Top Teachers
Saturday, October 3, 1998
Name: Sherry Kahawaii
Age: 38
Position: Teacher at Hauula Elementary School
Education: BYU-Hawaii
Pastimes: Diving for squid
Two years ago, Sherry Kahawaii didn't know what to do when one of her fourth-grade students kept throwing temper tantrums in class. Her secret?
Just a little TLCBut instead of losing her patience, Kahawaii pulled him aside and gave him a big hug.
What the student
really needed was tender loving care, she said.
This year, the boy, now a sixth-grade student in Kahawaii's class, behaves much better in the classroom and got an A on a recent math test.
"That is the most rewarding thing for me, to see that look in their eyes, that expression on their face that says: 'Hey, I really am smart. I can do it,' " she said.
Kahawaii, who has taught first, second, fourth and now sixth grade, said she treats all students like her own four children.
"She has a very deep concern for individual students, especially those who don't get that kind of support at home," Principal Linda Shimamoto said.
"You know when teachers say, 'You gotta love them first before you can teach them'? She represents that saying just perfectly, because when a child feels loved, cared and supported, that's when they can do their work."
Once a month, Kahawaii invites students for a camp-over in her back yard and brings them along to high school football games.
"I just love the children," she said. "Right now, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
Shirley Iida, Star-Bulletin
