Review

Today in class was the review day because of how close we are getting to exams and how little everyone in the class knows. We started off by going over our cultural geography test which Mr. Schick handed back and apparently alot of people bombed it and he expected better, but we went over it and Mr. Schick answered all the questions that everyone had which wasn't alot considering all the people who did bad on it and once finished with that we went on to the previous test we took and had to refresh our memory on that. Our previous unit was political geography and this test had all the questions about the world leaders and important aspects of their lives. We didn't get to go over it today because we ran out of time but im sure we will tomorrow and im not sure if we will go over the unit test before that but either way we pretty much have to know most of it.

Test Day

Today in Human Geo we took our test on Cultural Geography and it turned out that me and John were the only ones in the class to get an A on it, this really surprised me because I honestly thought I did awful but I guess not. Now I have to worry about the mid-terms which is the next test we will be taking and it is a little more important than the rest of the regular tests we take because it is everything we have learned up to this point and I don't know, even if I do study, how well I will do on it but I know a good amount of the material so if everything I know will be on mid-terms I will be set.

12/9/14

Today in class to start off we sang Happy Birthday to Mr.Schick and he, just like anybody else on their birthday, checked his Facebook for all the birthday posts on his wall and it turns out he has a lot of interesting and famous friends. Then, he told us about the rapping contest that the New York Times is having for students about the major things that happened in the year, I could probably write a really good rap but I don't think I would want to submit it. When class started we wrapped up our unit on Cultural Geography with the presentation of Mr. Schick's religion PowerPoint. We learned about the religions Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. A lot of info about these religions was pretty interesting like how Buddhists follow the Eightfold Path and believe in the Four Noble Truths. Mr. Schick I am pretty sure was Buddhist at one point in his life because he got really into telling us about the classes he took and how even eating a raisin can be given meaning. Also, Hinduism is the oldest religion dating back way before Judaism and the time of Jesus. People believe in different religions and live different life styles but for some reason they just can't get along. Our test is tomorrow on Cultural Geography and I am pretty confident in it.

Shickie McCoy

Today in Human Geo it was pretty awesome, only because Mr. Schick, in order to review for our test, made a song for Slumdog Millionaire to help us remember what the whole movie was about. It was through iTunes and it was a remix of Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars' "I Wanna be a Millionaire". Mr. Schick did the rapping part while his daughter did the singing part. I was surprised because his daughter was actually really good at singing and Mr. Schick dropped some serious bars all about the movie. He even pulled out his guitar and started strumming some chords with the song. We all clapped at the end because that took some serious time and effort to make that song the way he did and continued with class. We talked about Spatial divisions and how they can cause conflict or cooperation. Also, how there really isn't any habitable land that isn't owned by someone or something anymore and took more notes for our Cultural Geography Unit

Religion's Amazing Effects

Today in Human Geo class we talked the whole class about religion and its effect on cultures and different groups and how it can be a unifying force or how it can just straight up divide two or more groups. For example, in India there is a lot of fighting between Hindus and Muslims or in Northern Ireland there was tons of fighting between the Catholics and Protestants. Fights caused by religion have been happening for centuries and in my opinion it is ridiculous that you would fight over a belief where I am sure it is said you are not supposed to be killing people. Religion is complicated in the fact that people fight for a religion against another religion while in the end, when it gets down to it, they all have the same general ideas and most guidelines on what and what not to do. We also talked about Mr. Shick's awesome ghost experience where he was saved from a speeding car from hitting his car and probably killing him. Our class got a  little off topic but Mr. Schick feels strongly about this topic and the class asked a lot of good questions because it is interesting how people can behave insane for something that isn't even guaranteed.

Movie Ending

Today we finished the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" in Mr. Schick's office which is basically the TV studio for our morning announcements and probably the coolest office. The movie ended with Jamal winning 20,000,000 Rupees on "Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" by answering the final question which was about the Three Musketeers and Jamal completely guessed and got the right answer. He also got the girl of his dreams, and became a hero for all those who live like he did. His brother was shot to death after going against his gang and letting the girl that Jamal loved go even though he helped capture her and in the end it was a really good movie and was good for starting off the Culture Geography Unit because it really showed the culture of India along with all the poverty and what it was like living in the Slums. The corrupt police department that captured Jamal let him go because they didn't have enough evidence and even the announcer who gave him the wrong answer so he would lose couldn't outsmart him. It was nice seeing the poor guy win for a change.

Slumdog Millionaire

Today I finally got back in class and I was surprised to find out that to learn more about our unit on Cultural Geography we watched a movie called "Slumdog Millionaire" which is about a boy named Jamal who is arrested and tortured for cheating on a game show called "Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" but he didn't really cheat and knew all the answers from all the past experiences he had living in the slums of Mumbai in India. This is supposed to teach us about the culture of India and the different aspects of life in places like Mumbai. The police is very corrupt and the level of poverty is through the roof so this movie is good to kick-off our Cultural Geography Unit. That's all I really know at the moment because I am going to miss tomorrow's class and a chunk of the film so I will have to pick up where everyone left off. on Tuesday.

Absent 2.0

Today I really thought I was going to get through school and go to my last mod class which was Human Geo but I couldn't do it. The medicine could only do so much and I started feeling sick and I did not make it all the way to the finish line so I went to the nurse and left early without figuring out what was going on with the new unit and soda. In addition to this we got a Spotify assignment which I found out from Mr. Schick's blog and I do not know what needs to be done so I have to figure that out tomorrow and will hopefully make it to the class without any problems.

Absent

Today I was absent in class because of an illness I have, we started the Cultural Geography unit today according to Mr. Schick's blog and did something involving soda and I hope I get to figure out what the new unit is all about and what we did with soda, tomorrow.

French National Anthem

The French National Anthem "La Marseillaise" is about five minutes long and all the lyrics are very military-based because of how it describes the enemies and tyrannies of France falling to the army and citizens of France but the anthem also is a symbol of the nation uniting and coming together to defeat the enemies because of the lyrics using words that refer to all the people of the nation like "our", "let's", "citizens", and "your". This anthem in my opinion is very catchy and put together well and sounds very nice with a whole orchestra used to perform it, but it is nothing like the American National Anthem. The American anthem unlike the French anthem does not focus much on killing off the enemies, but instead that when we talk about our flag still flying in the wind, we talk about America always standing tall and not being taken down no matter what. Both anthems try to deliver the idea of nation-pride and never giving into an enemy but in very different ways.


In English:

 Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

More
La Marseillaise en français

Listen to la Marseillaise

Bastille Day article

Bastille Day online games

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This horde of slaves, traitors, plotting kings,
What do they want?
For whom these vile shackles,
These long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Frenchmen, for us, oh! what an insult!
What emotions that must excite!
It is us that they dare to consider
Returning to ancient slavery!

What! These foreign troops
Would make laws in our home!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would bring down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brows would bend beneath the yoke!
Vile despots would become
The masters of our fate!

Tremble, tyrants! and you, traitors,
The disgrace of all groups,
Tremble! Your parricidal plans
Will finally pay the price! (repeat)
Everyone is a soldier to fight you,
If they fall, our young heros,
France will make more,
Ready to battle you!

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Bear or hold back your blows!
Spare these sad victims,
Regretfully arming against us. (repeat)
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
But not these accomplices of Bouillé,
All of these animals who, without pity,
Tear their mother's breast to pieces!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sacred love of France,
Lead, support our avenging arms!
Liberty, beloved Liberty,
Fight with your defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to your manly tones!
May your dying enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Refrain

We will enter the pit
When our elders are no longer there;
There, we will find their dust
And the traces of their virtues. (repeat)
Much less eager to outlive them
Than to share their casket,
We will have the sublime pride
Of avenging them or following them!

Refrain

Test Day

Today was test day and I think I did a pretty good job on it. The test started out with about 30 multiple choice questions and I knew most of them. All of the questions were about the leaders of the countries we studied and I didn't study that hard but I am glad that I studied what I did because I had to know a lot of info about a lot of leaders. Once I got through all the multiple choice questions, which didn't take that long, I had to finish up the test with an essay about how assassinating the president is wrong and unacceptable in our democracy. I had a decent amount of time left before the mod was over so I took my time on the essay. The essay went on to take up most of the space that was given and I talked about how impeachment is how a president can be removed and how assassination is wrong and if you don't like the president you just have to deal with it. The whole test was finished with about five minutes left and I was one of the last to hand it in but I am satisfied with my answers and hope it gets a good grade.

Last Day of Presentations

In class today we finally finished up the presentations and will be taking the test Thursday. Today's class was first mod so we had an extra long class and was able to get through four presentations. The countries were Syria, Israel, Mexico, and Brazil. Syria was done by Alex and Paj, Israel was done by Steven and Trish, Jessica and Rosemary did Mexico and the last presentation was done by Ellie who I was impressed with because she did a good job even without the help of a partner. I got down a lot of notes and I am pretty confident with the upcoming test, especially with the help of Mr. Schick's blog on a summary of all the countries we need to know about. I don't understand why but it seems like every time we cover something or a country, it will always pop-up in the news and we are able to talk about and expand on it more.

Presentations Day 3

We continued with presentations today and the first people up were Karson and Cody. Karson and Cody did their presentation on Russia and put down a lot of information on Vladimir Putin, the president. I thought he was an OK guy but turns out he is really screwed up. He is doing a good job in leading Russia but as a person he is pretty bad. Next presentation of the class was Ryan and Megan who did their presentation on China. Ryan is already from China so he probably had a decent amount of information going into the project. China is a communist state and before I really didn't know what that term meant but now I know that in basically means that the government owns everything, which is a complete opposite of the U.S. Our class doesn't have Human Geo on Monday so I wonder who will continue the presentations on Tuesday.

Presentations Day 2

Today in class more people continued with their presentations and I continued with more note-taking. The first presenters of the day were Parker and John. This presentation took awhile. There was a combination pointing out the words that John couldn't pronounce right, Mr. Schick editing their slide and going back and forth between slides, and the fact that all the kids took notes at different rates. We finally got through it and I actually got down all the notes and learned something new. The next group was Adam and Kendall. This presentation was shorter but it had just as much information, if not more. It talked all about Japan and their leaders and both presentations in the end had all the criteria Mr. Schick was looking for. I don't know who will be starting off tomorrow but so far all this is pretty interesting.

Completion

Rory and I finished our project today and presentations begin tomorrow. We came up with a strategy to present our slides so that we can explain all of the information we put down while giving both of us an equal share of words to say. While putting the finishing touches on our PowerPoint Mr. Schick talked about some current events. The vote is today so that is a pretty big event which some schools even get off for. I am not old enough to vote so I don't get involved in that kind of stuff. but it is important so I learned about the top candidates like Larry Hogan and Anthony Brown. Also that there was once a vice president that took over a 100,000 in bribes, he thought he could get away with it and was impeached quick because not many people liked that. Some people are stupid and think they can get away with things like that.

Finished

Today Rory and I are pretty much done our project, I just had to go home and finish up a slide about Manuel Valls, then I was finished. I finished it so our PowerPoint is done but I don't know how it is going to compare to other people's slides or is Mr. Schick is even going to like it because he wouldn't tell us about what he was looking for or even the amount of slides he wanted so Rory and I just did the best we could and put down the information we were supposed to and hopefully our eight slides will be enough.

PowerPoint Day 2

Today in class me and Rory continued to work on our PowerPoint and are making some good progress on it. We are at three slides and all of them have a good amount of accurate information on them. Rory found a good picture of a representation of France's government so we included that and I got a lot of information on the Prime Minister and President, how long they have been in office, and how long they will probably stay in office. While the class was working we also got to listen to some amazing music such as Boyfriend by Justin Bieber and Hey There Delilah. I was disappointed in Britain when I found out that the song "God Save the Queen" in Britain is basically jut a knock-off of "My Country tis' of Thee" but oh well. Rory an I will continue to work on the project tomorrow and hopefully make it even better.

PowerPoint Project

Today in class we were assigned a new task which was to create a PowerPoint presentation for a specific country that my partner and I would choose when it was our turn. I was partnered up with Rory and we decided that we do our PowerPoint on France. The assignment was all about government so once we set up the title slide to look all nice we got to work. We got information from a few sources but mostly from the CIA World Fact book which is always helpful. I also learned that many people can work on the same PowerPoint through different computers with Google which I cant believe no one else has really thought of because of how simple it makes things. Rory and I only got one slide down today but it is going to definitely going to get better.

Facts on the Leaders

More Facts on Political Leaders:

• Benjamin Netanyahu has does not have very good feelings towards Reuven Rivlin being president.
• President of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto had two families at the same time and was still elected president.
• President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff is a cancer survivor.
• Narendra Modi used to sell tea in a railway before becoming one of the most powerful men in India.
• Bashar al-Assad was chosen to take over Syria after his father, and the brother who was next-in-line to be president died.
• Xi Jinping was said to have plagiarized one of the most important papers he has ever written
• David Cameron is a descendant of King William IV
• Putin upset many people with his new anti-gay laws. He made it illegal for gay couples to adopt in Russia and placed a ban on propagandizing "nontraditional" sexual relationships to minors.
• Angela Merkel has a PhD in Chemistry

Did You Know?: Political Leaders

Enrique Pena Nieto -

Enrique Pena Nieto, the president of Mexico, is known for his repeated mistakes during public interviews or events. He even has a website which counts the days passed since his last mistake. On one of the most noted incidents, he was asked to name three books that influenced him. He was only able to correctly reference the Bible. He then "rambled, tossing out confused title names, asking for help in recalling authors and sometimes mismatching" the two others.

Xi Jinping -

Xi Jinping has coined the phrase "Chinese Dream" to describe his overarching plans for China as its leader. It is used to describe the aspiration of individual self-improvement in Chinese society. Reporters have noted that, "Mr Xi had seen the "American dream" up close, having spent a couple of weeks in 1985 with a rural family in Muscatine, Iowa. (He revisited them during a trip to America as leader-in-waiting.)".

Narendra Modi -

Modi is a vegetarian. He has a frugal lifestyle, is a workaholic and an introvert. He writes poems in Gujarati. As a speaker, he is known as a crowd-puller. Also, he emerged as social media savvy politician and since September 2014 is the second most followed leader in the world with over 6 million followers on Twitter. His interaction on Google Hangouts on August 31st, 2012 made Modi the first Indian politician to interact with citizens through live chat on the internet.

Vladimir Putin -

Vladimir grew up in a communal apartment shared by three families in St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad), and he says he remembers hunting rats in the stairwell. He also has a black belt in Judo which he still practices today, and describes it as a life philosophy.

Angela Merkel -

In her early public life, Angela Merkel loved to brag about her cooking and baking qualities. Indeed, there is a lot of praise for her potato soup, her beef loaf and especially her plum cake. The cake soon became a measure of how much time she was able to afford her private life and her husband.

David Cameron -

David Cameron Is a descendant of King William IV, is the 12th prime minister to take office during Queen Elizabeth II's reign, and is the youngest prime minister since 1812.

Francois Hollande -

During his work as secretary of the Socialist Party, Hollande was nick-named the “pizza delivery boy” by one MP, as he used to ride to work on a three-wheeled scooter. He has also been nicknamed “Mr Normal”, referred to as the “nice guy” in French politics, “Mr Marshmallow”, and “Flanby” after a popular caramel pudding.

Dilma Rousseff -

The daughter of a Bulgarian entrepreneur, Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte. She became a socialist during her youth, and following the 1964 coup d'état joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was eventually captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972, where she was reportedly tortured.

Bashar al-Assad -

 Bashar al-Assad initially showed little interest in politics, graduating from medical school and moving to London to study ophthalmology in his twenties.

Stephen Harper -

Harper was sworn in as Canada's 22nd prime minister on 6 Feb 2006. He immediately chose his Cabinet of 27 ministers, down from the 38 positions held by the Liberal government. The Harper government's first 2 years saw it take steps to reshape Canada's political culture along neo-conservative lines, reducing taxes, cutting funding to progressive organizations and the Canadian gun registry, taking a tough stand on crime and enlarging the military.

Shinzo Abe -

 Shinzo visited a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, igniting a firestorm of criticism and condemnation among neighboring countries. The Yasukuni Shrine is regarded by China, North Korea and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's imperial military past.

Reuven Rivlin -

He will be Israel’s first vegetarian president. Since the late 1960s, Rivlin has eschewed meat products for reasons of conscience. Also, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is said to despise him.

Countries Part 3

Syria -
President:

Bashar al-Assad

Government:

Republic under an authoritarian regime

 

Canada -

Prime Minister:

 

Stephen Harper

 

Government:

 

a parliamentary democracy, a federation, and a constitutional monarchy
 

 

 

Japan -

Prime Mister:

 

Shinzo Abe

 

Government:

 

a parliamentary government with a constitutional monarchy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Israel -

President:

 

Reuven Rivlin

 

Government:

 

Parliamentary democracy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Countries Part 2

Germany -
President:

Joachim Gauck

Chancellor:

Angela Merkel

Government:

Federal Republic     
                                                                         

 

 

United Kingdom -

Prime Minister:

 

David Cameron

 

Government:

 

Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

France -

President:

 

Francois Hollande

 

Government:

 

Republic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brazil -

President:

 

Dilma Rousseff

 

Government:

 

Federal Republic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Countries Part 1

Mexico -                                                                                        
President:
                                                                                    
Enrique Pena Nieto
 
Government:                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Federal Republic



China -
President:

Xi Jinping

Government:

Communist State

 







 
 

                                                                                            
India  -                                                                                                            
Prime Minister:
                                                                                 
Narendra Modi

Government:

Federal Republic    
                                                                                                                                 
 


Russia -
President:

Vladimir Putin

Government:

Federation

Returning of Test

Today in class Mr. Schick returned the chapter 2 on population and migration and I am pretty proud of myself for doing a good job on it. Mr. Schick set up a bell system where if you got a 90 or above he would ring it and if you got 100 or above he would ring it four times. As he called the names he finally got to me then..no ring. I was handed my test and it turned out that I got an 88 which I found to be pretty successful. I got 2 words mixed up on the vocabulary portion of the test and 2 wrong in the fill in the blank. They were silly errors but there was nothing I could do that point. Mr. Schick continued going over the test and explaining the correct answers to us when all of the sudden I realized I didnt feel to swell and had to go to the nurse. When I returned Steve was teaching the class and I just made it back in time for the bell to ring.

Test Day

Today we got took our unit test on population and migration and I thought I did pretty good. It started off with a speed challenge where we had to answer about 12 questions in only 10 minutes with the help of the CIA World-Fact book. I got through all of the questions but barely and I answered them all with what I think to be the correct answer. I continued the test with guessing the vocabulary word for each definition that was given. Thank goodness there was a word-bank or I would have probably have failed that part of the test. Then I had to answer questions about three population pyramids that were unknown and we had to try and figure out which was which. I was able to do this considering we looked at the same pyramids over and over again in class discussing all the aspects about them. Last part of the test we were told to give to push factors for a country and two pull factors for a country. The countries didn't matter so I did Syria, North Korea, United States, and Lebanon. That was the end and I feel I did really good on this test

Pull Yourself Together America.

Today in class Mr. Schick had us devote our time to supporting the video we watched the other day or going against it. We got on the CIA World-Factbook and we had to say what we thought about America's position and a good fact to back it up. I was born in the U.S. of A so naturally I defended my home and native land unlike some people. America even though not being the greatest country is pretty impressive in some categories. It is a definite fact that the United States has the greatest economy on the planet at this moment and when it comes to communication and transportation we are in the top five out of everyone on the globe. Now when it comes to debt and oil use. Not so great. It is pretty obvious that we are going to run out of oil and there may or not be a global catastrophe in my lifetime but im just taking it day by day and when Mr. Schick told us about his solar panels I thought it was a pretty cool idea, because so is saving money. Mr. Schick had it good because back in the old days no one worried about this type of stuff and everyone thought it would all be figured out. He also got to see all the cool bands in their prime.

Debate

Today in class we started off by watching a video where a man was asked why America was the greatest country in the world and he gave the best answer that he could. Which is that is wasn't, and he had more than one reason to back up his answer. Then after that Mr. Schick devoted the whole rest of the class to discussing what we thought. There were some pretty crazy thoughts and ideas but only a few made sense and were good. People who I had never even heard talk started talking and a lot of people got into it. It was kind of like the Agora in Ancient Greece we learned about except our opinions really didn't matter. Mr. Schick also got into it and asked an important question which was why we even relied on coal and oil anymore when we easily have the capabilities to move to renewable, better sources of energy. I really couldn't give an answer because I had no idea as well but in the end, I agree with the man in the video that America isn't the greatest country anymore but I believe that it definitely could be.

Spotify

Today we tested out Mr. Schick's prototype idea of using music to better educate students. We are, of course, his favorite class so we are going to be his guinea pigs in this experiment. He started off class by explaining to us this idea and I thought it was amazing considering I am listening to music through Spotify every day all the time. So he continued to go on then told us how he got codes that would give us free premium access to Spotify for a whole year. I was given mine and it turned out like everyone else it was only for three months so Mr. Schick said he would try and get more but I wasn't complaining at all, this is an awesome opportunity and I feel I could definitely benefit from it in the classroom and out. 

Population Pyramid

Today in class we talked and learned about the population pyramid. The population pyramid is basically a way of predicting or estimating whether the future population will increase or decrease based on measuring the current population a certain way. The way that this pyramid can give you an accurate depiction of future populations is by breaking the current one into three categories. The first is pre-child bearing years, the second is child bearing years, and the third is post-child bearing years.  This is very efficient. For example, over time Japan's population is going to decrease, we know this because right now a large percent of their population is aged fifty or over. This can work for any country is how we learn about the future of people. The pyramid does not give any information about life expectancy, birth rates, or death rates and can be altered by industrialization, natural disasters and, the education of many more women but it is how we know where countries are headed.

CIA Fact book

In class today we devoted more time to learning more about the world through the CIA World Fact book. Most of the facts that we learned about were pretty unfortunate and sad. For example, Africa is  the worst when it comes to the HIV virus because pretty much all of the top countries with the worst HIV cases are in Africa. Another one of the worst percentages that is high in Africa is the infant mortality rate. African countries occupy the top numbers in this category too. A less sad category is the net migration rate in Syria, for every 1000 people in Syria, about 113 people are leaving for safety, probably because of the war and extremist groups that are taking over the corrupted country.
The complete opposite is happening to Syria's neighbor country, Lebanon they are gaining tons of people because of Syria. For every 1000 about 83 are from somewhere else. I hope all these countries recover.

9/25/14

Today in class we started off by watching Mr. Schick lay down a sick verse against Cody and got right into reviewing our Unit 1 tests. I got mine back and was overall pleased with it and the grade was good. We started off by going over the short answer questions and talked about the correct answer and if you didn't have a right answer you could ask questions. We got into globalization with some questions and learned that John Carroll was one of the first schools to have an exchange program. Also, when Russian students could be transferred Mr. Schick told us that when one went back there was a riot and one of the students got on top of the tank used to stop the right with his JC sweatshirt on gave us some publicity because the riot was televised. We continued to talk about the short answers and then the essay questions where we talked about Socrates and his trial and death. Socrates barely put up any defense and did not regret anything, he didn't even want to escape because he respected Athenian Democracy and it's what the people wanted. Along the way we found out Mr. Schick has a time machine and once he hooks it up we can go back to Ancient Greece and say hi to Socrates.

CIA Knows Everything

Today in class we talked about the ever-growing population and how the number of people on this planet is getting bigger along with birth rates, death rates, and the RNI which is the rate of natural increase. It gives us the annual natural growth rate in percentage form for a country or region. Another thing that keeps growing is the life expectancy of people in places all over the world. In 2013 the life expectancy for people in the United States was 76 for men and 81 for men but now in 2014 the life expectancy for men is 77 and for women it is 81.94. Migration rates have changes as well. In 2013 the net migration rate in Mexico was -3.11 per 1000 people which means out of 1000 people this is the estimate of how many left the country, but now it is only -1.64. Times are changing and Mexico is becoming more stable which means people want to stay. All of these information was off of the CIA World Fact book which contains all the information you could want to know about a country. I learned that the smallest country in the world was the Pitcairn Islands with a total population of 48 also the country with the lowest net migration rate is Syria with about 114 people leaving for every 1000 which isn't a surprise considering everything that's going on.

Test Day

Today we took our first Human Geography test. Before we started we couldn't help but have a discussion about whether Mr. Schick's shirt was pink or salmon. It was obviously salmon and once that was decided we were given instructions and told that we were able to use our blogs which without it I had no idea whether or not I would have been able to even finish my test. I had studied somewhat the night before and hoped that everything I looked at in my notes would actually be on the test, but even if it wasn't I had my blog which I knew would really help me. I got through the first part and finished the short answer sections with 20 minutes left in class and then I believed I was done which I really wasn't. I flipped over the page and saw 2 short essay questions and I knew I had to write as fast as I could to get in done while still making the writing as nice as I could which really wasn't easy. By the end of class my hand was killing me because I couldn't pick up my pencil and I finally got both done with no idea whether or not they were good enough. I finished my fourth test of day and hopefully did good on this test.

Globalization 9/12/14

Today in class we discussed globalization and "Americanization". Globalization is the connection or interconnectedness of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move more easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar. "Americanization" is basically globalization but focused on just America. All the globalization that has been going on for years has had just a huge impact on the world as a whole. For example, the overall life expectancy in Japan has decreased because of this. Japan used to be very health conscious and prepared healthy and delicious meals to sit around a table and eat with your family, but now fast food has taken over and there is barley of this anymore. In class, we were shown a series of pictures and asked how they demonstrated globalization I was surprised to see some of them. A man from the Maasai tribe in Kenya was using a cell phone! To use a cell phone you need service, electricity for a charger, to order it or buy it from a location, etc. This tribe somewhere in Kenya was being influenced by the world and now he can talk to people or consumers.  I have no idea if globalization is a huge problem or it s just helping the world but it is definitely not going to stop.

9/11 Class Discussion

Today in class we talked more about the Did You Know? video and went over our answers that we posted for last blog. We went over the facts again and had such long discussions on them. For example, we went over the fact that if you are one in a million there are 1300 million people just like you. The class expanded on this and talked about how overpopulated the world actually is. The discussion got into some very strange places like genetically engineered diseases crafted by the government to lower population or the random stones in Georgia with guidelines on how to live that  had nothing to do with anything. Our class discussions get into some weird places but the whole point is that our world is constantly changing and the more people, the more ways we discover to make  technology more sophisticated. It is becoming more and more advanced everyday as we discover new ways to make it smaller and smarter to the point were eventually we could use microchips in our head as the next iPhone. Another crazy fact we went over was if Facebook was a country it would be the third in the world which is insane considering its a website. We live in such a fast world were any information is available at the touch of a finger. I have no idea what a company like Apple or Microsoft will come up with next.

Did You Know?

What was your initial reaction to what you saw -  My initial reaction to some of the facts in that video were just made me shock and I didn't want to believe them. For example, if you one in a million in China, there are 13,000 people just like you. This comes as a complete surprise because it shows how over-populated the world actually is if there are that many people who could live your life for you. Also, China is about to be the number one English speaking country in the world. I thought they made a mistake because I know in the United States all we speak is English and no way most of the population in China can speak it fluently but that's the exact reason why they learn it, English is the language of business.

How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal life - Some of these changes are manifesting themselves in my personal life in many ways. For example, one fact says that the most in-demand jobs it 2010 didn't exist in 2004 this makes sense because so much has changed since then. The iPhone, no imagined that in 2004 and now almost everyone has them and because of this, jobs are created to work at making and designing the iPhone that always has to change and adapt because we are constantly making smaller circuitry or discovering new ways to interact.

How much of a role does technology play in your life - Technology plays a huge role in my life just like almost every other kid my age. Whether it's connecting to the world/friends or even doing homework which I am doing right now from my laptop. I use it everyday and probably will continue as our world only grows more reliant on technology every day.

Ancient Greece

     Ancient Greece was easily one of the greatest civilizations of it's time. It developed the first ever democracy, paved the way for modern science and mathematics, and was home to some of the best thinkers and philosophers the world has ever seen. Among them was Socrates who was a teacher and a thinker. He is credited as one of the founders of western philosophy and eventually died for his work. He opened not only Athens but the world's eyes to great things and said himself the quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." He was ruled guilty for not recognizing the gods and corrupting the youth and was sentenced death by Hemlock (forced suicide) and even when his students offered him a way to sneak him out that would have worked and no one would find him, he declined because it was what the people wanted and he supported the democracy system but no matter what his work will never be forgotten and by some he is considered a hero.
     Ancient Greece also, in a way had much more active people in politics and people who weren't afraid to voice their opinion like in the agora. If you didn't participate in politics or were a more private person in Ancient Greece you were basically an idiot because that's actually what it meant back then. Now, today in the United States only about 50% of the population votes for president and that's men and women combined! In Ancient Greece it was just men and they were doing a lot better job then we are. That's were this idea of civic responsibility, which in a nutshell is the people having an obligation to vote even if they don't want to or feel like it, comes into play which is a core element of a democratic society and Ancient Greece definitely had it. This idea of democracy where the people rule was unheard of up until then and it was and still is working out today and not just in Greece back in the old days. So yes, in all I guess Ancient Greece was pretty important.                                                                             

Better Definitions

Today in class we went over the definitions we had to define for homework last night and learned that  they are actually more interesting and had a deeper definition that a orginally thought. For example, an agora wasn't just the townsquare or marketplace, it was also where they voted and had discussions on topics and things that were happening. Athens in Greece established the first democracy and had the idea that people should rule which was probably pretty smart considering that democracy and a government for the people still exits today and not just in Greece. Also, Socrates wasn't some old guy who thought different from everyone else but he was a teacher and a philosopher and was even prosecuted for thinking that maybe the sun wasn't a god riding his chariot across the sky, along with other things that the gods maybe didn't control. He got in trouble for teaching these ideas which were unheard of and made people beleive in science. All the words we learned and events we learned about aren't just articles on the internet. Ancient Greece actually seems pretty important.

Ancient Greek Definitions

Agora -  An Agora in ancient Greece was a marketplace or the open place in town where people gathered (Google definition)    

Arete - Arete in it's basic sense means "excellence of any kind" (Wikipedia)

Polis - A Polis was an ancient Greek city-state (Google definition)

The Year 508 BC - Athenian democracy in the city of Athens was established under Cleisthene following the tyranny of Hippias (greece-athens.com)

Sorates - Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy (Google biography)

The Death of Socrates -  Socrates was found guilty of corrupting the youth and refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state. He was found guilty by a vote of 280 to 220 and drinking a cup of poison hemlock was his penalty (forced suicide) (eyewitnesstohistory.com)

 The Socratic Method -  a form of inquiry and discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. (Google definition)

When Those Silly Ancient Greeks Called You an Idiot - An idiot in ancient Greece meant that you were a private person or someone who was not interested in politics. (omgfacts.com)

 

A Message to Garcia

Today, in human geography class I didn't really get to do anything. I came in late to class today because I had an orthodontist appointment, but when I did come in I learned how to set up a gadget on my blog to get places, sort of like a shortcut. So when I came in I got help from Parker to set up my gadget. You had to go to your blog, design, layout, add a gadget, and then I set up a link to get to the piece of writing that we have been working on which is A Message to Garcia which is about  President McKinley who needed to get a message to a man named Garcia in Cuba during the Spanish-American War but no one knew where he was and telegrams weren't available so what were they to do? People knew of a man who could do it named Rowan and he did it without question so a man observed Rowan's actions and realized how nobody in that time acted like Rowan and was lazy so he wrote a strongly worded article to the newspaper to get his voice across and spread his opinion. This is what I know of A Message to Garcia but for the guy who wrote the article in my opinion you cant just stop people from being lazy.

Five Point Plan

I have made a five-point action plan to be a more successful and excellent freshman this year. My first plan is to be more organized. In years before I was never organized and mostly kept most things in a single folder without any system to know where anything is. I would open my folder and just hope it was still in there and I know that will not work in high school so I would like to be more organized. My next plan is to definitely stop procrastinating. It has always been a problem for me doing things like reports and worksheets at the last minute because I am always getting caught up in something more interesting and I know I can't continue doing it or I will fall behind so that needs to stop. My third course of action is to study more because when I did it in the past I did it very little because I have always relied on my memory but I know it is different now because of all the different classes and test I am going to have. The fourth point in my action plan is to talk more and make new friends. I have friends but they are all at the public high school and I only know few people here so I need to talk to people and try to be their friend. The last plan I have to be more successful is to be apart of John Carroll. I will am already into sports but I think it is important to join other clubs or organizations because that is how you become apart of the school and get to know more people.

Third Day of Human Geo

Today in Human Geography with Mr.Schick we had not a regular class. When we first walked the class had an intense discussion over the smell of the classroom. Our teacher walked in and we learned he was not feeling so well because he had a sore throat. We also learned that because he has our class the most out of any other we might be ahead of the other classes and it is not so much a big deal if we don't get as much done. For example, today once all of this was explained we were able to sit and talk or play games on our laptops. Students were called up one-by-one so Mr.Schick could get a brief overview of each of our blogs and give us an opinion. I was last so while I waited for my turn I patiently played snake and Cut the Rope on my laptop, two very addicting games. When it was my turn to go up Mr.Schick told me I was doing good on my blog but to try and change the black background because although it is fine now it might come back to give me trouble. So I changed it, I got back to my seat, and continued my game. When class ended it turned out that Mr.Schick is awesome at calling when the bell will ring. As soon as he stopped talking it went off just as he said it would.

Second Human Geo Class

Today was our second day of Human Geography with Mr.Schick. Once we came in and sat down we went over homework which was not turned in by everyone, but most people did. The blogs that were finished and looked at were shown on his own blog and mine wasn't up there but I knew I turned it in and it turned out the email that I sent the night before wasn't seen by him until he opened it during my class. After everything was sorted out with the first day blog assignment Mr.Schick showed to us his course syllabus which was the outline for how he ran his class. It contained his grading policies, late assignment policy, materials needed, etc. We also learned he does not offer any extra credit. When he finished going over his syllabus the class was assigned this homework for the night, to do this blog I am doing now, and the mod ended and my school day was officially over.

First Day of School Assingnment

Today was my first day at The John Carroll School and although a little confusing at first, was worth it at the end. The day started off when after advisory we headed to the lower gym where it was split into two sides. The first side (which was the first one my group went to) was where we were given a brief overview of the rules by Mr. Ireton. After he delivered his lecture we headed to the next section and that was when we met the new campus ministers who were very welcoming and showed us a few tricks like plate spinning and balloon art. Once we finished that I looked at my schedule to see that I needed to head to the Brown Room and we were greeted by the counselors who helped us feel more comfortable and explained to us there jobs and asked us stuff like what we did over the summer. Then it was off to the auditorium where we met the Dean who gave us another brief lecture and after told us about the code of honor that we then signed and read aloud. The cafeteria which was the next stop was also another stop but a very short one about different classes and such like World Language. Last stop on my introduction schedule was the Upper gym where pictures were took for the yearbook and my Harco card, that was it and it was time for real classes. Classes went by fairly quick because it was the first but every teacher got in what they needed to say and almost all of them assigned the task of signing papers or bringing in materials. My first school day at John Carroll then ended and I was off to the locker room to get ready for football practice from four to six. That ended and I ended up at home now doing all the homework I was given and gathering up my stuff to get ready for tomorrow.