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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Video Conference with Hawaii

The Yr 7 & 8 extension had the privilege of video conferencing with two other schools in Hawaii. Our first school was Nanakuli Elementary School where all the students are instructed in the Hawaiian language. The second school was Kea'au Elementary and it is located on the island of Hawaii. For every school, there was a presentation about the school to share to the other two.

Pt England was the first to share and we decided to create a Google presentation to explain a bit about our school and our country, Aotearoa. After the presentation was shown, there was time for questions from Nanakuli school. Mrs Lagitupu talked a bit about Manaiakalani and where the word originated from before we had some time to talk about our chromebooks. Even though they use digital technology for learning, they are not able to take it home with them, so their work finishes when they leave the classroom.

Next, it was Nanakuli ES' turn to present, they chose to make a movie instead of a presentation. The movie had someone talking in the background while it showed footage of the school. Their school goes from Kindergarten up to grade 6, during the movie we got to see the kindergarten class and the grade 2-3 classroom. Most of the student's first language is English but they are taught Hawaiian so that the language is not forgotten.

Last to present was Kea'au ES and like us, they created a presentation with information about their school. Kea'au ES has 870 students that attend and it ranges from kindergarten to grade 5. The students that we video conferenced with were 5th graders and they had turns are explaining what was on the presentation. One thing that was really interesting is, in their area, there is a lava flow through where they live. They get lava updates daily to say where it has been and where it is going next. Some students in that class have had to move from their home to somewhere else because there had been pieces of lava out on their lawn. It is very dangerous.

One of the main reasons why we called is because the Hokulea two sided waka is sailing to Pt England shore on the 24th March. The Hokulea is from Hawaii and they are trying to prove to the world that using traditional ways to navigate. They have no GPS or modern technology, just the stars and the sea swells. The waka is coming in the Pt England Beach where all the students (2,500 Kids) from the schools in Manaiakalani cluster will come and welcome them in by a waiata, haka and presentation.

8 comments:

  1. HI Ana, I love your stories! :) Keep writing

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  2. Wow! I can't imagine having to keep an eye on lava as it creeps up on my front lawn. Very scary!

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  3. Wow! What a great learning experience Ana.

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  4. Wow! I can't imagine having to keep an eye on lava as it creeps up on my front lawn. Very scary!

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  5. Hi Ana, thanks for sharing your experience. I have learnt heaps from your blog. Keep up the awesome writing :)

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  6. Kia ora Ana. This is a very interesting and well written blog post and has inspired me to research these Hawaiin communities a bit more.
    I am a teacher in a Christchurch school and our students are just learning to blog, so I would love to use your blog as a great example for them to aspire to.
    Fa'afetai.

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    1. Talofa Lava Ruth,
      Thank you very much for your comment, I would like to see your student's blogs as well, I remember when I first started to blog it was challenging but I soon got used to it. Once again thank you :-)
      Ana V

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  7. What an awesome experience for our class as well as those you had a conference with. Isn't technology wonderful?! Talking with students in Hawaii who have the real issue of lava flows through their property - hard to believe!! I'm so glad you had this experience Ana. A good recount with interesting information that certainly keeps the reader hooked. Malo lava.

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