Despite the controversy leading up to the speech, and the outrage that Obama would take up precious class time to talk about his educational policy, his speech to the nation's students was a simple one on their kuleana. Kuleana is the Hawaiian word for responsibility. As Hawaiians, we understand that our kuleana, our responsibility is never a selfish act. When individuals do not fulfill their kuleana, the whole community suffers. We can be the most dedicated group of teachers, with the most experience, the most aloha, the most education, but if our students are not willing to put in the hard work necessary to learn to their greatest potential, (their kuleana), then our future, our community, our ahupua'a will not thrive. The president's speech wasn't about any educational policy, it wasn't about politics, it was not tied to NCLB, test scores, statistics. It was tied to personal anecdotes of kuleana. It's too bad that some felt that it was a waste of precious class time. He spoke on the most important American lesson: our responsibility is to put in the hard work necessary, regardless of our circumstances.
Passion I have. What I need is to practice my elevator speeches, those short informative program synopses that can be done in the time it takes to ride the elevator. Of course it will take me 4 posts. Post 1: The honua: building on solid ground The Alana culture-based education course is graphically depicted by the above logic model. The honua (green box), the earth, represents the mo'ok ūauhau, the geneology of this program that informs and guides the building of this course. Dr. Shawn Kanaʻiaupuni and her team lay the foundation for culture-based education (CBE) modeling and immersion within the course. Dr. Walter Kahumoku and Keiki Kawaiʻaeʻa, in consultation with Dr. Bernice McCarthy (4Mat) bring to the geneology the work of moenahā, a curriculum planning concept based on the way kupuna taught. Makawalu, literally eight eyes, is a concept practiced by Kaʻimipono Kaiwi and her teachers at Kamehameha Kapālama to encourage multiple perspectives in the standards-b...
My dissertation proposal as a culture-based education (CBE) version of Chopped All-Stars Please indulge my need for metaphors and analogies to make sense of my world. This is Part 1 of 4 blog posts to clarify my thinking on my proposed dissertation topic. How will this study work? Gather strong chefs, leaders and innovators in their own right and challenge them to create synergistic culinary masterpieces in the CBE Project, a professional development program. change chef to teacher; change culinary masterpieces to culture-based education-infused practices and curriculum ) The parameters: time (Kamehameha Hawaiʻi 4-week course with deadlines for teachers' own action research and learning portfolio to follow) key ingredients ( CBE practices , moenahā framework, makawalu , and the National Writing Project program model) the course (teachers' own content area and current curriculum) The question: How doe...
Ok, it's not a battle, but after being married for 20 years, I realize that there are some things that fall into the "mom's job" category, and there are some things that are strictly dad's domain. Mom's job is to find things. For 20 years I have lived in a male dominant household. The fact that the majority of the toilet seats in my house remain in the down position is a testament of the power of the one and only alpha female. However, what I can't do is teach my children (and my husband) how to do what I call "mom looking" versus "man looking." I don't need to explain this for the moms. They know exactly what I'm talking about. The guys are slower to catch on. I'll type s-l-o-w-l-y. Here's a typical "man looking" conversation: "mom! (or Cat!), where's the ______ (insert anything from socks to the car)?" "It's in the _________ (insert my instructions like refrigerator, garage, o...
Despite the controversy leading up to the speech, and the outrage that Obama would take up precious class time to talk about his educational policy, his speech to the nation's students was a simple one on their kuleana. Kuleana is the Hawaiian word for responsibility. As Hawaiians, we understand that our kuleana, our responsibility is never a selfish act. When individuals do not fulfill their kuleana, the whole community suffers. We can be the most dedicated group of teachers, with the most experience, the most aloha, the most education, but if our students are not willing to put in the hard work necessary to learn to their greatest potential, (their kuleana), then our future, our community, our ahupua'a will not thrive. The president's speech wasn't about any educational policy, it wasn't about politics, it was not tied to NCLB, test scores, statistics. It was tied to personal anecdotes of kuleana. It's too bad that some felt that it was a waste of precious class time. He spoke on the most important American lesson: our responsibility is to put in the hard work necessary, regardless of our circumstances.
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