It's all about dreaming.

This all began three years ago. This new mission in education. This new mission in Life. I was selected to be a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmosperic Association) teacher at sea and Polar TREC (Polar Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) on the USCG Ice Breaker Healy during April and May 2007. It was the spring seasonal ice breakup, melt, and algal bloom in the Bering Sea. We could say Global Climate Change out loud. We could learn and observe what was happening in chilly Arctic. We could do science. It was the BEST (Bering Ecosystem STudy)! I was the luckiest teacher alive!

See, my students had begun to ask hard questions. They wondered about global climate change and how it would affect them. They lived on an island in the middle of the ocean. What would happen to the island? What would happen to them? I could not even begin to answer. There was little research done by US scientists on global climate change at that time. I needed to find out.

My school is in upcountry Maui. I teach a delightful blend of students, about 150 in all, hui po'okela. Although their ancestors came from a hundred different places, all have Hawaii in common. Kalama Intermediate School has a majority of students from Asian and Pacific Islander heritage. We are Hawaii. My students are proud of their cultures.

And my students learn in many ways. They are artists, they are engineers, they sing, they wiggle. My students learn science through multiple intelligences. Science class needs to educate all students so that they will be aware and engaged of the environmental problems that will face them as adults.

It seemed a natural to pair me with a teacher from the isolated Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, Tonia Kushin. My mission included a visit to the schools of St. Paul and St. George. I wrote to Tonia, and began a relationship that would lead to her island, teaching a library full of St. Paul School students on a stormy late April day.

And as I talked to the students of St. Paul, and urged them through the learning stations, I began to notice a similarity between her students and mine. Their Aleut roots were strong and proud, just like my students. I knew each would find a great deal of interest in each other.

We flew off St. Paul, AK that late April afternoon in 2007 with the wind pushing the helicopter around like a paper airplane. Inside my brain, this idea had taken root. This cultural exchange. Tonia and I wanted to have our students share in the culture of another island people. So began the Pribilof Penpal Club.

My students were fascinated with the Aleutian culture. We would exchange boxes of crafts and letters about once every few months. School year 2007-08 was the first year. Then 2008-2009, still going strong. However, 2009-10 was setback when furlough days took the spirit out of any extra activity. It became difficult to do even the mandated labwork.

Up in the Pribilofs, it was a totally different story. Tonia wrote to me to let me know that her students were coming to visit us. I was delighted, but so nervous. This was a dream come true. BUT! Would we be able to get it together to host these wonderful students and their teachers? How much time could we share? And what about Furlough Fridays; how would they impact the visit?

This week they arrive in Hawaii, and they are ready for a once in a lifetime learning extravaganza. Honolulu and Maui have opened their arms wide to share our beautiful islands, and our cultures. On Oahu, they have visits to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Fish Market planned, along with Reef Restoration with NOAA and Navigating Change. See the water is warm here.

And on Maui, they have a field trip with my science club to Waihe'e Land Trust and Iao Valley (May 3) , where they will learn the protocols to test water, and use a new remote controlled water robot, buildt by the club for just this purpose. We have a Cultural Share-A-Thon scheduled for the Kalama library (May 6) to compare and contrast the two native cultures of our islands. They will visit Makawao School Library to share their culture with 5^th grade students too. And to top it all off, they will attend May Day at Kamehameha School Maui Campus.

The Pribilof Kids are coming here, to MAUI! And what a fabulous time they will have. They learned a long time ago, that there is but one ocean on this earth that connects us all.

Websites: www.polartrec.com,

www.oneoceanonearth.blogspot.com

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/ice07/index.html

Contact: Maggie Prevenas, Seventh Grade Science Teacher, Kalama Intermediate School, Makawao, HI phone: 808...