 Crossroads in Learning. I am your host, Keisha King. Here we have conversations that are real and relevant, especially as they pertain to education. And boy, what a topic education is right now. For many across the state of Hawaii, today was the first day of school in some format, whether you were an online student, in-person student, or if you are just preparing for your first classes that will happen this week. This is the time to talk about a hot topic, education. With us today, we have a guest who is an educator in the classroom for Hawaii Department of Education, Kevin Sledge. He's going to share with us all the activities and teachings that he is involved in. And then maybe we'll get his opinion on the DOE versus the governor and the mayor and the HSTA. There's a lot going on in education right now. And we want to say, everyone, please take a deep breath. We know that this is something that is challenging, but it is possible to handle this. And so we're excited to have you with us today. Please welcome with me Kevin Sledge. Aloha, Kevin. Aloha. All right. So good to see you. Kevin and I are on several, well, at least one group together. And we chitchat about the things happening in education here in the state and across the country. Kevin, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us where you're from and what you do. Hey, of course, my name is Kevin Sledge. I'm originally from North Carolina. I've been here in Hawaii for six years now. I'm in my seventh year. I've been teaching for six years, again, in my seventh year here at Waipahu High School. I came to Hawaii as a member of Teach for America, if you're familiar with the organization. It's a two-year commitment to teach in high-needs schools all across the country. So you apply and you choose different regions that you'd like to possibly teach in. One of my first picks was Hawaii. Yeah. Also, one of my first picks was Miami. And I was sure that they would send me to Miami because of my background in Spanish. I have a master's in Spanish, bachelor's and a master's in Spanish. So I was sure that they would send me to Miami. And I love Miami. But I put Hawaii because I've always been fascinated by the place and the people. And prior to coming with Teach for America, I had not been to Hawaii before. But just things that I had read and things that I had seen and media and TV. I was just inspired to want to learn more about the place and the people. And so I put that down on my application for Teach for America. And happily they sent me here. And I have loved it ever since. Wonderful. Teach for Hawaii, I'm sorry, Teach for America is often a two-year program. And so I understand what made you come. What made you stay? What made me stay? Well, I came here with Teach for America not exactly like most of the members of Teach for America. So most of the members of Teach for America are straight out of undergrad. They want to have experience to be able to put maybe on their resumes as they go off to do other things. But I had already been out of undergrad. I had already finished with my masters. And actually I had been teaching for two years already in North Carolina back in my hometown. And that's why I learned about the program. Some teachers were placed in the area of my hometown to Teach because it's a high needs area. And so I learned about the program from them. And I decided to apply because I again was fascinated and excited about the prospect of learning a different place, let alone Hawaii. And what kept me here was the relationships that I was able to build with people here. I have such a feeling of ohana. The school community has embraced me and I feel very grateful and humbled and and lucky to have been able to cultivate those relationships throughout my time here. Yeah, it is all about relationships and education. So tell us, I understand you have a master's in Spanish. What exactly do you teach at Waipahu High School? I teach Spanish at Waipahu High School. Okay. I teach mostly Spanish, but as of year before the last, I also began teaching natural resources core. And so that's a class, kind of like a freshman seminar for our freshmen who are in our Natural Resources Academy here at Waipahu High School. So Waipahu High School is a wall-to-wall academy student. Each and every student is a part of some academy or another. And so I work with our Natural Resources Academy students, namely the freshmen. Okay. So you've had the opportunity to watch students matriculate from ninth grade to senior year and beyond in six years. So what has that experience been like for you to see that process take place here? It's been a bit surreal and rewarding. It's amazing to see students flourish and figure out what they want to do with their lives. It's a privilege to be a part of that. I was also the class of 2019 student class advisor. And so that class, they were my babies. They were my heart. I think about them often. I think about the moments that we have. So following them from freshman year up into graduation is just an experience, emotional roller coaster. It's been amazing to recognize names and recognize that I have the brothers or the cousins of certain students and to build that connection that way, again, with the relationships that I've been able to build. Wonderful. Yeah. Again, you keep saying the key term relationships. And when you build those relationships, it's amazing to watch them grow. Now, coming from North Carolina, can you talk about some of the similarities and differences between that public education system that I'm assuming you matriculated through and what you see here? Well, if I'm going to talk about the differences that I see, I also have to acknowledge just time. There are some things that are available to students in general, whether it's here or in North Carolina, that were just not available when I was going to school. One thing here at White Parker High School, the students have been fortunate enough to be able to graduate with associate's degrees even before they've graduated with their high school diplomas. And that's because we have a pretty good early college system here. And when I was going to high school back in North Carolina, that kind of thing was pretty much just getting started up. And I was fortunate enough to be able to take a college English class when I was in high school. It was nothing like being able to get your associate's degree before you graduate high school. So that's the difference. As far as the school system, academies are big here. I would say, as far as I know right now, they're bigger here than in North Carolina. And certainly when I was going through high school, I wouldn't have known what an academy was, especially in the sense that we know it now, as far as career readiness and college readiness, et cetera. So yeah, I hope that answers the question. It does. It does. It gives us some insight as to what the differences are. A lot of times people will say, we'll ask, how is it different, better or worse, for many people who are coming from the continent as opposed to people who have only taught here or did not attend school here. So it's good to hear. Okay. So you and I recently participated in a discussion. Well, you participated as a panelist and I was an observer. And you were talking about African-Americans in the school system here. And it was such a wonderful conversation. And I wanted you to touch on some of the highlights of that conversation as it pertains to, well, first, tell us the group that you are the advisor for and then explain to us how that came to be. Absolutely. So I am, I have the privilege of being the advisor for Waipaku High School's Black Cultural Club. And it's the first of its kind here at Waipaku. And I don't know of any others anywhere. I'm certain there might be, but I don't know of any right off the top of my head. So that club, that group came about because one day last year during Club Rush, a group of students, they noticed that there were booths for, you know, sports and other interest clubs. And among those things, cultural clubs. And so they saw clubs for Spanish. They saw clubs for Korean. They saw clubs for Chinese and Filipino and Polynesian and Hawaii, Hawaiian. And they thought to themselves, all of these cultures are represented, but we're not represented. And so what happened was they went to another teacher here at Waipaku High School. I'm going to give him a shout out by name, Trevor Lau. They went to him. And what he told them was that they, it would be more appropriate if they were to find a teacher, especially because one or two are available here at Waipaku High School. We don't have very many teachers that identify as African-American, but we're about two or three here. And so he suggested to the students that they come and reach out to one of us. And he told them, since he knew that I was the advisor for the class of 2019, and I enjoyed doing that and being there in that capacity for the students, he suggested that they come and speak to me. And so during lunch that day, I was just out and about. I wanted to go and check out the club rush as well, see what all the clubs were up to. And I came back to my classroom and I was so surprised to see them there. It's on campus, you see maybe one black student here, maybe one black student there, and they're just, you know, all over the place. But when I came back to my classroom, there was a group of maybe, I don't know, 10, 10 or 15 of them, which may seem like a small number, but given that, you know, at Waipaku High School, the black student population is about 1% of the whole population of about 2800 students. So that gives us about 28 black students, right, statistics. You know, 10 or 15 students is pretty significant out of that group. And so I thought to myself, wow, all the black students on campus must be here right now. It was the first time I'd ever seen that. And so, you know, I opened my classroom door and I invited them in and they explained to me what they were thinking. Hey, we see all these clubs, but we don't see anything for us. We don't see ourselves represented. And when they explained that to me, as you and I were saying, you know, before this started, it just made me feel so good that they, you know, they recognize that for themselves. Actually, the truth of the matter is that something like that, a black student club, a black student alliance, black cultural club, that was something that I had been very interested in doing, you know, almost since I've been at Waipakura High School, but I didn't want that to come from me. I wanted that to come from the students. I wanted them to, you know, to want to be a part of something like that. And so I was very happy that they came to seek me out, to reach out to me. And so we got the club started. I've, I want to go ahead and shout out Joyce Brumble, Spanish teacher, another Spanish teacher here at Waipakura High School, who's been super supportive. Tanya Harris, Japanese teacher who identifies as African American, who's been super supportive. Rebecca Sanborn, Rebecca Sanborn, our Kumu Olelo Hawaii here, our Hawaiian language teacher. Just so many people have been super supportive of the club. Wonderful. So it sounds like it was very organically created. And then that the students had the foresight to do it. So are they taking lead roles in the development of the group and activities that you'll do? So the short answer to that question is yes. And I say yes, because I'll have to put that for the moment in the past tense, because last school year, we were having our meetings and we had president, vice president, secretary, all those things. And they would help me to seek out activities going on in the community and ways that they could participate and just impact the community. And so yes, they did have a sort of a say in that way. But then COVID-19 hit and, you know, contact was, was difficult to maintain. Some students moved away, some graduated during that time. And so at this point, right now, I am, you know, as the advisor, I'm working to figure out how to build, you know, the club back up to what it was, especially now that we're, we're going to be distance learning for the foreseeable future. Yeah. Yeah. So I want, we'll get to the distance learning in just a little bit, but considering the influences that you can easily see here in Hawaii from Black culture, especially hip hop culture, talk to us about the intent of the group. Is it to make others aware of that? Or is it just for the group members to embrace Black culture more? It is both of those things. And, you know, I envision it being sort of an empowerment for those students to go out and share and educate about the culture. One of the things that always came up was, like you said, the students themselves, they recognize that students, just general culture here, they engage in what we might perceive as Black culture, you know, the hip hop and the dress and the way of speaking. And so they recognize that. They, they also recognize, you know, that students also engage in things like the use of the N word without knowing exactly the history of that and where it comes from, but they know it because of popular culture, right? And so our Black cultural club students, they recognize this and that was one of the things that kind of motivated them to want to educate people about, you know, what it means to be Black, you know, in the world and also specifically here in Hawaii. And that is something that I am also passionate about myself. So at the end of our conversation today, I'll ask you what does it mean to you to be Black in Hawaii? But before we get to that question, I want to talk a little bit about distance learning. We, as the DOE, as a nation could not have known that it was coming to this, but we got there. And I think we made it through, certainly made it through. Some of us had greater success than others, right? Now we've had the entire summer to prepare for the possibility of distance learning again. And it's inevitable. It's happening for you. Talk to us about your process of transitioning and what that will look like as the school year starts for you tomorrow, right? Yes. So honestly, there are still lots of things uncertain. But as you said, we've had some time to prepare, certainly in the last two weeks, as we've kind of pushed back the return of students to school, whether that's face to face or on virtual platforms. We've had that time to be able to, you know, watch videos and participate in professional development and learn from each other as teachers. And so certainly I have engaged in all of those things. Over the summer, my time was busy spent with participating, you know, I've always been, you know, a lover of cultures and languages and everything. And so over the summer, I engaged in Portuguese language class, Hawaiian language class, Japanese language class, and French language classes. And that was the purpose of that was twofold. One, again, I love languages and cultures and any opportunity I get to learn them, I like to take them. But also, it gave me the opportunity to look at those classes through the lens of a teacher. And hey, this is probably what my classes are going to look like at the start of the school year this year. And so I would take notes and really pay attention through that lens to possible things that I could incorporate into my classroom. And it was a good experience for me. Also, for the natural resources thing, I participated in Malama Learning Center's field school shout out to them. They do a lot in the community to educate students about what it means to be sustainable and Malama Aina to take care of the land and everything. So I was engaged in classes with students in that capacity. And so I kind of learned some techniques for my natural resources students. Do I feel like I am ready for this start of the school year? I'm excited, certainly. And today, just working on finalizing things for my Google Classroom, familiarizing myself with different technologies that we're going to be using, Google Extensions for our meets and different language learning things. So it's a lot of work, but it's exciting to learn how to do these new things to possibly revolutionize what education looks like, not just now, but in the future. How can we use these things once we go fully face to face again, right? Yeah, yeah, because, you know, one of the things I noticed and that I had the opportunity to share with a parent because I too share that excitement. I'm excited as a teacher and the learner. The learning never ends. And so I was explaining to a parent what the process would look like for this week. And I think my letter was very encouraging, but it was also very enthusiastic and reassuring that we're going to do our best to remain safe. But we're going to plunge right through this because this is history in the making. And one day, years down the line, we're going to tell our children what we were doing during the pandemic. Children, grandchildren, generations to come will say, where were you during the pandemic of 2020? And some of us will say we were teaching doing exactly what we love, what we were born to do, what we're here to do. And I could not think of anything else I'd rather be doing. And it seems as though you feel the same way. So yeah, the infighting, some will call it infighting. I just say it's a lot of renegotiation, right? And I think the keyword that there are several keywords. You know, I saw a meme the other day that talked about all the phrases that we're hearing as in education right now, unprecedented times, right? Be flexible, adjust, adjust, right? And so all these words are very true to life as to what's happening to us on a day to day basis. But I think that it's remarkable how teachers have been able to adapt and re-adapt and the so-called renegotiations that we're referring to with our HSTA and so on and so forth. It's kind of like saying, okay, I understand what you're doing. Let's put that in this box over here. And I'm going to stay in my lane and focus on what I do best. And it sounds like you've done it. You've prepared. Now I want to ask you though. First of all, I have to thank you. Thank you for being an educator for one. And thank you for being an African-American male educator. When I was working on my math, yes, indeed, when I was working on my master's degree, I put an emphasis on the disproportionate amount of black male or children placed in special ed. And then the lack of black educators in general, but especially the need for the black male educator. So you are needed here. And we appreciate you being here. Please tell me, what does it mean to you to be African-American teacher here in Hawaii? What it means to me to be an African-American teacher here in Hawaii. I think that it is an opportunity for people to know me. Number one, as a person. And number two, as a black person, an African-American person, there are so many ways that we as black people are portrayed in the media. As I said before, the music that people listen to, they hear these things and they see these things and they think that that is what being black is. But every opportunity to get to know personally on an intimate level, an actual living black person is something that can be valuable. And I think that my presence has been valuable to my students. They can say now, I've had a black male teacher. Exactly. Exactly. And for that, I think that is the perfect way to close to simply say that your students can say that lots before them could not possibly say that. Thank you for being an example of the best of us. And I hope that you will continue to do that. I know that I'll have you back here again at times. And keep doing what you're doing. And tomorrow, I wish you a very happy first day of school online. Thank you. Much success to you and your cakey as well. Thank you so much. You've been watching Crossroads in Learning. And we hope that we will see you again. I've been your host, Keisha King. We want to thank our special guest today, Kevin Sledge. Until next time, aloha.