I was a Hawaii State Department of Education elementary teacher at schools on Oahu and the Big Island from 1978-2002. I have MEds in Educational Communications and Technology from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and another in Educational Supervision and Administration from Arizona State’s federally funded Leadership for Educational Entrepreneurs (LEE) program. I have been the principal of Connections Public Charter School in Hilo since 2004. Connections began as a school-within-a-school in 1995. Five years later our program converted to become the first start-up charter school in the Hawaii. The curricula at Connections are constructivist based with a focus on developing multiple modalities of learning and assessment.