Fall Freak Attends Awesome Concert

This Fall Freak (me) was delighted when my dad told me that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was going to play a concert at the Bartlett Arboretum!  My parents, husband, and I purchased our tickets and awaited the special day.

The day was a simply beautiful day---crisp, Fall weather, but not TOO cold.  The Arb was at it's fall best---I don't think I've ever seen such beautiful trees!  I don't know what I was thinking when I did not take my "good" camera along with me, but was able to shoot a few shots with my little camera I carry in my purse.

Can you imagine living in this house?  With this scene as your "back yard?"  I'm SO jealous!

In this next shot, you can see just how low the pond is---Kansas has had a bad year for precipitation---we are in desperate need of rain.  Even so, it is still beautiful!

All four of us had a good time at the concert; I even caught my dad tapping his foot in time to the music once or twice.   Check out this link to see some better pictures and notes: http://bartlettarboretum.tumblr.com/ .

Bat Exchange, you know, like flying mammals!

Have you  heard of a poly com?  Well, I had not until very recently.  Essentially, it is similar to video chatting.  My school has a poly com system and one of our technology specialists in my district asked me if I would like to participate in a "Bat Exchange."  I said, "why not?"   So here's what we did:

1. My students constructed a bat using black construction paper, googly eyes, and their imaginations.
2. Each student then wrote a descriptive paragraph about his/her own bat.
3. Another 2nd grade classroom across town did the same thing.
4. Each teacher snail-mailed the bats to the other teacher.
5. We set up a date & time to poly com; we chose Halloween Day.
6. Each classroom took turns reading a description of a bat while the other room tried to find the bat based on the description.

It was such fun!  I let my district media department know about the exchange and I was visited by Susan Arnsemen who witnessed the event, took pictures, and put an article on the Wichita USD 259 website.  My class is "famous!"  Wichita Public Schools Newsroom Events

I hope that we can do similar events in the future as well as different poly com events.

Following is a picture of Ms. West's class's bats all laid out on the floor of my classroom.  As one of her students would read their description, we would find it.

Below is a picture of my SmartBoard where we could see the other classroom on the poly com.  It is super fun using technology in my classroom!

 

I got to fly the plane!

On Saturday, October 1, the Cessna Flying Club had an Open House for the employees and families of Cessna Aircraft.  Since Patrick is a Cessna employee, we attended the event with his mom and my parents.  Patrick and his mom had a "discovery flight" in a Cessna 172 and my mom and I had our "discovery flight" in a Cessna 206 (we got the bigger plane). 

My mom told our pilot it was my first flight (in a single engine plane) and he let me sit in the front and said he would let me fly the plane.  I was thinking, "Oh, ok, it will be like the time I was 10 years old on a riverboat in Waco, TX and they 'say' you can drive the boat, but you just get to put your hands on the wheel and it does nothing." 

The pilot introduced himself as Dale and said it was his first solo flight and he would try to get us up and back safely.  So I commented, "Well, since it's my first flight,  I'll try not to puke on your instrument panel."   We were off to a roaring start.    Dale mentioned that the little girl who had just gotten off the plane as I was boarding had just had her first flight and he was going to be in SO much trouble.  I asked him, "Why?"  He said that her mom doesn't like flying and her dad had brought her without mom's permission, then Dale let her fly the plane.  He says, "Now she'll never be able to keep that a secret!"

After we got up in the air and heading in the direction we wanted to go, Dale gave me some instructions, we adjusted my seat forward and said, "take over."  So I actually did get to fly the plane and made 3 left-hand turns in the air.  One of my turns was about 28 degrees and Patrick explained later that I had taken a pretty sharp turn, there.  :)  I LOVED it!  I may have the flying bug!  The first thing out of my mouth when I saw Patrick on land was, "When are you going to get your pilot's license?"  Followed by, "I wanna go again!!"

I was excited for about 2-3 days after the flight.  I told Patrick he'd better email Dale (who is really a test pilot and has had LOTS of flying experience) and explain JUST how much trouble he really is in!  Dale got two "little girls" hooked on flying in one day!

Pilot Kimberly

Coming Attractions!

Coming soon you will read about my students' I.B. (International Baccalaureate) projects and our school's Pinwheels for Peace project.  I have been busy the past few weeks getting back into the routine of teaching and helping my teammate's substitute (my teammate is on maternity leave).  This week, I have parent-teacher conferences, so may have a few extra minutes to squeeze in some blogging...I hope (but that's probably being optimistic, right?). :)

I plan to add some video, too....which is what has been holding up my blogging.

Back to School!

It seems kind of hard to believe that I am beginning my 16th year of teaching!  I only have 16 more to go until I can retire!  Oh, boy.  This year, I went with a Hollywood theme and it's been pretty fun so far!  My mom helped me shop for some material to use for the red curtains on this bulletin board.The material has small gold polka dots and is very cute!  I will hang student work on this board in the hallway throughout the school year.

I brought my director's chair to school this year, and it is quite comfortable to sit in and read aloud or check my emails during planning time. I also added some decoration to the top of my whiteboard in the form of gold, silver, and black streamers.

For my Open House/Meet the Teacher night, I had a small gift for each family in the form of a bag of microwave popcorn with a note attached saying, "Thanks for popping in. Please come again!  Mrs. Konecny, Room 134."  I left it out, along with my parent info. packet (brochure) for the first day of school and handed them out to the parents who weren't able to attend Open House.  I think it was a hit!

 For the first day of school for my students, I put down a red carpet for them to walk on into the room and wore a fancy, black and sparkly dress.  It was fun!

Parental Controls on my Internet Access?

In talking with Patrick today, I told him that I may have a "problem."  I have been reading lots of teacher blogs and finding all kinds of resources.  I have found a couple of "pay" sites where I have downloaded resources for my Hollywood theme for my classroom.  He suggested we put parental controls on my Internet so I can't buy any more teacher stuff.  Oh, well.  Then Patrick said he may have to call my Dad to come over here and do it...ha ha...since he's my parent.

Over the last week and half or so, I have posted several teacher links on my facebook page.  Some blogs and web sites I have found helpful are listed below.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/   Teachers Pay Teachers for stuff they have created--reasonable prices and most are basically "instant" downloads after your payment has gone through.

http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/  An AWESOME blog!  Lots of archived stuff, too.

http://jessicaywinston.blogspot.com/  And one more AWESOME teacher blog!  I got tons of ideas here.

Another squash recipe

I thought I would try grilling some squash.  This recipe will need some tweaking---not as good as I hoped.  First, I cut the squash (I used one yellow squash and one smallish zucchini) into chunks and put it on a tray.  I drizzled olive oil on top and added sea salt and ground black pepper.

My dad had suggested to me to preheat the grill, and then when I was ready to put the squash on, turn the heat off under the squash and leave the other burner on.

The hamburgers turned out pretty good.....the squash was squishy and not crisp.  I also had trouble loosing squash through the grill.  I plan to try this again, but will use a grill basket.  Since I would like the squash to be more crisp, I will try limiting or maybe eliminating the olive oil and a little heat on the grill.

Here's my plate with a hamburger with melted cheese, grilled squash, and my Sun Chips.