E lawe i ke aʻo a mālama, a e ʻoi mau ka naʻauao.

He who takes his teachings and applies them increases his knowledge.

— ʻŌlelo noʻeau no. 328

My personal "river of life" exercise used to introduce myself to students and share specific events that I bring to the classroom (2018)

Teaching Philosophy

I view teaching as a cultural, political, and social act. Like research, what and how I teach is deeply influenced by my identities, worldviews, and relationships with land and people. To be an effective teacher, I center three core values in my practice: genuine pilina, holistic connections, and self-determination.

  1. Genuine pilina: I prioritize the relationships I build with students over the content that I teach. While I want students to leave my classes with new knowledge and skills, I also want them to feel safe, secure, and respected by me and their peers. This can only occur after building and nurturing healthy, thriving relationships between and among students and teachers.  

  2. Holistic connections: In order to make content meaningful and relevant to my students, I need to know who they are as people. This requires a holistic understanding of students' lives beyond the classroom and intentionality in finding ways to connect with students' communities.

  3. Self-determination: I want students to feel empowered to use their voice and dictate their future. By affirming students' self-determination, I aim to help boost their self-esteem, self-efficacy, leadership skills, and identity formation.

 Teaching Experience

  • I tutored K–12 students living on Oʻahu and enrolled at UAchieve Learning Center in English Language Arts and SAT/SSAT prep. I specialized in building knowledge and skills in writing persuasive essays and personal statements.

    Courses taught:

    • 1-month summer camp on writing persuasive essays (2015)

  • I taught at a public high school on Hawaiʻi Island in Special Education inclusion and resource settings. I managed students on my caseload by writing Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and tracked student progress for those receiving IDEA services in my classes.

    Courses taught:

    • 9th grade English Language Arts (2019 – 2020)

    • 10th grade English Language Arts (2018 – 2020)

    • 11th/12th grade English Language Arts (2019 – 2020)

  • Since entering graduate school, I have given guest talks for undergraduate classes at Dartmouth College and UCLA on my experiences with culturally responsive teaching, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in higher education, and my journey to academia.

    Courses/Instructors:

  • I assisted the lead instructor of a 1-week summer bootcamp course on undergraduate research preparation and programming opportunities in the humanities, arts, and social sciences for incoming transfer students to UCLA. This entailed leading small-group discussions, co-faciliating lectures with the lead instructor, and reviewing student work and providing feedback with another graduate student mentor.

Teaching Tools

To enact my teaching philosophy and to effect social change in my local community, I utilize four research-informed teaching tools — culturally responsive teaching, universal design for learning, problem-posing pedagogy, and praxis — which I adapt according to specific learning contexts and student needs & interests. Read the descriptions for my personal definition of each tool, and click the images to learn more from outside resources that can aid in implementing the tools in your practice.

Curriculum & Pedagogical Resources

My teaching is effective when I am adaptive, responsive, and aware of individualized needs. Therefore, I modify lessons and pedagogical methods based on who I am teaching. I do not attempt to assimilate students to a one-size-fits-all model of teaching. 

In this section, I've included examples of instructional slides, activities, and student work that demonstrate how I merged my teaching philosophy and teaching tools to instruct a specific group of students at a specific point in time. While these resources may be used in your classroom, I encourage you to make your own modifications to make the content meaningful and relevant to your students' lived experiences.

    1. Battle of Jericho Part 7 

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (April 2019)

    • Teaching strategies: Activate prior knowledge, real-world connections, class discussion, text analysis, checks for understanding, formative assessment

    • Content: Bellwork, reflect and connect, close reading, text analysis

    • Text: The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper, Excerpt

    • Additional Tools: Countdown timer, audiobook


    1. ELA Unit 1 Overview 

    • Setting: 9th grade ELA resource class (August 2019)

    • Teaching strategies: Backward planning, summative assessment introduction, class discussion, read aloud, checks for understanding

    • Content: Goal setting, identifying essential questions and unit theme, text analysis

    • Text: "Obituary" by Lois-Ann Yamanaka

    • Additional Tools: Lexile score tracker


    1. Achieve3000/Sacred Writing Introduction

    • Setting: 11th/12th grade ELA resource class (August 2019)

    • Teaching strategies: Class discussion, text analysis, checks for understanding, reflective writing prompt

    • Content: Reflect and connect, close reading, text analysis, personal writing

    • Additional Tools: Achieve3000, countdown timer


    1. Critical Race Methodology

    • Setting: Graduate seminar on Critical Race Theory in Education (January 2021)

    • Teaching strategies: Activate prior knowledge, real-world connections, class discussion

    • Content: Personal reflection, class discussion, journaling activity

    • Text: Critical Race Methodology Handout

    • Additional Tools: Relaxing work music, Mentimeter

    1. Student survey

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (August 2018)

    • Purpose: Get to know students


    1. Assessment information sheet

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (October 2018)

    • Purpose: Explain key information for final assessment and aid in student planning


    1. Single-point rubric

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (December 2018)

    • Purpose: Align grading practice with Common Core standard for student understanding


    1. End-of-semester survey

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (December 2018)

    • Purpose: Encourage self-reflection and self-grading among students


    1. Song lyrics activity 

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (March 2019)

    • Purpose: Explain purpose of activity, present opportunity for self-reflection and real-world connection; practice reflective writing skills

    • ELA 9 syllabus

    • Setting: 9th grade ELA resource class (August 2019)

    • Purpose: Provide general information about course organization & grading policy


    1. ELA 11/12 syllabus

    • Setting: 11th/12th grade ELA resource class (August 2019)

    • Purpose: Provide general information about course organization & grading policy


    1. Short Story activity

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (April 2020)

    • Purpose: Explain purpose of activity, practice close-reading and text analytic skills


    1. Native passages

    • Setting: 10th grade ELA inclusion class (April 2020)

    • Purpose: Provide students with a variety of texts and media artifacts to engage with during distance learning

    1. Persuasive essay (9th grade student from UAchieve Learning Center), tutored in 2015


    1. Analytic essay introduction (10th grade student from Tulsa, OK), taught during summer 2018 teacher training 


    1. Analytic essay introduction (10th grade student from Tulsa, OK), taught during summer 2018 teacher training 

    2. "Craft move" textual analysis (10th grade students from Tulsa, OK), taught during summer 2018 teacher training

Student Feedback

I believe teaching is a work-in-progress. I do not strive for perfection in teaching or learning, but I do value effort, open-mindedness, and self-respect by students and educators. To this end, evaluation, feedback, and reflection are also key components of my teaching practice that ensures I continue learning from students and improving my teaching approach. This is but a small collection of the growing testimonies by students and colleagues of my work as an educator.

“Kourtney’s emphasis on how being affirmed in her own identity through her schooling and culturally relevant curriculum was so interesting. Really highlights the importance of ethnic studies and culturally relevant curriculums for students.”
— Undergraduate student, 2025

Survey data from SY 2018–2019 on sense of place among 97 10th grade students (2019)

“Before this class, I’ve only read and heard about AAPI, but clarifying and defining why NHPI community is just as important was an eye-opening moment. What stood out to me as was the data itself.”
— Undergraduate student, 2025