Posted on

ISTE 2014 in Hotlanta

Photo courtesy of @abunai_tech

Had an absolute blast at ISTE 2014! More info about the conference on my school blog.

Took the MARTA from the airport to our hotel. Cost $2.50 to ride. Transportation is really efficient in Atlanta.

Stayed at the Hilton Atlanta. Being a last-minute add-on, my intention was to crash with Tim & Lance. Fortunately, we ran into Yasin from IT in the lobby who didn’t have a roommate.

For dinner, we went to Pittypat’s Porch for some southern food. The ambiance was awesome.

And the food was amazing! Had the fried chicken & ribs combo.

Here’s the peach cobbler with cinnamon ice cream. So good….

Had some time to enjoy the sights on Saturday. It was extremely hot at the Centennial Olympic Park.

Met up with the gang at the Georgia Aquarium, the world’s largest. The lobby looked like a multiplex theater.

What was most impressive were the large tanks with the whale sharks and the Beluga whales. The workers there complimented me on my shoes, “Man, I love your NYKES….”

The conference itself was great. There were 15,000 educators in attendance.

Whenever there was a free moment, we would try to get to the Taco Mac across the street to catch up on the World Cup. Fútbol Fever and amazing buffalo wings!

For dinner on Saturday, Kimble took us to his hometown of Decatur. It was great! The town was charming with a church, courthouse, sycamore trees, and cafés. We had a late dinner at an awesome place called the Brick Store Pub. Had a meatloaf sandwich and delicious appetizers. It was special visiting Kimble’s hometown.

Spent much of Sunday in poster sessions and vendor workshops. I preferred the interactivity of this format over traditional breakout presentations.

On Sunday night, we had dinner at Legal Sea Foods. It was great. Only thing is that I worry about a seafood restaurant being so close to an aquarium.

On Monday, our KSEdTech team rocked the Coaches Playground. It was a great time of learning, sharing, and connecting with educators from all over the country. Mahalo to Lynne for coordinating this movement.

We celebrated with lunch at the Hudson Grille. I ate a whole lotta fried chicken on this trip.

That evening, we caught a Braves vs. Mets game at Turner Field. It was hot. Enjoyed a Georgia Dog and a SweetWater 420.

Here are the screaming faithful doing the “tomahawk.” We left in the 8th inning (to beat the traffic) and missed an amazing come-from-behind victory.

At the conclusion of the conference, our entire KS contingent (nearly 80 of us) gathered at historic Paschal’s Restaurant. A few of us got there early to catch the USA World Cup match.

The highlight was listening to a gentleman tell stories about this special place. (Notice “Hawai’i” on the banner in the background.)

Met up with friends later in the evening at the Juke Joint. The absolute best fried chicken….
Ended this great experience by riding the SkyView Atlanta with Lynne. What a treat!

Had a great time of learning, sharing, and team building. Mahalo e Ke Ali’i Pauahi.

Posted on

Great Day at K-Bay

Spent the Kamehameha Day holiday at the sandbar in Kāneʻohe Bay. It was a treat! Mahalo to Tim for taking us on the outing. The weather was spectacular! (Click to enlarge.)

Photo courtesy of @WendyLOliver

We launched his boat from He’eia Pier and laid anchor at the sandbar. There was a bunch of tourists there, but it wasn’t crowded at all. Enjoyed the great company, Noe’s spam musubis & Funyuns, and Wendy’s Arizona Iced Tea.

The kids had an absolute blast! Their highlight was getting towed on a raft and doing a bit of “wakeboarding.”

Amazing, amazing day….

Posted on

A Great School Year

Had an amazing 2013-2014 school year at Kamehameha. Looking back, here are some of my memories….

After servicing the elementary & middle school campuses for the past 10 years, I finally moved up to the high school. Blessed to be a part of a great team, the “Bishop Boys.” We started a tradition of Crock-pot Wednesdays.

The highlight of the school year for me was traveling to Beijing, China with Liz and Doug to present at RDFZ Xishan School’s International Summit. It was an amazing experience. The best part was reuniting with good friends, Jessie, Sunny, C.Y., and Raj.

But what makes working at KS so great is our amazing team. We are a family. Here we are at our Christmas party at the Bishop Museum.

Unreal. In February, KS was able to host students from RDFZ Xishan for two days. The RDFZ Performing Arts Team toured Honolulu, L.A., and San Francisco. They stayed overnight in our dorms and performed for our elementary and middle schools. They bonded with many of our high school students. It was a great experience and a total team effort.

In March (and on a Saturday,) our KS EdTech Team held its first annual “Mashup” professional development day for teachers. A Mashup combines the best elements of a conference and an unconference. We received nothing but positive feedback.

Photo courtesy of TEDxYouth@Kamehameha.

Our high school’s TED Talks Club hosted our very first TEDxYouth event on campus. It was a huge success! Already looking forward to next year.

Finally, the year ended with our annual KS EdTech Conference at the Blaisdell Center. It was a great time of learning and collaboration.

Extremely grateful to be a part of Kamehameha Schools. What a great year! Imua.

Posted on

Passion Tour 2014

So blessed to have attended Passion 2014 tonight at the Blaisdell Arena. “Passion exists to glorify God – uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation.”

And doubly-blessed to have reunited with awesome friends from Hope Chapel Kapolei. This made my night.

I guess I was first online, so I got a great seat (Section BB, Row 1, Seat 1.) Never sat in the front row before. It was pretty cool!

It was an amazing night of worship! This is Chris Tomlin. He’s my 2nd fave worship leader (after my nephew Grayson.) He was joined by David Crowder. The music was incredible. But the highlight for me was the message given by Pastor Louie Giglio. He spoke on the “Prodigal Father.”

My takeaways:
Parable of the Lost Sheep: The shepherd leaves his flock of 99 to find the one who is lost. If churches had 99% attendance, they’d be happy. 99% doesn’t quite cut it for God.
Jesus didn’t come to change our condition (make the “bad,” “good.”) He came to make the dead, alive….

It’s kinda difficult to describe just how amazing it was. Guess you really had to be there….

The night turned into a great celebration.

“I feel alive,
I come alive,
I am alive on God’s great dance floor!”