Huakailani Butterflies Amaze Me...

There are times when a student does something, sparked by her care, interest, love or passion for doing something amazing.

I am lucky because I find these "amazing moments" along my Huakailani Journey. By itself the action or idea may seem small but when I look at the big picture, I discover the wonderful hidden meanings and concepts behind it! I discover something amazing that always brings a smile to my face.

"My wonderful butterfly girls...They are amazing!"

In searching for a poem to read at my Mother-in-Laws funeral a few months ago, I came across many poems that remind us to "live and love." They remind us to slow down enough to consider what is real and true and to appreciate the people and things around us.

I won't put off sharing these with you any longer and will seize the day! Here are a few of the amazing moments from my Huakailani butterfly days! I hope you enjoy and appreciate them as much as I do. They are all things that our girls do, not because someone told them to or assigned the work to complete , but because they are self-inspired and motivated to do it.

It tells a lot about the wonderful girls we are raising together (home & school). Cheers!


Was not even sure which girl did this, it just appeared one day!
A little bit of comedy with this moment, the next day here is what I saw!







All of the picture books in the library arranged alphabetically by title, with handmade letter signs to make sure the books get returned in the right place.

ORGANIZATION

 Taking learning to fold an  origami box  to the next level!

DETERMINATION

The work of the student librarians.

SERVICE TO OTHERS


Girls "banding" together to promote keeping our school clean.

COMMUNITY SERVICE WITH A CUP FULL OF CREATIVITY

An Urban Garden Club sprouts up!  An idea implemented by 5-6th graders. They volunteer their time to work in the school garden during recess, but of course Huakailani Girls take it a step further...
a logo is developed,
a blog is started,
a mini school garden market sells vegetables and herbs
and so much more!

The best part, they did this all without a teacher or parent telling them to do it.

MOXIE


And of course the most recent one...
Our school elves that visit every December get acrobatic in their antics. By the end of the day, this appeared below them. A network of scarves and tissues to catch them in case they fall.

COMPASSION

My "butterflies" never cease to amaze me!
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Benefits of Being Outwardly Focus




Benefits of Being Outwardly Focused


Service-Learning can improve character values and responsible 
behavior. 

Service-Learning can improve academic outcomes for students. 
Service-Learning can promote a sense of connectedness to the 
school and the community. 

A sense of connectedness includes:
• Feeling valued by community members
• Feeling responsible for the welfare of the community
• Having pride in one’s community
• A high tendency to take action for the benefit of the community 
(Yamauchi, Billig, Meyer, & Hofschire, 2006)

Service-Learning can promote social-emotional skills. 

Researchers have found that there is a statistically significant impact of 
service-learning programs on multiple outcomes (Deakin Crick et al., 2005; 
Irby et al., 2001; Lerner et al., 2008; Michelsen et al., 2002) including:

• Improved social skills
• Lower levels of problem and delinquent behavior
• Better cooperation skills in the classroom
• Improved psychological well‑being, and a better ability to set goals
and adjust behavior to reach these goals




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What is the "cattiness" level in an all girls classroom?

A classroom of all girls? Anyone who has daughters or is a teacher has experienced "girl cattiness."

Girl cattiness = A lot of "me me me" and at the same time "it's not fair," and "everything must be the same" yet they know that there are differences, "she looked at me mean", "she talked to me in a mean way" ....

The sweetest girls can sometimes get caught saying the nastiest and sassiest things to each other when so and so is not their best friend any more!

So I get asked often doesn't the all-girl environment just ask for a elevated "cattiness" all day long?

At first I was not so sure what would happen because as a teacher I had my fair share of this cattiness amongst my female students in coed classroom. This was my first time teaching in a single gender classroom and was not completely sure how it would be with "girls only."

What I have experienced with my all-girl multiage class is wonderful! The key is the multiage... the girls are balanced out in the different stages/phases they are in. For example, a group of 10 second grade girls in the same classroom all aged 7-8 are all basically in the same stages - what aggravates or frustrates one second grader socially - frustrates the others. The result - Cat Fights!

In our multiage classroom, the ages and stages are dispersed from age 5 - 12. The result, a peaceful, calm harmonious group of girls. With most of the any minor issues occuring amongst girls in the same grade level. Interesting! The younger and older girls all help and support each other and that keeps good manners in check and bad manners out.

We have Friendship Circle twice a week where we talk about conflict resolution (how to productively resolve problems and conflicts with others) and have lessons on topics such as "manners" and " how to share" and basic social skills. Learning how to get along with others and to solve problems is just as important to learning how to read and to do math. That is why I incorporate these lessons into the Huakailani program. Social skills and socialization is so much more important to girls than boys. Girls need to talk and share their feelings. Our environment supports that need.

They all still get along great 95% of the time and you won't find that in any other classroom setting so I am fortunate for that. Lucky me! Each student although different in shape and size fits perfectly into the Huakailani Girl puzzle.

On the other side of the coin - some of you may say "Well - that's not the real world" but there is plenty of time for them to learn to deal with "the real world" later on. Kids have to grow up way too fast these days. This is elementary school and we should support our kids to be kids.

My job is to give them the skills they will need to be able to cope with and to deal with the issues and conflicts that life may present as they grow up. We do just that.