Our Schools • Sanford B. Dole Middle School
Literacy takes role in every aspect of Dole curriculum
| • | Facts about Dole Middle School |
By Adrienne Ancheta
Advertiser Staff Writer
Taped to one wall of Thomas Krieger's classroom is a 6-by-8-foot piece of tracing paper with a student-drawn octopus, jumping dolphin and other bits of sea life. The paper soon will be a colorful mural of tiles, created as a campuswide project for the wall outside Governor Sanford B. Dole Middle School's library.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The mural began last year as an after-school art club project, but it has expanded to participation by the entire school. Students are responsible for making the ceramic pieces of the mural and for doing extensive reading and writing on all aspects of the project, including the sea life it will depict.
Seventh-grade teacher Thomas Krieger displays one of the ceramic tile pieces created by Sanford B. Dole Middle School students for a mural to be displayed outside the library. Students have done extensive research for the project, including the natural history of the sea life depicted.
Involving literacy in all parts of the school curriculum is an imperative for Dole, said principal Evangeline Inoue.
"It's going to be very nice," Inoue said of the mural, which is expected to be completed in a few months. "Even the process of making it — everyone will have their individual parts."
• What are you most proud of? "We are proud of the strong commitment everyone has to drive our literacy teaching and learning to a high performance level," Inoue said. The school is developing its own literacy-based curriculum to expand reading, writing and speaking to all academic areas. Just developing a reform program has taken a lot of work in the past two years, but the faculty decided that creating its own program would better fit the students than adopting an already existing reform model.
• Best-kept secret: Faculty and staff at Dole are talented beyond their teaching skills, Inoue said. Dole's teachers include an actor who appeared in "Baywatch Hawai'i;" a musician who performed for Michael Jackson; a professional model; former University of Hawai'i athletes; a former bodybuilder; experts in martial arts; and dancers.
• Everybody at our school knows: State Rep. Dennis Arakaki regularly attends school meetings and can be seen around campus. He has provided students with opportunities to go on Okinawan exchanges and has been working to create a skateboard park for children in the Kalihi area. Arakaki meets with Dole's students occasionally and has been very visible throughout the community. "I don't have to tell the kids, 'This is Rep. Arakaki,'" Inoue said. "When he comes to school, the kids know him. When they see him they yell, 'Hi, Dennis!'"
• Our biggest challenge: "To get our students to reach their highest level of performance by meeting their diverse needs and building their experiential knowledge," Inoue said. Successful teaching involves making connections with the students by relating to their experiences, but some students do not have the background of experiences needed to make those connections, Inoue said. To meet this challenge, the school established a Literacy Development Center through which teachers receive professional development and learn to teach literacy in their classrooms. From a group of nine, teachers go into classrooms and co-teach with the regular teacher so students learn reading and writing along with content areas such as math.
• What we need: More parental involvement and support. "If parents don't value what we do at school, the kids won't value it the way they should," Inoue said.
• Projects: Dole Enterprise is a school-to-work program that prints T-shirts for community groups and makes the school's uniforms. The class has printed shirts for Rep. Arakaki and is taught by a former entrepreneur.
• Special events: This year the school's Gifted/Talented program is going to Florida for Disney's Youth Education Series program. The G/T program at Dole serves as an enrichment program for its students rather than a replacement for regular content classes. More than 50 students are expected to participate in the program by the end of the year. Students are raising money and looking for sponsorship for the trip, said teacher Constance Tamura.
Facts about Dole Middle School
• Where: 1803 Kamehameha IV Road
• Phone: 832-3340
• Web address: www.doleint.k12.hi.us
• Principal: Evangeline Inoue, 5 1/2 years.
• School nickname: Diplomats
• School colors: Blue, white and gold
• Enrollment: 826
• SATs: Here's how 213 students fared on the most recent Stanford Achievement Test. Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average and above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Eighth-grade reading, 59 percent; math, 70 percent.
• History: Dole opened near Bishop Museum in 1955 as Kalihi Intermediate School. Administration held a name selection drive in December 1955 to give students a chance to name the school. Sanford Ballard Dole Intermediate School was thus established and soon moved to its present location on Kamehameha IV Road. It became Governor Sanford B. Dole Middle School in 1997. Dole began as a school for only seventh-graders but expanded to Grades 7-9 in 1957. It now serves Grades 6-8.
• Special programs or classes: Each year the school has a three-day mini-course, with the last period of the afternoon reserved for noncurriculum classes. Such classes have included martial arts, Japanese katakana, darts, model rocket building and baking. The mini-courses are taught by teachers or their guests and often give teachers a chance to showcase their talents.
• Computers: One computer lab, a new media center and an average of two computers per classroom. The school also has 10 computers available for loan to students.
To get your school profiled, call education editor Dan Woods at 525-5441 or reach him by e-mail at dwoods@honoluluadvertiser.com
