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Day 4 - Ending of the first week

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    Day 4 - Ending of the first week


Morning

    On the morning of the halfway mark for J-term, we start by sharing new discoveries from yesterday's class on our family trees. After discussion, we dove right into working on our family trees once again. Students who did not get the chance to meet with Ms. Harrison the previous day would now get the chance to. While all the students worked on their family trees some students met one on one with Ms. Harrison to get some help on roadblocks or stumps they may have come across during their time building their family tree. Students are making new discoveries every day and grow ever more excited about learning new things about their families. Near the end of the morning, I was able to sit with Ms. Harrison and talk with her about a serious roadblock I had faced while building my family tree. When sitting down with Ms. Harrison we were able to find some records for my mom's side of the family which I was struggling with. This opened up a lot of new records and hints to my ancestors to which I was very pleased. I was then able to get lots of more work done on my moms' side of the family tree. 


Finding our roots 

    After the students came back from lunch we start our usual episode of Finding our Roots. In today's episode of Finding our Roots, we have three interviewees. Sanjay Gupta, Margaret Cho, and Martha Stewart. All guests of today's episode are first, or second-generation immigrants born in America. Margaret Cho didn't have it easy when she was a child or growing up. Often she was teased for her Korean name in school. Her parents immigrated from South Korea making her a first-generation immigrant born in America. When Margaret was 14 her father was deported and he took Margaret Cho with her. One year later Margaret and her father came back to America and were reunited her their family. Margaret was very traumatized from the experience but her father said if you didn't talk about it, it didn't happen. Margaret's father kept a lot of things from her. Records from North Korea have kept information about Margaret's family and many others as well. Through Korean, Geneology Margaret was able to find ancestors dating back to 1213. Margaret also had a very rare DNA strand for Korean women. Margaret says "It would have helped to have history growing up."

Book of Life

    For the last hour and a half of our time, we took our own little trip to Micheal's to get supplies for our very own Book of Life. Students got colored scrapbooks, stickers of countries or certain places, and Washi tape. Students in their Final week of J-term will use materials to make their Book of Life. 


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