First Day
So, the first thing I did after picking up my rental car was to head to school. That wasn't my original intention, but I wanted to meet the principal and see the school and make sure I knew how to get there. So I met the principal and the head of Special Education. Both seemingly delightful gentlemen. Chatted with them for about an hour and then headed to the condo. Had the previously documented meltdown, got up and went to work.
Like most new teacher work days, it started with coffee and breakfast. Breakfast was fresh squeezed tangerine juice from the principal's tree, muffins, fruit, including star fruit, and coffee. Then things got real different.
There are six new special education teachers, but only five of us were there. We sat in a circle in the library and it started with a ceremony. Ringing a Tibetan singing bell, and then in the center of the circle was a pair of crossed ti leaves with a coconut bowl in the center. Pouring of water in the bowl as the fresh water is sacred. Um, Toto, we're not in Richmond any more! We started with a Hawaiian language lesson (see list below) and a brief into to local culture. We did a check in/ice breaker/get to know you activity. Typical stuff for most orientation type things, but the odd thing about this is there was zero cynicism. Everyone got into it. Everyone was willing to be open, honest, and real. Do you know how rare that is in education??? People are always just blowing this stuff off. I don't know if it was because we are all strangers in a strange land or risk takers or what, but it was way different from anything else I've ever experienced.
My cohort includes two teachers from Alaska, one from Ohio, one Teach For America from North Carolina, and me. The lady from Alaska has already taught there one semester. She's a former principal and had even started her own school. The rest of us are content area teachers who have to get our Special Education certification. I need to go take the Praxis and start studying for that. I think I'll be taking it in October, so I have plenty of time to study. The gentleman from Alaska has already bought a house. His wife is teaching up the hill at the elementary school. They taught in the Alaskan bush in a native community. WOW. That's just amazing.
We did a lot of actual getting to know one another and started forming real bonds, at least that is the way I felt. It seemed to be reciprocated.
Another totally cool thing, there are views of the Pacific all over the place! Wow. An ocean view. Will I ever get bored with that? I hope not.
Oh, I also have my own classroom. It's got five sinks in it so it must have once been a science room. It's totally gross and I will have to clean it very well (we saw several cockroaches in there!), but what SpEd teacher gets their own HUGE classroom?
Hawaii is a heavily union state, so that has it's own set of issues and I'm sure pitfalls. Our working hours are from 8:15-3;!5, same as the kids for the most part. And they have to pay us for every extra minute we are working. So no covering classes, I'm not even sure if we have duties. We must have duties. How do you run a school without duties? I guess I'll find out. I think I'm on information overload.
Common Hawaiian Words and Phrases (we didn't learn all of these, some of them I already knew)
aloha - love, hello, good bye
mahalo - thank you
ohana - family
kokua - help,
keiki - child
kuleana - responsibility
pono - righteousness, living with integrity
hale - house
pau - end
hana - work
kai - sea
kapu - forbidden, tabu
malama - protect, preserve, maintain
Like most new teacher work days, it started with coffee and breakfast. Breakfast was fresh squeezed tangerine juice from the principal's tree, muffins, fruit, including star fruit, and coffee. Then things got real different.
There are six new special education teachers, but only five of us were there. We sat in a circle in the library and it started with a ceremony. Ringing a Tibetan singing bell, and then in the center of the circle was a pair of crossed ti leaves with a coconut bowl in the center. Pouring of water in the bowl as the fresh water is sacred. Um, Toto, we're not in Richmond any more! We started with a Hawaiian language lesson (see list below) and a brief into to local culture. We did a check in/ice breaker/get to know you activity. Typical stuff for most orientation type things, but the odd thing about this is there was zero cynicism. Everyone got into it. Everyone was willing to be open, honest, and real. Do you know how rare that is in education??? People are always just blowing this stuff off. I don't know if it was because we are all strangers in a strange land or risk takers or what, but it was way different from anything else I've ever experienced.
My cohort includes two teachers from Alaska, one from Ohio, one Teach For America from North Carolina, and me. The lady from Alaska has already taught there one semester. She's a former principal and had even started her own school. The rest of us are content area teachers who have to get our Special Education certification. I need to go take the Praxis and start studying for that. I think I'll be taking it in October, so I have plenty of time to study. The gentleman from Alaska has already bought a house. His wife is teaching up the hill at the elementary school. They taught in the Alaskan bush in a native community. WOW. That's just amazing.
We did a lot of actual getting to know one another and started forming real bonds, at least that is the way I felt. It seemed to be reciprocated.
Another totally cool thing, there are views of the Pacific all over the place! Wow. An ocean view. Will I ever get bored with that? I hope not.
Oh, I also have my own classroom. It's got five sinks in it so it must have once been a science room. It's totally gross and I will have to clean it very well (we saw several cockroaches in there!), but what SpEd teacher gets their own HUGE classroom?
Hawaii is a heavily union state, so that has it's own set of issues and I'm sure pitfalls. Our working hours are from 8:15-3;!5, same as the kids for the most part. And they have to pay us for every extra minute we are working. So no covering classes, I'm not even sure if we have duties. We must have duties. How do you run a school without duties? I guess I'll find out. I think I'm on information overload.
Common Hawaiian Words and Phrases (we didn't learn all of these, some of them I already knew)
aloha - love, hello, good bye
mahalo - thank you
ohana - family
kokua - help,
keiki - child
kuleana - responsibility
pono - righteousness, living with integrity
hale - house
pau - end
hana - work
kai - sea
kapu - forbidden, tabu
malama - protect, preserve, maintain
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