Bobby Widhalm, Board Member

Spring is a time of new and exciting beginnings- welcome to Bobby Widhalm, our new and exciting addition to the HSTE Board! Bobby, who grew up in Denver, Colorado, currently works with the Professional Development and Educational Research Institute (PDERI) at the Hawaii Department of Education. His past work experiences include working at Dole Middle School, Moanalua High School, and at the Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Student Support (OCISS). He attended Colorado School of Mines to pursue a Mechanical Engineering Degree and then attended University of Denver, where he received his teaching credentials. His family members include Stacie, his wife, Joseph and Mickaellah, his step children. Bobby’s hobbies include tinkering with technology (coding, making, etc.), watching (too much) TV and movies

Learn more about Bobby in his Q&A:

Q : How long have you been at (your current role/position/location)?

A : I have been at PDERI as a State Office Teacher for almost four years.

Q : What is your favorite food?

A : It was pizza, but as I get older it really depends on my mood.

Q : How did you first get involved in HSTE? What made you want to join?

A :  After obtaining membership through Schools of the Future registration, I enjoyed the information from the newsletters/emails from HSTE.  So, when the opportunity to be part of the board, I volunteered.

Q : Why do you think tech integration is important for students?

A : Because we live in a technology integrated world, students should have the opportunity to engage with tools that can truly support and enhance their learning as well as learn how to effectively and ethically use and interact with such technology.

Q : What is one thing you’ve done at your school that you’re proud of?

A : At Moanalua High School, I was the advisor/coach of the robotics team, which participated in Botball, VEX, FIRST Robotics Competition, and Hawaii Underwater Robot Challenge.  We also hosted numerous First LEGO League and VEX competitions.

Q : Any advice for other educators getting involved in technology integration?

A : Failure only happens when you quit.  So try, fail, learn, and repeat.

Q : What are some of the topics you explore in your sessions at conferences?

A : I enjoy sharing how coding and spreadsheets can be used as a tool to define and solve problems.

Q : Presenting at any future sessions coming up that we should know about? (Ex. SOTF Conference, ISTE Conference, etc.)

A : I will be part of the Google SLAM at the next Schools of the Future.  Come check it out.

Do you know of an educator you’d like to nominate for the HSTE Member Highlight series? If you’d like to nominate an educator, please fill out the following form: Google Form for future Member Highlights. If selected, the nominee will be contacted via email to answer a few questions for the highlight. Thank you for your submission! Contact info@hste.org with any questions.

We're bring you a new HSTE blog series called "Classroom Highlights"! Each month we'll visit a new school or classroom to bring attention to the amazing teaching and learning that's happening across the state of Hawai'i. This month we're visiting with Deborah Orlik, a HSTE Board member at Hawaii Technology Academy.

I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate technology into my Middle School ELA classroom.  Luckily, I ran into Altino cars last summer in Oahu (on Eventbrite). Oceanit sponsored several workshops for teachers - for free.  Can't beat that!

Altino cars were made by some really smart folks in Korea. They took a cool toy car and imbedded an Arduino microprocessing unit. They added all sorts of sensors, LED lights, sounds, and whatnot.  And then we code that awesome little car using C.  If you are teaching Arduinos, this will be a walk in the C-park for your students.

As the video shows, these 8th graders could not get enough of coding and re-coding and re-trying and trying again. It was everything you would like to see your writing students do:  draft after draft after draft.  Nurturing and harnessing that desire to "make it right" is a life-long journey for a middle school teacher, but the excitement in that class around the Altino cars and the coding was enough energy to light up Honolulu for a week!  So much fun!  Great learning!

If you are interested in finding out more about Altino cars, you can email me at dorlik@myhta.org.  I can share the short story I used to connect the cars to our reading.

Deborah Orlik is a current HSTE Board member. She is also an English and Language Arts teachers at Hawaii Technology Academy.

Mapu Quitazol, HSTE Treasurer

As we welcome a new month of the new year, we also welcome our new HSTE Treasurer to the Executive Board, Mapu Quitazol! Mapu, born and raised in Kona on Hawai`i Island, started and launched Women in Technology (WIT), based in Maui. WIT is a Hawaii statewide workforce initiative of the Maui Economic Development Board. Mapu attended college at Maui Community College, currently known as UH Maui College and majored in Business. In her line of work, she has worked with all schools on Maui, as well as Honoka`a High & Middle, Kealakehe, Keaau, Kauai High, and numerous middle and high schools on Oahu. Her hobbies include dancing hula, traveling, going to the beach, hiking with her family, and reading. She lives with her husband, Francis and daughters, Lilinoe and Haunani, as well as her dog, Bullet.

Learn more about Mapu in her Q & A: 

Q : Tell us about your work with Women In Technology. How long have you been working with Women in Technology?
A : I started and launched the Women in Tech Program in 2000. Left in 2002 to pursue another career path and then returned to WIT in 2009. 

Q : What is your inspiration and passion behind your line of work?
A : My inspiration and passion comes from how our programs inspire our students. To see them enter our program from 6th grade and watch them grow into adults and see the career paths they take is inspiring. It’s a great feeling to hear them credit one of our many programs as the reason for them finding out who they are and how to achieve their goals. We have just recently expanded our program down to the elementary level. So it’s exciting to now watch them from littles and continue on to adulthood. 

Q : If we were to catch you on a weekend, what would you most likely be doing?
A : Chauffeuring my child to her dance classes or games, laundry or just lounging on the beach enjoying the day. 

Q : What is your favorite food?
A : Japanese or Italian 

Q : If you could be any object in the world, what would you be and why?
A : A camera. Because of the many places it gets to visit and the memories a camera captures is priceless. 

Q : How did you first get involved in HSTE? What made you want to join?
A : Through couple HSTE members. I wanted to join to meet and network with other educators from across the state. I believe meeting new people and hearing each others ideas help with keeping our programs fresh. 

Q : Why do you think tech integration is important for students?
A : I think it’s important because the world is full of technology. Tech is always evolving and changing every second. And because of this, our students need to feel comfortable with using technology and understand that they will need to keep learning and adapting to change in order to keep up with the job markets. 

Q : What is one thing you’ve done in your line of work that you’re proud of?
A : One of my proud moments is taking our signature all girls camp statewide. Excite Camp is a week long hands-on STEM camp for middle school girls. Purpose is to expose and excite our young ladies into a STEM career. I have been very grateful to find great STEM leaders who are willing to take time out of their busy schedules to come in and present about themselves or provide a hands-on activity. Excite Camp has ran for 17 years on Maui (I have had the pleasure to manage eight years) and has branched out statewide the last four years. It’s exciting when i receive emails from past campers asking if they can join us to be mentors. The last five years i have had returning campers as mentors. 

Q : Any other info you’d like us to share?
A : Thankful to have this opportunity to sit on a board with a wonderful group of minds.

Do you know of an educator you’d like to nominate for the HSTE Member Highlight series? If you’d like to nominate an educator, please fill out the following form: Google Form for future Member Highlights. If selected, the nominee will be contacted via email to answer a few questions for the highlight. Thank you for your submission! Contact info@hste.org with any questions.

We're bring you a new HSTE blog series called "Classroom Highlights"! Each month we'll visit a new school or classroom to bring attention to the amazing teaching and learning that's happening across the state of Hawai'i. This month we're visiting with Nathaniel Evslin, our current HSTE President, at Island School on Kaua'i.

At Island School on Kaua'i I teach introduction to computer science. This class covers creating websites using HTML and CSS as well as introductory programming topics using Python. After students have learned the basics of creating a website, they go out and find a real client to create a website for. These clients are usually family or friends that need a website for a business. If the client likes the site they can then take it over. This works great for the students because it gives them a wider audience for the sites that they create and gives them the experience of working with a client. Students spend so much of the their school life only producing for the teacher, if they are given the opportunity to work with a wider audience they really step up the challenge.

I think that bringing real world experience into the classroom is a wonderful way to bring out the best in the students. 

Sample Sites from class:

Nathaniel Evslin is the current HSTE Board President. He is also the Director of Technology and Deeper Learning at Island School on Kauai. 

Each month we're bringing you a new Technology related tip or trick for your classroom! Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Let us know if you've tried it out or what you think. We're excited to hear from you!

We're always looking for fun, engaging, and interesting ways for students to document and share their learning. I recently learned about Apple Clips from a colleague at my school who has her students use it in her Physics class.

Apple Clips is a great creation tool for the iPhone and iPad. You can create videos that can include text, special effects, graphics, backgrounds, labels, stickers, emojis, and music.

One of my favorite features of Clips is Live Titles. It's like having closed caption built into your video. As you talk in your video, Clips will automatically capture and convert your voice into text. You can have that text placed anywhere on your screen. It works really well as long as you speak clearly and at an average pace.

For your next project or class assignment, challenge your students to demonstrate their learning and understanding by creating a quick 60 second video with Apple Clips. You'll be amazed and pleasantly surprised at how creative they'll get with their videos!

Need some inspiration for how to use Apple Clips in your classroom? Check out #AppleClips on Twitter!

Have you or do you plan to use Apple Clips with your students? Let us know in the comments below. The more we share the more we all benefit from each other!

Michael Fricano II is a Board Member of HSTE and was the HSTE President in 2016. He is a Technology Integration Specialist at 'Iolani School and an Education Architect for The Janus Group. Michael also blogs and shares his love for EdTech on his own website at www.EdTechnocation.com.