Talking About The Project

Hello,

Today we saw two VERY different commercials. Fist in class Mr. Schick showed us a commercial on Baltimore. It was a tourist commercial, and by that I mean it was a commercial to attract tourists to come to Baltimore and see all of stuff. It was an extremely boring commercial and it makes me never want to come to Baltimore even more than I didn't want to in the first place. Then, Mr. Schick showed us a commercial on Los Angeles. This commercial was very cool. It was also for tourists, but it really wasn't attracting the same type of people. The commercial was obviously attracting tourists too, but Los Angeles clearly is for younger people. I mean, Baltimore is a place for old people and for people to get shot. The commercial for Los Angeles was also attracting an older crowd in a tiny way. The Los Angeles was attracting all crowds, when Baltimore was attracting only older people that want to do nothing with their life.

More Notes on Greece

Hello,

Today in class we took even more notes on Greece. Also today Kappel taught the class again which was good because now Mr. Schick could take a break from teaching and someone else could get a feel about how to teach the class. Also another thing is that I discovered that I broke my computer last night. I knew I dropped something on it, but I didn't know that it caused huge mark on the middle of the screen. It completely ruined my computer. Now after school I have to either g to the Apple Store in Towson or in Christiana in Delaware. This really sucks and it will take a long time to get it replaced. At least I was smart enough to get a warranty on it. Because I entered my serial number on the website in class and it said that I was protected until about July 13th on 2016. But anyway we mostly learned more about Greece. Mostly just diving into more about it so I think that tomorrow Bob will be teaching the class, but we will see if he just lets Kappel do it again.

Hello,

Today in Western Civ we mostly just took notes, and here they are:

Geography of Greece:

Mountainous peninsula

Mountains cover 3/4

Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and ionian Seas

Location shaped its culture

Skilled sailors

Poor natural resources

Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities 

Approximately 20% suitable for farming

Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of peninsula

Because of geography the Greek diet consists of gains, grapes and olives

Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization 

Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer

Mediterranean was thought to be the middle of the Earth 

Mycenaens:

Began around 2000 B.C.

Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20ft. think wall

Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 B.C.

Controlled trade in the region

1400 B.C. Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language

Culture in Decline:

Around 1200 B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace

The Dorians moved into the war-town region

Far less advanced 

Economy collapsed 

Writing disappeared for 400 years

Homer and Myths:

Storied were passed along by word of mouth

Homer lived at the end of the “Greek Dark Ages”

Recorded stories of the Trojan War in The Iliad and The Odyssey (written 750-700 B.C.)

Trojan war was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans 

Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter

Iliad was 

LO-3 Ancient Athens vs. Sparta

Hello,

Here are some notes on today's lesson:

Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy:
city-states = ruled by kings and their warriors
city developed into large commercials gave more power to majority
city states = narrow and exclusive
they sent citizens to overseas = independent states

Greek City-states :

- Small places, generally consist of no more than a town and a few square miles of countryside.
- Athens and Sparta were giants among city-states 
          - about the size of a couple US counties
          - each only had about a few thousand people
          - the Greek city-states were the first to name there people by the Greek word "polites" meaning           citizens.
- the male citizens went to war for the Greeks
          - they had to pay for the things that they carried into war with them 
          - such as bronze helmets and armor, round shields, long spears with iron blades, and short iron swords.

- "Alongside Mesopotamia and Egypt there now appeared a third great civilization: that of classical Greece." 

Vocab:

Phalanx - A unit of several hundred hoplites, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy

Monarchy - A state in which the supreme power is held by a single, usually hereditary ruler (a monarch)

Oligarchy - A state in which supreme power is held by a small group

Triremes - Massive fitting vessels  with three banks of oars, used ti ram or board enemy ships

Tyranny - Rule by a self-proclaimed dictator (a tyrant)

Democracy - In ancient Greece, a form of government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part on decision making

Helots - Non-citizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta

Aristocrats - Members of prominent and long-established Athenian families

Ostracism - Banishment for ten years by majority vote of the Athenian Assembly

Good and Bad News

Hello,

Today we received good news and bad news in Western Civ class. Both the good news and the bad news were good news. Both of the Good News was that Mr. Schick will actually not be in class on Monday. The other good news is that along with a sub, we will have a student teach the class. Ultimately we decided on Kappel, not sure why but I don't have a problem with it. For the first part of class and the most of the class we testing teachers. First off we had Laura, which didn't turn out well because she ended up yelling at Arri most of the time. This did not come off as a surprise because Arri is really annoying but for some reason him and Laura will never be able to peacefully be in the same room as each other. Its too bad, but oh well. Next was Erica, which she was fine. But again it ended with her yelling at Arri. Mostly because Arri thinks that he can do everything. I am glad that Mr. Schick didn't give Arri a chance to be a teacher just to test it because on Monday I would have to fake being sick because our classroom would have ended up getting very loud because Laura would have found something very wrong with the way that Arri would have taught. I hope neither of them ever become teachers and if they do god bless those kids, but Laura should be fine, as long as there is a Greek student in the class. 

Going Over Our Tests

Hello,

Today in class we went over our tests. I am glad that we did the same type of thing when giving back tests by ringing a bell once if you got an A and 2 rings if you got a 100%. Unfortunately, I didn't get a 100 or an A on this test. So in turn I didn't get any rings. But today was my birthday so I was in a good mood. Only problem was that it was a Wednesday and Wednesday's are absolutely terrible for me because I have all of my classes and I only have one mod off for the day. But regardless today is okay. I needed up getting a B on my tests which isn't horrible, but it brought my grade down to a 91%. I hope that I can raise it by the end of the quarter. I may haggle with Mr. Schick over giving everyone a better grade for this assignment, but we will see later about all of that and I will tell you what I know after class on Friday.

Doing the Pyramid Challenge

Hello,

Today I was pissed. We played this stupid game called the pyramid challenge. Anyway if we didn't complete it before the other kids in the class we got a lower score the more groups that finished. I thought that it was so dumb that this activity was graded. So since my group of Erica and I didn't finish in class, we had to go home and do it ourselves for homework and do that and our blog which isn't a lot, but it is SOOO dumb that we had this graded. I think that I am going to get a very low score. This is turn would completely destroy my grade because I have an A now and I may end up ended with a B because of this stupid assignment. But anyway tomorrow is my birthday and I think I will argue about this and I think that we will go over our tests tomorrow. I can't wait to get to see what I get!

LO1 Chapter 3 Ancient Greece

Hello,

Here are some of the notes that I took after doing my test on the new chapter:

Barbarians:
- had a distinctive way of life that focused on farming and warfare
- about 2000 b.c. they moved to southeastern Europe
- The Greeks shared knowledge and adjusted to barbarians way of life

Greek:
- first civilization in 800 b.c.
- was influenced by the barbarians
- the Greeks started having ideas like: 
         - art forms
         - types of government

- their influence has still lasted to todays world
- were the first to practice in citizen government
- colonized the northern coastlands of the Mediterranean sea
- Italians loved their way of life and modeled their civilization after the Greeks
- innovators in:
- warfare
- developing methods of fighting by land and sea

shortly after 500 b.c.
- enabled them to keep independence against Persia
- universal leaders of the time
- Greeks would eventually replace them

Vocab: 

Barbarian- a term used to describe the distinctive way of life based on farming, warfare, and tribal organization that became widespread in Europe beginning around 2500 b.c.
Megaliths- Massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs
Tribe- a social and political unit consisting of a group of communities held together by common interest, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship

Essay Questions #2

Hello,

Here are the answers to the essay questions:

1. The three innovations and inventions of Ancient Egypt that were very important to me were the first plow, the first type of paper and first written language. First off the first plow was made by the farmers of Ancient Egypt. They used it to make farming so much easier for the people of Egypt. they would put the plow on a domesticated animal and move it across the land to make farming much easier. In the end it made many of the people in the village have a much easier job when farming. This invention could have possibly never been built, but it is certainly used in today's times.

The second innovations that was made in Ancient Egypt was the first type of paper. The first type of paper that was made was called papyrus. It was made from the papyrus plant which was common in their time. Mostly scribes used the papyrus plant to make paper that was used in everyday writing with scribes. They used these to mostly do all of the writing in the village. Papyrus was obviously used a lot and was a great innovation and paper may not have been where it is today without the papyrus plant.

Egyptians majorly contributed to the evolution of written language. Egyptians really developed the first language. Some of the first language wasn't really a language at all because they had a lot to do with pictures. Many of it was a lot of symbolic and alphabetic symbols. Scribes used a lot of symbols to describe a lot of gods and goddesses because scribes wrote a lot about them because all of the people praised them. Most of the first writing appeared in the Mesopotamia, but it was first really used mostly in Egypt.

2. There are many features of the Egyptian pyramids that are extremely complex and so magnificent. The pyramids are absolutely amazing and are the only seven ancient wonders of the world that still remain. Almost all of the others have been destroyed by earthquakes and or plundering. After tons of erosion of the pyramids and plundering the pyramids still stand. The first thing that is amazing about the pyramids is that it still remains today and it was that sturdy to withstand all of the things that have been putting it down. It just shows the craftsmanship that was put into it that made it still stand today.

The next thing that I found absolutely amazing about the pyramids is the secret rooms and the mazes in the pyramids. Most of the pyramids were tombs for many important pharaohs. Obviously they didn't just put the tomb in the middle, but they actually hid them in secret rooms that were found through secret hatches that were gotten into by things like moving one stone block out and a room appearing and other things like that. Obviously it is no easy task getting into the actual tomb, but it has been done by some people and it has been plundered, but I'm not sure if all of the tombs have been raided. Although they have been plundered it was absolutely amazing how the Egyptians made all of the mazes that in the pyramids and how smart they were in their secret traps and rooms.

The last thing that I found absolutely amazing about the pyramids is the actual craftsmanship. The people that made the pyramids were government workers. All of the pyramids and the Great Sphinx were made of marble that was put on over stone. The marble has been stripped long before our time and now it just leaves the stone. But by craftsmanship I mean that all of the pieces of the stone was absolutely perfectly put together, by this I mean you can't even fit a knife in between two of the pieces of stone. This is how great that it was put together. This topic also goes along with the mazes because not only was it made of perfectly placed stone, but they actually hollowed out the inside and made all of these paintings and hieroglyphs inside of the pyramids along with different tombs and secret rooms. All in all when you think about the pyramids, how they are standing and how they were made are actually REALLY incredible.

Essay Questions

Hello,

Sorry I didn't post yesterday because my Wifi wasn't working for some reason. It was really spotty, but here are the answers to the questions.

1. Back in the times of the Egyptians there was a big difference between some others. There were 8 basic types of classes back in the their times. Pharaohs, Government Officials, Soldiers, Scribes, Merchants, Artisans, Farmers and Slaves. Clearly Pharaohs are on the highest end and slaves at the lowest. Many of the social ranks aren't severely different however. At least not as bad as you would think.

Pharaohs where known to be like a god or close to a god. They were supposed to be able to communicate with them. So if there was an extreme drought or plague that affected the village severely and may have even killed people the Pharaoh was considered to not be doing his job, then he may be overthrown. The Government Officials were people like priests and nobles. They were known as the "white kilt class." They were people like engineers, physicians and priests. They were very highly known and treated very well in the village. Next were soldiers, they were known for protecting the people and used wooden weapons with bronze tips.

After soldiers their were the scribes. They were very heavily valued because they could read and write. Scribes wrote in hieroglyphs and hieratics. They kept records, told stories, wrote poetry, and described anatomy and medical treatments. Merchants were next on the social scale and they used the money and barter system and they were known for trading for things because they did not have money then, but later they did. For example, a merchant may except a bag of grain for payment. The next on the social scale is an Artisan. They would carve sculptures and reliefs showing military battles and scenes from the after-life.

The last two classes in the Egyptian life were Farmers and Slaves. Farmers raised wheat, barley, lentils and onions. They all irrigated from the Nile and even though they provided the mass amount of food for the village they weren't very highly respected in the community. Lastly there were slaves, which weren't as badly treated as you would think. They mostly helped the much wealthier people with household things and child raising duties.

2. The Nile was absolutely essential in the lives of the Egyptians. They used the Nile in so many ways. They mostly used the Nile for 2 things, transportation and irrigation. These were both essential in the living of the Egyptians. I will let you know how these things are that essential in the paragraphs below.

Firstly, if there wasn't the Nile there would be no irrigation in the Egyptian's lives or at least it would be a lot harder or not as good. The Nile was the water source for almost all of the Egyptians crops. All of the Egyptians thrived with the Nile. Yes, sometimes it flooded like most rivers, but all in all the Nile was a HUGE plus for them and the Egyptians may not have had such great success in their civilization if they did not have the crops that they did that were supported but the Nile River.

Next, the Nile was greatly used with transportation. Some people used the river to actually transport the water from it to other places. The Nile was clearly used a lot in transportation. Many merchants used the Nile to get to other places so they could trade with others. If the Nile was not there some of the merchants could not have gotten to where they needed to go. With that some of the people in Egypt could may have not gotten some of the materials that it needed to run they everyday lives.

With these two things you can obviously see that only these 2 things could have been destroyed in the  Egyptians lives and their civilization could have never been the same. These things could have made history completely different than it is now.

Another Egypt Class

Hello,

Today we talked more about Egypt. We were informed that this will be the topic of discussion for tomorrow as well. Mr. Schick put his schedule up on his blog so we will be taking the test Wednesday. we were informed at first that www were gonna take it today, but obviously that never happened. So today we talked about the mummification process and also a lot about the citizens of ancient Egypt. We talked mostly about the ranks and who has the most power of all of the people that lived back in that time period. The pharaoh is obviously the most powerful. Also we talked about what each class of citizens does and we lean red more about them. But we will be talking more about Egypt tomorrow and then the Test on Wednesday, so you will hear more tomorrow. 

More Egypt

Hello,

Today in class we talked a lot about Egypt, that was pretty much the main topic of class. Since we have missed so much school the test will be on Monday and Mr. Schick even said there may be another test on Tuesday. I'm not really sure what he is planning, but we will see soon. Anyway he said that it could be an open blog so I may post some of my notes on my blog so that I can have all of the notes I took in my book on my blog. The only issue with that however is that I wrote about 3 pages of notes and it would take forever for me to post them on my blog. I may do it anyway or just shorten some of it, but I really haven't decided on what I am going to be doing so we will see. But that was class, we talked about the pyramids and the Sphinx so it was a very interesting topic to talk about. But I will take the test Monday, if we have school because of snow, and learn more in the following days of class.

LO - 3 Egypt

Hello,

Today we really talked about snow days. Mr. Schick had a few ideas about them as always and they were very interesting, but anyway. We are supposed to copy down notes for the 3rd section from Chapter 1 about Egypt, so here they are.

-steppes - vast semiarid grasslands or plains.

-the Indo-European people's lifestyle differed from the southwestern Asian nomads.

-the Hittites were the most powerful and longest ruled kingdoms.

-pharaohs - the rulers of ancient Egypt.

-the Egypt's king was also known as a God.

-all of their God's were known as maat.

-women very rarely wield the full authority of a pharaoh.

-Egyptians were polytheistic

-writing arose in Egypt

-earliest form of writing were the hieroglyphs

-hieroglyphs - the earliest Egyptian writing, in which pictures stood for whole words or separate sounds of words.

-knowledgeable in medicine.

-pyramid - a massive structure with sloping sides that met at an apex, used as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt.

Well This Day Was Pointless

Hello,

Today we had a shortened class. We basically did nothing. We came in and talked about the snow. In my opinion we shouldn't have had the day anyway, we should have had off of school. So instead of doing work in class we only got to do our blog. Then Mr. Schick had an idea about staying up till 2 am in the school and make up a day of school so it there isn't a snow day that we had so it wouldn't count. He is strange. I think that we may even have tomorrow off, but today I had health and wellness class first mod and then western civ which is where I am now and we didn't do anything so this day was pointless and we never should have had school in my opinion. But this also doesn't count as a day off so I guess this wasn't too bad of a day. I hope that we don't have school tomorrow, but we will see.