Dr. David Kupferman and Dr. Brenda Machosky
University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu faculty members Dr. Brenda Machosky and Dr. David Kupferman recently received a $20,000 grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program to create the Kumu Wai Wai: Teaching from the Source program, a series of workshops for secondary teachers at Nānākuli High and Intermediate School. Participating Social Studies and English high school teachers will team up with teachers in other disciplines for the workshops at UH West Oʻahu and develop classroom curricula that uses primary sources from Library of Congress databases. The developed curricula will address Common Core and Hawaiʻi State Standards for implementation in classrooms in early 2016.
In addition to the vast virtual resources available through the Library of Congress, the workshops will also include direct archival work in the ʻUluʻulu Henry K. Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi at UH West Oʻahu. Teachers will learn about archival preservation, cataloguing and research, and the many online and material resources available through the ʻUluʻulu Archive collections.
UH West Oʻahu faculty organizers Dr. Machosky and Dr. Kupferman will work directly with the teacher teams on developing new and engaging curriculum units that fit with existing requirements and address individual teaching styles.
“The Library of Congress has an impressive collection of primary source materials in online formats, from maps to letters and diaries, to pictures,” said UH West Oʻahu Associate Professor of English, Brenda Machosky. “And there is a lot that is specifically relevant to Hawaiʻi. I’m looking forward to learning along with the teachers about the potential of this awesome resource.”
“Kumu Wai Wai gives us the chance to work more closely with teachers from our neighboring high schools on the Leeward Coast who teach some of the largest numbers of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students in the state,” said Assistant Professor of Middle and Secondary Education and Educational Foundations, David Kupferman. “The program also offers an opportunity to share information with teachers in the field about UH West Oʻahu’s bachelor’s degree programs in education that are designed to serve our West Oʻahu area community.”
The Kumu Wai Wai workshops will take place every month from September through November. The first workshop on Sept. 17 will feature Master Teacher Michelle Pearson from the Library of Congress Western Region Teaching with Primary Sources program. Pearson will also present information about the Library of Congress databases and teaching with primary resources to UH West Oʻahu faculty, students and the surrounding community on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 3:30 p.m. in E132.
UH West Oʻahu offers a Bachelor of Education degree in elementary, middle and secondary education and is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.