Pure Manaʻo

If you are a secondary teacher on the Big Island, you and your students are invited to the Big Island Reading Festival on April 16, 2010. Location TBA, but our authors are set to come and are eager to meet the students. If you would like to participate, or you need more information, drop me a note at caikeda@ksbe.edu.

and why we must provide the tools for our digital natives. Nwp Digital Is De Voss View more documents from devossda .

As an English teacher, there are two professional organizations that have made an enormous difference in my career. The first is NWP (the National Writing Project) and the other is the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). Both annual conventions happen simultaneously in the same location, so next year is in Orlando. If we want the public to treat teachers as professionals, I think we must treat ourselves as professionals and get involved in the professional organizations in our area, not just as a member, but as a presenter, and as a committee member. Here's a video made by NCTE to celebrate their centennial.

I forgot how much I love the Muppets. We can't forget the educational brilliance of Sesame Street and the Muppets!

Stephanie Shepherd led us through a FABULOUS technology workshop on blogging and podcasting and had the teachers set up their own blogs. Yeah! To check out all the resources Stephanie provided, here's a sharetab of her links as well as some of our own blogs. http://sharetabs.com/?tahoeshepherds So why should we use blogs and podcasts/vodcasts in our classrooms? ▪ Offers another sense modality (aural) for students to express themselves and absorb or manipulate information ▪Increased student motivation ▪Teachers or students can record audio about homework assignments, assignments, feedback, announcements, etc. thus the classroom is extended and enriched ▪Many students already have audio players, so it taps into an existing technology. ▪Blogging is highly effective way to help students to become better writers. Research has long shown that students write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to a...

Writers- teachers - lovers of the Big Island, there are 26 days to submit your pieces to the local gallery Na Leo o Hawaii http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/88467 Gallery Title: Na Leo o Hawaii - Voices of the Big Island Gallery Description: This gallery will highlight the voices of the Big Island of Hawaii - from our kupuna (elders) to our keiki (children) - from the fishing village of Milolii to the town of Hawi. This gallery is about living on the Big Island. If you'd like an easy tutorial to submitting your work, please watch the how-to video below: How to submit your writing

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 cl...