By Joan Lee Husted, 2021-2022 HEA Board Vice President
Hopefully, we are looking at the end of the pandemic. It will happen if each of us get our vaccinations and ensure that our family and friends get them also. This may be a trying time as we shake off some of the new habits we developed during the pandemic and try to adjust to the new normal we will be living with.
As HEA is about to enter our second century (just saying it makes me proud), we are looking at what we can do that will be good for our members and the keiki we care so much about. We know some things about this new time, and I will talk about a few.
The first is the necessity of being computer literate and social media comfortable. Even with all the restrictions being lifted many of our members will want to continue to stay in touch with loved-ones within the state or across the mainland. Whether we use Zoom, GoToMeeting, Houseparty or FaceTime, etc. Imagine staying in touch with students as they leave your school. What an exciting prospect.
Something else we learned during the pandemic is how much we do not know. HEA will be investing in a vibrant professional development program to help teachers with the newest trends in teaching and school leadership. We will be developing our own programs as well and work in partnership with other organizations such as HSTA’s Hawaii Foundation for Education and the Hawaii Department of Education. Certainly, one of the first courses we are considering is computer literacy for educators.
By all estimations, the Department of Education will begin the new school year with a substantial shortage of licensed teachers. Some schools predict that they may be short half their faculty when school starts.
HEA is doing its part with its Teaching as a Career (TAAC), the successor to Future Teachers of America, and managed by Jacquie Yanagi, a teacher at Waiahole Elementary. There are 19 high schools with career paths leading to teaching. In some of the high schools, there are TAAC clubs which HEA financially supports with stipends for their teacher advisors. We hope we can do more with our fundraising efforts.
If you left teaching during or before the pandemic and you think you might like to return to the classroom, please give it a serious thought. If you were a licensed DOE tenured teacher, you can return to the same salary step and class you left from and retain your tenure. If you were a probationary 4 teacher, you will gain your tenure with a new contract by reporting to work. If you did not keep your license current or never held a license to teach, you need to contact the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board. Hopefully, the legislature will pass a law that will allow retired teachers to return to teaching while keeping their retirement. It was done in the late 1990s and 2000s.
The next question is what is going to happen to the keiki? Many people forget that schools are more than a place of learning. For many kids they are a place of safety, a place where some keiki can get the only meal for the day and a place where they know that someone cares about them. Often teachers complain that they are nothing but babysitters, but they sell themselves short. One of the saddest results of the pandemic was the number of abused children who were not helped because they escaped the notice of eagle-eyed teachers who would normally spot the abuse, or the unhappy child had they been in a physical classroom. We will need to step up mental health services for our keiki. Indeed, the services for the educators also need to be available.
Stay tuned as the months and years identify what our new normal will look like both personally and workwise and how you can help yourself and others.
