Academics
Middle School
Ho'okupu Service Learning Project & Ed-venture Days
A message from our Middle School team:
Research on learning and development demonstrates a need to connect school with learners’ own lived experiences, to provide students with authentic learning opportunities that include fostering connections to the place and local cultures where the school is located. Our communities are a playground for learning, where curiosity inspires meaningful inquiry. Learning outside the classroom in the “real world” allows students to use their academic experience to better understand their surroundings. By applying concepts in different contexts, students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through experiences working in a loʻi, paddling a river, hiking a mountain, touring the Tesla power plant, or studying Makauwahi limestone cave, students can connect content knowledge to real-life experiences. These immersive experiences enhance their understanding of the world around them and deepens their grasp of ideas they study in a classroom. Experiential learning can also make information more memorable and fun for students! It is a great privilege that at Island School we can bring learning to life in these ways for our students.
Research on learning and development demonstrates a need to connect school with learners’ own lived experiences, to provide students with authentic learning opportunities that include fostering connections to the place and local cultures where the school is located. Our communities are a playground for learning, where curiosity inspires meaningful inquiry. Learning outside the classroom in the “real world” allows students to use their academic experience to better understand their surroundings. By applying concepts in different contexts, students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through experiences working in a loʻi, paddling a river, hiking a mountain, touring the Tesla power plant, or studying Makauwahi limestone cave, students can connect content knowledge to real-life experiences. These immersive experiences enhance their understanding of the world around them and deepens their grasp of ideas they study in a classroom. Experiential learning can also make information more memorable and fun for students! It is a great privilege that at Island School we can bring learning to life in these ways for our students.
Middle School is happy to announce the continuation of our Hoʻokupu Service Learning Project for our second year. Middle School students will work in collaboration with various community organizations to be stewards of the ‘aina. Each quarter, a full day will be set aside where all Middle School students in grades 6-8 will be split into cross grade level groups and will travel off campus at different locations on each side of the island partnering with these organizations. On the North shore, we will work in collaboration with the Waipā Foundation to farm kalo and maintain the Hawaiian Ditch System. On the south shore, we will work with the Malama Maha'ulepu volunteers at the Makauwahi Cave Reserve. For our east side ho’okupu we will work in collaboration with Mālama Hulē‘ia. We will also work on the campus of Island School for an additional location for our east side location. On the west side in Waimea, we will work with Ku Mano I Ke Ala. Our Ho'okupu days for our Service Learning Projects are set for the following dates: September 26, 2024, November 7, 2024, February 20, 2025, and April 24, 2025.
What is new for this school year? Each of these Ho’okupu Days will be followed by a Grade Level Ed-venture Interdisciplinary, Immersive Study Day. These days will focus on incorporating grade level content by subject into full-day excursions. Teachers are designing experiences that connect content areas to relevant places on Kauaʻi to deepen students’ understanding of their academic learning through place. Our Grade Level Ed-venture days are set for the following dates: September 27, 2024, November 8, 2024, February 21, 2025, and April 25, 2025. For the Interdisciplinary Days, we will communicate each grade level’s plan along with the Hoʻokupu for that quarter’s session. Both the Hoʻokupu and Interdisciplinary days are regular school days and attendance is expected.
Look for an email to follow early next week to include permission forms for our first Hoʻokupu and Ed-venture scheduled for September 26 & 27. We are working on a one-time permission form that will be valid for these days and all our off campus travel throughout the quarter. We will be discussing our Hoʻokupu and Ed-venture with students in advisory on September 23rd. In advisory, we will review the agendas for each trip, what is needed for the day and where to meet on campus in the morning for each group. Students will be able to find their group for their first Hoʻokupu then by logging into MyVoyager.
We are looking forward to our quarterly Hoʻokupu & Ed-venture days and hope that students will engage in these trips to develop an understanding of their responsibility to themselves, our school, each other and the greater Kauaʻi community through these partnerships and efforts. These important learning days are not a time to be absent, but instead a time to support your student to engage as fully as possible for their social, personal and academic well-being.
