Kuhaulua 1

Encouraging Hawaiian Culture in

History Class

Nehemiah Kuhaulua
Senior Project 2019

Preface

As a kid, I loved to learn about Hawaiian culture. I grew up listening to Hawaiian songs,

learning simple hulas from my aunt who runs a halau and watching May Day celebrations at my

cousins' elementary schools. I didn’t really get into the culture until middle school when I joined
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Kihei Canoe Club, that’s when my love for it flourished. Every week I was learning something

new and gaining more experiences as a student. By the time I was in high school, I was teaching

the younger kids what I learned over the years. While following the footsteps of my kapuna, I

made it a mission to preserve our culture, our heritage. By continuing to share what I’ve gained

from my alaka’i, my mentors who are passing down the torch to me, I can find the next bearer

and keep the cycle of learning strong. I love teaching kids about the culture, walking them

through chants and listening to their small voices grow into one. I realized my passion is sharing

the culture, passing down what I know to the next generation in hopes they can find their love for

it as I did.

My senior project is to teach hulas and chants to the 8th graders in their Hawaiian history

class. We learn history from videos, textbooks, articles, and by sitting at a desk for an hour

taking notes. Well, that’s what I did. We didn’t learn about the cultural side of things as I hoped,

I had to go outside the classroom to learn about it. I want to showcase the things I learned to the

kids and help them understand why the culture is just as important as history. I want to find kids

who love it, who want to dive deeper and learn more about the culture than whats limited to the

classroom. I want to persuade students to join a local hula halau or paddling team so they can

continue to learn and become the next generations alaka’i.

Introduction

Driving Question:

How can I encourage the cultural side of Hawaiian history in the classroom?

Project Goal:
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The goal of my project is to encourage students to learn more about Hawaiian culture

than the history they learn in class. I plan on teaching students hulas and chants that I’ve learned

over the years on days where they don’t go over history. Of course, I’ll go over teaching plans

with Kumu Kane and help out in the classroom when I’m not teaching, just to give the students

rest days. My first plan is to go over a simple chant called E Ho Mai and work our way up from

there. My final goal of this whole project is to showcase what the students learned and

incorporate them into Charter’s annual luau by having them join the high schoolers in dances or

have their own performance. Of course, I won’t force the ones who don’t want to perform, but

the ones who do will join Hawaiian club on Fridays and be apart of the planning. That will be the

last step in my project.

Key Content Knowledge:

My project will cover public speaking and educating. I will be using public speaking by

taking in front of students each day. I’m still not that great at giving presentations or speaking in

front of a class, even if the kids are younger than me, I’ll still be nervous. I want to overcome

that. I’ll be educating the students about Hawaiian culture through hulas and chants that I’ve

previously learned over the summer. There are some paddlers in middle school so I know they

won’t have any trouble learning them, but I need to break it down for the kids who don’t know

any of it. I might have to find new ways of explaining certain concepts and be more patient with

some students because not all students learn the same way.

Mentor:

A mentor that I know will help me is Kumu Kane, who’s classes I’ll be teaching in. If I

ever need any backup to wrangle up the students or to make sure they’re paying attention, I can
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ask him for help. If I get stuck then I can ask him to help me with lesson planning since I’m still

working on those. Another mentor who’s always a strong backbone for me is Mrs. Federoff.

21st Century Skills:

★ Thinking and Problem Solving: This project uses this skill because I’ll have to come up

with different lesson plans and overcome any bumps in the road I may encounter.

★ Civic Literacy and Engagement: The community I’ll be helping the school by educating

the 8th graders about the culture. I’ll also be helping out with the annual luau by

providing more students who want to perform.

★ Communication: There will be lots of communication between my mentor and I and the

students who want more help. I know there will be days where I won’t be in the classes

so I’ll need to tell Kumu Kane ahead of time.

★ Financial and Business Literacy: I’ll throw the classes a pizza party after my project as a

thank you for helping me. I’ll buy two pizza boxes from Costco so I’ll spend about

$20.00 - $30.00.

★ Global Awareness: The whole goal of my project is to get kids more interested in the

Hawaiian culture. I want kids to learn about the culture at a young age so they can grow

up immersed it and hopefully take it farther than within the classroom.

★ Interpersonal: Socializing, something I’m not that great at. Even if these are middle

schoolers, kids ranging from 12 to 14 years old, I still want to treat them as peers and not

as little kids. Of course, I have different relationships with the middle schoolers I know

personally, so our dynamic will differ compared to other students. Even if that’s the case,

I still want to treat the students as friends and have them see me as more like a friend than

a teacher.
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★ Self-Direction: I need to have the motivation to complete this project and tons of self-

direction. Even if I have people to help me, I need to put in the work and effort to see this

project through. My mentors are there for support and to help me if I need it, but in the

end, this is my project and I need to lead things myself.

★ Information: I’ll use information skills to research and gather different components for

this project. As I stated earlier, I’m still learning about the culture myself. Even if I feel

like I have enough knowledge to teach a class, I’ll still need to double-check or elaborate

on certain parts of this project.

Limitations:

There might be some setbacks that I encounter while doing this project such as the kids

not being as enthusiastic about learning the culture and refusing to participate. I will never force

the kids to do something they don’t feel comfortable doing so I won’t push the subject. If only

four or five kids want to dance than I’m fine with that. Another obstacle is lesson planning. I

don’t want to just teach them about the culture and not give context or explain the meanings. On

some days I want to plan something that will help the kids realize that learning about the culture

can be fun and exciting. I can ask Kumu Kane and Mrs. Federoff to help me if I find myself in a

slump. The last limitation is time spacing. I’ll assume the students will pick up the chants

quickly since Eh Hoi Mai and I Ku Mau Mau are easy and very repetitive. However, depending

on how well the kids pick up the hula, since dancing takes the most time despite this one being

simple, than time will be a tight subject. It takes longer to get the movements correctly, I won’t

be looking for perfection, but I do want them to dance by themselves without anyone to mirror

the movements for them. I know teaching the hula will take longer so I need to figure out how to

time the lessons without taking time away from their actual history class.
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Deliverables:

I will be taking pictures and videos of the kids during our lessons . I’ll prop up my phone

while we dance and chant so I can be in the frame while I teach. Each class I’ll record them

chanting then compare the students to the previous class so they can see their progress and

improve in areas they’re lacking. I’ll turn all these videos in at the end and have the pictures

taken of the class on a trifold board to present my project.

Resources and Activities

Resources/Materials Needed:

Material wise, I won’t need anything for the classrooms. However, if the students

participate in the luau, I’ll need to find extra dresses for the girls while boys can wear jeans and

Hawaiian print shirts. My resources are my mentors, Kumu Kane and Mrs. Federoff. When I’m

in a slump and can’t think of ways to make learning fun, I’ll ask them for advice. I might also I

need help wrangling the kids to listen to me, that’s where Kumu Kane comes in to help.

Budget:

I won’t need to buy anything specific for this project except pizza. I want to throw the

students a pizza party as a thank you gift for helping me and food is always a good option. I’ll

buy the pizza from Costco, each box is about $10.00 so depending on the amount of classes I can

teach and how many kids want pizza, I’ll spend about $30.00.

Timeline:

September

● Email Kumu Kane about the project - 8th

● Complete the proposal - 9th ~ 13th

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● Have a meeting about the project and discuss the project - Week of 9th ~ 13th

● Start planning lessons/chants and hulas - Week of 9th ~ 13th

● Complete the expert interview - 10th

● Progress presentation - 20th

● Complete the first blog - Week of 23rd ~ 27th

● Expert interview reflection due - 27th

October

● Introduction to the students - Week of 1st ~ 4th

● Teach our first chant (Eh Ho Mai) - Week of 7th ~ 11th

● Documentation

● Run through Eh Ho Mai - Week 14th ~ 18th

● Helping out in the classroom

● Run through Eh Ho Mai - Week 21st ~ 25th

● Blog 2 - 25th

● Run through Eh Ho Mai - Week of 28th ~ 1st

November

● Documentation

● Introduce a new chant Oli Komo - 4th ~ 8th

● Work on argumentative essay

● Run through Oli Komo - 11th ~15th

● Blog 3 - 15th

● Run through Eh Ho Mai - 18th ~ 22nd

● Final argumentative essay due - 22nd

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● Run through Oli Komo - 25th ~ 29th

December

● Documentation

● Run through Eh Ho Mai - 2nd ~ 6th

● Blog 4 - 6th

● 2nd project presentation - 6th

● Run through Oli Komo - 9th ~ 13th

● Blog 5 - 13th

● Introduce hula basics -16th ~ 20th

● Hula basics - 23rd ~ 26th

January

● Documentation

● Practice for the luau every Friday

● Run through Oli Komo and Eh Ho Mai - 13th ~ 17th

● Introduce Ekolu Mae Nui - 20th ~ 24th

● Ask the students if they’d like to participate in the luau

● Run through Ekolu Mae Nui - 27th ~ 31st

February

● Documentation

● Practice for the luau every Friday

● Run through Ekolu Mae Nui - 3rd ~ 7th

● Gather students who want to be in the luau for Hawaiian Club

● Run through Ekolu Mae Nui - 9th ~ 14th (final week)

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● Final Project Reflection due - 14th

● Work on final presentation

● Final Presentation & Trifold due - 21st

● Thank you pizza party to the students - 24th ~ 28th

March

● Luau prep - 2nd ~ 6th

● Luau - 7th

Annotated Bibliography

Frondeville, Tristan de. “How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class.” Edutopia, George Lucas

Educational Foundation, 3 Aug. 2009, https://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-

participation-tips.

After reading this article, I can conclude that it’s beneficial for keeping kids engaged in
the classroom. The tips and tricks explain how running a classroom full of middle
schoolers can be hard, but with the right words and actions is easy. A tip that I’ll
definitely use is having a supportive classroom. Another tip is creating teamwork tactics
that emphasize accountability. I want the students to be able to help each other when I’m
with other kids, so by working as a team, things will run more smoothly.

Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. “Preserving Culture and Heritage Through Generations.”

PDF. May 11-14, 2014. Istanbul, Turkey.

http://amf.net.au/library/uploads/files/Diversity_Matters_Forum_overview_and_theme_s
ummaries_2014.pdf

This article gives insight on why it’s important to preserve a culture. The appreciation of
cultural heritage should be communicated through education in this global society and it
should be encouraged. It’s a way to safeguard tangible and intangible heritage. To keep
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the culture alive and to keep it relevant we must practice regularly and learn within
communities and between generations. We need to preserve what’s important because
cultural heritage could die out or disappear without any help, by safeguarding the culture
we’re transferring knowledge, skills and meaning to the next generation so they let it live.
This is what I want to accomplish by the end of my project, for the kids to know where
they come from and to know at least a bit more about their heritage so they can take
action and became an alaka’i.

“Section 1. Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities.” Chapter 27.

Cultural Competence in a Multicultural World | Section 1. Understanding Culture and

Diversity in Building Communities | Main Section | Community Tool Box,
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culture-and-
diversity/main.

This article gives insights on why learning about culture is important and helps build a
community. Learning about one's own culture forms a bond to where a person comes
from, influences their views and values, and it also finds similarities in other people’s
cultures. Communities are easily built through cultures by finding common interests and
working together to overcome racial and ethinic conflicts. By learning about the culture
we live in or where we come from it gives us an appreciation for the communities form
around us.