By: Dara Sborea

For this week’s blog, I took a virtual field trip to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

When I was in elementary and middle school, and even in high school, I was always fascinated by real-life stories of people who had been forced into hiding during the second World War. This fascination and empathy for the people who endured these awful conditions began when my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Klump, handed me a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank.

What amazed me the most about Anne Frank, as I read her diary, was that she still found ways to make her life normal, and that she went through the same things that we all go through, albeit for Anne, these things were encapsulated into a small space with limited interactions among those around her.

The virtual field trip allowed me to go through all the rooms of Prinsengracht 263, where the Secret Annex, as well as Otto Frank’s warehouse and business offices, were located. I have seen pictures of a few of these rooms before, but this field trip gave me an up close view of the rooms and items left there by the occupants of the Annex. It also gave summaries of which rooms were used for what purposes.

Something I didn’t remember from the diary was that Anne’s only access to nature was through an attic window, where she was able to see birds fly and enjoy the seasons by way of a chestnut tree visible through that window. That tree fell down on August 23, 2010. Before the tree fell, chestnuts were gathered from the ground, were germinated, and saplings were donated to schools named in honor of Anne Frank. In 2009, 150 descendants of the original tree and its saplings were donated to Amsterdamse Bos woodland park. In 2013, the last descendants of the tree were planted in the United States.

Before I took this virtual field trip, I had imagined the building that Anne Frank’s family and friends hid in was small. I knew there living quarters were tight, but I also imagined the rest of the building to be small as well. This field trip showed me that it was actually a much larger building, with many more rooms, than I had imagined. I had pictured the small living quarters, plus a small warehouse, an office, and a sparse kitchen. There were actually two warehouses, several offices, a fully equipped kitchen, as well as a stockroom and even an experimenting room in the building.

I also learned during the virtual field trip that there were many more people who helped the Frank family and their friends while they stayed hidden in the Secret Annex. Between my reading the diary and everything I’ve read since then, I only remembered reading about Miep Gies helping the family.

There were other employees of Otto Frank’s business, as well as at least one family member of an employee who helped the people hiding in the Secret Annex. These helpers included Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, Johan Voskuijl (Bep’s father), Bep Voskuijl, and Jan Gies (Miep’s husband).

This virtual field trip gave me a glimpse into the Anne Frank House that I have not been able to experience before. I also learned so much more about Anne Frank’s and her family’s existence in that space that I hadn’t known before, even though I feel like I did have so much information before I took this field trip. For anyone unable to travel, this is a great way to see someplace that you may not otherwise be able to visit.

Cape Town, South Africa is a beautiful spot to go on vacation. The Beach at Sea Point at sunset is a beautiful sight with the colors of the sunset and the reflection on the water. This virtual field trip helps to see how beautiful other parts of the world is without having to go there. This also allows you to see the center of the city, which is also beautiful. One of the pictures that it shows that I love is the picture over the Bo-Kaap district, all the beautiful colors of the homes really make it unique. The colors are so beautiful and make the homes and buildings stand out more. Cape Town also has some historical statues as well throughout the town.

For my virtual field trip, I decided to try the google art project link. This link lead me to Google Arts & Culture. I decided to visit the Van Gogh Museums virtual tour. The Van Gogh Museum is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I chose this as my virtual tour because I am very interested in art ands Van Gogh and I think as a future art teacher it is beneficial to expose myself to the most art related things as possible in order to have knowledge for my students.

This virtual tour allows people to explore multiple floors of the museum, seeing the work that is currently displayed within the museum. Another cool feature of the tour is that when the screen is showing a displayed piece of art, a link shows up in the bottom left corner that allows you to click it and find more information on that specific piece of artwork.

“The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in the world. The permanent collection includes over 200 paintings by Vincent van Gogh, 500 drawings and more than 750 letters. The museum also presents exhibitions on various subjects from 19th-century art history.

For more information on Vincent van Gogh, please visit the section Vincent van Gogh’s Life on the museum’s website.”

Than you guys for reading!

-Carly Thompson

By: Alicia Infante

This subject piqued my interest many years ago when I had visited there. I was fortunate enough to hear the stories of people from other countries that came to the island and what they experienced. I have read of their accounts on the island. You can now access the records online. I think about what the people who came here had to endure. They left most things behind that they owned. They also left family behind. There was both sadness and joy for all who came.

History of Ellis Island

Ellis Island was many things before becoming an immigration station. If you watch the video the wooden structure that was built in 1892 was built to house the housing station at the immigration station burnt down and was rebuilt to what we have today. The island had two names prior to becoming People came to America to escape from being persecuted because of religion, and another reason was poverty. This occurred in 1892 through 1924. Immigrants, when they left home, could only bring what they were able to carry. The different ways that people traveled were on a boat, or by foot,—most of the 3,000 people crowded the ships traveled many distances for a means of freedom. It took roughly two weeks to cross the Atlantic. There were a variety of cultures with the people who traveled. The ships that brought people over were filthy. The first thing that immigrants saw was the Statue of Liberty. Before leaving the boat, people looked over for health issues. Upper-class immigrants were first, then came lower class which waited long hours and days later. As people came off the boat, they approached the doctor’s registry, where they would look for signs of illness. People were forced to take an eye test to determine if they had trachoma. If trachoma was found on an individual, they were sent back home free of charge for transportation. Out of the 300,000 sent to the island, roughly 120,000 people were sent back with disease or disability. Many births and deaths were occurring on Ellis Island. Interpreters were on the island to assist in getting the correct names of individuals. You had to exchange money from your home country for American cash to survive.
In the audio clips, you hear about 3-4 ships carrying 5,000 to 6,000 people. Everyone was tagged with their demographics at Ellis Island after they took your papers. Years passed, and Ellis Island was not used for immigrants but a detention center for enemies in 1918 and 1919. The doors were officially shut on November 12, 1954. They were survivors with very little to work with when coming to America. I’m proud of their accomplishments that made way for us to accomplish our goals.

teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/stop1.htm

Meet Young Immigrants | Scholastic.com