Related: In Good Company: Yun Choe ’92
Practicing the Habits of Aloha
Cory Mau always knew he wanted to be a teacher. He originally thought he would be a high school chemistry teacher, but instead found his groove with Punahou’s third graders. He attended Kamehameha School as a student and later returned to his alma mater to teach fourth and fifth grade. Although Mau enjoyed his time at Kamehameha, he was eager to expand his horizons and grow as a teacher. He joined the Punahou community three years ago. Today, he aims to incorporate meaningful aspects of Hawaiian culture into his lessons.
Has becoming a teacher changed your perspective in everyday life?
Absolutely! Teaching is like a switch that’s always on. You could be at the supermarket, and think “wow, that could be a great lesson I could teach.” Everything that I look at reminds me of a student or a lesson that could be brought into the classroom.
When did you decide that you wanted to become a teacher?
I always wanted to be a teacher, but what I wanted to teach was up in the air. When I first got to college, I was a declared secondary education major with a focus in science. Along the way I started to feel burnt out from the grind of studying and working to pay my way through school. I took a year off and I taught music at a local elementary school. Starting in high school, throughout college, and even into my adult life I was teaching ‘ukulele lessons part time. It was in my gap year of teaching music that colleagues asked me why I wasn’t considering working with younger children. My journey of teaching elementary students really took off from there.
Is there something special about teaching young students?
To be a very effective elementary teacher requires someone who can hold a child’s attention. Scientifically, very young children have about a five-minute attention span and every year that time increases by about one minute. By the time children are in third grade, I have a window of roughly eight to 10 minutes to communicate my teaching point before I lose their attention. You have to be super mindful and nurturing. I will never forget that a college professor said I have a way of making students feel safe to ask questions and make mistakes.
What is your teaching philosophy?
Ultimately what is most important is that I want my students to leave my classroom better people than when they walked in. The name of my class that I chose when I came to Punahou was Nā Ho‘okele, which is the designated wayfinder in a canoe. Every year I explain to parents how our goal is to develop the qualities of a wayfinder: respectful, resourceful, observant, aware – and putting others first. A colleague at my former school used to call it “being kākou-minded,” which means thinking about the collective rather than the individual. I created something called the Ten Habits of Aloha that teaches students what it means to show aloha. I want them to become better readers, writers, and mathematicians, but most of all I want them to become better people.
How does Punahou’s campus lend itself to creating more engaging learning opportunities for your students?
The School is a magical place. When you spend time on the campus, you’ll find that there are so many pockets and moments of opportunity for learning. I always tell my students, “‘Āina work is good work.” I try to take my students out all over campus: we work in the lo‘i and we get dirty. Teachers tell me that my classroom has a buzz because it is never quiet, kids are lying on the floor, they are working together at one desk and reading outside.
What have you learned from your students?
In Hawaiian we have the word a‘o which means that in teaching one learns and in learning one teaches. It communicates the reciprocal nature of teaching and learning. My students teach me how to be more compassionate. They teach me how to be more patient. They teach me how to be a better example for them. I see teaching as a privilege, because it is a privilege to stand in front of children every day and it is a privilege to be able to have such direct influence on their lives. I don’t teach them what to think but how to think and maneuver through new information. They often remind me what it means to be a better person and give me discipline to hold myself to high standards.
– By Sophia Howell ’26
