Welcome back to another blog post! Today I will be sharing the experience of interviewing my dad for a school immigration project. I had a great time interviewing my dad, writing a script, and making a short video on adobe creative cloud express, (I know, it’s a long name). The first step of this long process was brainstorming 10-15 really good/open-ended questions, (I brainstormed 15). I thought I had some really good questions that would get a lot of information from the interviewee and would explain a lot about their journey/life coming to America. My questions got A LOT of information so when I make my video explaining his life, I won’t be able to share all the little details and will kind of have to summarize what he is saying; but I will get in as much as I can. Here are 2 of my Questions and Answers:

1. What were some push factors from India, and Pull factors to America, and how would/did they affect you?

Some of the push factors from India were that they were limited opportunities, and they were not to my liking. He was also trying to design India’s first composite wastewater treatment plant, but because it was expensive, they weren’t willing to build it. Some pull factors were that there were many opportunities, and there were more jobs.

9. When you first got here, what were some of your jobs, how did you get them, and how long did they take; did you have any money problems when you arrived?

At the time, 1 USD was equal to about 55 Rupees, about 77 now. It had a much weaker purchasing power. He didn’t have money for college and had to be careful because all he had budgeted was half of his 1st semester. He paid by getting part-time jobs, a presidential scholarship, was a teaching assistant in his second semester, and continued this through his 3rd and 4th semester.

Here is one of my individual slides from the script without the questions:

I learned a lot about my dad and I also learned the things like how to conduct an interview. I also learned a lot about important lessons in life during my dad’s interview. The first step of my process was interviewing my dad, which didn’t take a long time and was probably the easiest part of the process. The next step was writing a narrative and script (basically planning out my video.) This part didn’t help me at all. The next and final part of the process was making the video and narrating it. This took a while but wasn’t as hard as I thought it was.

Overall, I learned a lot interviewing my dad and had a great time interviewing/making a video, and think it was a great learning experience. Stay tuned for another blog post. Here is my final video. I hope you enjoy it because I spent a lot of time making this video.

Hi, welcome back to another blog post! Today I am going to be telling you about my constitution project, where I had to pick a research question, write a script, and then make it into a slideshow. I had an extremely good time making this project, and want to make similar projects in the future! My research question is why did it take so long for the government to abolish slavery. I was interested in this topic because I wanted to learn what would happen if the government abolished slavery earlier, and why it was the 13th amendment. I have also been interested in this topic for a long time. The purpose of this project was for us to learn about a specific topic related to our constitution unit: which is what we are studying in Social Studies.  

After I brainstormed a few research questions, I thought that my 3rd one was the best which is: why did it take so long to abolish slavery? After this, I had to research this topic.  Some resources I used were Liberty Kids, Brainpop, and Ducksters. When I had to research my brain when straight to Liberty Kids because I have already learned a lot from it. I found episode 140 very helpful as it gave very important details, which helped me make my script, leading to my slides. Not to my surprise, I got over ¾ of my research from Liberty Kids. It wasn’t about a common topic so it took a while to research and was pretty hard to get so much.

Making my script was probably the easiest part of the process because all I needed to do was to copy my script, and time it right. I also had to find different research: because some research was the same as the other, and I needed a lot. It annoyed me because I had these little errors, or needed a little more research. Timing may have taken a bit of time, but overall it was pretty easy and fun. 

However, the next step, making a slideshow and finding pictures was not so fun. At first, it seemed easy because I was copying the script to the slideshow. Then, I had to add pictures. It was super difficult to find the pictures I needed because they needed to be good pictures, of a specific topic. Also, I couldn’t take pictures that were copyrighted so there was less of a variety that I could choose from. 

The second to last step was to practice advancing the slides while saying the script. For this step, I found a lot of errors, fixed my timing, and kept practicing. After doing this a lot, I barely messed up. During this time period, I practiced a lot and changed some slides: to make them the best that they could be. This helped me: because the next step was to record my final project. 

After about 15-20 attempts, I had 4 that I really liked. I found it super annoying to keep repeating the same thing, over and over again: even if I slightly messed up. If somebody in my family accidentally said something or asked me a question, I would have to start over. After my brother helped me pick my best recording, I edited it so there was no access part at the end.  I did the recording over a span of 2 days because it was too much to handle at once. I had a great time doing this project and learned a lot from it.

I think the most challenging part of this was researching, but the most annoying part was probably recording it. I think the most challenging part was researching because I had a tough topic to research and I needed a lot, that was good, and was related but not repetitive. It was also a bit interesting learning about my topic, getting my questions answered, and finding information. I probably enjoyed the part after I finished recording the most because I was pretty proud of what the final result was, and it felt good to get the whole project over with: even though the process was really fun. I also enjoyed researching, because I got to learn a lot of new facts. One new fact that I learned one reason that slavery was abolished so late is the southern states wouldn’t agree to the constitution if the northern states abolished slavery so the northern states had to wait to abolish slavery. They would rather wait to abolish slavery than to watch their country suffer under the Articles of Confederation.

In conclusion, I had a great time in the process of making this project. I had some ups and downs, and I got frustrated sometimes: but I learned from my mistakes and had a great time. I was very proud of how quickly I made the project, and I learned a lot more than I expected. I am very excited to do more posts like these: and stay tuned for more blog posts!

Here’s the link to my final project!

I think the most important right for a citizen to have is the 10th amendment which reserves you the power to do any of the other amendments which are not reserved to the country or prohibited to states. I think it is important because if it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have any rights or restrictions and everybody would be able to do whatever they want, it would be legal to shoot somebody or drop a nuclear bomb. For a student, I think the 1st amendment is the most important because it gives you the right to speech, press, assembly, religion, and petition. Without this, we wouldn’t be able to gather, speak, and do many other things, which wouldn’t allow us to learn or change the future world! It is also important for religion because it allows people of color to go to school.

I think all citizens should have the same rights, otherwise, it would be unfair to many people. If people of color didn’t have the same rights they do today, the world would not be the same as it is today. Also, it would not be good if some citizens overpowered other citizens and cause a revolution. There would also be many more protests, and people would become angry, and they will become violent protests. I think the second amendment should be limited, because nobody needs automatic guns, what’s the point of having guns. Back then guns were used for many different things unlike now, where people normally use guns for bad things, I don’t get why anybody needs automatic guns. People should only be able to have normal guns, which are not automatic and are used for hunting. Only the army should be allowed to use automatic guns.

Sometimes, people and the government change our rights and tell us what we can and can’t do. This is very unfair and people shouldn’t be able to do this because it is limiting our rights which are invading our rights. 

Here is the link to Stronger.

In this post, I will be sharing my thoughts and opinions about “Stronger” by Janelle Monae.

To me, this song means that the “we” in We the People is starting to include everybody and is growing stronger. “We” used to tell white wealthy land-owning men, but now it is beginning to mean Women, and people of all colors, and their voice is starting to get stronger and to stand out. An example is a part which states “Most of my friends want a little peace. Some of my friends want a little solace. Even when we struggle and we get kicked down. We pick each other up with a little polish. All of my friends want a legacy. Don’t wanna be left out. Every time you think we get a little weak. We get a little bit stronger” This shows that people are starting to help each other, where it states, “Even when we struggle and we get kicked down. We pick each other up with a little polish.” Proof that people don’t want to be left out and they are growing stronger is when it states, “Most of my friends want a little peace. Some of my friends want a little solace.” and “Every time you think we get a little weak. We get a little bit stronger.”

The song makes me feel like everybody is starting to be included, which makes me pretty happy, and want to stand up for other people. It energizes me so I can help the people who are starting to be included but are not yet included. It also makes me feel good when the song states “Every time you think we get a little weak. We get a little bit stronger.” The artist may be saying that WE are starting to get included and WE are getting stronger. The lyrics relate to the study of the government because only white, wealthy, land-owning men were part of we, but now WE are so many more people and is a lot stronger than it was before. This is what the song is about and it was explaining how it was important, and how other people felt because of this. I have no questions about the song because Janelle Monae did a great job expressing and delivering her message.