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.