Tag Archives: Hawaiian Teachers

Gladys Kamakuokalani Brandt: A champion of Native Hawaiian Culture

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Gladys Kamakuokalani Brandt: A Chalkboard Champion for Native Hawaiian culture.

Many hardworking educators dedicate themselves to social causes of importance in addition to their classroom responsibilities. One of these is this beautiful lady, Gladys Kamakuokalani Brandt, a Native Hawaiian teacher.

Gladys is old enough to have attended the funeral services in 1917 of Queen Liliuokalani, the last reining monarch of Hawaii, and still young enough to witness the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 which precipitated World War II.

When Gladys began her career as a teacher, she worked in public schools. Eventually she became an instructor at the prestigious Kamehameha Schools, a private institution set up to educate Native Hawaiian students.

As a youngster, Gladys was deeply ashamed of her Hawaiian heritage, so much so that she rubbed her face with lemon juice to lighten her complexion. By the time she became the principal of Kamehameha Schools, however, she had resolved to fight tirelessly for the inclusion of courses to preserve Native Hawaiian culture. She supported instruction in Hawaiian language, song, and the controversial standing hula dance which had been forbidden by the school’s trustees. The story of her work is an inspirational one.

Equally inspirational is the story of the dedication and sacrifice of Hawaii’s teachers in the days and weeks following the bombing of Pear Harbor. From serving as ambulance drivers, setting up shelters for survivors, teaching their students how to use gas masks, taking their students into the sugar cane fields to harvest the crops, and re-establishing some semblance of order for their students when school resumed, their deeds are truly remarkable.

You can read about Gladys and her fellow Hawaiian teachers in my book, Chalkboard Champions:  Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students.

Retired kindergarten teacher Erma Paloma was active even in retirement

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Retired kindergarten teacher Erma Paloma from Corona, California, was active, even in retirement.

Many excellent educators continue their many hours of dedicated service to the community, even after they retire. One of these was Erma Mieko Paloma, a former elementary school teacher from Corona, California, who maintained a very active lifestyle of volunteerism, even in retirement.

Erma was born in Hawaii on August 11, 1942. She worked for many years as a kindergarten teacher at Washington Elementary School in the Corona Norco Unified School District. Her career spanned nearly 34 years.

After Erma’s retirement in 1999, she became very active in her community’s Woman’s Improvement Club. And for more than 20 years she expertly handled the responsibilities of Treasurer for her local division of the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA). She also served on that organization’s Scholarship Committee, and attended the annual conventions and workshops to hone her volunteerism skills. For her dedication and many years of service to CalRTA, Erma garnered the coveted Martin Mathieson Award. In addition to her work with CalRTA and the Woman’s Improvement Club, Erma worked with the Girls Scouts for many years. In fact, she served as the president for the San Gorgonio chapter. In her leisure time, she traveled frequently to Hawaii and Japan to visit family.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away on March 7, 2020, in Riverside, California. She was 77 years old.

Cecilia Chung: Hawaii’s 2020 State Teacher of the Year.

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Sixth grade teacher Cecilia Chung has just been named the 2020 Hawaii State Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations go to Cecilia Chung of Ewa Beach, Hawaii! She has just been named her state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

Cecilia currently teaches sixth grade teacher at Ka’imiloa Elementary School in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. She has taught there since 2013. For the previous two years, this talented educator served her school as their technology integration coach for grades K-6.

The honored educator says she began integrating technology into her lesson plans when she was asked to pilot a 1:1 Chromebook Initiative in her classroom. She confesses that she loves to use technology to draw out student ownership and empowerment. To do this, she says she uses G-Suite Apps, game-based learning, BreakoutEDU, and project-based learning.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Cecilia is a mentor and inspiration to her fellow educators. She has organized and led a variety of workshops for the educational community. She has been featured at the Schools of the Future Conference, EdCamp for West O’ahu, and the Ed Tech Conference for Kamehameha Schools. Cecilia has also been named a Hawai’i State Teacher Fellow. In this role, she works with public school teachers to improve their leadership skills, to empower them, and to elevate the teaching profession.

Cecilia earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California in 2013. She earned a Master’s degree in Elementary Education at Johns Hopkins University in 2015. She has also completed study abroad courses through Meiji University in Japan (2010) and Yonsei University in Korea (2012).

To read more about Cecilia, click on this link to her story on the web page for the Hawaii Sate Department of Education. You can also view this short YouTube video below.

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of Hawaii’s Kamehameha Schools

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Princess Bernice Pauahi

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the founder of Hawaii’s Kamehameha Schools.

While conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about numerous types of schools that I had never heard about in my thirty-odd years as an educator. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, specialist schools. Where were all these terms when I went through student teaching? One type of school I learned about that I found particularly intriguing is the Kamehameha School located in the beautiful state of Hawaii.
Kamehameha Schools were first established in 1887 at the bequest of Bernice Bishop, also known as Princess Pauahi, a member of the Hawaiian royal family when the state was still a territory. Princess Pauahi and her beloved husband, an American named Charles Reed Bishop, had no children of their own, and so when she passed away in 1882 at the age of 52, she directed that her vast estate should be used to benefit and educate underprivileged Native Hawaiian children. Two schools were built: one for boys and one for girls. Eventually the two schools were merged to form a coed school, now located on a six-hundred-acre campus on the main island of Oahu overlooking Honolulu Harbor.
Kamehameha Schools serve the important function of preserving Native Hawaiian culture, history, and language. One of the ways this is done is through the annual choral competition known as the Kamehameha Song Contest, where traditional Hawaiian songs and dances as well as new compositions in the genre are performed by the students. This is a wonderful tradition that goes back 45 years.
When I think of Chalkboard Champions, my first thought is of teachers, of course, but individuals such as Princess Pauahi who support schools financially and with their volunteer hours are also heroes to our students!

Read more about Kamehameha Schools in my book Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon.

Hawaii’s Vanessa Ching named State Teacher of the Year

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Meet Vanessa Ching, a middle school educator from Hawaii who was named the 2018 Teacher of the Year for her state. Vanessa graduated from Baldwin High School on Maui. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a double major in Elementary Education and Special Education. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching Leadership from the National University at San Diego and, in addition, has been named a National Board Certification in Literacy, Elementary-Middle Childhood.

In a career that has spanned 14 years so far, Vanessa inaugurated her life as an educator with the Hawaii State Department of Education as a Special Education teacher for grades K-6, teaching at Pearl Ridge, Aiea, Alvah Scott, Webling, and Waimalu Elementary Schools. Then she accepted a position at Ewa makai Middle School where she serves as the Student Activities Coordinator, Green Initiatives Coordinator, and Student Leadership and Yearbook Advisor.

“Vanessa has made a tremendous impact on the culture at Ewa Makai Middle as coordinator of Student Activities and Green Initiatives, teaching students to reduce their carbon footprints and that of the entire school,” commented Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto. “Ewa Makai is the only school statewide to have won the National Green Ribbon School certification,” Kushimoto continued. “Vanessa has done amazing work to improve the school and the Ewa community through her teaching,” the Superintendent concluded.

Vanessa’s principal, Kim Sanders, agrees that the honored teacher has been a great asset to the school. “Developing a culture of environmentally conscious students, community members, and parents, Vanessa worked to designate Ewa Makai Middle as a plastic-free school and won a refillable water station in a national contest with a powerful PSA,” Sanders remarked. “Vanessa and her students wrote grants to develop an organic garden, aquaponics, and a composting program towards becoming a waste-free school.,” Sanders described. “Her dedicated work has been an incredible learning opportunity for our students, and our entire campus and community have been improved as a whole,” Sanders concluded.

For more about this amazing educator, see the video below: