What a great start to the trip: a ferry ride on our beatiful bay, right past Alcatraz, the setting of a book many students read last summer and this year.
Imagining detainment
We got really lucky. We had signed up for a self-guided tour but were offered a guided tour when we arrived by Sam. He is, to speak frankly, the best tour guide I’ve ever had on a field trip. The students were spellbound as he took us back into the history his own father had lived in China, on Angel Island, and eventually in San Francisco. Thanks, Sam, you’re the best.

We head to Angel Island on Wednesday of this week. Parent drivers will shuttle us to Pier 41 in San Francisco, where we will board the ferry, which departs at 9:45. Drivers, save your parking receipts if you would like to be reimbursed, because you will likely need to find a garage space when you get down there. We will do best to leave school promptly at 8:30 that morning, because we are, of course, dealing with the Bay Bridge during commute hours. Carpool should help to some extent! It is a 1.5-mile hike from the ferry to the immigration station, where thousands of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian peoples were interned from about 1910 to 1930, as a result of racist immigration policies, including California’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. After touring the immigration station and the dormitories with poetry-covered walls, we’ll eat lunch and hike back for a 1:55 ferry. We should be back at school in time for dismissal.

Here’s an image we used earlier today to understand this time period. We asked students: What do you See, Think, and Wonder about this cartoon.

Note the name of the publication on the left, along with the year. The Chinese Exclusion Act came 6 years later.

 

 

Homework

Math

Reading: as always. If you don’t have a book to read, check out By the Great Horn Spoon from behind my bulletin board

Cultural Studies: finish poetry of Angel Island on Google Classroom if you haven’t already.