Video Conference with Hawaii

The Yr 7 & 8 extension had the privilege of video conferencing with two other schools in Hawaii. Our first school was Nanakuli Elementary School where all the students are instructed in the Hawaiian language. The second school was Kea'au Elementary and it is located on the island of Hawaii. For every school, there was a presentation about the school to share to the other two.

Pt England was the first to share and we decided to create a Google presentation to explain a bit about our school and our country, Aotearoa. After the presentation was shown, there was time for questions from Nanakuli school. Mrs Lagitupu talked a bit about Manaiakalani and where the word originated from before we had some time to talk about our chromebooks. Even though they use digital technology for learning, they are not able to take it home with them, so their work finishes when they leave the classroom.

Next, it was Nanakuli ES' turn to present, they chose to make a movie instead of a presentation. The movie had someone talking in the background while it showed footage of the school. Their school goes from Kindergarten up to grade 6, during the movie we got to see the kindergarten class and the grade 2-3 classroom. Most of the student's first language is English but they are taught Hawaiian so that the language is not forgotten.

Last to present was Kea'au ES and like us, they created a presentation with information about their school. Kea'au ES has 870 students that attend and it ranges from kindergarten to grade 5. The students that we video conferenced with were 5th graders and they had turns are explaining what was on the presentation. One thing that was really interesting is, in their area, there is a lava flow through where they live. They get lava updates daily to say where it has been and where it is going next. Some students in that class have had to move from their home to somewhere else because there had been pieces of lava out on their lawn. It is very dangerous.

One of the main reasons why we called is because the Hokulea two sided waka is sailing to Pt England shore on the 24th March. The Hokulea is from Hawaii and they are trying to prove to the world that using traditional ways to navigate. They have no GPS or modern technology, just the stars and the sea swells. The waka is coming in the Pt England Beach where all the students (2,500 Kids) from the schools in Manaiakalani cluster will come and welcome them in by a waiata, haka and presentation.