For Ka'u High & Pahala Elementary School (KHPES) teacher Pinky Grace Francisco, the call to a career in education was easy to answer.
Francisco followed in the footsteps of her father, who longed to be a teacher but couldn't make the dream come true for himself.
"I have always believed that I was predetermined by God to be a teacher, because no matter how I deviate my steps into the teaching field, I always find myself teaching somebody unconsciously," Francisco told Big Island Times.
Francisco teaches English Language Arts to English Language Learners (ELL) in middle school. She also teaches English as a Second Language (ESL) in the middle and high schools, and oversees second language acquisition from K-12 as the ELL coordinator.
Before KHPES, Francisco was a full-time secondary educator in the Philippines. She taught there for eight years before moving to Hawaii. Her teaching career began in college, when she was hired as a part-time gospel teacher in area churches in the Philippines.
"Making a difference in others' lives became my intrinsic motivation to keep going," Francisco said. When she moved to Hawaii, she almost gave up teaching forever, but she met people who inspired her to try again and was immediately hired after applying to the Hawaii Department of Education. "Being hired at KHPES is an answered prayer."
Teaching, Francisco has learned, is a four-way process. Students learn from the teacher, the teacher learns from the students, the students learn from their peers and, lastly, the students learn from themselves. Growing up as a student herself, Francisco was used to an environment where the teacher was solely responsible for all the knowledge and was prohibited from making mistakes.
"I realized that committing mistakes can be a gateway of knowledge, since it is when we make mistakes that we learn how to correct them, and trying multiple times to make something right makes us better in our craft," she said.
Francisco noted that teachers must use their knowledge to be a jack-of-all-trades: a judge assessing students’ performances, a doctor administering first aid, a police officer interrogating students after they've broken a rule, an attorney advocating for students' best interests, an entertainer doing their best to keep students engaged and a traffic cop directing students on the right path.
"Another is 'in loco parentis,' where we act as parents, looking after the holistic development of each student we have," Francisco said. "But the most wonderful thing is when we act like superheroes, juggling a lot of things one could never imagine, while saving each student’s life from going astray."
Education has changed in many positive ways since Francisco became a teacher. Apart from science and technology advances, she's seen an emphasis on emotional, psychological and social well-being over time. Educational progress has always been measured in academic or intellectual achievements, she said, but schools have recently begun to also focus on how a student thinks, feels and acts in direct relation to their academic performance and growth.
Because a teacher is doing more than giving students knowledge, Francisco also tries to be a life coach in her classroom, helping students set goals and develop understanding. Most of her ELL students came from a culture where education is not a priority, creating a challenge for Francisco to motivate and persuade them to place value in schooling.
"Helping them understand the purpose of each task and the importance of education in life will help them see a better future ahead," she explained.
Respecting all of the diverse cultures represented at KHPES and building a culturally responsive teaching approach, as well as an identity-safe classroom, is a barrier that Francisco feels is common in the classroom.
"Culture is something that is unique within a certain group of individuals and includes the way they do things, they perceive things, how they act and react in specific situations, their beliefs, customs, traditions, norms, ideals," Francisco said. "[It's] the ways they are born with and they grow up with and their overall identity."
As of now, KHPES has the most active English Learners in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa Complex, along with students who speak languages including Hawaiian, Marshallese, Micronesian, Tagalog, Ilokano and Pohnpei.
Effective teaching, Francisco said, is addressing those individual differences, intelligences and learning styles that are directly influenced by different cultures.
"If teachers capitalize on the unique assets of each student and make a balance in acknowledging and integrating both individualistic and collectivist cultures, there will be better engagement and interaction, hence, relevant, rich and meaningful teaching," she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic had posed many challenges for teachers, testing their flexibility and adaptability for months. Francisco said that parents can help by finding time to check in with their children. KHPES, she says, is going above and beyond to provide equitable access to education, despite many challenges both related and unrelated to the pandemic.
"At least ask if everything is going well with their children, personal and academic, because showing concern is an expression of love," she said. "If children are well taken care of at home, I believe that there will be less behavioral issues, which usually interferes with academics. With the knowledge that students come to class amidst personal problems and intricacies, they usually need an ear that listens and a heart that cares. I provide them that, and it is very effective in sustaining their interest and engagement. I also try to shift their mindset about what success means, considering every mistake as a great learning opportunity and every single achievement as success."