“Soapbox” was launched at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference in 2013 as a new platform to collaborate and share ideas. Soapbox is an informal session, much in the spirit of mini TED Talks. Speakers are given 5-10 minutes to share an idea, an innovation, or tell a story. The goal is to include student voices as well as innovators, thought leaders, makers, and creatives from industry.

At this year’s conference, we wanted to highlight teacher voices. It was an absolute blast! The hope is that this session could expand into perhaps a quarterly meetup for educators statewide. Here is a summary of the past few years…

2019
Soapbox returned to the KS EdTech Conference on June 4th, 2019. We heard stories from educators in (public, private, charter schools, homeschooling, online learning, and entrepreneurship.) Our theme was ‘A‘ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho‘okahi. All knowledge is not learned in just one school. Mahalo to our speakers!

• Cecilia CC Chung, Kaʻimiloa Elementary

• Trevor Atkins, Hālau Kū Māna

• Dorothy Hirata, University of Hawaiʻi

• Carey Yen, Homeschooling

• Nick Wong, Nalukai Foundation

2015
Soapbox 2015 took place at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference, on Tuesday, June 9th, at the Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room. Here was the lineup:

• Genesis Leong, Lead Curator of TEDxHonolulu

• Russel Cheng, Co-Founder of DevLeague, Hawaiʻi’s first coding bootcamp

• Katelyn, kindergartener at Hongwanji Mission School

• Elizabeth Garrison, President of HSTE, Hawaiʻi Society for Technology in Education

• Tiffany Chang & Isabel Wong, Co-Founders of The Canvas, Hawaiʻi’s first student workspace

• Jenny Engle, Teacher Liaison at the Honolulu Museum of Art

• Burt Lum, Executive Director at Hawaiʻi Open Data & Producer of Bytemarks Café on Hawaiʻi Public Radio

2014
Soapbox 2014 took place at the Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Conference, on Wednesday, June 4th, at the Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room. Here was the lineup:

• Casey Agena, Nichole Adolpho, Punahou School / Kimo Carvalho, Envision Hawai’i

• Marion Ano, Salt Water Apps, HICapacity

• Erin Kinney & Kirra Downing, “mojo managers” for Our Kakaʻako

• Michael Fricano II, ‘Iolani School, JoAnn Jacobs, Mid-Pacific Institute, EdCamp Honolulu

• Chad Nacapuy, Hawaiʻi Department of Education

• Jonathan Honda, Kamehameha Schools Senior, Louise McGregor Award for Outstanding Student Director

• Kaleiohu Lee, Five by Five

2013
At Soapbox 2013, topics included coworking, design thinking, TEDxHonoluluED, and the Google Teacher Academy. We even brought in a “soapbox” platform from our drama department. Here was the lineup:

• Katie Sakys, Kamehameha Schools Sophomore

• Rechung Fujihira, The Box Jelly

• Adam Pating, Punahou School Junior, TEDxYouth@Punahou

• Douglas Kiang, Lab School @ Punahou

• Cathy Ikeda, KS-Hawaiʻi

• Ian Kitajima, Oceanit

• Liz Castillo, Kamehameha Schools, Google Teacher Academy

• Kourtney Puahala, Kamehameha Schools Senior