Author Reflections

This unit plan enriched my understanding and experience with the type of teaching I am familiar with. This unit plan development allowed me to formalize the desires and thoughts in my heart on paper and exercise. I realized that the creative ways I taught until now helped me create a robust and engaging curriculum. I began with the thought of creating a unit plan that would create a space for appreciating my culture, their cultural practices, and modern sustainability principles. What was created was an interactive, hands-on adventure which evokes more than appreciation, more of a personal kuleana (responsibility and privilege) and pilina (meaningful relationships) to ʻāina (land), traditions, solutions, and each other in their journey in education. The real-world experience and learning about how the past can help inform actions to find solutions to modern challenges is something I could only hope for. 

Visiting sacred places like Paeloko where Maui gathered the coconut husk to make his lasso to snare the sun, and Nuʻu, a place where people were resilient even with historic challenges that forced them to leave their one hānau (birth place). I realized during this unit plan creation, I have had great personal growth. I never wrote a lesson plan and didnʻt know what to do, I didn’t think about the preparation for each would include so much research and organization. I saw myself grow as my unit plan grew. I was always a big picture person but in order to get there I needed to see how to get there. This is where I saw myself grow, it was in the details of telling a compelling story to inspire wonder and personal interest in the students. As someone who never formally taught in a classroom, I didn’t think I could do this unit plan justice and doubted myself. I found that what I thought was a handicap actually is a strength in my teaching. I found that my experience in ʻāina-based education was a valuable asset in creating this moʻolelo. I appreciate the growth I found in this process and look forward to creating more. He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka. The land is the chief; man is its servant. My kupuna guides my hands, and the ʻāina provides the sustenance. In this process, it was apparent how the ʻāina has guided my hands in this curriculum.