Nov 2021 Newsletter
Inhale to Exhale
At 11:14 am tomorrow, Mahina will be at her 0% illumination phase. We know this to be the New Moon, Mahina Muku. Some say this is the last moon of every moon cycle, others say it is the first. In our practice with Hō Mai Ka Pono, we have come to understand part of the significance of Muku as the moment between malama. It is a time to exhale completely and release the energy of the last malama, and inhale completely to fill ourselves with love and light, as the new malama begins.
Foundations of ALOHA
We invite you to join us for Foundations of ALOHA Cohort 12, which begins on November 7. New and returning members are asked to please register with us at bit.ly/cohort12reg; please feel free to share our information with others who might be interested.
In Cohort 12 we are piloting a new way for folks to join us in our daily practice of ALOHA. Each morning, we will email the daily ALOHA value and a mahina manaʻo; these will also be shared during the daily morning meeting and in the slide deck. If you are interested in receiving this email, please register here (bit.ly/emailfoa). Even if you opt-in to our daily emails, we still hope you join us for the live virtual morning and afternoon sessions!
Another new feature of FOA will be an open invitation to all past participants to collaborate and create content for the Hawaiʻi Online Portal for Education (HOPE) initiative in January 2022. Educators are invited to create digital resources for other teachers, for which you receive stipend compensation as part of a large education grant. Please come to our HOPE Afterschool Express 15-minute presentation on Friday, November 5th for more information.
EI Book Nook
Last month we read Nā Kuaʻāina by Aunty Davianna McGregor. For some of our team, we did not have enough time in the month to finish the book. We have decided to spend November and December catching up on past readings and annotating the shared discussion docs. We will wait to introduce a new book til January 2022. Here are the books we read this year; we invite you to read any and all during the next two months, and visit the discussion docs to engage with others:
- When Grit Isn’t Enough
- The Diaries of Queen Liliʻuokalani
- Doughnut Economics
- Nā Wāhine Kapu
- Braiding Sweetgrass
- Kaiāulu
- Nā Kuaʻāina
HOPE Updates
We are so grateful to the Schools of the Future conference and team for the invitation to meet with educators interested in learning more about HOPE content institutes, professional development, and content creation stipends. Please remember to visit hawaiieducationonline.org for more information.
This week, we are sharing information about a Foundations of ALOHA Content Institute hosted by our EI staff. For returning participants from Cohorts 1-11, we encourage you to join us for Cohort 12, and for the content creation workshops we will be hosting in January. For those educators new to FOA, we ask you to register for Cohort 12 if you are interested in receiving a stipend to create ALOHA-inspired content for the HOPE project.
Another exciting opportunity taking shape is Ocean Safety ʻOhana’s ocean and aquatic safety-focused Content Institute. If you are interested, please fill out this google form to register. Ocean Safety ʻOhana has been working in collaboration with EI for the past few years, with a focus on raising awareness and support for swim safety and ocean education. Click here for ways to support OSO and its work, and to learn the story of inspiration and hope shared by founder Jessamy Town-Hornor. Our friend Jessy launched OSO as a healing venture after the heartbreaking loss of her husband and youngest daughter in an ocean accident in 2016.
Sharing Our Gratitude
Our very first newsletter launched exactly three years ago in November 2018! We are so grateful for your continued support of and interest in our programs. In revisiting newsletters from previous years, we reflected on our journey the last three years – the partnerships formed, the friends made, the programs built, and all the laughter and joy shared. We are so grateful for all that has helped shape who we are today as an organization, as people, and as community. Mahalo nui for your support, guidance, influence, and love.
We also send our mahalo and aloha to Tina as she transitions back to The Estria Foundation, after her 6 months on staff at EI. We look forward to her continued involvement in our programs as a participant and collaborator, and wish her success in her next stage with TEF!