907-433-1600
|
Alooooha! My name is Amethyst Tuisamatatele and for the 2015/2016 school year I am the Family Advocate for the Beluga, Eagle, Fish AM, and the Fish PM classrooms. I have been with the Head Start for 7 years. Of those 7 years I was the classroom teacher for early head start at Northway Mall for 1 year, then merged with the Chugach Headstart site allowing me to take on the new position as the Home-Based Teacher for another 5 years, and recently with this school year taking on the position as Family Advocate. I was born and raised on the island of Moloka'i, Hawaii and graduated in May 1994 at the Kamehameha Schools in Oahu, Hawaii. I am married to my husband, Mautofi Tuisamatatele and together we have 8 children. In our lives, Jesus is first! Without him, we wouldn't know how to get through our every day lives and keep our sanity; he is our all in all.
One of my most fondest memory of my childhood is when my dad would take my sister and I crabbing. I was always the clumsy one. I'd slip and fall into the muddy walk way which would lead towards open water near the Mangrove of where 'Ono (Delicious) crab was hidden. We called this crabbing area "Palaau". While crabbing one particular Saturday, my uncle and cousin had come out to join us. My cousin and sister walked out further towards the deeper end of the shallow waters. My dad was in one area and my uncle and I was in another area, still nearer to my dad as opposed to my sister. After an hour my dad whistled to my uncle and I. We looked toward my dad and he signaled for both of us to walk slowly back to him. I looked at my dad puzzled but, we obeyed what he wanted us to do. As we walked, I saw soft movements in the water. I thought I caught a glimpse of a long morey eel but, told myself it might not be nothing at all. Finally, I got to my dad and he told me if I saw the movement of the water, I said "yes". So my dad had me looked towards my sister and cousin. What they didn't know was there was two baby sharks swimming around them. They were just having fun. I was going to call out to them and my dad said "NO". He told me if I called to my sister she would panic and so would my cousin. Then the sharks would attack them. So, he signaled to them to walk calmly to the mangrove tree and climb on them. They looked puzzled but, did as they were told. My sister looked down in the water as she got up on the mangrove and got scared. My father told them to wait for a little while the baby sharks will go away. So we waited. My father walked toward them when the coast was cleared and walked back to shallow waters which was feet high. After that surprise we decided to call it a day and just go home and cook up what we caught. That was a crazy moment.
What inspired me to work with headstart is the opportunity to give back to the community. Over my career of jobs, I've worked in the banking industry, landline industry, airlines industry, coffee industry, fast food industry, hard labor in the watermelon fields, and did administrative work.I hold my CDA in Early Childhood education and is attending UAA for my AA in Early Childhood Education. What I love about working with headstart is the opportunity of working with such a great staff and working with families to achieve a common goal/interest in providing education in a cultured-rich school.
|