Ala Wai Elementary School

10 or 10:45 m-​f, if you’re free, drive by this school. It sounds like they let a killer clown chase those kids around the schoolyard. Total incoherent screaming, constantly. I understand kids need to blow off energy to help focus in the classroom, but there are more organized, creative, team oriented play activities they can do other than screaming their brains out.

I was a student teacher at Ala Wai Elementary School for a semester as well as user A B. I witnessed circumstances that I have never seen anywhere else in a classroom. In There were three ELL students in this classroom, two of which spoke and understood extremely limited English. These students were rarely ever pulled out of the classroom for any ELL support, although I was told that there were great ELL resources. There were not. The teacher who I worked under was ill-​equipped to teach these students. Rather than gently explaining her expectations to the 5 year old ELL students in another way, or showing them what to do, she would yell at them. When the yelling didn’t work, she would yell louder. I once witnessed her pick a sobbing child up, forcefully bend his legs and press his body to the ground to put him in a «time-​out» because he did not follow her directions (because he did not speak English and could not understand). The children were terrified of the teacher and often broke down in tears because of her extremely hurtful words and tone. After coming home to reflect on my day’s work, I often found myself breaking down in tears as well. It was very difficult to witness and I felt helpless to change anything.
Aside from the constant verbal abuse, lack of ELL support and extremely disorganized classroom, the curriculum and teaching techniques I witnessed were truly lacking. I saw students complete the same worksheets, simply altered to meet the standards, and work in their workbooks day in and day out. This classroom looked the same way every day: painfully boring. Students were disengaged, but remained on task out of fear of the teacher.
Overall, this was a very sad experience. If you have the opportunity to send your child to a school other than Ala Wai, I would highly encourage you to do so.

great place