Recycled Crafts

I found some great recycled crafts from the internet. Mosaic frame that is made out of old credit cards and pencil case with recycled milk bottle.

Gal Bi Jim

I bought beef short ribs lastweek. I wanted to make a korean version of beef short ribs. This is one of my favorite food. I bought a pack of beef short ribs and soaked them into the cold water to remove the blood. I soaked them about 20 minutes and I washed them thoroughly. I put the ribs into the tall pot and boiled it with water, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar and saseme oil. I boiled it about 30 minutes with strong heat. Then, I added potatoes and carrots and boiled them for 3 more hours with very weak heat. The reason to boil it for a long time with weak heat is to make the meat tender. It was delicious. We ate them for three days. I think I cooked too many ribs. :) This dish goes well with Kimchi(korean sidedish),too.

I love fall fashion

I found this website. It has lots of great fall fashion clothes.

http://7times.tistory.com/185?srchid=BR1http%3A%2F%2F7times.tistory.com%2F185

Cakes

My friend, Katie, started to make deserts about 6 months ago. She struggled in the beginning, but she can make any desert really well. A decoration of the desert is unbelievable. Whenever we have a pot luck with our girlfriends, she takes care of our desert. They are not only pretty, but they are so delicious. Here are some photos of her art work of her deserts.

Listening

Our school goal is to improve our students' writing test scores. So, all teachers are required to do writing activities in class. Today, I taught dynamic markings and tempo markings to my 6th grade students. Dynamic is how loud or soft the music is and tempo is how fast or slow the music is. We listened to the Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven. Students had to write at least 7 sentences about the dynamic and tempo from the listening. They also had to write down the name of instruments that were played in the music.  I thought this would be great for them to improve their listening skill and writing skill at the same time. Some students struggled, but some students wrote a great paragraph.

Noodles

I was watching the Korean food channel online. They were showing how to make the Kal Gook Su(the name of noodle dish). My husband and I were watching it and I wanted to make it to my husband. So, I bought the pre-made noodles and vegetables. First, I boiled the water with dried anchovies for 5 minutes, then I removed the anchovies. I cut the squash, carrot, onions, potatoes, and green onions. I put them into the boiling water and boiled about 5 minutes more. Then, I added some salt. Then I put the noodles and boiled it for about 5 more minutes. At the end, I added eggs into the soup. It came out pretty. We had a great dinner with kimchi(korean main sidedish).

Orchestra Halloween

Halloween is coming and I was thinking about what I can do to celebrate Halloween in my orchestra class. I came up with an idea that students will make a costume for their instruments and we will have a contest. I talked to some students about it and they were very excited. Since they can't dress up, I think it would be fun for them to dress up their instrument. It would be interesting what kind of costume they are going to make for their instruments. I can't wait to do this. And the winner will get a prize.

Pasta

Past Saturday, I met my girl friends and we had our girls night out. We wanted to try a new restaurant called "Luciano". I ordered a pasta that had a sauce with marinara and cream sauce mixed. It was really delicious. It was a pretty big portion, but I finished it. I wanted come back here again with my husband, but due to time, we couldn't go. So, I decided to make it at home. I went to Kroger after school and I bought spaghetti sauce, heavy whipped cream and angel hair. I boiled heavy whipped cream with salt, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. While I was boiling the water with angel hair. I added marinara sauce into heavy whipped cream and boiled it a few more minutes. Then, I grilled the chicken strips and added chicken strips into the sauce. Then, I served with angel hair. David said it tasted really good. I was pretty similar with Luciano pasta. We saved money. :)

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. I don't teach vibrato until 8th grade when the students are capable to play all the notes in tune. Intonation is really important before they learn how to vibrato. It takes a long period of time to teach this technique. Any of my orchestra students are desperate to learn vibrato. They think it is really cool. And I think it is a great technique to add expression to the music. Past few years, I struggled teaching vibrato. When I teach it to individual student, it is much easier. But, it is pretty challenging to teach vibrato to 40+ students at once. I demonstrate and explain to them, but I thought it would be nice to show the video that everyone can see well. (When I demonstrate to the class, some of the students who sit in the back can't really see my hand). So, I found this great vibrato teaching video from Youtube(I love this website). He had a clear explanation and showed his hands as he explained how to vibrato. We as string teachers ask students to vibrato slowly first then gradually get faster. We watched the video and a few of students needed an individual help, so we had a morning vibrato class. It worked out great.

Dragon Con

Check this photos that I took it from dragon Con. It is a sci-fi convention. I saw so many kinds of characters.

Photos

My friend, Katie, is an accountant and she likes to take photos. She took a photography class for a few months. She likes to travel outside of the country, too. Her photos are so great. They are not just regular photos. The colors and angles are very professional. We went to Europe together when we were freshmen year in college. At that time, I had a camera that uses a film. When I compare our Europe photos and her current photos, they are so different. Some people ask her to be in charge of the photo when they have a special occasion. She is a great accountant and photographer.

Music Composition

Today, I had my students to compose a piece of music. They had to choose a time signature and a key signature. They had to have a minimum of 10 measures with different rhythms and the pitches that they can play with their instruments. Each student was really thinking about how they want to compose the music. It was very interesting to see some of the students are very creative with their composition. I thought that this activity was one way to find which students are creative and are capable to compose. After they all composed their music, we performed it. Students were very proud of themselves when they were performing the piece and we all had a great time. I should do this more often.

Dinner

Two days ago, I was eating lunch and talking to our school Theater teacher, Vickie. I was eating salad with balsamic vinegar dressing. Vickie told me that she makes her chicken dish with a balsamic vinegar dressing. So, I went to the Kroger and bought chicken breasts and a Kroger brand(it's cheaper than regular brand) balsamic vinegar dressing. I washed the chicken breasts and marinated with the dressing. Then, I put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I put the chicken into the oven and baked it. I also made my favorite mashed potato and green beans(canned). It was first time for me to make the chicken dish and it came out pretty good. My husband and I enjoyed the dinner together. I'm not really good at making American dishes. I grew up with eating Korean food more than American food. I can make Korean food without using the recipes, because I learned it from my mom. But, American food is much easier to make and faster. Also, I took the left over food for lunch. I want to learn more about how to cook American food, so whenever I see people's lunch and I ask them how to make it.

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Tang Su Yook

Tang Su Yook is very similar with sweet and sour beef(or pork). Whenever we go to the chinese restaurant, we order Tang Su Yook. So, I wanted to make it at home. I didn't cook much when I lived with my parents. I guess I didn't have to. :) But, now I like to make different kinds of food to my husband. It makes me happy when he enjoys eating it. :) So, I bought a pack of thick beef. I soaked the beef into cold water for 15 minutes to remove the blood. Then I cut them into small square shape. I dipped them into egg and then dipped into flour. Then I dipped into the batter. I boiled the oil and fried the beef. While I was frying the beef, I made the sauce(it's almost like sweet and sour sauce) Here are the ingredient for the sauce: water, sugar, starch powder with onions, squash, korean cabbage, pineapples and carrot. I boiled them all together until the texture of the sauce became thick. Then, I pour the sauce onto the fried beef. It was pretty good for the first time. :)

Birthday Party

Today was Kevin's first birthday. David(my husband) and I went and we had so much fun. I already mentioned in the previous journal that Mary is very creative. She handmade everything except for food. :) She catered the food. I guess it was too much work for to make food for 20+ people. :) She made three posters using all of Kevin's photo. I looked at it closely and it was made in mosaic. Everyone was impressed. She made the video that shows the day that Kevin was born in the hospital to today. She also made the slide show. We really enjoyed it. She handmade all the decoration for the party. I wish I'm creative like her. :)

Create City

 We have three unique classes in our middle school: guitar class, piano keyboard class, and CREATE class. CREATE class allows students to enrich their knowledge of the academic areas while exploring technology. CREATE stands for "Creative Research Experiences And Technology Exploration". This year they created a create city and create city is a marketplace simulation activity. Each student has to create a product and sell it in our marketplace one day a week. They open during each CREATE Class on Wednesdays and Thursdays.You can either give $1 (American currency) to get $15 (CREATE money)
OR you can pay with fins (5 fins = $1 in CREATE money).
I took all my 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to the create city. They had lots of great product. This one student brought homemade facial product like a facial scrubs that was made of sugar and avocado. This one student made necklaces, bracelets and ribbons. They were so pretty. I bought some for my niece. She loves pink, so I bought pink bracelet, necklace and ribbon. Majority of students brought homemade cookies, brownies, cupcakes, cappuccino, coffee, chocolate filled waffles and hot wings, etc.

Invitation Card

My friend, Mary, has two boys and the younger one is turning one on September 26th. His name is Kevin. In Korean culture, the first birthday is the biggest birthday like sweet 16th birthday in the America. Mary is very creative person. She used the Photoshop software to create the invitations. It looks very professional. She created the design and she printed the invitations at a Sam's Club. She is so dedicate mom. She said she saved money. :)

youtube

Today, my 8th grade students received new piece called Toccatina. I wanted to play the recording of the piece before we rehearse the piece, but I didn't have the CD for Toccatina So I downloaded video through Youtube. We listened to the piece and I had my students to air bow (bowing without sound) and do the fingerings while they are listening the recording. This is one of the strategies to sigthread music when they get the a piece music that they have never seen. After we listened to the piece, I gave the class about two minutes to airbow and do the fingerings again. Then, we started to rehearse the piece. This really helped the students to be familiar with the rhythms and the notes before they actually play on their instrument.

Rice Cake/seaweed soup

Last weekend was Korean Thanksgiving/my father-in-law's birthday. In Korean culture, we eat seaweed soup and we eat songpyun(rice cake) on the day of Thanksgiving. Due to time, I catered some food, but I made seaweed soup and songpyun. I bought dry seaweed and soaked it in cold water for 10 minutes. Then, I drained the water and stir-fried the seaweed with garlic and sesame oil about 4 minutes. Then, I added water and boiled with soy sauce and salt for 1 hour. It came out pretty good. Then, I made some songpyun. I made a dough using rice powder. Then, I cut them in small pieces and pressed it until it became rounded shape. Then, I put a tea spoon of honey+sesame seed and closed it. It was pretty fun making it. I was happy because my family enjoyed eating it.

Piano Lesson

Today was the second piano lesson for my four year old niece, Sophie. She started last week.  The first lesson didn't go well, because she was so nervous about the piano. So I came up with a fun idea that made her feel more comfortable and fun. I taught her how to play the quarter notes and half notes. I brought variety of percussion instruments. Instead of clapping or stomping, it was much more fun to play the rhythms with percussion instruments. Sophie seemed she was having so much fun. Then, we played the piano. I asked her if she likes to play the piano and she said she likes it. I was happy to motivate Sophie to learn the piano. We both had a great time.

Polo shirt Logo

I taught at my school for 4 years and this year is my 5th year. I used to work with Cindy who used to work at our school for 15 years. She had to move to different county because her husband got a job in the different county. She created the logo for our orchestra shirt a long time ago. I used it until last year. I always wanted to create a new logo for my orchestra shirts because the old logo is pretty tacky. So I researched some T-shirt logos for middle school orchestra shirt. It took me about a month to do this. I want to put a instrument on the logo. Finally, I created a new logo with new color and I can't wait to order the shirts for my students.

Creative Store

Today, I had a lunch with my friends at Virginia Highland. After we had a great brunch at Murphy's, we walked around the area. We window-shopped today. We saw a lot of pretty dresses and jewelry. As we were walking by all these great stores, we found a store that had lots of creative items. I saw a really cute measurement cup that looks like a decoration for the house. One thing I liked about this store was that they had lots of materials that you can make many things on your own. They were selling the paper flower kit. This was very creative and so pretty. It really looked like real flowers. I had a great time today at this store with my wonderful friends.