Heritage redux

Another year, another two groups of SS10 students embarking on heritage projects. This is so cool, and I'l trying to stay "present" for them as they have a hundred questions, and many want to share stories at once. It's becoming a tradition at our school, and the evidence that doing heritage research (necessarily a combined reflection on identity and culture) is popping up in many courses. Brandon told his english teacher the other day that he is connected to key figure in the Salem Witch Trials (which they were reading about) and showed the family charts, something he started in SS10.  Students in Ian's SS11 class are frequently jumping in with "my great-grandfather fought in that battle" or "we've got photos from the Depression, I'll bring them in. Two kids realized,  in doing their heritage projects, that their ancestors shared a Northwest Company canoe during the fur trade (pre-1820) -- one a hivernant and the other a voyageur. These new students are learning that their heritage is within reach. In class yesterday I asked what they'd save from their house in an emergency (xbox etc. covered by insurance, family and pets are safe blah blah). Jacob mentioned ggfather's war medals, Bruce mentioned grandfathers trunk (with which he fled E, Berlin before the wall went up), Alyssa mentioned family photo albums. We're in the library lab right now, and when I look around at the screens I'm seeing a Kennedy tartan, a marriage register from Halifax in 1912, a map of some village in South Africa, also lots of dead end web searches, a few kids on the #Occupy trail, one guy playing some game that messes with google searches, many kids trying to figure ot how to spell their grandmother's maiden name. Anyways, I'm excited to see how this year's projects develop.