Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 3, 1 Malaki 1994 — OHA tutorials help keiki at Kāneʻohe Elementary [ARTICLE]

OHA tutorials help keiki at Kāneʻohe Elementary

Kāne'ohe Elementary Principal Mitchell Otani said the DOE had funded tutoring for grades 3-6, "But our teachers said, 'Hey, our younger students need help, too,' so we applied for the OHA funds." As a result, 1 8 kindergartners and first- and second-graders are tutored from 2:15 until 3:15 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Teacher Aileen Ikei works with kindergartners, parent Brenda Ceria works with first-graders and teacher Shari Miyashiro works with second-graders. "We're very grateful for these funds," Otani says.."I'm happy for any kind of extra funding we ean get." The tutors at Kāne'ohe not only attempt to help the students academically, they also try to make a difference in the personal outlook of the keiki. The idea is to "make them feel better about school and about themselves," Otani says. "Some haven't had preschool, but hopefully

we ean catch our kids early and get them feeling good about school." Aileen Ikei, who has been helping her kindergartners with letter recognition, is seeing progress in the students she tutors. For example, she says, "Alika could write his name, but he didn't know all the letters. Now he does, and I think that's an improvement for him." The teachers have a heavy workload, their salaries are very small, and they get paid a great deal less for tutoring. So why do they opt to assume the extra task of tutoring their students after school? Says Ikei, "I ean see how mueh help they need, compared to the other kids. I can't drill them in class, and it doesn't seem like they're getting the help at home, so I thought I might as well try and help." As Otani says, "Nowadays that's all you ean do. Try. And work the best as you ean with the kids.