Pahu as a Vision
I am proud to say that we have come together as a faculty and staff to determine a uniting vision and goal for our middle school students. This work has taken just over a year. Throughout last school year, the teachers of KMS began work on creating a vision for the middle school. We began in the fall with an appreciative inquiry study that looked into the positive aspects of KS, our Kapälama Campus, KMS, our individual teams, and ourselves. After collecting and analyzing this data, we spent our spring and early summer drawing on those positives aspects. “Drawing,” in fact, was a large part of our work. We were charged with drawing the vision for KMS based on 6 different areas of resonance from our data. These areas were: Mission/Tradition, Teamwork/Communication, Students First, Middle School Concept, Curriculum, and Technology. The leadership retreat in late May was spent revising these conceptual drawings. From the 6 conceptual drawings we began to converge on a single vision. The inspiration for the vision comes from a “middle of the night” revelation of one of our counselors who knew the appropriate image was a pahu. She excitedly met with middle school teacher Brad Cooper, master pahu maker, the following morning. The journey from that point forward was quite fluid. Special care was taken to revisit each of the 6 areas of inquiry data and drawings. A check up was done to make sure everyone’s mana’o was incorporated. The next piece was a photo shoot at dawn. I was blessed to have been included in this inspirational morning. Thus, the pahu you see above. And so the work begins….
Our KMS Mission is to: Shape character, performance, and values to help our students find their unique and individual voices to succeed at Kamehameha and contribute to their communities.
Our KMS Goal: Our goal is to bring about personal excellence in each of our students.
Our KMS Vision: When a student journeys from Kamehameha Schools Kapälama Middle School, his/her inner voice has been nurtured and is now more resilient, recognized and appreciated for its own strength and quality. Every child we work with is in a different space in his/her life. Some will sing and sound as they leave us, while some will only manage the first whispers of their greatness. None will leave voiceless or untouched. Until he/she can sing or sound on his/her own, someone will be there for support.
