The First Week of School
Aloha Friday! I am going to come to love this concept. The other one I already love is pau hana which means end work. The sprinkling of Hawai'ian words that is thrown into every day language is truly charming. Teachers will ask students "are you pau?" meaning "are you finished?" Or when punching holes in a stack of papers, they talked about putting in the puka which means hole. I'm grateful for how much I remember and don't need explaining.
That's been one of the most interesting things about the first few weeks here, how very familiar it is, and yet how foreign at the same time. Because I was raised by my dad (born in Hawai'i, raised on the mainland) who was raised by my grandparents (born and raised in the Islands), it's part of the tapestry of my life. It's familiar and familial. It was part of the unique family language I grew up with. So, before leaving the house, my grandmother would tell me to "go make shishi" or to go to the bathroom. That's the language I used to teach my dogs as well. Having lived on the East Coast for 25 years, it seems pretty exotic and different. It's a one foot in, one foot out kind of feeling. I like it!
I just finished the first week of school and I learned a whole lot. The biggest lesson I've learned is that I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOL! OMG, they are such super cool, kind, and caring kids! They are goofy and silly but really insightful and they still LIKE learning for the most part. I feel like Sally Fields "You like me! You really like me!" (that's an age test) Some of the respect stuff is due to the cultural influence. Most of my kids are some flavor of Asian or Pacific Islander. So I have a lot of Tahitian, Samoan, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean mixtures; the Confucian influence is palpable.
I am also loving the Early Hawaiian History class! That's not much of a surprise. I have a passing knowledge of Hawaiian history, but this is going to strengthen that by leaps and bounds. I've already learned about the diacritical marks in Hawaiian. The ' is a glottal stop called an okina. and a macron (-) over a vowel is called kahako and it means to extend the vowel sound. So Hawai'i is the proper spelling. And the island called Lana'i has a kakako over the first a and so the sound is elongated.
So frequently I realize that this is such a special place. What sounds trite, touristy, or just plain hokey on the Mainland, is lived here. There is truly a spirit of Aloha, of love. No everyone of course. All places have their turds. But the people here are amazingly kind. Maybe I just got used to the rush, rush, rush of the East Coast and that urban brusqueness, but here, everyone smiles and says hello. Everyone from the grocery store clerk to the postal worker at the post office, to the guy at the safety inspection station is just kind. And I'm not so sure what it says about me and my experience that I'm nearly in tears at the smallest kindnesses that are given so freely here. Little things like we stopped at a second hand furniture store because we were looking for a simple dresser for my daughter. The guy had nice furniture and his prices were out of our range at the moment. He directed us to not one but THREE different thrift stores in the area. We've been having trouble with our mailbox in that our key doesn't work. I stopped at the post office and the manager gave me her phone number and told me to call her and she would get it straightened out. AND SHE DID! She called me the next day. The lady at the DMV called and reminded me to swing back in to finish up my registration as something got held up in between the two states. Reread that again, someone from the D.M.V. called me back! Unheard of. And it's just really really touching.
Not all of it is hibiscus and rainbows. I teach with 6 different teachers and have 11 classes scattered across three different buildings and six different floors! So I am running up and down stairs all the time. I think I've actually started to lose some weight! Some of the teachers I teach with are hands down amazing. They have great rapport with kids, have wonderful teaching skills, and just have a feel for what they are doing and they are just wonderful individuals who share their resources and time and energy. A couple of them are decent solid teachers, but are less generous of spirit. And then there are the just plain odd balls. Hawai'i is a place that attracts unusual people. People have to be adventurous to chose to live on a live rock in the middle of a giant ocean. And Hawai'i has always had its folks who listen to not only a different drummer, but a whole different kind of music than anyone else has ever heard. I teach with a couple those folks. I teach with Professor Binns for one class. You know the kind of teacher that is completely oblivious to whether or not the kids are engaged or interested. Yeah, that guy. I'm going to have to inject some life into that class as it's boring me to tears too!
I miss my wife like mad. I miss my friends like crazy. I'm meeting people, but it takes time to forge deeper connections and there just hasn't been enough time yet. I miss my dogs. Like I really really miss my pups. I can't wait until we are all reunited!
That's been one of the most interesting things about the first few weeks here, how very familiar it is, and yet how foreign at the same time. Because I was raised by my dad (born in Hawai'i, raised on the mainland) who was raised by my grandparents (born and raised in the Islands), it's part of the tapestry of my life. It's familiar and familial. It was part of the unique family language I grew up with. So, before leaving the house, my grandmother would tell me to "go make shishi" or to go to the bathroom. That's the language I used to teach my dogs as well. Having lived on the East Coast for 25 years, it seems pretty exotic and different. It's a one foot in, one foot out kind of feeling. I like it!
I just finished the first week of school and I learned a whole lot. The biggest lesson I've learned is that I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOL! OMG, they are such super cool, kind, and caring kids! They are goofy and silly but really insightful and they still LIKE learning for the most part. I feel like Sally Fields "You like me! You really like me!" (that's an age test) Some of the respect stuff is due to the cultural influence. Most of my kids are some flavor of Asian or Pacific Islander. So I have a lot of Tahitian, Samoan, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean mixtures; the Confucian influence is palpable.
I am also loving the Early Hawaiian History class! That's not much of a surprise. I have a passing knowledge of Hawaiian history, but this is going to strengthen that by leaps and bounds. I've already learned about the diacritical marks in Hawaiian. The ' is a glottal stop called an okina. and a macron (-) over a vowel is called kahako and it means to extend the vowel sound. So Hawai'i is the proper spelling. And the island called Lana'i has a kakako over the first a and so the sound is elongated.
So frequently I realize that this is such a special place. What sounds trite, touristy, or just plain hokey on the Mainland, is lived here. There is truly a spirit of Aloha, of love. No everyone of course. All places have their turds. But the people here are amazingly kind. Maybe I just got used to the rush, rush, rush of the East Coast and that urban brusqueness, but here, everyone smiles and says hello. Everyone from the grocery store clerk to the postal worker at the post office, to the guy at the safety inspection station is just kind. And I'm not so sure what it says about me and my experience that I'm nearly in tears at the smallest kindnesses that are given so freely here. Little things like we stopped at a second hand furniture store because we were looking for a simple dresser for my daughter. The guy had nice furniture and his prices were out of our range at the moment. He directed us to not one but THREE different thrift stores in the area. We've been having trouble with our mailbox in that our key doesn't work. I stopped at the post office and the manager gave me her phone number and told me to call her and she would get it straightened out. AND SHE DID! She called me the next day. The lady at the DMV called and reminded me to swing back in to finish up my registration as something got held up in between the two states. Reread that again, someone from the D.M.V. called me back! Unheard of. And it's just really really touching.
Not all of it is hibiscus and rainbows. I teach with 6 different teachers and have 11 classes scattered across three different buildings and six different floors! So I am running up and down stairs all the time. I think I've actually started to lose some weight! Some of the teachers I teach with are hands down amazing. They have great rapport with kids, have wonderful teaching skills, and just have a feel for what they are doing and they are just wonderful individuals who share their resources and time and energy. A couple of them are decent solid teachers, but are less generous of spirit. And then there are the just plain odd balls. Hawai'i is a place that attracts unusual people. People have to be adventurous to chose to live on a live rock in the middle of a giant ocean. And Hawai'i has always had its folks who listen to not only a different drummer, but a whole different kind of music than anyone else has ever heard. I teach with a couple those folks. I teach with Professor Binns for one class. You know the kind of teacher that is completely oblivious to whether or not the kids are engaged or interested. Yeah, that guy. I'm going to have to inject some life into that class as it's boring me to tears too!
I miss my wife like mad. I miss my friends like crazy. I'm meeting people, but it takes time to forge deeper connections and there just hasn't been enough time yet. I miss my dogs. Like I really really miss my pups. I can't wait until we are all reunited!
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