Aloha!

What a joy to launch Teaching with Aloha just before a new school year begins! I would like to take the opportunity to briefly introduce this site and what you can anticipate.

The mission of Teaching with Aloha is to encourage and inspire every teacher; so, it’s for the preschool teacher, the homeschooling parent, the college student who is preparing for a teaching career as well as the college professor. If you teach, Teaching with Aloha is for you!

Who I am

I have been privileged to be an educator for more than 30 years in the United States and Taiwan. My experience bridges from administrating a K-12 program to teaching in the secondary level. I have also enjoyed being an Assistant Professor of Education to students preparing for an education career.

It has been my privilege to have been a guest speaker at the East Asia Regional Conference for Overseas Schools, the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children and the Association of Christian Schools International.

I have been married to my wonderful wife for 33 years and enjoy being “dad” to my two sons and their wives and “grandpa” to three grandchildren and one on the way!

Where it all started

The values with which we have created Teaching with Aloha, are found in Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business, published in 2004 by Rosa Say (click on the book to get your own copy). Our values drive our behavior, and Managing with Aloha coaches us to first live with aloha, and then work with aloha, so that we can then manage and lead true to the values we believe in. With Teaching with Aloha we continue the journey.

Who teachers are!

Teachers are unique people! They are passionately devoted to training students’ minds and hearts. In a Time magazine article in 1947, the following was written,

“Considering a teacher’s lot and a teacher’s pay, why should anybody want to be a teacher? Well, there are reasons. In the National Education Association’s monthly Journal, Wisconsin Teacher Dorothy McCuskey recalled a couple of her own: “The day you help Johnny discover that multiplication is really a short form of adding, the day a whole class cooperates to write a poem which expresses the fresh new beauty of a child’s world, you know why teaching holds people. . . . All farmers and even tenders of city ivy pots know the fascination of watching things grow. But for the teacher it is not things—it’s people.”

California Schoolmarm Kathryn H. Martin, in the educational magazine Clearing House adds,

“People who are too smart rarely make good teachers [because they] can’t understand why other people make so many mistakes. . . . If I didn’t remember how I felt about long division, I’d go berserk some day when I see ‘there’ and ‘their’ mixed up for the one-millionth time. . . . The most interesting thing about teaching is not what-you already know, but how much you learn and need to learn. A teacher who ‘knew it all’ would be nothing but a sad automaton, but I’ve never met one. Most of us don’t know very much, but we keep on trying because the children insist. . . for the teacher it is not things—it’s people.”

Have you experienced times when it teaching became focused on things? I do! I remember many examples where I was most concerned with getting information accurately and comprehensively delivered. The life of the lesson was killed for the student and me. But, I also recall lessons that were taught from my heart into the hearts of my students; there was such a difference! These memories have led me to conclude that effective teachers are heart to heart people.

Teaching subjects or students

I have often encouraged my teachers with this thought, “We teach students not subjects.” To grasp the difference is vital to becoming an effective teacher. Before and throughout a school year, the teacher’s heart must be prepared before lesson planning, setting class management goals and organizing schedules. As important as these are, they should flow from the heart of the teacher. When a teacher’s heart is dry, lessons are dry. When a teacher is excited about her students learning, students become excited. Teachers are some of the most influential people in the entire world. They continue to influence long after students leave their classrooms.

Teaching with values in mind

When Rosa and I write about educational values, we focus on  values from which a teacher teaches. As these values internally develop in the heart of the teacher they need to be expressed to the students. When the teacher’s heart is disconnected from the actual teaching, students discern this and conclude that either what is being taught is not true or that their teacher is not real.

As a principal and superintendent, I have occasionally noticed that student behavior reflects teacher behavior. Teachers are respected by their students when they respect their class, colleagues and administrators. We believe that incorporating values into teaching is vital to effective and authentic education. Teaching with Aloha encourages the best from students, teachers, administrators and board members. It includes everyone!

Aloha - the spirit within (Courtesy: Rosa Say)

What you can expect

With this in mind, Teaching with Aloha has been written to prepare, preserve, empower, guide, focus and inspire to you to be the very best teacher and leader you can be! The hearts of children are at stake! We must not fail to live up to the high calling we have received. Therefore, it is not a teaching strategy site; there are many, many of those already.

All teachers, regardless of their years of experience, pass through a series of seasons each year. The impact of these seasons can be different each year and unique to each teacher but they are predictably encountered. The New Teacher Center, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has written about this for several years. With these seasons in mind, Teaching with Aloha seeks to offer timely, practical hope and encouragement for you.

A value will be introduced on weekends followed by shorter, related readings throughout weekdays (not every day). For example, Aloha will be introduced the first weekend of August and will address preparing the heart as you anticipate the new year.

Most of the posts will feature the beautiful photography of Rosa Say…a picture truly is worth at least a thousand words!

Questions or comments?

Are you ready for the adventure? Do you have questions or comments? Please feel free to comment; let’s talk story together. I would truly love to hear from you.

Mahalo!

Dean Boyer