Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 7, 1 July 1990 — Teacher does field training in Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Teacher does field training in Hawaiian

first in state

When Nako'olani Lee Loy Warrington was a child in the Keaukaha Hawaiian homestead in Hilo, some 20 years ago, it was illegal to use Hawaiian to instruct students in Hawai'i puhlie schools. This May, Warrington completed her UH-Hilo teaching certificate at Keaukaha Elementary School, her alma mater, doing her student teaching in Hawaiian, rather than in English. She is the first teacher in the state to do field training entirely in Hawaiian.

Warrington, an Hawaiian homesteader, runs a tropical foliage business with her husband in Pana'ewa. She completed her teacher training with a perfect 4.0 grade point average while juggling school, family, life, part-time employment, and the farm. Warrington credits her success to the support she received from her social-worker husband, Charles Kupihea Warrington, and their three children Kaliko, Kupihea, and Kinohi. She is committed to giving back to the Hawaiian eommunitv that nurtured her.

"It is exciting to see the progress we are making in education through Hawaiian" says Warrington. "My parents (Genesis and Elizabeth Lee Loy) have long been involved in exercising our Hawaiian rights and responsibilities. Their strength of conviction and dedication has helped inspire me to achieve this goal — setting a precedent in teacher-training." She says that since Hawaiian is one of the two official languages of the state, it is appropriate that teachers have a right to be trained in either Hawaiian or English.

Choosing Hawanan was not easy for Warrington. Fellow education students warned her that being trained in a Hawaiian-speaking class might harm her job prospects in Engiish-speaking schools. She was not worried because she knew the teaching techniques are the same in any language. She says English skills have been strengthened by her long study of Hawaiian.

Rather than hurting Warrington's job prospects, her teaching under the Hawaiian medium/immersion program impressed her professors. In May, Warrington wasdeclared the UHHilo's outstanding elementary education graduate based on her pioneering performance in Hawaiian medium/immersion teaching. The biggest problem in doing her student teaching in Hawaiian was the laek of Hawaiian-speaking

faculty in the UH-Hilo education program who could evaluate her. The problem was solved in eo operation with the new UH-Hilo Hale Kuamo'o Hawaiian Language Center. Hale Kuamo'o Director Kauanoe Kamana provided student teacher-evaluator Elmyra Tamashiro with translation service both at the Keaukaha School and for videotaped and audiotaped material.

Warrington did her student teaching in Heanu Weller's kingergarten. Most of the children entered with no knowledge of Hawaiian. At the end of the school year, the children chattered away in Hawaiian as if they had always spoken their ancestral tongue. All class lessons were in Hawaiian; from mathematics and music to reading and writing. None of the children have forgotten English. Instead, there is good evidence that the Hawaiian immersion strengthened their English skills.

The success of the program has drawn considerable attention. While Warrington was doing her student teaching, her class received visitors from Europe, French Polynesia, loeal Hawaiian communities, and Native Amenean tribes. Warrington's goal of opening the way for other teachers to train in Hawaiian seems assured.

There are several Hawaiian speaking students from UH-Hilo helping in Hawaiian immersion classes this year who plan to become teachers. "l'm proud our UH-Hilo education program and Keaukaha Elementary School are taking the lead in extending teacher training to include Hawaiian," Warrington said. Developing this program takes special commitments, extra training, and hard work, she says, but the goal of high quality academics within the context of language and cultural survival is certainly worth it.