The Teachers Who Help Us Believe We CAN.

Some of the most meaningful things CAN. has been part of have started with a simple connection. One person introduces us to another, we learn about something good happening in a community, and we find a way to help.

That is exactly how we found the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar.

It Started With Colleen

Our connection began through our friend and CAN. business partner, Kealiʻi Kaiminaʻau. Kealiʻi's sister in law, Colleen, is an educator in Hawaiʻi and involved with the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar.

Colleen reached out and told me about the program and asked if CAN. might be interested in supporting it.

At the time, I really didn't know much about the seminar. I knew it brought together educators from across the University of Hawaiʻi system, and I knew they would be spending a week at Kīlauea Military Camp on Hawaiʻi Island. But that was about the extent of my understanding.

Still, it sounded like exactly the kind of thing CAN. should support.

We had CAN. beanies in inventory, and knowing how cold it can get near Kīlauea, we thought they might actually come in handy. We sent enough for the participants and also included CAN. Goal Cards.

The Goal Cards have always been one of my favorite parts of CAN. The concept is incredibly simple. Write something down that matters to you. A goal. A dream. Something you want to change or accomplish. Then put it somewhere you will see it and keep working toward it.

Teachers spend so much of their time encouraging other people to think about their futures. It seemed appropriate to give them something that might encourage them to think about their own.

Then the Pictures Started Coming Back

This was when I began realizing there was more to the story.

We started seeing pictures from Kīlauea. There were educators together wearing the CAN. beanies, including photos outside near the volcano where temperatures had dropped into the 40s.

Amy Shiroma later told me there was even some competition over who got which color beanie.

That made me smile.

But what interested me more was what these educators were actually doing there.

This wasn't simply another education conference.

I wanted to understand it better.Through the connection with Colleen, I was introduced to Dr. Erin Thompson of Leeward Community College and Amy Shiroma of Kapiʻolani Community College. Both help coordinate the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar, and they also happen to be two of the voices behind the Inspired by Aloha podcast.

I invited Erin and Amy onto the Defeating CAN'T podcast to learn more about the program, the teachers it serves and why, after nearly 35 years in Hawaiʻi, people remain so passionate about it.

That conversation helped me understand what we had actually been invited to support.

What Is the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar?

The Great Teachers movement dates back more than four decades and grew from an idea developed by educational psychologist David Gottshall. His vision was to create professional development that recognized something important: teachers already possess an enormous amount of knowledge and experience.

Sometimes what they need most is the opportunity to learn from one another.

The program eventually made its way to Hawaiʻi through a group of educators who believed in the concept. The Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar has now been bringing educators together for nearly 35 years.

Today, Erin and Amy help carry that work forward.

Participants gather at Kīlauea Military Camp for about a week. They come from different campuses and completely different disciplines. There might be a math professor sitting beside a culinary instructor, a counselor talking with someone who teaches carpentry, or a longtime professor sharing ideas with someone who recently came into education from industry.

They also arrive at very different points in their careers.

Some are just beginning.

Some finally feel like they have figured teaching out.

Some are ten or twenty years into the profession and feeling tired.

And occasionally, someone arrives wondering whether they want to continue teaching at all.

That last group stayed with me.

Creating Space for Teachers

Erin explained something during our conversation that seems obvious once you hear it.

Teaching can be incredibly isolating.

A professor can spend much of the day inside a classroom focused entirely on students. Outside the classroom there is preparation, grading, assessment, administrative work and the constant effort to improve.

Meanwhile, the profession itself keeps changing.

During recent Great Teachers Seminars, participants have wrestled with artificial intelligence, student engagement, cultural approaches to teaching, mental and emotional wellness, work and family balance, and burnout.

The seminar doesn't arrive with a predetermined list of answers.

The educators themselves help determine what needs to be discussed.

That is part of what has allowed the Great Teachers model to remain relevant for decades. The structure stays relatively consistent, but the conversations change because the people and the challenges change.

For one week, educators have permission to talk openly with other people who understand their work.

They share ideas. They talk about what is working. They admit what isn't. They learn from someone who may have already experienced the problem they are facing.

Erin described it as building pilina, or relationships.

An educator might arrive knowing almost no one and leave with an entirely new community of colleagues.

And sometimes the transformation is much more personal.

Amy and Erin told me about educators who arrive fairly closed off at the beginning of the week. By the final gathering, people who barely spoke early in the seminar may be sharing deeply personal reflections.

One participant revealed that they had been considering submitting a resignation at the end of the next academic year.

After the seminar, they wanted to keep teaching.

That tells you something about what is happening at Kīlauea.

Why Their Story Hit Home for Me

As I listened to Erin and Amy, I realized there was another reason I felt connected to their work.

Community college changed my life.

I wasn't a particularly successful student in high school, and much of that was my own doing. More than anything, I left high school without much confidence in myself academically. I didn't really see myself as someone who was going to succeed in college.

Sports gave me another opportunity.

I ended up at the College of Southern Idaho, a junior college. I sometimes joke about community college being a version of "Last Chance U," but there is something powerful behind that idea.

For a lot of people, community college really is a second chance.

It certainly was for me.

I found professors who cared about their students and began discovering how I learned. A little success gave me confidence. That confidence made me work harder, and eventually the trajectory of my education and my life changed.

Looking back, I can see that many of the things I had convinced myself I couldn't do weren't actually true.

I needed people who could help me see that.

That is why one part of my conversation with Amy really stood out.

She talked about the students who arrive in her classroom with all kinds of stories.

One might be there because a four year university wasn't financially possible. Another may be supporting a parent or family while going to school. Someone else may have gone directly into the workforce and returned years later because they wanted a different future.

Some simply show up unsure whether they belong.

Then they start experiencing little victories.

They get through an assignment. They pass a difficult class. They discover something they are good at. They begin talking about what they want to take next semester.

I know that feeling.

It's the moment when the light bulb comes on and you begin seeing a different version of your future.

And somewhere behind many of those moments is a teacher.

Investing in the People Who Invest in Students

That brought the entire experience full circle for me.

We rightly talk about investing in students and creating opportunities for them. But those students need engaged, motivated and inspired people standing in front of their classrooms.

Those educators need people investing in them too.

That is really what the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar is about.

It isn't simply sending teachers away for a week of professional development. It is giving them time to reconnect with why they became educators, learn from people who understand their challenges and build relationships they can take home with them.

And those relationships continue.

Erin and Amy talked about Great Teachers reunions that feel more like family gatherings. Participants continue collaborating across campuses and disciplines. People who might never otherwise have met remain connected long after they leave Kīlauea.

The seminar creates a community that strengthens the larger community.

And eventually all of that finds its way back to the student.

Where CAN. Fits Into the Story

When Colleen first asked whether CAN. would help, I thought we were sending some beanies and Goal Cards to a group of teachers.

I'm glad we did.

But after getting to know Erin and Amy and learning more about the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar, I understand that connection differently.

This is the kind of story CAN. exists to support.

Defeating can't doesn't mean pretending challenges don't exist. Teachers face real challenges. Students face real challenges. I certainly did.

It means believing there is a way forward and then finding the people, ideas and determination necessary to work through the problem.

Sometimes that begins with a week at Kīlauea surrounded by other teachers.

Sometimes it begins by walking into a community college classroom unsure of yourself.

And sometimes it begins with someone else believing you can before you quite believe it yourself.

We're grateful to Colleen for making the connection, to Erin and Amy for helping us understand the story, and to everyone who has carried the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar forward for nearly 35 years.

CAN. was fortunate to play a small part in this year's seminar.

Now that we know the story behind it, we hope it's only the beginning.

Hear the Full Conversation

Listen to our conversation with Dr. Erin Thompson and Amy Shiroma on the Defeating CAN'T podcast. We talk about the Hawaiʻi Great Teachers Seminar, community colleges, teacher burnout, second chances, Inspired by Aloha and the people who help students discover what they CAN. do.