Upcoming Events
Please join us for our coffee social on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 7:15.
Sept. 5, Labor Day, School Closed
Sept. 8, K-12 Professional Day, School Closed
Sept. 22, High School Open House (6:00 p.m. -8:30 p.m.)
Sept. 23, K-8 Conference Day/HS professional day, School Closed
Assets Athletes are on the field. Click here to see our athletics calendar.
Stay up-to-date with all Assets happenings. Click here to link to our school calendar.
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Quote of the Month
One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination. -Sam Levenson |
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Greetings!
 Welcome to our 20/20 year where Assets School marks 20 successful years of our high school program and 20 years of being at our current location. At Assets School, our teachers have incredible insights in how students process and receive information, striving daily to present the content in a way that works for your child, educating with 20/20 vision. Thank you for choosing Assets School and joining our `ohana.
Paul Singer
Head of School |
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People Who Make Assets Work
 Meet Nadia Carofalo, our new K-8 Assistant Principal who has worked at Assets since 2008. What do you value most about Assets School? The abundance of knowledge that the Assets School `ohana possesses never ceases to amaze me. Even more impressive is everyones willingness to share his or her wisdom. In the few years that I have been at Assets, I have learned a tremendous deal through professional development and simply by engaging various members of the community in conversation. Assets is a place where self-reflection and growth are valued measures of success for both students and staff. What is your goal for the current school year? This year I would like to get a bigger picture look at how all of the components of Assets School work together to make it a well-oiled machine that students and families trust. As a classroom teacher, I had a vantage point with a perspective that focused primarily on one class of students and their families. As K-8 Assistant Principal, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the process from application, interview
and admission; to class placement, curriculum design and enrichment selections; to our discipline system and counseling program; and how the combined effort of so many dedicated individuals contribute to student progress. What drew you to be an educator? Having grown up in a house where both of my parents were teachers, I had a glimpse into the challenges and joys of being an educator. My father, a Spanish teacher and tutor, worked in an urban environment with a large ELL (English language learner) population. When I was thirteen, my mother, a high school Italian teacher, took some of her high school students on a tour of Italy and invited me to come along. She smiled constantly on that trip, recognizing that her students were able to apply their classroom knowledge. For me, supporting students and celebrating their successes is the challenge and joy that make this profession engaging and worth doing. What is your book by your bedside? Recently, I finished Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, the story of an immigrant family whose members embrace and/or reject American customs to varying degrees over time. Furthermore, it is a story of Gogol Ganguli, whose coming of age depicts the struggle of forming one's own identity, of balancing familial expectations with one's own experiences and perceptions. As a first generation American, I am drawn to these narratives whose protagonists (regardless of their homelands) share similar experiences...these stories connect us.
In regard to staying current in the field-that is about connections as well. Assets is a member of the Schools of the Future learning community who is "focused on transforming schools in Hawaii"; we work with HIDA and send staff members to IDA events; we are part of HAIS and participate in NAIS conventions; and recently, we have collaborated with several other LD schools across the nation to connect teachers and students. I directly participate in the Schools of the Future and LD school communities--web conferencing with colleagues, sharing best practices and discussing next steps. In addition, there are collaboration websites where members post interesting articles, thought-provoking videos and reading recommendations. Next on my professional reading list is Daniel Pink's Drive.
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Campus Happenings
 To kick off the first day of school, our Assets Parents `Ohana hosted a coffee social. Generally the first Thursday of the month, these socials are a great way for parents to get to know each other and meet the faculty and staff.
Please join our parent ning site and be part of our online community! To join, please download and complete the ning site form and submit it to Mike Travis at Assets School. Click here to download parent Ning site form.
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Alumni Update
 Jasmine Stiefel, 2001-2004, gr. 3-5, dropped by campus last week. Jasmine will be leaving the islands this fall to study theater at North Carolina School of Arts in Winston-Salem, a conservatory within the University of North Carolina system. On her visit, Jasmine reminisced about the play structure and was excited to see where she used to love to play on campus. What is your favorite memory from the Assets campus? Please share your memory with us via email to dev@assets-school.net
Word on the street is that Kelly Quinn (Class of 2009) was working at Fort Shafter youth center as a program assistant this summer. She is studying pre-law in Chicago and loving it!
 Kristin Krieg (Class of 2007) was once again a pa`u rider in the King Kamehameha Day parade, this time representing the island of Maui in pink.
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