba Tablet

I got a new toy!  I have an Android tablet.  My hubby built himself a new computer recently and asked me if I wanted to upgrade my desktop computer.  My desktop is running Windows 95, so it's pretty old.  I told hubby that my computer works for what I use it for and I am perfectly happy with it.  He just chuckled.  We started to look at notebook computers and tablets for me.  I got the bug.  Then Woot had a good sale on the Toshiba Tablet, so we couldn't pass it up.  Check out a review here: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/16/toshiba-thrive-at105-t1032-10-1-android-tablet-review/. 

There has been quite a learning curve for me in setting it up and getting used to using it.  One of these days I will be able to use it to blog, too....but still like using my full size keyboard.

For now, I've been having fun trying out several new free aps.  I have a new air hockey game and this crazy thing were you can throw wadded up paper into a trash can.  I also entertained myself playing tic-tac-toe this afternoon and even won a couple of games.  I haven't tried the ever-popular Angry Birds as I'm afraid I just might get addicted to it.

I'd enjoy reading any comments about Android aps. or any tips you might want to share!