Fulbright Gone Glocal

Insane excitement aside, I was beyond honored to be chosen as a Fulbright fellow. This lifelong dream fueled incredible growth in my professional as well as personal life, in the midst of pandemic uncertainty and devastation. This program energized my teacher soul and I was able to inspire not only my students and colleagues, but my own children in the process.

At school I created a computer lending program and wrote a contract so that students could borrow computers, I worked tirelessly with a couple of colleagues to break down classroom computer labs, label laptops, and even drove around the island of Maui to drop off computers and hotspots to students. I implemented a flipped classroom model in my 10th grade English classroom and my students and I tested different resources I gathered from Fulbright fellows during our course. As department chair and mentor to a new teacher in my department, I supported the transition to online platforms and facilitated weekly teacher support groups on zoom. In addition to my Fulbright fellowship, I was chosen as a Hawai'i State Teacher Fellow, connected with PAAC and transformed our school Book Club into a Global Book Club with focus on global issues and literature. We were struggling to get enough copies of books from our school library and my co-adviser came up with a brilliant plan to utilize the DonorsChoose platform for book projects. These projects provided each student their own copies of the books we read, and the club exploded with members. We were one of the only clubs to meet and grow during the 2020-2021 school year.

Personally, it was heart wrenching to watch my two daughters cycle and navigate remote learning. My oldest, in college, moved home from NYC and enrolled in online classes at UH. My youngest, a junior in high school, spent most of the day in her bed with the camera turned off during class meetings. The two supported each other by creating beach day Thursdays and taking tv breaks to watch a show or movie together during the day. The little one applied for the Your Big Year (YBY) virtual travel program and was chosen as one of only fifty participants. This experience pushed and inspired her to collaborate with students from all over the world. It also fueled her desire to transition the school Book Club to a global focus and she started the school's very first student newspaper, The Kekaulike Times.

So, why Gone Glocal... When the little one applied for the YBY program she remarked that it was like Fulbright for her age group. I was so proud that she saw the significance of what I was trying to model! As I wrote my unit plans and shared my various writings and assignments, the term Glocal surfaced often. After dinner one night, as I was creating a jingle for homework about global and local connections, the little one joked that I've Gone Glocal... The three of us had a good laugh and the name remains as a beautiful memory of a tough time that allowed my daughters and I to grow and learn. 🌈🌎