Test

Today in class we took a test about the religions that we learned. I was scared because I didn't think I was ready for the test and I thought it was hard. I knew some of the answers, but others I had no idea about. After we got done our test we got to do whatever we wanted while everyone else finished and Mr. Schick graded the tests. Me and Kacey studied for our Spanish quiz and then we got to see our grades. I didn't do very well, so I know I need to study a lot for the midterm.

study day

Today, Mr. Schick wasn't there so we could do homework, study, or work on extra credit. Me, Kacey and Leigh chose to work on the extra credit. We chose and song and changed the words and rap. We did the song starships by: Nicki Minaj but we sang about world problems like hunger, Ebola, Ferguson and that kind of stuff. It took us the whole class but I think we did pretty well.

more on five major religions

More on buddhism:
There are 4 noble truths

• there is suffering
• attachment to desire is the origin of suffering
• there is a cessation (stop) of suffering
• the eightfold path will lead to the cessation of suffering

The eightfold path

• right view
• right intention
• right speech
• right action
• right livelihood
• right effort
• right mindfulness
• right dedication

Judaism:

• 14 - 18 million adherents
• called Jews
• location: Israel
• founder: Abraham
• holy book: Talmud, Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament)
• beliefs: ethical monotheism - God is one and concerned with the actions of humankind, 10 commandments, 13 principals of faith

Five major religions

Christianity:

• around 2.2 billion adherents (largest in the world)
• called Christians
• located in Europe, North America, South America, and South Africa
• founder: Jesus Christ
• holy book: The Bible
• Beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine - son of God
• Clergy: Pope is the head of the church, priests are local authorities

Islam:

• 1.5 billion adherents (second largest)
• called Muslims
• located in Indonesia, Middle East, and North Africa
• founder: Muhammad 
• holy book: Qur'an 
• Beliefs: Monotheistic, Abrahamic 
• Five pillars: testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage (make visit to Mecca)
• See their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God) and observing Islamic law

Hinduism:

• 1.1 billions adherents (third largest)
• called Hindus
• located in India and Nepal
• holy book: the Vedas
• founder: no distinct founder; series of intellectual or philosophical points of view 
• oldest religion
• seen as a way of life more than a religion
• believe in reincarnation

Buddhism:

• 500 million to 1.5 billion adherents
• called Buddhists
• located in Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan and Japan
• 1.2 million Buddhists in the United States
• founder: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) 
• denominations: Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Amidist
• there are 4 noble truths: There is suffering, attachment to desire is the origin of suffering, there is a cessation(stop) of suffering, the eightfold path will lead to the cessation of suffering
• the eightfold path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right dedication

Judaism:

• 14 - 18 million adherents (ninth) 
• called Jews
• location: Israel 
• founder: Abraham 
• holy book: Talmud, and Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament)
• beliefs: ethical monotheism - God is one and concerned with the actions of humankind, 10 commandments, 13 principals of faith

Cultural Characteristics

Religion can be both a unifying force

• there are 5 major religions in the world today: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Religion can also be a dividing force around the world

• Hindus and Muslims fight in India 
• There are conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (both forms of Christianity) 
• Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim Jerusalem as their religious holy site

Spatial divisions are how we divide the livable space found on the earth by establishing social, economic, and political control

• you can be a member of more than one spacial group
• spatial divisions can also cause conflict

Examples: Countries, economic alliances, Political alliances (NATO)

Absent

I wasn't in class today because I was absent from school

last movie day

today in class we watched the last part of Slumdog millionaire for the people that didn't see it in Tuesday. I learned a lot from this movie because of the cultural differences between India and America. When you live in America, living like this seems very normal and we don't realize what we should be thankful for or that others don't have this much. In America there is more freedom and in India they aren't allowed to say what they want or even practice their own religion. Even the police are allowed to torture someone. They tortured Jamal just because the t.v show host said he cheated. He didn't have any proof but the police still did terrible things to him. If this happened in America, they would get in trouble.

Slumdog Millionaire

Today we watched slumdog millionaire again and learned more about the Indian culture. Some of the things I learned are things about their wealth and how the kids act. The people don't have lots of money and they have to do many things to get it. In America, if kids don't have parents they are put in an orphanage. In India, if they don't have parents they have to support themselves. The kids steal things and get away with it very easily. They sell things for very little money and they even killed someone without getting caught. The movie is teaching me how difficult life is in India.

Movie

Today in class we watched a video about in India. There were many differences between their life and culture and ours. Everything is very crowded and they don't have lots of food or nice things. The kids run around and are punished in harsh ways like being slapped and hit with books. Most everyone in America has what they need and some people are more poor than others but there are few people who are poor like these people. We are used to having food, clothes, a house, internet and much more. In America harsh punishment is not allowed. The people in India got beaten with sticks and set on fire just for being Muslim. America is a free country and people can practice religion however they want for the most part. Another main difference is that the kids have to do terrible things to get by. The kids sell their possessions for small amounts of money but here, money is given to us by our parents like it's no big deal. To the people in India this is normal but we aren't used to it because America is very different.

Substitute

Today in class, Mr.Schick wasn't there so we had a sub. We had to check his blog for our assignment. We worked on what we did in class yesterday which was finding songs that relate moving and push/pull factors. I found some things that might work out but I haven't decide whether or not to use them yet. We spent the whole class looking for songs and if we already did the assignment we could work on our homework. I didn't find definite songs but I'm going to keep looking.

National anthem

This is the United Kingdom national anthem

Cultural geography

To start off class, we got our tests back from the other day. After that, we started a new lesson about cultural geography. We learned that cultural characteristics are lessons and traditions you were taught by your parents and other family members. Examples are religion, language, and ethnic heritage. We looked at a picture of the united states that told us what different states called soda. Some call it coke, others call it pop, and we just call it soda. We also talked about how in Maryland, we eat crabs in big groups and think its completely normal because we grew up doing it but in other places it's rare which I thought was cool.

Test

Today we had a test about the countries and all the power points that were presented. I studied last night but I don't think I did as well as I wanted to. Some people probably didn't think it was that hard but I thought some parts of it were difficult. Most of the questions had to do with the countries, their leaders, and what type of government they had. I knew the leaders because I studied those but I had some trouble with the types of government and some of the facts about the leaders. Overall I think I did an okay job but not as good as I wanted.

Russia, Brazil, and Mexico

Today we finished up class with these notes
Russia:

• Dmitry Medevdev is in the United Russia party
• There are 3 braches of government: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial
• The Legislative branch adopts federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has federal power, and can impeach the president
• The Executive branch is the president and appoints government
• The main political party is called United Russia it was founded in 2001
• Countries are afraid to attack Russia because of Putin and his nuclear weapons
• Putin improved the Russian military
• Dmitry Medevdev is the prime minister who previously served as the 3rd Russian president

Brazil:

• Brazil has a Federal Republic
• Dilma Rousseff is the President
• Leaders are elected by the people
• The president has a 4 year term
• Can only be re-elected twice in a row but can be elected as many times as they want as long as there is another president in between
• Dilma Rousseff was elected in 2011 and was re-elected in 2014
• In 1970, Dilma Rousseff was arrested for participating in Political Guerilla
• She was captured and tortured for 3 years before she got involved in politics
• To remove the president, they can Impeach, re-elect, or assassinate them

Mexico:

• Enrique Pena Nieto is the Governor
• He is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
• The can impeach, re-elect, or assassinate
• Mexico has a Federal Republic
• A big thing in Mexico is the Mexican Drug war

Test tomorrow

Today Mr.Schick had to leave so he came and told us that he made a powerpoint for us to study and it was on his blog. We had a sub and we could work with partners if we wanted to. I studied with Leigh and Kacey and we quizzed each other. At first, I got lots of things wrong because I didn't memorize anything but with practice from looking over the powerpoint, quizzing Leigh, and being quizzed, I got the hang of it. I think I still need to study because I don't think I could do a good job otherwise but with some studying I think I can get a pretty good grade.

Syria, Germany, The US, and Russia

Syria:

• Republic under an authoritarian regime
• They don't have many rights that keep them safe from the government
• Bashar al-Assad is the president
• Syria has been a republic under and authoritarian regime for 73 years
• They are a republic but the government still controls everything
• They ways the get rid of the president are assassination, the country being taken over, and a revolutionary war
• The voting for Bashar al-Assad is rigged for him to win
• The leader in Syria serves a term of 7 years
• Bashar al-Assad is expected to be in office until at least 2021

Germany:

• Federal republic
• The government has been in place since 1990
• After world war II, Germany was broken into East Germany and West Germany
• The president is Joachim Gauck who has been in office since 2012
• The chancellor is Angela Merkel and has been in office since 2000
• The President can be impeached or the people can decide not to elect him again
• The chancellor can be re-chosen by the President or the Bundestag can kick the chancellor out of office
• The bundestag elects the president and can kick them out
• The president was first established after World War I
• The chancellor first entered the political world in 1989, after the Berlin wall fell
• Offices in Germany are elected by the Bundestag
• Disabled people aren't allowed to vote
• 18 is the legal voting age
• There are 5 political parties (CDU, SPD, CSU, LINKE, and GRUNE)

The United States:

• The leader is president Barack Obama
• America has a constitution based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition
• Democrats and Republicans
• Obama won the election in 2008 and can only serve 2 terms of 4 years each
• Obama will be in office for 2 more years
• He  is the first African American president
• To change the leadership, we can re-elect, overthrow the leader, impeach the leader, or assasinate him
• Impeachable offenses include treason, bribery, and more

Russia:

• They have a federation
• The official name for Russia is Russian Federation
• Russia became Russian Federation in 1991
• Used to be the Soviet Union (USSR)
• Vladimir Putin has been president since 2012
• He was the Prime Minister from 1999-2000
• They have 6 year terms
• Vladimir is not allowed to serve another term or be re-elected
• Russians like Putin as the president
• He's in the United Russia party
• Used to be in the KGB

Canada and Japan

These are the notes we took yesterday in class:

Canada:

• A parliamentary government: a democratic form of government which the party with the greatest representation in the parliament forms the government
• Has had a parliamentary government since 1867
• A federation
• There are 5 political parties
• The leader is Stephan Harper
• The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II
• Anyone can be elected as the prime minister as long as they're over 18 years old
• Prime minister can stay the prime minister as long as the people vote for him ; no term limit
• The longest term served has been 21 years
• Stephan Harper has been the prime minister for 8 years
• The prime minister is in office until he/she resigns, is dismissed, or dies
• They have elections every 4 years. The next election is in 2015

Japan:

• Shinzo Abe is the leader
• Parliamentary system and am constitutional monarchy
• They are a unitary state
• The prime minister has more power than the emperor
• Japan does not elect a prime minister directly
• No term limit
• They can impeach or re-elect to get rid of a leader
• The emperor is Akihito
• Shinzo Abe will stay in power as long as he is doing his job well

France and China

Today in class, these are the notes I took when we saw the powerpoint about France and China.

France : 

• Has a republic government and a semi-presidential system (has a president and a prime minister)
• President Francois Hollande and Prime minister Manuel Valls are the leaders
• Government of France is divided into executive, legislature, and judicial branches
• Francois Hollande is part of the socialist party. He's going to run again in 2017
• The prime minister is appointed by the President
• Manuel Valls was born in Spain and obtained French nationality when he was 20
• A republic is a state where the majority of the power is in the people who vote and are represented by the people they choose
• France's present government has existed for 56 years
• To get rid of their leader they can throw them out of office but they have to prove that the leader did something wrong
• The socialist party is the first most popular party in France and the Union for a popular movement (the UMP) is the second
• The leader of the UMP is Jean-Francois Cope
• Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as the president but was defeated by Francois Hollande
• The next election is in 2017
• Hollande , Sarkozy and many others are potential runners for the next election

China :

• Is a communist state (the government controls the economy)
• The president is Xi Jinping 
• He's the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, one of the communists party's founding fathers
• A president in China serves for 10 years and Xi Jinping has been in office for 2 years 
• They can impeach, assassinate, or re-elect to get rid of a leader
• Impeachment is when an official is accused of unlawful activity
• Assassination is the action of killing someone 
• Re-election is to elect for another term in office
• Xi Jingping got a total of 2,937 votes

Cancer Awareness

Today in class, we went to the front of the school for Cancer Awareness day. There was a line of booths set up where we could listen to the people talk or pick up brochures about different types of cancer. The first booth was about skin cancer. The man talked about the sun and how you should always wear sunscreen even when it's not hot outside. The second booth was about about breast cancer and people came that go to the houses of people with cancer and clean them for free. The fourth booth had a machine where you could put your head inside and see if you had sun damage, dry skin, or were dehydrated. The final table, had two sets of pig lungs. One was healthy and one wasn't from smoking. It talked about lung cancer and the danger of smoking.

Project

Today in class we spent the whole time working on a powerpoint about a specific country with a partner. We got to choose our partner and our country and we have to present our power points. I am working with Leigh, and we chose the United Kingdom. We made a slide that talks about the government of the United Kingdom. They have a constitutional monarchy and commonwealth realm. We did some research on these types of governments and put them in the powerpoint. The next thing we researched was David Cameron, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. We didn't get to finish our powerpoint but we will finish them in class tomorrow.

Pop quiz

Yesterday in class we took a pop quiz. I thought it was hard because we didn't get to study and the last couple questions were the hardest. I didn't get as good of a grade as I had hoped but I think it was okay for not being prepared for it and now knowing what kinds of questions will be asked, I can study a little bit more for the next quiz about the leaders. I knew some of the questions but most of them I knew that I was going to get wrong.

Forbes

To start class, we talked about Forbes magazine and some of the leaders that we talked about who were in it. Angela Merkel was named one of the most powerful women in Forbes and Enrique Pena Nieto was named one of the most powerful men. We spend this class looking for interesting facts again. One of them was that Benjamin Netanyahu's brother died when trying to save hostages which Mr. Schick said was important. Near the end of class, we started talking about how Mexico gets a large amount of income from selling Heroin to the U.S and one of the richest men in Mexico is a drug lord. America asks them to stop selling it and they say to tell their people to stop using it. This is where we ended class.

Interesting facts part 2

Today in class, we talked about the interesting facts again. We went around for the whole class and shared things that we found. Some people said things like how Dilma Rousseff survived cancer when she was younger and Xi Jinping is the son of one of the founding members of the communist party. Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany and she is one of the most powerful women in the world. Something else we learned is that Joachim Gauck's parents were members of the Nazi party. We talked about all the facts and found some that we didn't really think were interesting but after we were finished, we left. 

Interesting Leader Facts

- Enrique Pena Nieto's mom used to squeeze lime juice on his hair to keep the style in place 
- Li Keqiang was the youngest Chinese Provincial Governor 
- Narendra Modi's parents arranged his marriage and he was engaged when he was 13 years old
- Dmytri Medvedev started dating his wife in the 7th grade
- Angela Merkel was a member of the Free German Youth
- David Cameron was the 5th cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth II
- Manuel Valls is fluent in French, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian 
- Dilma Rousseff was arrested and tortured when she was younger and survived cancer
- Wael Nader Al-Halqi survived a car bombing that was supposed to kill him but killed 6 other people instead
- Stephen Joseph Harper got involved in politics with a high school club
- Shinzo Abe's father. grandfather, and great grandfather were all involved in government 
- Binyamin Netanyahu was a combat soldier 

Assignment #1

Mexico:
Type of Government: Federal Republic
Leader: President Enrique Pena Nieto 

China: 

Type of Government: Communist State

Leader: Premier Ll Keqiang

India:

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Russia: 

Type of Government: Federation

Leader: Premier Dmytriy Anotolyevich Medvedev

Germany:

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: Chancellor Angela Merkel

United kingdom:

Type of Government: Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth realm

Leader: Prime minister David Cameron

France: 

Type of Government: Republic

Leader: Prime Minister Manuel Valls

Brazil: 

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: President Dilma Rousseff

Syria:

Type of Government: Republic under an authoritarian regime

Leader: Prime Minister Wael Nader Al-Halqi

Canada:

Type of Government: Parliamentary Democracy, Federation, and Constitutional Monarchy

Leader: Prime Minister Stephen Joseph Harper

Japan:

Type of Government: Parliamentary Government and Constitutional Monarchy 

Leader: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Israel:

Type of Government: Parliamentary Democracy

Leader: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

Homework day

Today three people in our class had to take the test that we took Friday because they didn't take it yet. Since we got the whole class, so did they and we couldn't have a lesson. Mr.Schick let us do homework or play games on our laptop for the whole class. He let us go to our lockers to get books and I didm my spanish homework first so that I didn't have to take home those textbooks. That didn't take long so when I finished that, I did my intro to Bible homework and my English homework . That was all the homework I could do because my other textbooks were at home so when I was done I just played a game on my laptop.

Test day

Today, we didn't do much in class because we took a test. I thought the test was a little hard but it wasn't really hard. The front was hard because we only had 10 minutes to do it but the rest was okay. I think I did good on the front because I got all the answers down and we used the website so they should be right, it was just stressful trying to finish in time. The second part of the test was vocabulary and that part was easy because we've been talking about it. The third part was about population pyramids and I thought it was okay until it asked me which pyramid was for which country. The bonus questions were really hard and I had no idea what they were so I just guessed.

Test review

Today we went over things for our test. First, we talked about the vocabulary we need to know and about how we need to be able to navigate around the CIA fact book site. We need to know what life expectancy, crude birth rate, crude death rate, developing nations, developed nations, rate of natural increase, net migration rate, immigration, emigration, push forces, pull forces, and total fertility rate are. We also need to know things like a country that has a higher crude death than crude birth, how to figure out the rate of natural increase, how you figure out the net migration rate, push factors, and pull factors. Then, class was over.

Spotify

We didn't don much in class today. We came in and Mr. Schick told us to put away our computers so we could pay attention. He told us that we had to create an account on a music website called spotify and find a song that relates to moving. We spent most of class setting them up because Mr. Schick had to read us our codes one by one. After he did that, my computer wouldn't open spottily because i was using safari so I had to redownload google chrome and then download spottily. By the time I did that, there had been too many people registering so I had to wait till I got home. Since we didn't have that much time left in class we just played around with the website and got familiar with it. By that time it was time to leave.

The United States

Today in class we took the time researching the U.S to see if it really is the best country in the world. I found some interesting facts about America on the CIA fact book site. America is 143rd out of 233 in population growth. There are lots more countries having more kids than us. I thought it was interesting that we are number 2 in debt. We are also ranked 18 in obesity and 42 in life expectancy which isn't as bad. The U.S is a large emitter of Carbon Dioxide from burning fossil fuels. We are also the largest consumer of illicit drugs. We have air pollution resulting in acid rain and water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers. We have no official national language because we have people from all over speaking many languages. The U.S has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world. We aren't a terrible country but we aren't the best either.

The Newsroom

Yesterday in class, we watched a video called "The Newsroom first scene". People were asking the anchor people questions and one college student asked why America was the greatest country in the world. The man hesitated but started yelling at the girl about how America isn't the best country in the world. Then, when the video was over we talked about if we thought America was the greatest country or not. Some people said it wasn't the best because there are things wrong but it's still a great country. Most people said it wasn't the greatest. At the end of class, we talked about homeless people and everyone shared their stories about their experiences with homeless people. Then, it was time to leave.

Freshman retreat

Today i wasn't in class because I was on the freshman retreat

Population Pyramid

In class, we watched the population pyramid video again and talked about it. A population pyramid measures the percentage of people living in a country according to gender and age. If a pyramid is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, the population is growing rapidly and people are having kids at a very fast pace. Later on, the same pyramid will be wider at the top, and narrower at the bottom because all the kids from the baby boom aren't having as many kids when they get older. There are a large amount of them but not as many of their children. The last thing we talked about was the 3 eras that countries have been through. There was pre-industrialization , industrialization, and post-industiralization.

Substitute

Today, Mr.Schick wasn't there so we did the work that he left us on his blog. We were supposed to watch a video called "population pyramids" and complete the questions we were given. Some of us had to watch the video with no sound because we didn't have headphones and if we finished we studied or did work for another class. One thing I learned in the video, is that Russia has the same total population as Nigeria. This was surprising because Russia has the largest territory in the world and Nigeria is only 1/16th it's size. Another interesting thing I learned, is that the population pyramid can predict future population trends. It's crazy that there are about 271 people born each minute and that about 106 die every minute. It would be impossible to know how many people exactly are in the entire world.

Duck and Cover

Today in class, we started off by looking at the website on the countries again. We had some classmates go up and talk about some of the countries hey looked at and show us some facts. We looked at the U.S and we also looked Antarctica . We learned that Syria is at the bottom of the list and thousands of people are leaving there and going to Lebanon which was at the top of the list. So many people are leaving Syria that is has a negative number next to it. After we did that, we talked about how when Mr. Schick was younger, they used to do drills incase another country bombed them. The had to go in the basement of the school and sit silently while they were curled in a ball covering their heads. He told us that people used to be terrified of it and they didn't even know if it was a drill or not sometimes. To end class, he showed us a video that was called "Duck and Cover" about those drills. It told you to duck and cover and if you did that you would be safe. If you were outside you had to get to the nearest building or duck down against a curb. We thought it looked sort of funny but it wasn't back then.

Life Expectancy

Today, we talked about life expectancy , crude birth/death rate, net migration, immigration, emigration and more. Life expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. Crude birth rate is the number of births per 1,000 people and crude death rate it the number of deaths per 1,000 people. Net migration is the difference between the number of people leaving or entering a country during a year. Net immigration is the number of people entering the country  and net emigration is an excess of people leaving a country. After we talked about this, we went to www.cia.gov and looked at statistics for Mexico. The net migration rate used to be more than -3 for 1,000 population and now it's -1.64. The number of people leaving Mexico has gone down dramatically. I looked at some other statistics for Mexico and noticed some other things. The infant mortality rate is 12.58/1,000 live births. This has probably gone up from what it was a couple of years ago. The average life expectancy is 75.43 and this is only a few years under the United States.

Test day

Yesterday in class, I had to take my test because I left early on Wednesday. I got to use my blog which was helpful and I think I did pretty good on the test. Mr. Schick made me drag a desk in the hallway so i could sit out there to take it. The test took about half the class so when I finally came back inside, we were talking about life expectancy. The life expectancy in the U.S is higher today than it used to be because they didn't have good medicines like we do now. We also learned that the flu used to kill millions of people. Today, the flu isn't thought about as dangerous anymore because we have medicines. Another thing we learned about id infant mortality. This is a measure of how many kids die before their first birthday. We looked at the rankings for countries and life expectancy and the U.S is #50. After this, it was time to leave.

Absent

Today, I wasn't in class class because I left early for a dentist appointment.

flashcards

Today in class, we had a substitute because Mr. Schick was at a meeting. The sub was dressed up as daphne from Scooby Doo which everyone thought was pretty cool. We studied basically the whole class because we have our test tomorrow that we need to study for. We were allowed to work in partners as long as we were quiet so I worked with Leigh and Kacey. We went on the website that Mr. Schick put on his blog and made flashcards and then we studied them. I put all the questions from my notes I took yesterday. I think a day to study helped get me read for the test a lot better than just studying at home because someone else quizzed me and if I didn't know something, I made sure i remembered it. After we studied it was time to leave.

Test review

Today in class, Mr.Schick had us review for the test. He asked us to come up with some good test questions that he would use if he liked them. Some of the class's ideas were used and some weren't. We took notes about all the things that will be on the test and he explained to us why true and false questions are bad on a test. Even the most intelligent kids get true or false questions wrong and it doesn't really show the teacher what the student knows. We went over a message to Garcia and I wrote down that it was written my Elbert Hubbard, it is teaching that people who are responsible and reliable are more wanted in business, and it took place in the Spanish - American war. We also went over elements of globalization and how english became the international language of business. To end class we talked about all the new inventions being made and the ones that are likely to exist in the near future.

Globilization

Today in class, we talked about globalization, which is the connection of different parts of the world. It results in the expansion of international, cultural, economical, and political activities. We also talked about how Japan. It has lots of american businesses because almost everyone knows english so they are internationally connected. Mr. Schick had us check our notebooks, tags, and shoes and we found out that almost everything in America is made from China or some other part of the world like Thailand. China has lots of factories and their air is polluted. Back in the 1st century BCE, there was a trading route called the silk road. Only China could make silk because they were the only ones with the material so there were roads to and from China that people used to trade. To end class we talked about how BCE which means before the common era is used more commonly than BC.

Facts

Today in class we looked at a video called "Did you know?". It had a bunch of facts in it about how things were before vs. now and population. One thing that surprised me was when the video said "China will soon become the number one english speaking country in the world". This was surprising because it's weird to think that a country who speaks another language, could speak our language better than us. But they soon will because their population is bigger than us and most of them are learning english as a second language. Another fact that surprises me is that " 1 in 8 couples married in the U.S last year, met online". All these people met online and a couple years ago the internet wasn't even invented yet. If the internet hadn't been discovered, half of the married couples wouldn't have even even met. The last thing that is surprising is "if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest (behind China and India)". The internet has become so important to our daily lives that there are more people using it than are in lots of countries. The world has changed, and will continue to change and grow in so many ways.

Updated vocabulary

Agora- The central meeting place for people in Greek city-states. It is used for sports, artistic, and spiritual gatherings.
Arete - excellence of any kind or moral values.
Polis - The structure of a community in Ancient Greece. It can also mean body of citizens.
508 BC - This is the year that a democracy was created and some people were allowed to vote using stones.
Socrates - An ancient Greek philosopher who was credited as one of the founders of western philosophy. He tried to get others to think for themselves.
The death of socrates - Socrates was charged with corrupting the youth and criticizing the greek gods. He admitted to these crimes and even though given the opportunity to escape, stayed to accept his punishment. He was sentenced to death and forced to drink a mixture of hemlock
The socratic method - A form of discussion and inquiry based on asking and answering philosophical questions to stimulate thinking

    

About ancient Greece

Agora- The marketplace in Athens that is used for popular meetings and other things like a popular meeting place.

Arete- Excellence of any kind

Polis- normally used to indicate the ancient greek cities of states

the year 508 BC- A year of the pre-Julian calendar . It was known as the year of consulship of Poplicola and Tricipitinus

Socrates- A greek philosopher who was credited as one of the founders of western philosophy 

The death of socrates- A painting done by Jacques-Louis David in 1787

The socratic method- A form of inquiry and discussion between individuals based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and illuminate ideas

If the ancient Greeks called you an idiot, they actually mean that you were a person lacking professional skill

Wikipedia

Voting

In class today, we talking about a Message to Garcia some more. We talking about what the author was really trying to say and how to be a reliable person. We learned that the message to Garcia is a metaphor and that it really means humans have gotten lazy but Rowan is a person that all humans should strive to be like. When the author wrote a Message to Garcia, the internet wasn't invented yet. Everyone wanted to read this book and copies started being made so it could be sold. Even businesses bought it so that they could show what they wanted in an employee. To end class, we talked about voting. We learned that the legal voting age used to be 21 but it was changed because they believed 18 year olds had the right to make these decisions. Even though people this young can vote and have this freedom, most choose not to use it.

Week two

Today in class we started off by catching some people up on the mistakes they made on their blog. Some people were making separate blogs instead of separate posts in one blog. After they fixed that, we talked about some of the stuff on the blog and how to locate things on Mr.Schick's blog. we also talked about how he did the ALS ice bucket challenge and donated money. He said we could do it for homework and post a video on our own blogs if we wanted to. To end class we went on our own blogs and put links on the side. It was really confusing but I figured it out.We also talked about what mini - mod night is where parents come to the school and go around to all their kids classes so they can meet all the teachers and see what the classes are like.

5 ways to be a better student

To succeed in high school, you have to listen, work hard, study, take notes, and think responsibly. I plan to listen to my teachers and to my classmates. This will help me because I will know things for tests and quizzes. I will work hard so I can get good grades. Working hard will help me in the future because it will make me more responsible and prepare me for college. I will take notes in class so that I can remember the things we learn and get in the habit of it. I will study off the notes I take so that I can get good grades and get into a good college. Finally, I will think responsibly and not procrastinate. I will make sure that I check my emails, do my homework, and am prepared for class. All these steps will make me a better student and prepare me for life after high school.

My second day

Today in class, Mr. Schick had to catch everyone up who didn't do their homework right. I was one of those people because I sent him the wrong link. It took most of the class to do this so we didn't really do a lot then. But, while he was getting people's emails and trying to help them, everyone else was socializing with their friends and making new ones. Mr. schick explained how we can find him in the morning or after school if we need him because he only teaches us in that classroom. After he caught everyone up, we went over the syllabus. He also explained how we can edit a blog if we need to add more or want to change it. He told us how the grading system works and that he doesn't give any extra credit because he doesn't think it's fair. By the time we did all this, class was basically over.

My first day

Today was my first day at John Carroll. All the teachers were nice and welcomed me. We didn't really do anything in the classes because it was the first day, but I think I'm going to like the classes. Today was mostly just going over class rules and procedures but it made me feel better about being at a new school with new kids. In the beginning of the day, we followed a 2 hour delay schedule and went to different places. First I went to the upper gym and got pictures taken for the yearbook and my student card. Then, I went to the lower gym to talk with some of the administers. After that, I went to the brown room and the auditorium. Finally, I went to the cafeteria. My first class was spanish, which was confusing but towards the end I got more comfortable. My second class was freshman seminar, then a STEM meeting. After that I had a free mod which I liked because I got to relax and take a break before going to classes again. The first day was stressful because I didn't know what to expect but I think it'll be good once I get used to private school.