Pure Manaʻo

  Author's Note: I'm not sure what the story will be. I ended my first independent writing time with the first two lines and perhaps an idea that I would be writing about the things I lost in the fire, or maybe things I gained from the fire.  After the daily conversation about the prompt with teachers talking about events like 9/11 and Columbine, it seems to be the beginning of  a connection with some national/international shared traumas and how that linked to my own life and also shifted at that moment how I choose to live life. I am letting this just reveal itself so any feedback is welcome as I try to see what sticks.  6/5/24 On the night Lahaina burned, August 8, 2023, Tuesday, I dreamt about my great grandfather's church burning as if I was somehow in the graveyard looking toward Lahainaluna Road only to wake up to the photo of the Waiola Church social hall burning. Not a dream, more like a portal that opened up, or my spirit traveling to say goodbye one last t...

  6/4/24 Anna's last day was Friday, May 31, 2024 She collected all of her gifts and notes from her students Took pictures with her seniors who she had as freshmen four years ago Turned in her keys and walked away from her Georgia classroom made up of predominantly  black and brown students  who needed her to stay. She is not (really) leaving because of the constant shift of politics/policies/procedures of her school district She survived that. She is not (really) leaving because she suddenly lost her colleague and mentor last year, her marigold. She survived that. She is not (really) leaving because of the overwhelming needs of her students  Who continue to need her even after they have left her class.  She did this tearfully because she was both too empty and too full to stay another year. She is going to graduate school for counseling in the fall Her next dream is to do horse therapy for children and young adults. She sees this as a failure on her part. ...

  Photo by Brent Keane 6/3/24 The first sign. On Sunday the earthquakes started along Kilauea 4.0 on the surface, but  20 miles down the road in Hilo, only a community alert on my husbandʻs phone  gave us any indication that Pele was waking up from nap. The second sign.  On Monday morning, during a 4 am Zoom class, Lava, Pele, was fountaining out of an old rift zone Her glow calling locals and tourists alike out of bed like a siren luring sailors onto her rocks. By 10 am she was done, leaving only a shower of sulfuric smoke to mark her path across the new black pahoehoe. Third sign. On Monday evening, Kanehekili, brother to Pele and Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, born from the mouth of Haumea rolls into Waiakea and Hilo bringing his thunder, lightning, rain. The sky lights up the Panaewa forest outside my home rain stomping on our totan roof and waking my moʻo who calls out for me as I try to compose this poem.  ---------------------- Anarchy - non recognition of authorit...

  Dear English Language Arts Methods candidates, As you enter your senior year, student teaching, licensure, degree, your own classroom, I thought that the most loving thing I could do as your professor is give you summer reading. So ʻONO! (and I am not being facetious, it really will be utterly delicious) Choosing summer reading options when I taught Advanced Placement in high school as well as when I taught 8th grade was really the most joyful thing I did during spring break. Your first lesson is to always give readers choice  (a) and try to make the choices as diverse and disruptive  (b) for the scholars that will be coming into your classrooms. If you feel like literature may be so deliciously challenge worthy that you need to send a parent letter home, or even that for a little bit you are afraid that you may be fired. . .well you are heading in the right direction. Choosing summer reading options gives you a chance to dream about your students that you do not yet kn...

  Source:  Dyer, K. (Jan. 31, 2019). 75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment. NWEA blog . What is sacred: Normally, when I read an article that I am going to use for class, I highlight citations that are sacred, but this is a different type of article, so what I wanted to do was keep track of apps that I tried in class or am trying and use Dyer's own lens to talk about worth and value in my own classroom. I cannot do 75. I will do 5. Her criteria: S upports formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers Is free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible) When possible, both students and teachers can take the activator role (sometimes teachers need to get things started) 1. Flipgrid  allows you, students, families to do a video response (from 15 seconds to now 10 minutes - I love a good upgrade). New in 2020 besides the added time - it used to be maxed at 5 minutes ...

  Source: Garcia, A. & Dutro, E. (2018). Electing to heal: Trauma, healing, and politics in the classrooms. English Education, 50 (4), 375-383.  What is Sacred: As teacher educators, we have to find a way to navigate in the dark spaces of fear and pain that crease the fabric of our work, noting the intersections between our disciplinary commitments, theoretical traditions, and democracy. What does it mean to do teacher education and study literacy in a democratic society in which the lives of many are continually disenfranchised? We need to locate the political in our work, and l ocate ourselves within it . We need to find places to highlight how classrooms are spaces of inclusion and oppression, are spaces that value and actively resist diverse identities, histories, and knowledges. This is a moment that can and must be harnessed for change, for coalition building, for electing to heal  (p. 382). Connection to current/future work: More training on "trauma-informed p...

  Source:  Worlds, M. & Miller, H. (2019). Miles Morales: Spider-Man  and reimagining the canon for racial justice. English Journal, 108 (4), 43-50.  Gist: The authors argue that racial hierarchies and oppression in the English classroom will continue as long as teachers continue to hold the literary canon as the standard for what must be taught. They conclude that "reimagining the canon with books like Miles Morales: Spider-Man can begin to splinter the racial hierarchy that reigns over English curricula.  What is sacred: When left unchallenged, the canon is a weapon of the colonial project, which perpetuates Eurocentrism and violence against people of color (Durand and Jimenez-Garcia) English language arts classrooms must be sites to name, challenge, and ultimately dismantle oppressive systems.   Connection to current/future work: The EDSE 428, which is my secondary English/language arts methods course, was able to have conversations around ...