notepad!

i want to share what ive been learning and this is the place to do so!

01/06/2026 -- CLASS LECTURE / THEORY OF TEACHING WRITING

another syllabus day class but with lots of interesting concepts. my professor talked about writing as being "deeply connected with ways of knowing and being" saying, "the reason why students are afraid of writing is because they forget it is about MAKING something", an effective instructor should give their students a good reason to write.

my professor explained their favorite word is "articulation" as it both means to express and to conjoin -- "how something is expressed is dependent on how it is held together"

and then. it was just going over the projects for the quarter. but i guess something that stood out was how my professor outlined their teaching process as scaffolding. like minecraft. where the entire course is laid out in a way where students should be able to obtain and build their knowledge on top of each other.
my professor also said, "demoralizing a student is the worst thing a teacher could do" which, cheers!

01/06/2026 -- CLASS SEMINAR / REDRESS, REPARATIONS, ABOLITION

syllabus day :3 but something interesting we had a discussion about was the importance of connection in this day ange age, like this skill of connecting with others

we watched a video titled "Survivors of Detention: Meet Satsuki & Lâm" which i will embed after this. we discussed the impossible choice given to one of the subjects of the interview: deportation or the uncertainty of staying.
another thing of interest we discussed was relationality over comparative studies and frameworks.

we began to discuss the COVID-19 lockdown and technology and how they affect our day-to-day interactions and worldviews. one of my peers talked about their relationship with dependence on the tools or people in their life.
another talked about global and personal catastrophes where "i lived through something like this once, i can do it again".
another peer talked about their career goals upon being asked by my professor what their reasoning for attending university was.
the person next to me talked about their desire to gain experiences somewhere away from their hometown that was filled with likeminded individuals. they talked about the importance of feeling uncomfortable which i found particularly striking.

but ill end it here with something that my professor said, "education is supposed to make your world bigger" thanks goat

01/05/2026 -- CLASS LECTURE / HAWAI'I LITERATURE

(Ōlelo Hawaiʻi vocabulary) PAPA -- class/ surface / grade
for more info/translations: dictionary link

twas the first day so...syllabus day! my kumu (teacher) described the class as a charcuterie board! of different music, dance, plays, prose, poetry which excited me but also amused me. i love that description. a charcuterie board of literature....

diacritical marks: kahakō (macron), ʻokina (glottal stop)

HAWAII'S LEGACY OF LITERACY

before annexation, hawai'i had a a 90-95% literacy rate -- kamehameha iii: He aupuni palapala koʻu / my nation will be nation of learning
1834 marked the first hawaiian newspaper published, newspapers were bound at the end of the year and acted as reference
FACT: a mele by king kamehameha i was held in memory for 50 years before it was documented in print
notes taken from this tedx lecture! watch for more in-depth information

01/05/2026 -- CLASS LECTURE / EDUCATION PSYCHOLOGY ON ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

UDL -- universal design for learning / tries to accomodate UPFRONT instead of needing students to ask for accessibility note to self: look more into this later

BROFENBRENNER'S ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS MODEL
MICROSYSTEMS: entities that interact directly w/ child and vice versa -- parents/guardians, peers, teachers, etc.
MESOSYSTEM: how entities in micro interact w/ each other -- how the parent might interact with the teacher
EXOSYSTEM: policies that influence how interaction might occur (school system, health system, justice system, etc.)
MACROSYSTEM: larger systemic structures (heteropatriarchy, systemic racism, xenophobia, etc.)
CHRONOSYSTEM: change over time