Top Teachers
Saturday, July 5, 1997
Name: Ellen "Renee" Rogers
Age: 43
Position: Teacher, Kilohana Elementary School
Education: Avila College
Pastimes: Reading, listening to music
Ellen "Renee" Rogers didn't have to look far for inspiration to become a teacher. As a teen-ager, she would visit the classrooms of her sisters, Terry and Barbara Russell, who were teachers. She has a pair of role models
"I knew early what I wanted to do," said Rogers, a special education teacher at Kilohana Elementary School on Molokai. "It's so rewarding."
Principal Stephen Petro said Rogers is loved by her students and often works beyond regular school hours. "She is very dedicated."
Every year, Rogers organizes a Native American powwow for fifth-graders. A Native American Cherokee grass dancer performs and delivers lectures.
Students are given a choice of selecting different regions for research and asked to write a historical fiction story about a tribe.
Rogers said the students also use mathematics in making tribal designs and in measuring the ingredients used to make native bread.
"They have to measure it all out and plan who was going to bring what."
Rogers said the students find there are many similarities between Native American and Hawaiian cultures.
Rogers said she feels fortunate to be a teacher. Her parents, who operated a furniture store, regretted never obtaining college educations and helped her sisters and her financially through college.
"They were really supportive on education."
Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
