“I love being able to see a student who was struggling at first finally grasp something after working hard at it,” said math teacher Brian Konshak. “I enjoy being able to interact everyday and try to be a positive energetic person in everyone’s lives.”

Konshak has been apart of the NDA teaching staff for ten years now. He teaches all different levels of math from Algebra I to IB SL I and II.

Konshak not only loves teaching math but also loves interacting with the students. He has brought many different fun events to NDA such as the Pancake Run/Walk, Fun and Game Camp in the Summer and Tucker the Elf, which is currently going on right now.

“At my home, we had gotten an elf the year before, and I thought the school would really enjoy the fun game of waking up to their elf moving everyday,” said Konshak. “I was able to acquire an elf last year from a student who was fortunate to have more than one.”

The object of the game is the find Tucker the Elf wherever he is hiding in the school and take a picture with him. Send the picture to Mr. Konshak and you are put in the drawing for a prize at the end of the week.

Everyday Tucker the Elf finds a new little hiding spot around the school for students to find.

“Tucker reports back to Santa every night and upon his return he hides in a new spot,” explained Konshak.

The number of students that participate in this event are never the same. “Everyday and week changes as each hiding spot is a different level of difficulty,” said Konshak.

Most of the time, you won’t even be looking for Tucker. Sometimes you will be walking to class and spot his hiding spot.

Konshak keeps a separate folder on his email of all the winners, so he doesn’t get them mixed up.

“As the emails some in, I have them sorted into a folder.  At the end of the week, I count up the number of submissions and then use a random number generator to pick winners counting from the bottom up.  If multiple winners are to be picked, I use the number generator multiple times,” said Konshak.

The prizes this year include Seroogy’s candy bars, a fidget spinner, bags of gummy worms, Mrs. Brown’s brownies, and a Rubik’s Cube game.

Konshak has brought many different fun activities to get students more involved, but who knows what he will come up with next.

“I am the Magic Konsh!” said Konshak.