Benefits of attending the Aupuni Palapala Kūpa`a Collective Professional Development sessions:
Learn more about Nā Honua Mauli Ola, a Native Hawaiian model for health and wellness
Learn how being informed can help families, communities navigate pathways to their health and wellness into their own hands--through preparation, and practice?
Are you interested in seeing how powerful it is to create teams that come from various disciplines together?
Would you like to see a model for transforming teaching through inter-connected, interdisciplinary curriculum?
Are you interested in finding culturally responsive, indigenous `ike Hawai`i connected curriculum to learn from the past in moving forward?
Receive an introductory dive into navigating this Kūpa`a Collective Resource Website
Are you interested in how to navigate this novel coronavirus in the face of the upcoming flu season?
If any or all of these areas of growth are of interest to you, we invite you to join our Aupuni Palapala & Kupa`a Collective sessions register and read more in the posted flyers below:
These sessions designed to support educators in building a foundation of understanding that can demystify the mixed messaging that is out there, so that we can all come to common understandings on how to pale--protect, and keep our loved ones safe in navigating through this time of great unknown. At the same time, these sessions can also build overall community understanding, which is important as Flu season will soon be upon us and as Governor Ige moves forward with plans to reopen schools to face-to-face options, and as travel is also about to reopen.
We hope you will be able to join us! Don't forget to share/forward this registration information with others.
Read more from our guest blogger, Aupuni Palapala's Stacy Prellburg about their initiative to transform educational spaces.
Guest Post by Stacy Prellburg
October 4, 2020
What images come to your mind when asked: What is “place-based” education? In Hawai`i, place-based education is more than just being in a place, it goes deeper, and has multiple layers. It is about building a connection, a reciprocal relationship, about being intentional in place, and having an increased level of consciousness. To address the great capacity that place holds to be a kumu--a source of knowledge, a growing number of community -based initiatives are dedicated to delivering Hawai`i-based education. One in particular, Aupuni Palapala (AP), is reaching out to educators to provide Hawai`i based professional development to strengthen these multiple-dimensions associated with our sense of place.
Who is Aupuni Palapala? What do they do?
Did you know that the Hawai`i Board of Education (HBOE) recognizes the importance of bringing `ike Hawai`i into every classroom? In HBOE Policy 105-7 it states:
However, With so many Board of Education policies, a valuable policy like this may go unnoticed.
By partnering with the Department of Education's Office of Hawaiian Education, and UH Manoa's College of Education, Aupuni Palapala's goal/objective/vision is to increase awareness of this policy as well as to provide support in making this policy accessible and tangible to educators as a `ike Hawai`i pathway towards transforming education.
Towards this end, Aupuni Palapalaʻs mission is to increase knowledge and implementation of Hawaiian values, language, culture and history within Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE) classrooms across ko Hawaiʻi paeʻāina. This work is accomplished by providing teachers with professional development opportunities that center ʻike Hawaiʻi as an essential component for learning in all classrooms.
Eōmailani Kukahiko, and I are the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa faculty members of Aupuni Palapala. We work together with current staff members Kaleipua Furtado-Gaspar and Kaʻula Krug, to fulfill these agreements set out by HIDOE, OHE, UHM-COE:
Explore and design appropriate professional development opportunities…
Develop a multi-year plan for professional development…
Create, administer and support statewide professional development opportunities with a focus on Hawaiian studies, language, culture, and history.
Why is this important?
The changes in our lives associated with COVID-19 have been, fast, at times drastic, and full of unknowns. Aupuni Palapala is committed to supporting teachers and students through Hawaiian studies, language, culture, and history. As an organization, we quickly adapted to these changes switching from in person professional development opportunities to providing remote, virtual interactions.
At times it was hard to know which way to go, but we were dedicated to holomua--moving forward, moved by all the people in our pae`āina to develop foundational community based connections built on aloha and ʻike kupuna. It’s inspiring to see how the Hawaiian community continues to be prepared in uniting and sharing ʻike with one another--in the spirit of ‘A‘ohe hana nui ke alu ‘ia. No task is too big when done together by all. This is all accomplished in the name of keeping everyone connected and safe. In a way, the moment we became physically distanced, learning about the values, knowledge, history, and wisdom of Hawaiian people became accessible to us all, in virtual spaces.
Aupuni Palapala believes in the foundational power that exists in connecting people to each other, to the `āina and to the community. With so many individuals, and groups creating learning opportunities and resources we actively seek to provide multiple learning opportunities that fall under our current, and timely theme for the school year 2020-2021: Developing a Strengthened Sense of Total Well-being. Teachers that engage in these learning opportunities will demonstrate two major actions:
Making choices that improve the mind, body, heart and spirit for themselves and their students.
Meeting the demands of school and life while contributing to the wellbeing of family, ‘āina, community, and world.
**Want to learn more about this Strengthened Sense of Total Well-being? Check out Nā Hopena Aʻo.
Don't forget to join the Kūpa`ac Collective and support the development of a Strengthened Sense of Total Well-being and Hā through Hawai`i-based education.
Here is additional information about our upcoming professional development opportunities:
If you are a teacher, cultural expert, educator of a different form, and you want to put on your own professional development and need a sponsor/host, then contact Aupuni Palapala at: opualii@hawaii.edu to set up a meeting. Eō and Stacy are always looking for opportunities to collaborate, organize, sponsor, and share.
For inquiries, you can also email them at opualii@hawaii.edu.
Join the collective and help make education in Hawaiʻi strengthened by a sense of total well-being and Hā.