At 10:40 a.m. on a Tuesday in Ron Lake's Waikiki classroom, science class will be over in 10 minutes, but there's no sound of antsy middle schoolers. The students are busy, reading and drawing and concentrating on what's to be their homework assignment, which includes an essay about what science means to them. The only background noise is the rustling of paper and the buzz of the window air-conditioner. All is quiet in Room C204, even when people are talking, save for occasional foot stomping, grunting and the voice of an interpreter for the deaf to fill in the blanks for visitors.

Ron Lake, teaches science at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind using American Sign Language.

He helps student Ikaika Perreira with biology and, at bottom, converses with students Trina Otani, left, and Christina Fatu.

Lake, 44, grew up in Kane'ohe hard of hearing. From the time he went to Castle High School, he always learned how to adjust to his environment.

He went to college on the Mainland, immersed himself in deaf language and culture and became a teacher for the deaf at schools in Virginia and New Mexico.

But he missed Hawai‘i, and he missed the water.

"I was always connected with Hawai'i," he signed through an interpreter. "It was hard for me to call any other place home."

He returned last month after 22 years on the Mainland, and he’s temporarily living back home with his parents until his possessions arrive.

His school day at Hawaii Center for the Deaf and the Blind is packed with six classes, only half an hour for lunch, and breaks cut short because he offers his free time to answer his students' questions.

For him, fulfillment is the quiet of a classroom loud with busy minds.