October 2019 Newsletter
Inside
Education Incubator
Partnering for Positive Change
Our cohorts at Central Middle School and Kāneʻohe Elementary School are off and running on their first round of design work in our Innovation With Aloha Programs! We spent the last month exploring our personal journeys, our cultural and natural environments, and the things that matter to us, and are using those reflections as a foundation to build inventions and innovations to help others in our school and home communities. Even at this early stage in their creative process, we are seeing ideas for such incredible innovations and inventions take shape, and look forward to what the next few months will bring. Mahalo to CMS and KES for putting your youth at the center of designing for transformation in your community, and to school leaders Derek and Anne-Marie for entrusting us with your young change-makers!
Our Project Wayfinder journey continues onward and upward – in one week’s time, we hosted a PW Multi-School training for teachers from various schools and islands of Hawaiʻi, then facilitated an on-site Project Wayfinder training at Kalani High School! We are grateful for all the conversations and connecting that transpired and grew over the course of the week. Mahalo to XLR8HI, our site host for the Multi-School training, for supporting us in our work, and to Patrick and the Project Wayfinder team for trusting us to mālama your vision and mission here in Hawaiʻi.
Grip Tape
Last month, we took another step in our partnership with the amazing organization GripTape by joining the GripTape Research Champion crew. We are learning so much alongside the GripTape team and are so energized by the partnership! To learn more about Griptape and what happens when you put youth at the center, visit griptape.org. We send a special mahalo to founder Mark Murphy for modeling learning-by-doing and youth-driven-learning. You and your team rock!
Our work with Project Wayfinder and GripTape has pushed our EI team to explore new ways of connecting with and empowering young adults and older youth – and now our work with Superpower Academy brings us to a new opportunity to support social-emotional learning, empowerment, and creative confidence building in younger kids! What started as a “let’s get together and see what happens” friendship last year with Superpower Academy founders Pam and Riley has now blossomed into a professional development and workshop partnership. We recently visited Laupāhoehoe Community Charter School to discuss how Superpower Academy kits can support SEL + STEM integration in classrooms, and are looking forward to our PDE3 course that launches in November. Stay tuned for more opportunities to learn about how we teach and learn in the intersection of SEL + STEM — it’s a crazy exciting space to be!
We welcome to the EI family another partner – Ocean Safety ʻOhana and founder Jessamy Town Hornor joined our team a few months ago, and we’re so excited to support the ʻOhana as they launch this first series of official public engagements. Ocean Safety ʻOhana covenes and facilitates a broad cross section of private and non-profit organizations who gather to inform and ensure ocean and outdoor safety education and policy in Hawaiʻi. The ʻOhana launched its first public event at the Schools of the Future Conference, gathering a panel of experts to address the urgent need for curriculum and protocol in education that supports ocean safety, access, and stewardship in and out of schools for the benefit of all keiki and communities. Mahalo to our panelists Duane DeSoto from Nā Kama Kai, Tammie Smith from the Department of Health Drowning Prevention Task Force, Jim Howe from the City and County of Honolulu Emergency Services, Joe Glenn from Hawaiʻi Aquatics, Ben Komer from Leahi Swim School, moderator Miki of Education Incubator and convener Jessamy of Ocean Safety ʻOhana. Follow @oceansafetyohana on Instagram and Facebook for news and next steps, and join our friends for their October 13th events – Nā Kama Kai’s Ocean Safety and Stewardship Clinic and City & County of Honolulu Emergency Services 100 Years on the Beach: A History of Ocean Safety airing on ʻŌlelo Community Media Channel 53.
Sadako’s Story
In honor of Peace Month and the International Day of Peace (September 21), we read three different perspectives of the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese youth who becomes an innocent victim of nuclear warfare. Each book offered a slightly different view of Sadako and her experiences, and we were left wondering — was her story ever told in a way she would agree with? What value (and potential harm or misconception) did each of these perspectives provide to the readers? Which of the stories are closest to the lived experience of Sadako, and which closest to the version of her life she would have wanted us to learn from?
The three books we read are:
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The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki by Sue DiCicco and Masahiro Sasaki
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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
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One Thousand Paper Cranes by Takayuki Ishii
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PD is only
a click away!
Podcast
Ever wonder why your fingers and toes turn wrinkly in the tub? Or how NASA drives the Mars rover? Or how big plants grow from small seeds? This podcast helps find answers to questions like these, submitted by kids everywhere. Tune in – and hear the answers to questions you never even realized you’ve asked yourself deep inside since you were a kid. Teachers and parents – send the show your kids questions, and let us know what happens!
Curriculum Resources
Our friend Raiki from ImaginEx Japan introduced us to the SEE (Social, Emotional, Ethical) Learning program. SEE Learning is described as an education of the heart and mind — developed by Emory University’s Center for Contemplative Sciences and Compassion-Based Ethics in the US in association with the Dalai Lama Trust, this program spans 25 countries and multiple education levels. Building on psychologist Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence in the early 1990s, SEE learning focuses on developing critical thinking, ethical reasoning and compassion, and stresses on commonalities rather than on the differences. We are blessed by our friends who share all types of resources with us – please tell us what you think about SEE Learning, and let us know if you have other resources to share.
Tech/App
Imagine a virtual world where kids can build things for people to explore, and explore creations by other kids — this takes public presentation to a new level! CoSpaces provides space for the youth to create virtually anything, in a world they design from right inside your classroom. If you would like to talk to some Hawaiʻi educators who have used CoSpaces in their classes and projects, let us know – we can share our own stories and get you connected to our friends at Janus Group who are leaders in this area in Hawaiʻi (and around the world!). If you are already a CoSpaces user, we would love to hear from you so we can continue our own learning journeys into what’s possible in this digital creation space!
Consider joining us
at these
upcoming events:
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October 14 – We are excited to have been invited to present a session on youth- and community-derived solution-generation at the 36th Annual Elders & Youth Conference hosted by First Alaskans Institute.
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October 23 – Thank you to Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce and Panel Moderator Omar Sultan of XLR8HI for inviting us to participate in the Business of STEM Hui Holomua Business Festival.
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November 2 – Join us in a conversation about the maker movement and what makes a makerspace, and for a peek at the brand new Minnie Kosasa Design Labs and Learning Commons at Punahou School. Hawaiʻi Maker Movement Symposium hosted by A4LE (Association for Learning Environments) Hawaiʻi.
Featured Contributor:
Joshua Fuller
via Catchafire
With over a dozen years working in startup and high-pressure working environments, Joshua’s specialties include video production, graphic design, website design and management, market research, go-to-market strategy, and general project management. He holds a B.A. in Communications as well as a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), both from The University of Alabama. He currently (and happily) resides in San Diego, California.
As part of our Catchafire connection, Joshua focused on transforming our second year of programming videos and photos into a story we can share with the world. Mahalo Joshua!
P.S. Fun Fact – Joshua was born in Alabama, and was literally raised in the house Forrest Gump was written in!
Do you love our new logo design as much as we do? Our logo refresh was guided by Chae Ho Lee, a design specialist in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Mahalo nui to Chae Ho Lee for your expertise, and to Jared Kanoa for connecting us! Please let us know if you would like some stickers featuring our new logo – it brings us such joy to see it on laptops, water bottles, notebooks, and cars. Where will we see one next?