A Magical Morning

 What a magical moment, spending time this morning with Jennifer Lee's first graders at Haleiwa Elementary School! I shared a little bit about Jennifer's classroom in an earlier blog ("In Every Crisis Lies the Seed of Opportunity") and today, my husband Randy and I visited to experience the butterfly garden, first-hand.

It started when a caterpillar crawled into their classroom, and the idea for a butterfly garden grew from that one serendipitous moment. Jennifer shares that the students were excited and had so many questions, so naturally, she saw this as an important learning opportunity. By accessing grants as well as community partnerships, the students have become experts and proudly answered our questions and explained different aspects of their garden. They pointed out teeny tiny eggs on the bottoms of milkweed or crown flower leaves. They found caterpillars of all sizes and placed them gently into habitats where they could observe the transformation into butterflies before being released. They separated the milkweed seeds so they can plant more milkweed plants, a favorite food of the monarch butterfly. They asked questions, did research, and wrote their own information books about the monarch butterfly. And they are discussing how they can sustain the project by selling products at an upcoming school Pop-Up Fair. A couple of their ideas are selling a make-and-take habitat for a caterpillar so families can observe the life cycle or selling the milkweed seeds they have laboriously collected in a jar to grow more plants for food for monarch butterflies..

I would not have known about this butterfly garden if I hadn't crossed paths with Jennifer on one of our daily walks. We talked and her excitement was so infectious. Jennifer sent me a few photos along with an invitation to visit. I am so glad we took her up on her invitation.

So many teachers are like Jennifer. They are doing great things in their classrooms, but as teachers, we don't often have opportunities to learn with and from others except with those at our own school. A few years ago, teachers had "professional development leave" and they could attend a conference, visit other schools or classrooms, work on their university coursework, or participate in other professional learning opportunities. I know our teachers took advantage of this PD leave, and we supported and encouraged them to do so. Alas, a few years later, that PD leave became "personal" leave. 

There are many teachers like Jennifer who welcome visitors and who would love to hear new ideas from their colleagues from other schools. Wouldn't it be wonderful if teachers had professional learning days in addition to their sick leave and personal leave days? Perhaps teacher professional development should be more personalized and include opportunities to learn with and from others, to discuss challenges and to try out new ideas, and to learn from others including colleagues from other schools. In this day and age, we should be able to collaborate instead of everyone trying to reinvent the wheel. 

And if you get the opportunity, go visit the butterfly garden at Haleiwa Elementary School! 

P.S. Do you know how to tell which side is the head of the caterpillar? Do you know how to tell if a monarch butterfly is male or female? I learned something new from the students today! 

Students were excited to share with us about what they were learning. They certainly had sharp eyes, pointing out teeny tiny eggs as well as teeny tiny caterpillars!

These are milkweed seeds. They reminded me of dandelions because the winds sent them floating in the air. Students were separating the seeds; they have collected a lot of seeds for replanting.

A caterpillar and a monarch butterfly. I didn't get a good photo of a chrysalis, but there were empty ones that indicated a new butterfly had emerged.

It was really neat to see the metamorphosis of the students as writers! When a couple of them read their earlier books to me, they realized how much they had grown as writers. "I didn't spell very well when I wrote this book," one student shared. Yet the content and the voice of the students were evident in each book.

My New Purpose

When I was preparing to retire in the summer of 2018 after 45 years as an educator, I wasn't really sure  what I would do with the rest of my life. I knew that I would continue to follow education issues but I did not have any specific plans. Then our world turned upside-down. Our middle son, Jarand, was diagnosed with Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease in January and a scant five months later in May 2018, he passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was 38 years old with the whole world ahead of him (Aloha, Jarand) I was devastated. 

It was Jarand's passing that that gave me my purpose, post-retirement. My husband Randy and I made it a point to learn what we could about CKD and to share our message with others, especially with young people like Jarand. When I wrote my first book (Leading with Aloha: From the Pineapple Fields to the Principal's Office), I donated a portion of the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai`i for education programs, and when Randy and I spoke with groups to promote my book, we always ended by sharing about Jarand and telling those in attendance that they needed to take care of themselves so they can take care of others. The message resonated, but I felt that it was just for that moment. Without more information, people don't necessarily make changes in their lifestyle that could lead to better health.

This is why Randy and I were honored to be asked to serve on the NKFH Kidney Walk 2022 committee to bring awareness to this disease. It was a first-time event, and the goal was to raise funds for programs to educate the public and to provide support for those who were struggling with kidney disease. We sent out letters to friends and family and invited them to contribute and to participate in the Kidney Walk. We were able share Jarand's story via a video produced by a good friend, Marvin Buenconsejo, and we continue to tell people about Chronic Kidney Disease. 

The NKFH Kidney Walk took place yesterday, and it was a great success. The number of participants as well as the amount collected for NKFH exceeded expectations. I was pleased to see so many people of all ages walking the 1.7 mile route and visiting the booths to learn more about taking care of their health. I saw several groups with shirts that were made for the Walk, and I talked to a young mom and asked her who she was walking for. She said she was the one with CKD Stage 5 and that she was undergoing dialysis. She recognized me from the video and thanked me for sharing the message about CKD. I wished her the best; she has two young children and my hope is that more people like her can live full lives despite their CKD.  

Randy and I with my cousins on the walk standing by Jarand's sign.

Whenever I see this photo, I get a little lump in my throat. This is how I will always remember our son with a big smile on his face.

I know that much more needs to be done, and Randy and I will continue to share the message about Jarand and Chronic Kidney Disease.  I feel that every time we share Jarand's story, we have the opportunity to make a difference for other families. That is why I continue to support the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai`i. I believe that Jarand lives on if others hear his story and decide to take better care of their health. That is my hope.

If you'd like more information, visit the National Kidney Foundation website at kidney.org or check out the articles below.

Chronic Kidney Disease Takes Heavy Toll in Hawaii

Kidney Disease: The Basics

Race, Ethnicity, and Kidney Disease

America's Health Rankings - Chronic Kidney Disease

Hawai`i Educators Write

 

Back in July 2019 after my first book was published, Kristi Oda messaged me and asked if I would share my writing journey with the Hawai`i Educators Write group. These educators got together once a month at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Kakaako to support each other in their writing projects. It was a nice, friendly group which immediately put me at-ease. It was wonderful to see educators who were already writing and sharing their messages publicly. At the time, Kristi mentioned that they were hoping to expand this writing opportunity to the neighbor islands.

When the pandemic shut down in-person events in March 2020, HEW went virtual. These educator writers continued to set aside the last Wednesday of every month to write and meet virtually. Today, March 5, 2022 was the first in-person event since the pandemic began. HEW hosted a retreat at beautiful Kane`ohe Elementary School, and I was excited to see how much the group has grown!

This was taken at the Hawai`i Educators Write session in July 2019 . . .

. . . and this was the group today! There were educator-writers from public, charter, and private schools and included some who flew in from the neighbor islands. In this photo, participants were holding copies of What School Could Be, a gift from Ted Dintersmith and Josh Reppun. 

It was a picture-perfect day! Kane`ohe Elementary is located on the windward side of the island where the Ko`olau mountains are on one side and the ocean can be seen in the opposite direction. It was my first time at the school, and I was so impressed with the whole environment. It's no wonder that the Kane`ohe Elementary school community has a strong sense of place; their values are truly rooted in the culture and history of Kane`ohe.

What an amazing venue for the first Hawai`i Educators Write retreat!

I have been retired for almost four years now, so seeing all these amazing educators in person was wonderful! I met many of them for the first time although we have been friends on Twitter for several years. Talking with other educators about writing was inspiring, and I was so appreciative that I was invited to this event! I have no doubt that this Hawai`i Educators Write group will continue to grow in the future. They are certainly making their voices heard!

 

There is Another Option: Blended Learning

 I recently read this thoughtful blog post by Kristi Oda titled, "The Viability of Virtual School." She raises questions that must be considered if  legislation is passed to fund a virtual school here in Hawai`i. Kristi asks: What if we can design online learning that can adequately serve the medically fragile in time of need, differentiate across the ocean and sharpen students whose career pathway requires more significant online expertise? How can we go beyond considering and move to effectively organizing a permanent Virtual School for an even more robust system? Does Hawaii need to ground our vulnerable and precious youth community in an inclusive space where we can learn how to connect, care for and share life with our fellow humans of diverse backgrounds? Great questions, moving forward.

I agree that the Hawaii Department of Education needs to offer more options for students. The pandemic pointed out that in-person learning cannot be the only option. With so many colleges and universities offering on-line coursework and degrees, it makes sense for our public school students to have that option as well. Our son completed his military service and obtained his university degree on-line. I speak with the baristas at our local Starbucks, and many of them are attending on-line universities while they are working. The beauty of virtual school should be the flexibility it affords to students who manage to juggle school, work, family, or other responsibilities.

This school year, the Leilehua-Mililani-Waialua Complex Area is piloting virtual or distance learning for elementary school students via the Pineapple Academy. A teacher is assigned to each grade level and students enroll from any complex area elementary school. They meet daily, except that it's a virtual classroom, not face-to-face. Creating a classroom culture is just as important for these distance learning classes as it would be in a face-to-face classroom. Their model could be replicated in other schools or complex areas.

Another option for schools or complexes to consider is blended learning where students come to school for part of the week and work virtually at home on the other days. This means that students have in-person connections as well as virtual connections with their teacher and their peers. 

Back in 2011, our school had a huge increase in the number of students primarily due to the completion of brand new homes in our geographical area. We were able to apply for and receive a Department of Defense grant to pilot a blended learning program where students spent three days of the week at school and the other two days at home. This allowed the two blended learning teachers to share a classroom when we were severely overcrowded. The program allowed for flexibility; for example, when teachers noticed that students were struggling, they could ask them to come in on their at-home days to provide additional support. On October 4, 2012 after the first quarter, I wrote this about our blended learning classes.  Our fourth and fifth grade blended learning classes are blazing trails!  The teachers have created a rigorous and relevant curriculum which challenges students to be self-directed, critical, and creative thinkers, and students have exceeded expectations with their ability to adapt to this new means of learning.  I had the opportunity to view some of the  individual projects, and I was amazed at the work of some of these students when given the chance to explore something they wanted to learn more about.  I look forward to seeing these students continue to blossom as they take charge of their own learning.  In December of that year, I shared about the blended learning classes in a blog titled "Virtual Learning."  

We would have loved to continue and even expand the blended learning program at our school, but we ran into a couple of roadblocks. First, the grant funds were time-limited, and we were not able to support the program using only State funds despite the fact that we had more students in our second year than in our first. More importantly. our parents were very interested, but because of the transient nature of our military-impacted community, we did not have the necessary number of students to sustain the program after our grant expired. 

We were ahead of our time. Now that most students have had experience with virtual or distance learning, parents may be more open to the idea of having their child in a blended learning classroom. In this 21st century world, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity are the 4C's of a successful learner, and our blended learning students had many opportunities to demonstrate these attributes. They were truly a learning community.

Kristi shares this question in her blog: "Youth need love and experiences of a communal classroom to belong to and thrive away from their home environment and I wonder, can the online one sustain them?" It is possible. The Pineapple Academy and our blended learning classes are proof that students can thrive in an online environment IF there is an emphasis on relationships between the teacher, students, and families and IF technology is used as a tool for learning for students to explore, discover, create, and share. This is what good teachers do whether it's face-to-face, blended, or a virtual/distance environment.  The pandemic has afforded schools opportunities to be creative and to try new ideas. I would love to see blended learning as an option for students and families in our Hawai`i public schools!

"In every crisis lies the seed of opportunity"

 

This week, I had the opportunity to speak with school leaders in Hawai`i and I shared that despite the Covid crisis, teachers and schools are doing amazing things. Out of this crisis came opportunities to try new ideas and to do things differently with their students. I shared a number of examples.

  

In the spring of 2020 when schools suddenly pivoted from in-person learning to distance learning, many teachers were unprepared. Yet, they quickly learned how to use new technology tools such as Padlet, Seesaw, Google Classroom, and Jamboard to communicate with and engage their students and families. They discovered other tools they could use as well for different subject areas. Now that most schools have returned to in-person learning, teachers have new resources to use to integrate technology into their classrooms. The beneficiaries are the students and the teachers. 

Lianna Lam, Kaimuki Middle School teacher, shared a Padlet she had created for their STEAM Innovation Lab which opened to the whole school community during the pandemic. There are hands-on activities for students, teachers, and families to explore and discover. This STEAM Center activity she shared shows how students at her school are concerned about problems in our community. They will be exploring an important question about restoring and conserving our fresh water. These middle school students are getting a head start on examining environmental and social problems that impact the quality of our lives. 

Derek Minakami, principal of Kane`ohe Elementary School shared this on Twitter: "Social distancing necessitates that 1/2 of each upper grade classroom eat outside their classrooms. A 4th grader got fed up with the metal folding chairs falling down when stacked against the wall & designed this device to hold the chairs."  The fact that a fourth grader would be able to see a problem and design then build a solution is a testament to the school and the educators who encourage meaningful and real-world thinking processes. Amazing!

When school resumed for in-person learning, many schools created outdoor spaces for classes to meet because it was safer than being indoors where Covid germs were more likely to spread. Jennifer Lee, a first grade teacher at Hale`iwa Elementary School shared that much of the teaching and learning in her class these days is outdoors. Her students love working in their vegetable garden as well as their butterfly garden. They are becoming keen observers and are learning so much by being in their outdoor classroom. They are not only raising butterflies, they are also growing food. The kids are reading, writing, sciencing, learning math, and learning to work together on their projects. Jennifer's excitement when she speaks with me is contagious; I can't wait to visit her classroom!

The Leilehua-Mililani-Waialua complex area knew that some parents would want an option for their elementary school students, so the Pineapple Academy was created to provide distance learning. Students are enrolled from different schools in the complex area, and a teacher is assigned to each grade level. Teachers plan activities to address grade level standards, and students meet with their classmates and their teacher daily. From all I have heard, the Pineapple Academy has been successful. Students are thriving, parents are very satisfied, and the teachers have learned so much from this experience. Hopefully, the program will be expanded to create more distance learning opportunities for students, not just in the Leilehua-Mililani-Waialua complex area but throughout the state as well. 

I shared about Ka`u Dream at Ka`u High and Pahala Elementary School in an earlier blog.  This is a  project that has the potential to revitalize the  Ka`u community, and it is so exciting that the school is at the center of the changes. 

 As the Chinese proverb states, "In every crisis lies the seed of opportunity."  I am sure that all schools have examples of being innovative despite the challenges of teaching during a pandemic. It's time for schools to share these successes!

What Schools Could and Should Be

 This has been an uplifting week for me. When I retired in 2018, I never thought that I’d continue to be so invested in education and the many issues that impact our schools. But there is hope for change. If anything, this pandemic has shown us that we need to do things differently if we want to create the kind of schools so students will have the skills and the mindsets to lead in the future in a world that is rapidly changing. 

• It started on Saturday with George Couros’ weekly email which are always uplifting and inspirational. He included a poem, “The Choice is Yours” by Sarah Schwartz. It was a perfect poem that shared what school should be for our students. I shared it with the What School Could Be community.. 
• Then I read that our Hawai`i 2022 Teacher of the Year, Whitney Aragaki, was named one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year! What an honor for my Twitter friend! 
• I participated in a Twitter chat to kick off the "Most Likely to Succeed" 7th anniversary virtual screenings which will happen in the coming week. Frankly, I am not good at Twitter-chatting, but I enjoyed reading the questions about being "future ready" or what it takes to be "likely to succeed." Responses came from participants, not just in Hawaii, but in other places as well. 
• I was part of the What School Could Be community who had the privilege of listening in on a virtual conversation with Ian Kitajima. I have known Ian for a number of years and when we speak of quality partnerships with businesses and the community, Ian is the gold standard. Listen to the conversation here.
• I  am leading a book study on the What School Could Be community about Educating with Aloha. The conversations and discussions with educators leave me feeling so hopeful that we can make changes, one person at a time. The participants are honest and caring and truly know what schools should be. They are educators with aloha.

The story that had me most hopeful, though, was this one titled, "Here's How These Ka`u Kids are Learning Outside of the Classroom."  I remember visiting Ka`u back in 2006. It is at the southernmost tip of Hawai`i island, and we drove for miles and miles to get there to attend a community festival. At the time, we were told that when the sugar plantation closed operations in 1996, many workers struggled to find work, and those were tough times for the community with a high unemployment rate.  Today, through partnerships with many different organizations (read about it here), Ka`u is on the road to becoming a strong self-sustaining community, one which values and honors their history and cultural identity. The exciting part is that the school is at the hub of these changes. Students are learning important life as well as academic skills and are successful contributors to their community. They are the ones driving the changes with their self-sustaining gardens, their entrepreneurship, and their global connections.  Ka`u High & Pahala Elementary School  students are learning new skills and in the process, they are revitalizing their community. This is what schools could and should be.

Schools are a microcosm of society, and every student is different. Therefore, their strengths, interests, and needs are different. We should not be viewing the success of students or schools based on test scores or grade point averages or the number who take Advanced Placement courses. Many of our most successful people were admittedly poor students in school. Let's change that and engage and empower ALL students to find their passions and to be successful in finding their joy in life. 

Reflections

 I am in a happy place. Our son, Justin, and grandsons, Jace and Jayden, are visiting and we are having a great time. They are growing up quickly and before we know it, they'll be graduating from high school so I cherish this time when they still enjoy doing things with us. 

It's been two years since they came back to Hawaii, and I realize just how much I've missed the little things. Playing games like Yahtzee, Blokus, Golf (with cards), and Blackjack. Hearing them talk about their school, their teachers, and their friends. Laughing together. Going to the market. Going for walks with Iwak. Reading a book or poem and having a discussion. Playing golf or tennis. Our lives would have been different if they lived here, so in the short ten days while they are visiting, we cram our days with laughter, stories, jokes, food, and fun. 

I realize how out-of-touch I am with what our grandsons are interested in. They talk about NFTs, cryptocurrencies, creating a new NFT community, and discuss analytics. They saw an old PC tower in the room and opened it to see the different parts. They went out into the rain to take photos with their phones. Their perspectives are interesting and as someone who primarily takes photos of people and events, I am impressed. I am trying to convince them to document their photos and their growth as photographers via a blog. I have a few more days to help them get started. 

Jace took a photo of our bougainvillea plant from two different views.

Jayden captured the reflection of our frog sculpture and our orchid plant.

Jayden took this picture of the splashing water on the rocks in the front of our house.

I worry about them though.  What will their future look like? How will their school experiences help them to be more successful in the future? How will their out-of-school experiences fuel their long-term goals and aspirations? We are living in an unpredictable world that is constantly changing. COVID has disrupted our lives, but at the same time, it has brought opportunities for new ideas and new perspectives for solving new problems. It is my hope that our young people will be ready to tackle the challenges we will be facing in the future. 

The past two years have been difficult, but I believe that 2022 will be better for everyone. As we say goodbye to 2021, let us hope that 2022 will bring health and happiness to all. Happy  New Year, everyone!