Thursday's class and last blog

Today was the big day... we took the essay portion of the final exam.  It was truly an emotional roller coaster for me while I was writing the essay.  Although, I made a few mistakes with the topics... I felt pretty good about it once I turned it in.
Today marks the last blog of the semester... it's been a fun time.  I've learned a lot from Mr. Schick and enjoyed him as a teacher.  It was a good ending of the year.

Wednesday's class

Today in class we went over our big Rome test.  When I got it back I discovered that i did not bubble in two of the answers.  I was extremely mad at myself for doing that because when I looked at the questions I knew them.  I guess that's what happens when I don't look over my test before I hand it in.
Tomorrow is a big day.  We take the essay portion of the exam.  I will be preparing for that tonight and have been all week.  Hopefully, I won't be too stressed out because of the time limit and that I will do well on it.  Tomorrow is our LAST CLASS of the year.

Tuesday's class

Today in class we took the Rome test.  I didn't do too bad... actually.  After we took the test Mr. Schick went to grade the tests.  Once he all told us his grades we went down to the tv room to pick up our projects that we made for our Rome project.  That's all we did today... after today there is only two more Western Civilization classes... crazy.  I'll talk to you tomorrow, cya

Friday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick went over all most of the powerpoint today.  He did this because we have our Rome test next Tuesday.  He talked about everything we need to know for the test.  He said that our projects will be in powerschool this weekend.  He also told us that we are taking our writing portion of the exam next Thursday because he is going to Chicago with the academic team.  That's all we did today... talk to you later

Thursday's class

Today in class the last three groups presented their projects.  My group finally presented our projects.  I feel like we did a pretty good job with all the information that we gave and the way we presented.  Hopefully we will get a good grade.
The other two groups had very nice projects as well.  Chesca and her group made a pot and did a good job presenting it.  Karson and their group made an excellent board game.  I didn't get to play it but it was really cool and it definitely helped us for the test... Which will be NEXT TUESDAY!!!!!!

That's all we did today.. talk to you tomorrow.. cya

Wednesday's class

Today in class three other groups presented their projects today.  Jayla made a pot and explained the meaning of it.  Alex and Author made a sick temple and had a nice presentation about the temple.  And Caitlin and Trish both made very very nice diaries.  It was neat to see all that they did today.  That' all we did.  I'll talk to you tomorrow

Tuesday's class

Today in class we started presenting our Roman projects.  The groups went today.  The first group brought some delicious salad and pasta.  I was very impressed with the way they made it.  I had to plates of the salad and pasta.  The next group made a song.  It was a parody of Iggy Izalea's song.  It was also very good.  It made me laugh and the whole class laughed.
The third group to present was just David.  He had an excellent powerpoint on Ancient Rome, the colosseum and the Circus Maximus.  That was all we did today.  My groups project is due Thursday.

Friday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick introduced most of us to music called the blues.  He showed us a video of BB King singing in Africa during one of Muhammad Ali's fights.  He did this because BB died last night at the age of 89.  He was the third best guitarist in history.  After he showed us the video he let us do whatever we wanted and kept playing more blues music.  That's all we did today, talk to you on tuesday.

Thursdays class

Today was an hour late bell, Mr. Schick didn't realize that.  After 10-15 minutes Parker and I went down to the tv room to see if he was in there.  He was there, not realizing there was an hour late bell.  After that all happened, he came in class and we started taking notes from the Rome powerpoint.  Here are some of the notes.

Poor Plebs

• the senate kept plebs happy by giving them bread and entertainment
• that was all wanted while they were in slavery

Change in Rule

• Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the plebeians
• After Tiberius died... military leaders figured out the same thing as Tiberius
• soldiers showed loyalty to their military leaders

Julius Ceaser

• he died 44 Bc
• he was a very successful military leader
• he was good at politics
• made common folks happy
• made friends in high places
• became friends with Pompey, who was a general that conquered Syria and Palestine
• formed a friendship with Crassus, who was the richest man in Rome and one of the richest men in history
• they formed their own group called Triumvirate
• means the rule of three men

that's all the notes I have from today.  

Wednesday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick gave us a 10 question pop quiz on Rome.  I got 7 out of 10 questions right.  After that he quickly graded and went over the quiz.  Once we did that he let us get into our groups and work on our Rome project which is due, I believe this Monday.  We got a good amount of work done which is good.  That's all we did today.. talk to you tomorrow.

Tuesday's class

Today in class we finished watching the rest of the movie about Tiberius and ancient Rome.  The rest of it was about pretty much one single topic.  This was, once Tiberius made a trus with the Spaniards, his city senate was very upset and mad at him.  They decided to not punish him though, but to punish the general who commanded him to talk with the Spaniards.
After that, Tiberius was very mad at Octavius for stealing poor peoples land.  He decided to be a tribune and give the people their fair share of money that the Senate took from them, and give it back to the people.  Eventually, after fighting with a lot of the other tribunes, he passed that law and all of the poor people supported him.
But it gets better... once he passed the law, Octavius and the Senate became very angry with him.  They decided to start telling the people that he was running just to be the king, which is a very bad thing to try and elect yourself as king.  They made the people so mad and the people began to stop supporting him.  Eventually it got so bad that he was beaten to death and that was the end.

Overall it was a good video and I enjoyed learning about what happened with Tiberius.

Friday's class

Today in class we got a break from the huge Rome powerpoint because Mr. Schick isn't in class today.  He told the sub that we have to work on our Rome project that is due two mondays from today.  We got a lot done on the Powerpoint today which is good.  After that I worked on other homework.  That's all we did today... talk to you next tuesday

Thursday's class

Today in class we talked a little bit then we watched a movie.  The movie was about Rome.  We only saw the first 30 minutes or so and it showed the part where Rome went into Carthage and absolutely demolished the city.  We also saw Tiberius junior take over the leadership role in the military.  He talked to one of his friends and then realized that he was a person that would take poor womens land and sell them it for cheap.  They would have to vacate to Rome once he did that and there was a lot of slavery in Rome at the time because of that reason.  I am assuming we will see more of the video tomorrow.
Talk to you tomorrow.

Wednesdays class

Today in class we went over more of the Rome powerpoint.  Mr. Schick really focused on the three big wars that Rome fought.  The wars were called Punic Wars.  These wars were against the people of Carthage.  The first war was all on water.  They used big ships with metal spikes on the sides and bashed into each other.  Rome came out with the victory in that war.  The second war, which happened almost two decades after was very strategic, and very very long.  The leader of Carthage had a plan to send all of his troops (including his elephants) all the way around Rome and into the Northern part of Italy, trying to come at them with a surprise attack.  This war was 15 years long... because of the such long travel the Carthage troops had to Italy.  Once they got into Italy, they made their way down through the country pretty easily, but the bad part was that they did not destroy the city of Rome.  They destroyed pretty much everything else in Italy besides Rome.  Which is a big break for the Romans.
The third war doesn't take place too long after the second.  Rome decides that they just want to be done with Carthage.  All they did was send a bunch of troops in and flat out destroy them.  Carthage burnt down to pieces in only 17 days.  With all the people that survived from Carthage, Rome took them back and put them into slavery.  After that Rome went on with their lives and didn't do much else... that I know of now.
I'll talk to you tomorrow... cya later

Tuesday's notes

Today in class Mr. Schick went over more of the Rome powerpoint.  Here are some of the notes I took today

Three governments into one

• the rule of the king is replaced by the rule of two consuls
• consuls were elected by people
• office term is one year
• they were always Aristocrats
• Patricians traced their descent from a famous ancestor called a pater of father
• Consuls jobs were: dealing justice, making laws, commanding the army
• one consul could reduce the power of the other

Challenge came from regular people

• 5th century BCE - patrician dominance of the government was challenged by plebs (people)
• plebs were 98% of the people
• couldn't hold office
• plebs were threatened with debt slavery
• plebs had no legal rights

No Legal Rights

• plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial 
• Rome had no written laws
• Patricians interpreted laws to their own language
• Plebs refused to serve in the military
• Laws, called The Law of The Twelve Tables were written out
• Laws on tablet were posted to public in 450 BCE
• Tribunes (tribal leaders) were elected

SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanum 

• designates any decree or decision made by Roman Senate and People

Peoples Affairs 

• res publica means peoples affairs
• democracy (peoples assembly and the Tribunes)
• Aristocracy - senate
• Monarchy - consuls
• not a tyranny

Ancient Rome/USA

• originally U.S. modeled their government like Ancient Rome
• both had 3 branches of government:
• executive
• legislative
• judicial
• both countries have a legal code

That's about all I can post for notes from today.  I'll talk to you tomorrow... cya

Friday's class

Mr. Schick came into class today and he said that our class is the most ahead of all of his other classes.  Once he told us that he let us work on homework for other classes.  That's all we did today is just do homework in class.  I'll talk to you on Tuesday... have a good weekend... cya

Thursday's class

Today is Grandparents day, and there was a lot of Grandparents here in class which was good.  After all that commotion Mr. Schick went over more of the Rome powerpoint.  I have some notes from today.

Etruscans

• they came from the north-central part of the peninsula
• they were mostly metal workers, artists, and architects

Greeks

• they had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea
• Romans borrowed ideas from them, such as:

1. religious beliefs
2. alphabet
3. art
4. military techniques and weaponry

Latins

• descendants of indo-europeans
• settled on the banks of the Tiber River
• Rome situated that trading ships could come into Rome but not Army ships
• they have a commercial port

after we took all the notes Mr. Schick told us a story about Tarquin the proud.  It was a very very weird but interesting story.  I'll talk to you tomorrow... cya

Wednesday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick let us work with our groups on the project that will be in two weeks.  We have made progress and we are making a very cool and good project.  That's all we did today, it was nice of him that he let us use class time for our projects.  I'll talk to you tomorrow... cya

Tuesday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick came in and all we did was talk about all the rioting that has been going on last night and today.  There has been rioting going on all last night over a young kid named Freddie Gray who died by a police arrest.  People have been lighting buildings on fire, looting, and beating up other people because of this.  All we did was discuss all that happened last night.  Talk to you tomorrow...

Thursday's class

Today in class we went over more of the Rome power point.  That's about all we did today.  Veronica brought in donuts for our class though which was nice.  Again I was messing with Jayla and she got mad at me again.  That's all we did today.  Talk to you tomorrow...

Wednesday's class

The first half of class today Mr. Schick let us do homework while he was finishing up grading the Greece essays.  Parker, Jeremiah, and I got an 89.  I am satisfied with that.  Luckily it brought my grade up fourteen points which is great.  Once he was done grading the papers he went over some of the basic things that we need to know how to do in a formal paper.  He said that a lot of us made silly mistakes like not capitalizing things and not using a word in the right context.  Silly stuff like that.  Besides those little errors he said that our class overall did the best with the papers than any other class he has.  Which is pretty cool.  

That's all I have for you today.  I'll blog back to you tomorrow.  Cya

Tuesday's class

Today in class we started our Rome powerpoint that Mr. Schick started.  After he went through the powerpoint he had Ms. Jane called and said that Mr. Schick had a visitor up in the office.  He came back with a sweathshirt and dark sunglasses on and then he started rapping about rome.  he made his own song and did an excellent job.  After that we talked about the importance of the song and all the important information.  That's about all we did today.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Friday's class

Today in class we pretty much did nothing.  We watched a short clip of something that I didn't really know what was happening because I came in while it was half way done.  After the video ended he let us do our homework that we have from our other classes.  That is literally all we did today.  I will blog back to you on Tuesday.

Thursday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick came in and asked us what type of project the whole class wants to do.  He said we should think of something beyond a power point or a essay.  After a lot of conversation and yelling, people decided to do all kinds of random things that will be very interesting to implement Ancient Rome and their way of life.  That's about all we did today, i'll blog back to you tomorrow.

discussion day

Today in class we watched a short video of these four people chained up to a wall.  They couldn't move their necks or any part of their body.  After we watched this video we discussed what the purpose of the video was about.  It was very interesting with some of the things we were talking about and how eye opening it was.  That was one of the best classes I have been in all year in any class... it really made me think.  That's all we did today.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Tuesday morning class

Today in class we went over our Ancient Greece test.  That was pretty bad for me, I definitely didn't study enough.  Mr. Schick hasn't graded our papers yet but they should be graded soon which will help me boost up my grade.  That's all we did today.
Once class was over we went to an assembly and heard John O'Leary talk.  He is a motivational speaker who went through a lot during his life time.  He was told that he wouldn't be living right now.  Which is pretty awesome because he is living and living a great life.

Wednesday's test and last day

Today we took our big test... I don't really want to know how that went for me.  I don't think I did too well haha.  Anyways Mr. Schick is back which is good.  We turned in our big essays today, and hopefully he will like it.  That's all I did in class today.  Now time for our big 11 day spring break.  It could not have come in a better time.  I won't be blogging for a while but that is okay with me.  I'll talk to you in a bit. Cya

tuesday's class

Today in class, pretty much all I did was study for the test tomorrow.  Parker, Jeremiah, and I talked about our paper that also is due tomorrow.  That's about it, it is getting very boring without Mr. Schick around.  Well... I'll talk to you tomorrow, then after tomorrow i'll be off for a decent amount of days because of spring break!!!! woooooohh!!! cya

Friday's class

Yesterday in class people worked on their papers and I guess a couple of people might of watched the video on Ancient Greece.  Parker and Jeremiah finished their paper yesterday while I was watching the video because I already finished my part of the paper.  I watched almost all of the video, there's 12 minutes left in the video that I will watch on Tuesday.  Once I finish the video in class I will look over my notes because the test on Ancient Greece is the next day.  I will begin looking over the power point and notes that I took in class today to get a good start on the material. 

 Parker, Jeremiah, and I wrote a little bit over the 1,000 word mark for the paper.  Hopefully Mr. Schick won't mind to much.  

That's about all I have to blog to you about today, Cya Tuesday

Thursday's class

Today is the first class of the whole semester that Mr. Schick has not been here.  We're working on our paper that is due next Wednesday.  I finished mine so tomorrow and Tuesday I will be able to watch the video on Ancient Greece that will help us with our test.  Fun fun times... I'll blog back to you tomorrow.  Cya

Wednesday's power point presentation

Today in class we finally presented our presentation.  I did ok, i had expectations of doing better but I don't think I did as well as I could have, but oh well.  Tomorrow I believe Mr. Schick will be gone until next tuesday.  He is going to I think Amsterdam to visit his daughter in college.  Which is awesome.  Hope he has a safe plane ride and has fun over there, he'll probably be happy not having to see us all for a couple days.

tuesdays power points

Today in class a couple groups presented their power points.  They talked about the art and literature of the Ancient Greeks, The type of people in the wars and that's about it.  Tomorrow my group will finally present our powerpoint and I'm excited to present it.  It should be good.
That's about all I have today, I'll blog back to you tomorrow... CYaa

Friday's presentations

Today in class two groups presented their power point to the class.  The one powerpoint was on the war and difference between Athens and Sparta.  Also giving information about both cities and described their lifestyle a little bit.
The other group that presented had talked about Homer, who was a blind man that wrote and told a story called The Odyssey.  They also talked about what people thought of Homer.  Some people think that Homer is a mythical person that people made up, but most think that he was a real person, though he was blind.
That's all we did today, Mr. Schick said that he would look at our powerpoints over the weekend and grade them for the third quarter which in awesome.
I'll blog back to you Tuesday... Cya

Thursday's class

Today in class we looked over a couple slides on Cleisthenes and Isagoras.  They were both aristocrats and they were fighting over a position to run Greece.  Isagoras had support from fellow aristocats and he even had support from Sparta.   Cleisthenes had support from the Athenian people though.
Isagoras won the election but a couple years after he got kicked out of office from the Athenian people and from the help of Cleisthenes.
After that Cleisthenes took over Greece and people loved him.
After we took notes on the few slides we watched some of the video that Mr. Schick posted on his blog that will help us with the test.
That's all we did today, so I'll blog to you tomorrow... maybe from home because they are calling for 2-4 inches of snow haahaha fun.  Cya

Tuesday's Class

Today in class we took some notes on the Greek governments.  Aristocracy and Tyrannies.  Aristocrats seemed to gamble around and make deals for their government success.  They didn't really take things seriously because when they would have meetings, they would have lots of wine to get drunk and they would have women, to entertain them in sexual ways.  After that government was over there were people called tyrants.  Tyrants basically did whatever was best for them.  There was one tyrant ruling Greece at a time.  Nobody liked the rules of Tyrants except for them.  They are very selfish.  We talked about Hippias, but with my power point I was talking about Hippias so I have good information about him.  

I'll blog back to you tomorrow.  Cya

Tuesday's class

Today in class Jess brought brownies.  They were very good.  After we ate the brownies Mr. Schick let us work all class on our power point that we will be presenting Friday.  Parker and I pretty much finished our part of the power point, Jeremiah is still working on his.  Since I already had most of my power point done I started the essay that is due on April 1st.  I got almost a whole page done talking about Tyrannies.  It is looking good so far.  So that's all we did today I will blog back to you tomorrow.  Cya

Friday's class

Today in class Mr. Schick let us work on our powerpoint project with our group.  My group got a good amount of the power point done.  I'm pretty sure we only have a couple more slides to fill and then we'll just proof read it and make sure everything makes sense.  I'm glad that we got to work on it in class today that way we could be productive and get most of it done.
That's all we did today, so i'll blog back to you on tuesday.  Cya

Thursday's class

Today in class we goofed off for most of the first mod.  Mr. Schick's daughter facetimed him from France in class.  Today is her birthday so we wished her a happy birthday and then he talked to her for a bit.  After that was over, we went over our big project again because a lot of people were missing yesterday and wouldn't of known what to do.
In the second mod of class we got together with our groups and worked on our powerpoint.  Our group got set up and we are using google slides that way we can all work on it together and communicate together while working on it.  We all figured out which topic we would do.  I got the definition of my subject.
I'll blog back to you tomorrow.

Wednesday's class

Today in class we quickly went over the powerpoint of Greece and then we took a 10 question pop quiz.  It scared me because I wasn't prepared and I thought it would  be really hard, but it wasn't.  It was fairly easy and I am pretty sure I got a 90 out of 100.  After that Mr. Schick told us about a project that he is giving us to do.  In groups of three we have do make a powerpoint on a type of subject that we chose.  We also have to write out a 1,000 word paper.  He didn't give much detail on the paper today but he said he would tell us more about it later on.  The powerpoint is due a week from friday and the paper is due April 1st.
My group that I'm working with for the project is Parker, Jeremiah, and myself.

Tuesday Class

Today in class we took more notes on Ancient Greece.  Here are some notes I took

• The Ionian River is located south of Greece
• The workers of Greece are Sailors, Ship Builders, Farmers, Metal Workers, Weavers, and Potters
• Fertile valleys cover a quarter of the peninsula
• 20% of Greece is suitable for farming
• The main foods that they grew are grains, grapes, and olives
• they made very good wine out of all the grapes they farmed
• the lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Mycenaeans influence began around 2000 BC
• Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 foot thick wall
• Mycenaean Kings dominated Greece from 1600-2000 BC
• Mycenaeans invaded Crete and Absor
• Around 1200 BC the mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae, burnt palace after palace
• Dorians moved into this worn-torn region
• They are less advanced
• Trade base economy collapsed
• writing disappeared for 400 years
• Homer
• Greek oral tradition - stories passed on by word of mouth
• He lived at the end of the "Greek dark ages"
• he was blind
• composed lots of stories from Trojan War
• The Iliad - one of last conquests of the Mycenaeans 
• The Odyssey - story of Odysseus winning the war, he wanted to get home but Poseidon was mad at him so he wasn't letting Odysseus get home easily

After we took our notes we had some time left in class so Mr. Schick decided to read some of the book Odyssey to us.  He was pretending to be Homer so he put glasses on and was acting blind, it was pretty funny.
Thanks for reading, I'll blog back tomorrow.

Cyber day

This is Aristotle, he is a Greek philosopher and a scientist.  He was born in Macedonian city of Stargira, Chalkdice, on the northern border of Classical Greece.  His father Nicomachus died when Aristotle was a child.  After his father died, Proxenus of Atarneus became Aristotles protector.  When Aristotle was 18 he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until he was 37.  The writings he covered were - physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aestheics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, and government.  After Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and went to tutor Alexander the Great.  Aristotle follows Socrates and Plato in taking the virtues to be central to a well-living life.  What we need, in order to apply that general understanding to particular cases, we must have, through proper upbringing and techniques, the ability to see which course of action is best supported by reasons.  Therefore practical wisdom, as he tells, cannot be given solely by general rules.  We must also have through practice, those deliberative, emotional, and social skills that enable us to put our general understanding of well-being into practice in ways that are suitable to each occasion.  That is his approach to philosophy.  Aristotle lived from 384 BCE to 322 BCE.  Aristotle is known for many writings, here are some: The Athenian Constitution, On Dreams, On the Gait of Animals, On Generation and Corruption, and On the Heavens.  That is just some writings that I picked out.  There are many more.  Besides Aristotle being a philosopher, he could of also been a scientist.  That was something else that he was pretty good at and had a good understanding of.  He is still important today because he laid the foundation of Western Culture, and his ideas and insights still dictate essential features of our world right now.
This is my cyber day assignment... again.  I'll blog back to you on Tuesday, because we don't have class Monday.  Hope you enjoy this writing of Aristotle.  

Cyber Day

The Parthenon is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Greece.  The construction the Parthenon started in 447 B.C. and it was completed in 432 B.C.  The purpose of it was to house a massive statue called Athena Parthenos.  It was made from ivory, silver, and gold.  Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art.  The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece.  

The Valley of the Temples is located outside the city of Agrigento, Sicily.  The remains of these seven Greek temples is called the Valley of the Temples.  The Temple of Concordia, built is the 5th centurt B.C. , is the best Temple Duric that has been standing and is still one of the largest. Other Temples in the Valley are the Temple of Juno, use for weddings, and the temple of Heracles, which is the oldest Temple at the site which today consists of only eight columns.   

Paestum is an ancient Greci-Roman city in southern Italy, not far from the beach.  The side shows three fairly well preserved Greek temples.  The oldest temple is Paestum is the Temple of Hera, it was built around 550 B.C. by Greek colonists.  Today the remainder of the ciry is found in the modern Fraizione of the same name, which is part of the comune of Capaccio in the Province of Salerno, Campania, Italy.  

Discussion day

Today in class Mr. Schick was going over what the plan for tomorrow is.  He thinks that we will be off tomorrow and maybe friday.  We talked about the cyber assignment for tomorrow.  Jayla shared a story of people finding a girl that died over 100,000 years ago in the snow and she still looked like us.  I asked Mr. Schick if we could go to the cafeteria but he said no... that's about all we did today.  I'm sure I'll be blogging from home tomorrow.

Notes on Greece

Today in class we went over some of the powerpoint that Mr. Schick presented to us.  Here are some of the topics and facts that we took notes on:

·      All great civilizations were located on a river. 

Here are some of the great civilizations that began on a river:

v Mesopotamia/ Tigris and Euphrates river

v Egypt/Nile River

v India/Indus River

v China/Huang He River

·      There’s about 1,400 islands off the coast of Greece

·      Mediterranean Sea means – the middle of the earth

·      Greece is considered a peninsula

·      Adriatic Sea is on the west side of Greece

·      Aegean Sea is on the east of Greece

·      Island of Crete is down in south/southeast of Greece

·      Athens on the water

·      Sparta is more inland in Greece

These are all the notes I took in class today about Greece and its geography

Test friday

We took our third test today in Mr. Schicks class.  It was on Ancient Egypt, which we have been studying for the past week or two.  It was a scantron multiple choice test.  I am blogging in class right now because I want to do it and get it done instead of having to do it on the weekend.  I'll blog back to you all on Tuesday when our next class meets.

Cyber Assignment day 3

1. Where was Egyptian life centered around?  

The Nile River

The Mediterranean Sea

The desert land

Near the pyramids

2.   Who was the person who was all powerful, and was worshipped like a god?

Scribes

Nobles

Priests

Pharaoh

3.  What is hieratic?

Paper

writing words

drawing pictures

dancing to describe something

4.  What did Egyptians use to travel through the Nile River?

A paddle boat

a row boat

a sail boat 

a motor boat

5.  What were gods often portrayed as?

animal body with human head

animals

humans

animal body with another animal head

Notes from todays powerpoint

In class today we took notes off of the powerpoint that Mr. Schick presented to us.  Here is some information

Pharaoh:

• he was all powerful
• worshipped as a god
• he had multiple wives
• if things weren't going well in Egyptian life the Pharaoh could be fired
• Egyptians relied on a harmony of the balance of the universe.  
• Called Maat

gods, humans, everlasting life

• the Egyptian people believed in the afterlife
• gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies
• the people mummified dead bodies to preserve them for the post-death journey
• Egyptian people believe that when you reach the afterlife the dead souls would be justified at the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster

Writing of the words of God

• earliest Egyptian writing people found is around 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphics
• hieroglyphics is where they drew pictures to describe what they were saying
• hieratic was when they started to use letters to write words out
• Papyrus was what they called paper

Calendar and Sailboat

• Egyptians created a calendar with 12 months, 365 days long, to make sense of the seasonal cycles
• they had a calendar for all types of seasons

Egyptian pyramid challenge

Today in class Mr. Schick gave gave us a link to a Egyptian pyramid challenge.  We had to pick out our workers, the type of food they would get to eat, the god that represented to the Pharaoh, and all sorts of other things.  The first two groups to finish the challenge got A's, the second two got B's and the rest either got a C or failed because they couldn't finish it.  Author and Alex were in my group, Author finished first and soon after Alex did too.  Sadly... I didn't get too finish because class ended before I was able to figure out how to build the pyramid.

Egyptian Inventions

This is my list of the five most important inventions in Egyptian culture.  In order of importance they are Hieroglyphics, Black Ink, Paper, Sails, and Clocks.  Below I will describe each on of these in how they are important and how they improved life.  Hieroglyphics is the writing system goes back to 6,000 B.C.  They used pictures to communicate and this was called Hieroglyphics.  They found it a lot in Egyptian tombs and other places.  Hieroglyphics tells stories of war, politics and culture that give us a great understanding of ancient Egyptian culture.  This was very important because it became the basis for their language.  It improved their lives because it gave them a common and easy way to communicate with each other.
Black ink was invented sometime after Hieroglyphics.  It was made by mixing water with soot and vegetable gums on a wooden palette.  They didn't make just black ink, eventually they found a way to make different colored ink for clothing and other purposes.  Black ink was and still is today very important or writing, for drawing, and for other useful purposes.  It improved the Egyptian life because once they invented black ink they could now write and draw better and it helped them have an easier way of communicating.
Not long after they invented ink, they invented paper.  During their time paper was called Papyrus.  This was an old school paper made from Cyperus papyrus plants found along the Nile River.  The invention of paper was and is still very very important.  Paper makes writing and drawing so much easier.  It also helps with communication to one another.  This improved Egyptian life a lot because instead of them having to draw on a wall to communicate they can write on paper and send it to one another much quicker and easier.
The Egyptian people invented sails as a way of navigation through water.  Sails came in very handy since they were so close to the Nile River and the Mediterranean Sea.  Especially since the Nile River flowed South to East, it was hard for people to use paddles going down the river.  Sails improved Egyptian life drastically, it helped them go through the Nile River much easier and quicker and it helped them as they traveled through the mediterranean.
The Egyptians were the first to invent mechanical clocks.  The most popular one that they made was the sun clock where the shadow made by the sun is used to determine what time of the day it is.  They also created a water clock for night time.  It works like an hour glass where water drips down at a predictable rate and time is told depending on the level of liquid.  The invention of the clock also helped to invent the 365 day calendar.  The clock was very important for the Egyptians to tell about what time it was so they could have a good understanding of how long they could be out during the day working and doing whatever.  This improved their life a lot by letting them know when the sun would go down and when the sun would rise so they could get more stuff done in a day.

The Usual

Today in class we went over the rest of our last test that we took.  We did some of the notes from the prezi of Egypt.  Even though we took notes in our blogs on the Prezi on our cyber day.  We discussed whether or not we were going to have school tomorrow, have a delay, or be off because of such cold weather that we will have tomorrow morning.  I also was agitating Jayla pretty badly,which was hilarious.  I really hope we don't have school tomorrow too.

Notes on Ancient Egypt

• Geography

• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River

• water for drinking, for irrigating, for bathing, and for transportation

• Every July it floods

• Every October it leaves behind rich soil 

• the delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt

• managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation

• Pyramids

• The Great Sphinx of Giza

• built 2555 - 2532 BC

• a recumbent lion with a human's head

• oldest monumental statue in the world

• Daily Life
• Pharaoh
• government officials - Nobles, Priests
• Soldiers
• Scribes 
• Merchants
• Artisans
• Farmers
• Slaves and Servants

• Slaves/servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties

• raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions - benefitted from irrigation of the Nile 

• artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife

• money/barter system was used - merchants might accept bags of grain for payment - later, coinage came about

• scribes kept records, told stores, wrote poetry described anatomy and medical treatments

• they wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic 

• Religious and Political Leader

• soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots

• upper class known as the "white kilt class" - priests, physicians, engineers

• Pharaohs

• the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles 'Lord of the Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple'

• as 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt.  He owned all land, made laws, collected taxes and defended Egypt from all foreigners

• Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh 

• Cleopatra VII also served as a pharaoh, but much later (51-30 BC) more on her when we study Greece

• Goddesses And gods 

• over 2000 gods and Goddesses

• they "controlled" the lives of humans

Test Check Thursday

Today in class we went over our first test and some of our second test.  We get to keep our tests so that way we can look over them at the end of the year for our exams.  I like that we get to keep our tests for review, that is a lot of help.  It was a pretty easy day in class because all we did was look over our tests.  That's all we did in class today so not much to talk about there.  On the bright side we have off tomorrow and have a four day weekend because of President's Day.

Test Day

In class today we had a test on the video we watched over the past week or so, called Guns, Germs, and Steel.  It was a 25 question scantron test.  I prefer scantron tests over fill in the blanks because you get to see all the answers and have a better chance, in my opinion, to get the right answer.  Of course if you studied.  I think I did fairly well, maybe an A but probably a B.  It was a good test and I feel like I did pretty good... but we will have to see once Mr. Schick grades them.  

Friday's class

In class on Friday a couple of the groups presented their power points.  The first group who presented talked about all the animals that helped uprise the people of the ancient world.  The other group that did their power point talked about the types of bad diseases people could often get back then, especially smallpox.  Mr Schick also finally graded our tests, it took him a while... but he did it.  I wasn't too thrilled with my grade but I wasn't very upset with it.  This coming Tuesday we are having a test on the Guns, Germs, and Steel video that we watched and took notes on.

Group Project

In class today I had a shadow, his name is Ben.  He seemed a little bored in class today because we started a presentation project in groups.  We didn't do any note taking which was a refresher.  Though we still had to make a powerpoint and present it.  The people in my group are Parker, Jeremiah, Steven, and Adam.  We got a good amount of work done on our powerpoint and should be ready to present it tomorrow.

Guns, Germs, and Steel summary

In class today we finished watching the Guns, Germs, and Steel video.  We saw the people that began to build homes in Jordan, not just for sleeping but for living and doing things in.  We saw how they made plaster and used it inside their homes as an insulation.
We saw the conclusion of Jared Diamond's visit to Papuanewguinea.
There wasn't much to the end except that most likely the Newguineans in the highland will keep living the way they live now and the people more in the city are starting to become more civilized and modern.
This video was a good video, it taught me a lot about the history of our earth.  It taught me how the people back then survived and how they formed us to be the people we are today.  And
I learend all the essentials that we need to live, now and back then.

Guns, Germs, and Steel video part 2

Today in class we watched the rest of the Guns, Germs, and Steel video.  We learned from the notes that it took that the reason why Papuanewguinea is still so far behind in the modern world is because of a couple things.  One: they don't have a great food supply to be able to live somewhere permanently instead of being hunter/gatherers.  Another reason that they aren't very civilized to the modern world is that they don't have the animals to collect and use for more than just eating.
The reason why all the people in the Middle East became more civilized is because they had the right food supply, such as, wheat.  Wheat and grains was their main food supply and it was a great food supply because wheat was very easy to store for long periods of time.  The other reason that the Middle East developed so quickly was because a lot of the animals that are native there are very useful to living in big tribes.  Such as sheep, and lambs.  They are great for making clothes and giving off good meat.
Plants that emerged over the world are: rice, corn, squash, beans, sorghum, millet, and yams.
Rice came from China.
Corn, squash, and beans came from America.
Sorghum, millet, and yams, came from Africa.

Dr.  Jared Diamond researched as many animals as possible, and he found 148.  He only found 14 animals out of 148 are domesticated, which means that those 14 animals can work for people and help them out.
The 14 animals are: goat, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, backtrain camels, arabian camels, water buffalos, llama, reindeer, yack, mithans, and bali cattle.

The llama came from South Africa.
The rest of the animals came from Asia, and North Africa.
Cows, pigs, sheep, and goats came from the Middle East.

Papuanewguinea video

Today in class we watched a video off of youtube called "Guns,Germs,and Steel."  This video is about a guy named Jared Diamond, he is a biologist and a teacher at UCLA.  Though his favorite thing to do is to study birds.  He goes to this remote island called Papuanewguinea, where he then stays with the people there and experiences their culture.  The people there are very different from the modern day people of the United States.  In Papuanewguinea the people have no technology, no radio, no actual homes, no food that they don't have to work for.  They basically don't have anything.  But they still live a good life in their standards.
The way they live is almost like a hunter/gatherer, they don't have much cargo which means in their terms (supplies) and they don't have great clothes or any real homes.  But they still live productive and good lives.
Though the white men that have been there and visited and have seen their lifestyle think they are a waste and aren't as important in our culture, Jared Diamond disagrees.  He believes that they have very unique abilities that are different then the white men have, they still have unique and productive abilities, such as, they can make a shelter out of trees and branches, they can climb trees, they can kill game very well, and they can survive where most of our world can not survive.  He says that if he were in the climate that they live in, he wouldn't be able to survive without them.
What this video has gotten at so far is that the people on Papuanewguinea live much simpler but harder lives than us, and that everything in our history has come together and formed the people that we are today off of three things; guns,germs,and steel.
It was neat to learn a little bit about these people because first off I didn't even know people in this day of age could survive like they do, and that people like them even exist still.  It was a cool thing to watch and I can't wait to watch the rest of the video on Monday (assuming we don't have off).  which hopefully we do!!!

Thursday's Test

In class today we took our first test of the semester.  It wasn't too bad.  Though I wasn't well prepared for it, I will know how to prepare next time.  I think it was a fair test, granted I didn't write the definitions in my blog.  I think I did somewhat well, maybe a C.
In my opinion I liked the way the test was set up with filling in the blanks and a couple short answers.  It wasn't ideal, but it was ok.  Next text I will be much more prepared and make sure I have everything written in my blog.

More test review

Today in class we went over more of the test that will be tomorrow.  We didn't talk much about Hammurabi's code.  I did learn today that Christopher Columbus wasn't the person that most Americans think he is.  In fact he was a crook.  Stealing peoples gold and money because he realized the people back then didn't have good defenses to protect themselves.
We also went over the powerpoint for the test to get a better understanding of everything the day before the test.

Test Review Tuesday

Today in class, I came in a couple minutes late, because I said the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom this morning.  Though I gave Mr. Schick a note saying I was late because of the Pledge, he still got on me for being late and for Veronica giving me that cookie.  The cookie she gave me was very good by the way.
After that, we went to google and searched up the laws of Hammurabi's code.  Then we began to discuss some of the laws that people chose to share with the class.  We learned that Hammurabi's code was made before the Ten Commandments.  We also learned that a majority of the laws we have today reflect off of the laws in Hammurabi's code, just not as harsh or as cruel a punishment.  We also learned that back then the more well off people in society had lesser consequences if they did something wrong then the regular people.

In class on friday we went over more power points, including learning about the Sumer, Ziggurat, King Hammurabi's law, and Indo-europeans.
I will define and explain the terms I just listed.
The Sumer is the land In Iraq now, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converge.  A Ziggurat is a temple or a place of sacrifice for the people.  King Hammurabi's law are these created rules by King Hammurabi.  The laws consist of discipline and control for the people so there isn't complete chaos.  There were laws that included marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crime.  Indo-europeans were the people that migrated away from the fertile crescent and into the european countries.
All of these topics revolve from the Mesopotamian.
This is my blog for the day talking about the topics we discussed in class on Friday.

Today in class, we started to look over and discuss the power points that Mr. Schick talked to us about.  Being the first time doing it with him, I liked it a lot.  He does a good at presenting the power points and explaining what he is teaching.
We took notes on the power points that he was teaching us.  Overall today was a good day, learning about the prehistoric time and how the people back then survived and built tribes.  It was fun to learn.  Now I know what we will be doing most of the time in class, which is helpful, that way I will be able to prepare well for the tests he gives us.
I feel like I took some pretty good notes which makes me feel good preparing for the test.

Introduction to Western Civ

Today in western civilization Mr. Schick gave us an introduction to what the class will be about and the supplies we need for this class.  We set up a new blog website, that way we are aloud to blog each day that we have class.  I was able to download google chrome and set up a gmail email for the blog and the class.  He told us what days we have to blog and what we have to blog about.  He said that we have to blog every night that we have class, even if you're sick you should be able to blog about why you're sick.