the paper article: First Day of School

Monday marked the first day of summer school with the children of Kamaile Academy in Waianae. Filled with anticipation and nervousness we all packed into two cars and made the three minute drive down to the school in time to see the children in line with their parents for the morning’s breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, a ice cream scoop of rice, three Vienna sausages and a carton of fresh milk delivered that morning. One of the many reasons that the children come to the summer school session is because of the breakfast and lunch that the school provides. At least 300 children attend are attending this year’s summer school session, where the student to teacher ratio in 25:1. Luckily we are able to lend a hand in this year’s session along with the help of students at Waianae High School, which is located just across the street from Kamaile Academy.

We all soon parted and made our ways to random tables of filled with children ranging from kindergarten to ninth grade. I sat at table G 205, where I slowly began to talk to the children around me. Many of them where seven years old and there was also a lone five year old whose mother and father where there to see her off for her first day of kindergarten. After breakfast concluded I found that I was to report to room G 204, where I will be working with second graders in Mrs. Everret and Auntie Rikki’s class (in the Hawai’ian culture many of the student call there teachers auntie or uncle). There, I found out that there was also another student teacher who will be lending a hand. Her name is Sabrina and she just graduated from high school and will be attending a local community college for culinary arts.

A couple of minutes after being in the class I was asked to read the children a book as the teachers sorted out the schedule for the day. All the children were very welcoming and engaged as I read to them. At the end, I had them draw me a picture of where they want to go (I read Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go). After they drew their pictures, I had them come up to share where they wanted to go with the class. After everyone shared the teachers took the children for a bathroom break. As I placed all their drawings back on their tiny tables, I found that one student did not share his picture and instead hid it in his desk. When Auntie Rikki came back I brought it to her attention, only to find out that Kilisou barely spoke any English and that he was from Macaronesia and that many of the students attending the school were in the same situation as Kilisou.

The students were full of energy and up for anything. After a hectic lunch, recess came and the children could not have waited any longer. They dropped their bags and headed for the jump ropes and hula-hoops. After recess, the children assembled back into the cafeterias for final words and goodbyes for the day as their parents picked them up.