The mission of`Olelo Community Media is "To strengthen our island voices and advance community engagement through innovative media.." Anyone can produce a video and share it on one of `Olelo's channels for free. When `Olelo opened a studio in Wahiawa at Leilehua High School, several of our teachers participated in their training and learned the basics of videotaping and editing. At first, we were interested in videotaping school events to show on one of `Olelo's channels, but today, these teachers are using what they learned in that class and teaching students how to create and produce videos to share their learning.
For ten years, `Olelo has sponsored a Youth XChange Video Competition. This competition started with a few entries and has been growing steadily since. I attended the awards ceremony last year and was amazed and impressed at how students shared their important messages in such diverse and creative ways. I witnessed how a thirty second video can leave an audience stunned into silence by its powerful message.
This year, there were 658 Youth XChange entries from students at all levels -- elementary, middle school, and high school - and for the first time since we began entering this competition, three of our Hale Kula entries were selected as finalists. What an accomplishment for our students and their teachers!
Producing a 30-second public service announcement or a short 3-5 minute video takes collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity, the 4C's of 21st Century teaching and learning. Producing a video which captures the message succinctly and creatively is not easy. I have observed disengaged students suddenly become excited learners when given the opportunity to participate in this project. It requires students to research about the issues they are interested in. Our students watched commercials and public service announcements and discussed the effectiveness of the message. They shared ideas and while they didn't always agree, students learned to listen and respect the ideas of others and to collaborate to complete their project.
This type of project can have a profound effect on a child. If we want an informed citizenry, we need to start with our youngsters and get them involved in thinking about issues which will impact them in the future. We need them to ask questions and to share their concerns with others, and we need to hear their voices because they have important things to say.
I urge you to check out the Youth XChange videos; I am quite sure you will be impressed. Finally, I would like to thank `Olelo for giving our youth an opportunity to express themselves through this competition.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Chronic Absenteeism = A Big Problem
I recently returned from a family vacation to celebrate my Dad's 88th birthday. It was wonderful, and I am so glad I took the time off from school to be with our family for this very special event. Of course, between email and texting, I was still tethered to my responsibilities as the principal at Hale Kula. After all, I didn't want to come back to work and have to catch up with the hundreds of emails I receive daily!
This vacation led me to reflect on something which has been a challenge at our school -- attendance. We know that students need to be in school in order to maximize their learning opportunities. Last year, 16% of our students were chronically absent, defined as missing more than 15 days in the school year. In other words, 16% of our students missed about one whole month of learning. This is unacceptable, and we are implementing a variety of programs to reverse this trend including incentives for those who have perfect attendance for the quarter, informing parents more regularly, and asking for suggestions from our school community. However, our data suggests that these incentives and procedures are not having as positive an impact as we had hoped.
Because we are a military-impacted school, our families have different challenges that affect school attendance. With no extended family here on-island, a parent may not have the support when a child gets sick (and there's no way to get the student to school) or the soldier is deployed or in training. When the soldier comes back from deployment or for R&R, families want to spend the time together or take a trip back home to spend time with their extended family. My vacation with my family reinforced that this is valuable time, and even if we would prefer students to be in school, we understand the importance of reunification especially when a parent has been in harm's way.
So what can we do to ensure that students balance school and home needs effectively even if they are not physically in school? Since our families are transient, we need to make sure that the loss of instructional days does not result in learning gaps which can impact students now and in the future when they enroll in a new school. Besides implementing incentive programs, we need to send a consistent message to parents about the importance of students coming to school regularly and keeping up with their lessons, and technology can be used effectively for this purpose.
We have encouraged all of our teachers to post their assignments as well as learning resources on their class websites. Additionally, we have licenses for programs such as Dreambox, KidBiz3000, and Measuring Up Live! which are web-based, and other resources are available on our library webpage which students can access anywhere, anytime from any computer. We are moving towards cloud-based computing via google apps; students will be able to work on their assignments and keep in touch with their teachers even if they are not physically in school. Our Blended Learning program is providing us with resources we can use with our fourth and fifth graders, and we should share similar resources for the other grade levels as well.
Our message to our parents is this: we understand the challenges of being a military family, but we need to work together to ensure that our students -- your children -- will be ready for the next grade level whether they remain at Hale Kula or move to another school in our state, our country, or the world. As a school, we need to have better procedures so parents understand that we are a team and that keeping up with schoolwork is essential even if a family is on a well-deserved vacation. This also means that parents need to set aside time during vacations so students can complete their assignments to ensure that they don't fall behind.
Our goal is to decrease chronic absenteeism at our school from 16% to 11%. It will take a collaborative effort to accomplish our goals, but we are determined to do all we can to reach our target so that all students continue to progress and have the skills and dispositions to be successful.
This vacation led me to reflect on something which has been a challenge at our school -- attendance. We know that students need to be in school in order to maximize their learning opportunities. Last year, 16% of our students were chronically absent, defined as missing more than 15 days in the school year. In other words, 16% of our students missed about one whole month of learning. This is unacceptable, and we are implementing a variety of programs to reverse this trend including incentives for those who have perfect attendance for the quarter, informing parents more regularly, and asking for suggestions from our school community. However, our data suggests that these incentives and procedures are not having as positive an impact as we had hoped.
Because we are a military-impacted school, our families have different challenges that affect school attendance. With no extended family here on-island, a parent may not have the support when a child gets sick (and there's no way to get the student to school) or the soldier is deployed or in training. When the soldier comes back from deployment or for R&R, families want to spend the time together or take a trip back home to spend time with their extended family. My vacation with my family reinforced that this is valuable time, and even if we would prefer students to be in school, we understand the importance of reunification especially when a parent has been in harm's way.
So what can we do to ensure that students balance school and home needs effectively even if they are not physically in school? Since our families are transient, we need to make sure that the loss of instructional days does not result in learning gaps which can impact students now and in the future when they enroll in a new school. Besides implementing incentive programs, we need to send a consistent message to parents about the importance of students coming to school regularly and keeping up with their lessons, and technology can be used effectively for this purpose.
We have encouraged all of our teachers to post their assignments as well as learning resources on their class websites. Additionally, we have licenses for programs such as Dreambox, KidBiz3000, and Measuring Up Live! which are web-based, and other resources are available on our library webpage which students can access anywhere, anytime from any computer. We are moving towards cloud-based computing via google apps; students will be able to work on their assignments and keep in touch with their teachers even if they are not physically in school. Our Blended Learning program is providing us with resources we can use with our fourth and fifth graders, and we should share similar resources for the other grade levels as well.
Our message to our parents is this: we understand the challenges of being a military family, but we need to work together to ensure that our students -- your children -- will be ready for the next grade level whether they remain at Hale Kula or move to another school in our state, our country, or the world. As a school, we need to have better procedures so parents understand that we are a team and that keeping up with schoolwork is essential even if a family is on a well-deserved vacation. This also means that parents need to set aside time during vacations so students can complete their assignments to ensure that they don't fall behind.
Our goal is to decrease chronic absenteeism at our school from 16% to 11%. It will take a collaborative effort to accomplish our goals, but we are determined to do all we can to reach our target so that all students continue to progress and have the skills and dispositions to be successful.
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