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Signing OFF


Now that we have our family website up and running, I've decided that this is a good time to sign off on this blog and recreate it into something else. There's no need for two personal blogs, so I'm going to take the rest of this week to recreate this one into its own niche.

Blogging is about writing about your passion and finding your niche so that you can hook up with like minded people and learn and share, so I've got to really hone in on what passion I want to explore for this manao blog. Some passions on the family blog: food, family, fun, books. That's already there and mom can still share her mana'o and memories on that blog for all of us to savor.

My other passion is my work. I love being an English teacher, a literacy resource teacher and an advocate of using local culture and local literature to raise the educational bar for local students. My passion is to use technology to enhance literacy. Really, it still comes down to a simple formula that's not new at all: good literacy instruction + (web tools) + real world assessment = intrinsically motivated, authentic, differentiated learning.

I want this blog to be a resource, not just for my colleagues at school (that's what my school blog is for), but a resource for teachers who don't have the time or the school funds to engage in PD. I want this to be a resource for teachers who are teaching local, Hawaii kids (not just Hawaiian kids). I want to be an advocate for the unique needs of our local students who don't learn in the same way and don't need to have prescribed programs in order to succeed on standardized tests.

A lot of teachers I've worked with are local teachers with plantation roots. We are a colonized people teaching minority students. There are certain cultural practices ingrained in us that keeps us from speaking up, speaking out, raising our voices, and sharing our mana'o. I want to change these through this humble little blog, even if it's just tapping into the collective knowledge of my friends (teachers, authors, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons).

I'm hoping to be set up by the time this Chinese new year of the ox rolls around. I know some very prominent oxes in my life, so it's a good time. People born in the year of the ox are patient, speak little and inspire confidence in others. That's a good way to begin. This year will also be in the Chinese year of the earth element, which means that like the earth, this blog will be firmly rooted in morals, ethics and responsibilities.

Thanks for reading. A hui hou.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
mahalo for your mana'o. i have enjoyed reading your blog and will continue to do so. happy blogging!
January 1, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Anonymous said…
how can you write a so cool blog,i am watting your new post in the future!
January 5, 2009 at 3:24 AM
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