Skip to main content

TEDx HonoluluED, April 13, 2013, Punahou School

By

This showcase event was student organized and consisted of presentations by students and teachers. It was really inspiring to hear about the innovative things these students and teachers were doing in their schools and in their communities. These amazing people are pursuing their passions and showing others how education could be...

Photo by Amy Burvall

Unleash the Power of Youth

One of the student presentations that really stood out for me was by a high school sophomore, Brittany Amano.  Just wow.  This girl started volunteering and raising money for good causes since she was in elementary school.  She built on her own family experiences with a grandmother who was homeless, and her passion to help the homeless motivated her to raise $513,000 in the last two years!!!

Her message to us was that kids can do a lot.  Message received!  Entire organizations couldn't accomplish that.  So yes, let's build and unleash the power of youth to engage in our communities. For our distance learning courses, it might not be fundraising, but for example in our Mālama ‘Āina course we might get our participants to go out themselves or work with keiki to participate in environmental activities.

Kawaii Cream Puffs - Youth Entrepreneurship

Photo from Kawaii Cream Puffs website
The other student presentation that I felt a personal connection to was by high schooler Stephanie Siow.  For her senior project, she started her own business, Kawaii Cream Puffs, making and selling charms and jewelry.  I mean, look at that photo!  It looks so real and delicious, but it's a charm that she made herself!

Stephanie used her school project to develop her business and actually pursue her passion.  I've always wanted to have my own bakery or some kind of baking related business, but I've never made the time or had the guts to do it, so I really admire Stephanie's determination and willingness to just go for it.  I'm thankful for the schools and advisors who support senior projects, but it should also extend beyond just a senior year thing.  Let's provide this kind of opportunity and support for creativity and passion throughout a child's education.

As our distance learning department makes its foray into online and blended learning on the school side, I hope we will keep the desires of the students in mind and design courses that will help students to cultivate their passions and make those real-world connections between school, community, and their life dreams.


Get Out in the Local Education Community

Lastly, I really just liked this event because it was nice to be out in the local education community, with other KSDL team members, and other KS staff members.  We have a lot of great things going on here in Hawaii, and it's wonderful to connect with people across the island who are just passionate about education. 

Of course, cupcakes always win me over, too.   :)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scratch - OWAU discussion 10/28

By Anonymous
Aloha kākou, I while back, I learned about this product from a presentation at the eSchool conference. The speaker was so excited about Scratch and was having so much fun demonstrating it that my mind began racing immediately. "I could use it in `Ike Hawai`i courses and I bet I could use it to develop tons of activities for the A`o Makua `ōlelo Hawai`i courses". Then, reality set in as I returned to work intending to try it out after I finished my "next" task. Well, you know how that goes. 7 months later, I finally took a stab at it out of necessity of course. I really wanted some type of activity to teach my students about different Kapu in old Hawai`i without having them just read a list of them. So, what it Sratch? Simply put, it's a developer's tool (a very inexpereinced developer like myself). It allows you to create activities and games using "coding" that is in a drag and drop format. The codes are pre-written & range from phrases like ...
8 comments
Read more

Geotagging

By
A "wouldn't it be nice" idea that's been around a while is the ability to tag a map with images that are linked to more information about the site. Kelly C suggested it as a way for students to share knowledge about a cultural/historic site or the geographic area they live in with classmates. (right, no addresses!) There are now cameras and even storage media that embed latitude and longitude into images as they are shot. But you don't need fancy new toys to do this. I tried Flickr's geotagging map and it's fun and supereasy. Want to try it? Log in to Flickr http://www.flickr.com Sign in as " techedine " password " wist101 " yea, corny. Click the " You " tab then the " Your Photostream > Map " or Organize > Your Map links. Click the Satellite link in the upper right. Cool view! (you may need Google Satellite downloaded). Images along the bottom of the screen with colored dots have already been droppe...
6 comments
Read more

Papa Kuʻi ʻai a me Pohaku

By
As part of our huakaʻi last month to Papahana Kuaola and the opportunity to work in the loʻi, I wanted to continue that thought by sharing my experience of making a papa kuʻi 'ai (poi-pounding board). In 2008 with the encouragement from me and my co-worker, Pili Wong, Earl Kawaʻa offered to teach a papa kuʻi ʻai papa to those of us that were interested in learning what our kūpuna did as a daily way of life. For our kūpuna they had loʻi in their yards and grew their own kalo, the major source of starch in their diet. They steamed it and pounded poi or kept it whole and sliced it and ate it like bread with butter or condensed milk. Kawaʻa was very specific on our kuleana and the commitment he required of us. Our first task was to find an au koʻi (handle) for our koʻi (adze tool). I found myself suddenly looking up at every tree I saw looking for the right branch for my koʻi. My husband found mine at a jobsite from a Haole Koa tree otherwise known as ...
Post a Comment
Read more