Hawai'i teachers make the best of their situation
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
Roi Alzate had just gotten off work at McDonald's when he thought he'd catch up on homework from Bebi Sewdat, his physics teacher at Farrington High School.
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It was after midnight, and the top floor of the parking garage was near empty, so he climbed into his mother's 1993 Nissan Sentra and slid it into reverse. Sewdat had asked her students to find out whether a car's speedometer would move as the car went backward, or whether it was designed only to respond to forward motion.
Farrington teacher Bebi Sewdat helps chemistry students Ryan Cortez, left, Jocelyn Pacquing and Dale Salvatierra with lab problems that deal with metric measurements and calculations.
"I just wanted to check it out," said Alzate, a Farrington senior. "It didn't move."
The experiment was right out of a physics textbook, a suggestion to get students to think critically, but Sewdat wanted them to experience it for themselves so they might remember what they learned.
Every school day in her bright, tidy second-floor classroom — I-204 — Sewdat takes her students through physics and chemistry lessons, challenging them to apply science to the things they see and hear around them.
"I want them to know why they are learning these things," she said. "I want them to see it in real life."
Gov. Linda Lingle and Democrats in the state Legislature remain locked in conflict over the best way to improve Hawai'i's public schools, but both sides agree that quality teachers are instrumental for student success.
While questions over local school boards or expanded School Community Based Management councils have been the highlights of the debate on education reform, many teachers are still waiting to hear how change will affect what goes on in the classroom.
Teachers talk of the struggle to get enough textbooks for their students, or modern laboratory equipment, or even basic supplies. When the essentials are lacking, teachers say, it is hard to think seriously about external issues such as school governance.
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"As a teacher, my concern is how does this (reform) make the bureaucracy go away?" asked Andrea Eshelman, a social studies teacher at Pearl City High School. "How can I make things happen in my classroom quickly and efficiently to allow for high levels of student learning and achievement?"
"My main goal when I go home at night is to ask, 'Am I teaching these kids?' " said Bebi Sewdat, a physics and chemistry teacher at Farrington High School.
Jon Van Pelt, a language arts teacher at Kalakaua Middle School, said he would like to see more students take responsibility for their education, or risk losing privileges such as a favorite elective or school activity.
"Many are not responsible for their own learning. There has to be some consequences," he said.
Van Pelt would also like to have more textbooks. He said he received a new classroom set in January and has noticed progress among his students. Four classes share the books, and there are not enough for the students to take home.
"I had to fight tooth and nail to get them," he said.
Sewdat, at Farrington, moved here from Guyana, in South America, and has taught at the Kalihi high school for two years. Teachers, she found, were more of an authority figure for students back home, but she has faith that her Farrington students, many of whom come from low-income families, can succeed.
"Some of our classes are big. Sometimes it can get, well, you know, unruly," she said. "I've been to Punahou for conferences, and you see all the new things that they have.
"But you have to do the best with what you have. I try not to look at problems. I look at solutions.
"You can learn with what we have."
'Idol' competition
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In I-204 at Farrington, the chemistry class right after lunch is always louder and more boisterous than the morning classes. Students have had time to refuel and get their social juices flowing during the break, so it is sometimes harder to get them to focus.
Farrington teacher Bebi Sewdat assists Ryan Cortez as he takes notes during a chemistry class. Sewdat devotes afternoons after school to her students and is usually accessible during lunch.
Today, Sewdat also has some bad news.
Jonah Moananu, a 2000 Farrington graduate, part-time drama teacher and a finalist on the television show "American Idol," is performing at an assembly in the school's auditorium. But Sewdat feels that, for now, a lesson on the elements in the periodic table and a lab experiment are more valuable than seeing the "Idol" hopeful.
"Sometimes you make choices and right now, you have to learn this," she tells her class. "You can't do happy things all the time. This will make your life good, too."
"But it's 'American Idol!' " one student protests.
"You can watch it on TV," Sewdat said, ending the discussion.
Within a few minutes, as the students worked through the lesson, they didn't seem too disappointed. Sewdat walked between their desks, prodding one student, lifting the headphones off another.
Sewdat asked them to weigh themselves on a scale and then convert the pounds into milligrams, grams, kilograms and megagrams.
"They know what a pound is. But when you ask them about a gram, they can't see it," Sewdat tells a visitor. "This way, they can get a picture of what it looks like."
Aovai Sula, wearing a red cap with his last name stenciled in black letters, stepped onto the scale.
"Ooohhh, 170?" the lanky Sula said. "Wait a minute, I gonna take off some clothes. Too heavy."
"If you don't want anyone to see what you weigh," Sewdat said, smiling, "you can cover up the scale."
Dealing with turnover
Every school year, the state Department of Education has to find about 1,350 new teachers because of retirements or those who leave for other reasons. The lack of experienced teachers is particularly a problem in places such as the Leeward Coast or rural parts of the Neighbor Islands, since many teachers there leave for job openings elsewhere, for personal or lifestyle reasons, or to return to the Mainland.
Education Week, in a recent report, also found that teacher salaries in Hawai'i were the lowest in the nation in 2002 when adjusted for the cost of living. The Hawai'i State Teachers Association also says that teachers routinely go into their own pockets to pay for some supplies.
Sewdat teaches three classes a day: a physics class and two chemistry classes, which are electives for students interested in preparing for college.
She usually eats lunch in her classroom or in an adjacent office, so she can be accessible to students who drop by for extra help. She also makes time for students who are building model bridges for the upcoming Physics Olympics.
Sewdat devotes the afternoons after school to her students, and usually comes in at least one day during the weekend to prepare lesson plans for the next week.
"When I started, I bought things with my own money, but now I've learned to wait for a purchase order," she said. "The little things — like soda or pizza for the kids at competitions — I still buy.
"My main goal when I go home at night is to ask, 'Am I teaching these kids?' I've seen how some students struggle in college. I want to make sure that when they get there, they are not behind."
Struggle 'in the application'
Sewdat thinks one of the reasons some students in Hawai'i do poorly on standardized tests is that they don't always feel confident enough to fully express what they learn.
"They don't always put themselves in a situation where they think they can handle anything," she said. "That's what happens with a lot of our kids. It's that one step more.
"That's where the struggle is, in the application."
Accountability has been a buzzword in the education reform debate, and it is likely that principals, in particular, may soon have to answer even more for a school's performance. But many teachers look beyond test scores to tell how their students are doing, both at school and in their young lives.
In January, Sewdat took her physics students to compete against other schools in the Engineering Expo at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, where they made bottle rockets and rubber-band racers and learned that they could achieve, despite the stereotypes about their neighborhood and school.
Sewdat pulled out a cardboard box with their homemade creations. They won first-place and third-place trophies for bottle rockets and a third-place trophy for a rubber-band racer. They showed that they could compete.
Catherine Payne, Farrington's principal, proudly had the trophies in her office. But the office was gutted by an arsonist on Presidents Day, and the heat from the fire left the trophies melted and disfigured.
"I'm disappointed," Sewdat said. "The kids built those projects from scratch. I know they will be disappointed, too."
Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8084 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.
