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A Waiakea Higher Faculty science trainer is one particular of 4 finalists in the running to be named Nationwide Teacher of the 12 months by the Council of Main State College Officers.
Whitney Aragaki is a biology and environmental science instructor who was picked out by the council as Hawaii Instructor of the Year for 2022. The countrywide winner is expected to be declared in late April and will shell out a calendar year serving as an ambassador for education and advocate for instructors and college students.
If picked for the national honor, “what’s definitely enjoyable to me is that I’ll be talking from a perception of kuleana to … my group,” Aragaki, 35, explained. “I’m pretty considerably humbled by the option to share our tales and share the amazing issues that students do in the islands that may possibly not often be found on a national scale.”
Aragaki has been praised for instructing college students to discover the connection in between science and the authentic-daily life difficulties in their instant environment. For example, she explained, this calendar year her learners wanted to examine the COVID-19 pandemic. So she made multidisciplinary curriculum to help them glance at information on how numerous folks of color have had uneven obtain to well being care, coverage and vaccines, and at the background of other pandemics that have impacted Hawaii.
Aragaki also was cited for aiding to provide equitable entry statewide to environmental science and laptop or computer science programs in partnership with the Hawaii Digital Finding out Network. She teaches free sophisticated placement classes online just after university several hours so that “any scholar, from Kapaa all the way down to Kau,” can get access to college or university preparatory courses that if not may not be out there in some remote locations, she said.
Aragaki has a bachelor’s diploma in biology from Swarthmore College or university and a master’s in tropical conservation biology and environmental science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She is pursuing a doctorate with a aim in curriculum and instruction at the UH- Manoa School of Education and learning.
She arrives from a spouse and children of general public educators, together with each her parents. Aragaki’s mom was her biology trainer at Waiakea Higher.
“We feel in community training,” mentioned Aragaki, whose two kids attend community university. “We feel that each scholar should have equitable obtain to a strong foundation of public education … I’m so very pleased to be component of that lineage and heritage.”
The Council of Main Point out School Officers award software this 12 months identified 56 educators from throughout the nation, including U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and Office of Defense Education and learning Activity. From that team, the Nationwide Teacher of the Year Choice Committee selected the four finalists centered on created applications. Interviews were conducted very last 7 days.
