6/16/11
When I read about Melissa Timm a bilingual teacher, a major chord resonated loud and clear as I thought about my last 3 years at Ke Kula 'O 'Ehunuikaimalino. While I was not proficient in 'olelo Hawai'i, I continued to work on my language acquisition. It wasn't until I came to 'Ehunui that I saw how very difficult the task was for our haumana to be bilingual. Certainly, Melissa has asked questions that teachers at 'Ehunui continued to struggle with. Along with those questions dealing with the target language across the curriculum, vocabulary, comprehension in the content areas, writing, and then the students attitude, there was always the question of acquiring adequate resources. I am interested in learning what experts say from her bibliography list.
A perfect link was Janelle McCracken's research on the critical point that families must be involved with their child's learning and development. However, our reality was quite reversed from the results of the Delgado-Gaitan and Wong-Fillmore research. We were continuing to look for ways to improve our outreach programs. Nearly all of our Hawaiian Immersion Programs, whether it be charter or not, have a large population of minority part-Hawaiian that are economically disadvantaged and perform poorly on standardized tests.
While I believe the research of Anne Hass Dyson about the influence of music on this generation of children was valid and insightful, but still limited. We could go on facebook or any other social network, or observe the TV programs kids watch to experience the culture of this generation. Music, all of fine arts for that matter, has a far greater impactful role in the whole education of the child.
Finally, I can relate to the metaphor of kindergarten being a tide pool, an entire ecosystem. In the Hawaiian Immersion system, pre-school is Punana Leo, the nesting place where one finds his voice. Malaa'o in Hawaiian is equivalent to the German Kindergarten, the garden of learning. In the Hawaiian Immersion setting, being out on the land in a real garden that is part of the school campus is essential.
Mahalo nui loa. beatrice
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