test went good (i think)

Today in class we took the test on Greece. It was pretty good and I think I got an A on it. I really need an A on it, but I know I already got a question wrong. Each question is worth 2.5 points so it is not as bad as last quiz. I got the dactylic hexameter question wrong, but in my defense. Just kidding I don't have a defense. I am pretty happy about the test and I think this will hopefully save my grade.  That is basically all we did in class today. The test was 40 questions and worth 100 points so it is a big grade. It was not too hard but not too easy either. I was studying for this test all night long yesterday and all day today. I studied with Emily and Giada. Giada got the east coast and west coast mixed up so we will probably have a similar grade. I don't know what else to write about because this is all we did today. It took awhile for Nick to finish his test, but now I get to be on my laptop and do this blog. I like getting my blogs done early in the day so I don't have to do it later.

test tim hahaha

Today in class I forgot what we did. We have a test tomorrow and we just learned the new slides that are going to be on the test. I need to get a good grade on this test because if I don't then I will have a B. I cannot have a B. I am going to study a lot tonight and hope for the best, but I think that the test will be very hard. I have no doubt that there will be some kind of trick question on the test. We took more notes on information that will be on the test. We have to know slides one and thrity-two for the test and that is a big margin. polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside (politics) monarchy: rule by a single person (a king, in Greece) aristocracy: rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help) tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support .the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece. Aristocrats: members of the ruling class; attended symposiums (meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras {courtesans or servants} while discussing politics)

Test thursday

Today in class I forgot what we did. Oh wait I remember!!!!! We went over our notes and I emphasized notes that could be on the test. I need to do good on the test because if I don’t then I will have a B or worse. I can’t have a B in any classes so I will study and use Dans quizlet. We also talked about drunk driving and the penalties that go along with it. Lots of kids in the class contributed to the discussion and had lots of different ideas. We didn’t really do anything else so I am going to type some notes. polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside (politics) monarchy: rule by a single person (a king, in Greece) aristocracy: rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help) tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support .the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece. Aristocrats: members of the ruling class; attended symposiums (meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras {courtesans or servants} while discussing politics)

anotha one

Today in class we took another pop quiz that brought my grade down again. Honestly I am a little upset that the pop quizzes are basically my western civ grade because there are no other grades in veracross. We started to take notes on the democracy of Greece. A guy that I call King P started the first Athenian democracy. He started to pay political officers, which meant that even poorer people could try to apply. King P loved the arts, so at that time lots of sculptures, paintings, and more artistic things were being made. One of King P’s projects was the Parthenon which became one of the most famous Greek historic structures ever. King P started to increase the Athenian navy and soon it became the strongest navy in the Mediterranean Sea. As Athens grew, other places started to compete with it. The Peloponnesian War started against Sparta and Athens (Sparta has a strongman army and Athens had a strong navy). Sparta started to attack Athenian city-states, so King P let everyone inside the walls of Athens to take cover. They relied on sea trade for food and supplies during this time. The second year of war 1/3 of Athens died of illness including the fantastic King P. Athens still fought Sparta for years and years. Once they were both worn out, they signed a peace treaty and became friends. That is basically what I have taken notes on so far.

debt is not good

Today in class we learned about ancient Greece forms of government that led to the rise of democracy. We took notes on a power point that I will type later. If I was one of the people that was about to be turned into a debt slave, then I would just dip before I get forced into something. I would run, sneak on a boat (have some of my money ofc), and then move to whatever place the boat takes me (Hopefully an island). Anyways here are some of the notes I took today:

• polis: fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside (politics)

• monarchy: rule by a single person (a king, in Greece)

• aristocracy: rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families

• oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help)

• tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to the common people for support 

• the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece
• Aristocrats: members of the ruling class
• attended symposiums (meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras {courtesans or servants} while discussing politics)

is Mr.Shick a teacher?

Today in class we took notes and thought more about philosophy. We looked at a picture of a pipe that said “this is not a pipe”. We learned that it is actually a projection of a picture of a painting of a pipe. We also compared our classroom to plato‘s allegory in the cave, and it turned out there are lots of similarities. It’s similar because like the people in the cave, students are faced on one side of the room and forced to watch what the teacher teaches them and then they have to say what pleases the teacher to get a good grade. We also took notes on the Mycenians and the Dorian period of ancient Greec.The Dorians were a group of people who were a lot less intelligent than the Mycenaeans, but they burn down lots of Mycenaean towns and cities. Because the Dorians took over, they did not write or record anything so the only thing we know about that time period is from homers Epics. Homers Epic’s were used to talk about the history of ancient Greece so people can learn about it because there was no writing. Some of his stories are about the Trojan war and then the consequences of it and what happened to a guy after it.

plato looks like mr.shick

Today in class we took the whole 45 minutes of class to watch a 6 minute video. This is because we were asking a lot of questions, and overall it was a good class. I agree with the video completely and I think that Plato's allegory in the cave can be interpreted in many different ways. It is a fun story because it can be many different things, but it just depends how you see it and society. I was hungry because we had lunch later today. It was at 11:45, but it is usually at 11:15. I wrote down some quotes that were in the video because I thought they were interesting. I liked how when they man went outside; he saw the shapes he saw in the cave, but in real life. He wanted to tell the people in the cave his discovery, which to Plato meant that the sun was philosophy and the man was a new philosopher, so he went to tell the people but they were threatened by these new ideas and killed him.

ancient greece powerpoint pt.1

Today in class we took notes on a power point. Here are some of the notes I took:

• The worlds greatest civilizations are all located on water (usually rivers)

• Mesopotamia / Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Egypt / Nile River
• India / Indus River
• China / Huang He River

be able to identify the following:

• Aegean Sea
• Ionian Sea
• Adriatic Sea (it’s just north of the Ionian Sea)
• Peloponnesus
• Athens
• Sparta
• Crete
• Asia Minor
• Macedonia

• Greece is a mountainous peninsula mountains cover 3/4 of Greece

• approximately 2000 islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas

• this combination shaped Greece’s culture: many skilled sailors and shipbuilders; also farmers, metalworkers, weavers, potters

• limited natural resources (needed to trade)

• difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain

• they developed small, independent communities (city-states) that they were loyal to
• about 20% of the 1/4 of fertile valleys are arable (suitable for farming)
• Greek diet- grains, grapes, olives, and fish
• lack of resources most likely led to colonization
• was pretty nice year-round (temperature wise)

plato's allegory in the cave

Today in class we read "Plato's allegory of the cave", which is one part of the "Republic". The Republic is Plato's greatest written work about the teachings of Socrates. In the allegory of the cave, part one is about the setting of the story. A group of people are shackled in a cave, and all they can see are the shadows of the people with statues walking behind them. They have been there a long time and know nothing else. In part two, a prisoner gets dragged to the outside and was blinded by the light of the sun. This man gets accustomed to the outside. The man gathers lots of new ideas and thoughts about the sun and the outside, and feels bad that the people in the cave don't know about it. In part three, the man goes back into the cave to show the other prisoners the outside and to enlighten them, but they think of him as a threat and kill him. I think this represents the fact that people are bound to society's points of view, and everything they have been taught from the books, but if they go outside and think for themselves then they will be ridiculed (or even killed). It shows that people are sometimes threatened by something new or a change in their normal lives, and they do not want to accept it and get rid of what they have known their whole lives. This lesson can relate to modern-day situations and ancient situations. It also talks about how painful it is to be different from everyone else and to experience something new, but once you do then you become enlightened and want to share what you learned. I think the people with the statues are like todays education system or the government, and if you try to think for yourself they don't like it.

pg. 126 questions 1,3,4,5

Today in class we took notes on Ancient Greece and all the things that happened to it that shaped its culture today. I noticed that Greek had a lot of things that were sprouted from the civilizations before it.

1.
Mycenean - A civilization of people that were named after the city of Mycenae
Trojan War - The ten-year war between the Myceneans and the independent city of Troy
Dorian - A group Greeks that took the burned city of Mycenae over for 400 and did not write
Homer - Homer is the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature.
Epic - a great poem or story that deals with supernatural beings
Myth - ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society

3. The impact that nearness to the sea had on the development of Greece was that it allowed the Greeks to sea travel and trade with all the other parts of Greek. Sea trade and trade were also important because Greece lacked natural resources, such as timber, precious metals, and usable farmland.

4. The aspects of culture that that the Myceneans adopted from the Minoans were the sea trading and the writing. The Minoan-influenced culture of Mycenae formed the core of Greek religious practice, art, politics, and literature.

5. The epics were important to the Greeks of the Dorian period because there was no writing, and epics and stories were the only ways that Greek history stayed alive. The Greeks relied on epics and stories to learn about their pasts.

the test was not good

Today in class we took the Egyptian test. Overall I think I did really bad on it, but I thought I got all of the answers right except one. I don’t know how I got more than one wrong, but I don’t think the questions should been worth as much as they were. I honestly think my test was graded wrong because of how low I got. Now I have a B in the class and I’m going to work hard to get it back up to an A. Lots of other people had trouble with the test and I now know why. The class average was an 83% which means basically everyone got a B. Also I have an indoor championship game tomorrow and I am really excited to cheer on my team. We are playing Mercy and I really hope we can beat them. I also just watched a really good movie on Disney Plus. In class, we also started taking notes on Ancient Greece. We learned about how it was surrounded by sea that helped transportation, 3/4 of it was mountains which split it into regions, and the climate varied so people could go outside and meet.

testtttttttttt timeeeeeeeeeeee

Today in class we watched a few videos and went over what would be on the upcoming test. After that we watched a few videos on things like mummification and Mr.Nicky. We also found that Mr. Nicky is just a little racist in his Egypt video and his Mesopotamia one was much better. Here are some of the notes I took in class:

• Jean Francois Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone
• The Rosetta Stone is in three different languages: Greek, Simple hieroglyphics, complex hieroglyphics
• Egyptians split papyrus reeds into narrow strips, placed them crosswise in two layers, dampened them, and pressed them. As the papyrus dried, the plants sap glued the strips together into a paper-like sheet 
• KA- Egyptians believed their king ruled even after his death, and had an eternal life force or ka, which continued to take part in the governing of Egypt.

Those are all the notes I took because I already have the other stuff in my notebook, but I think today was a good review. 

blog blog looks theres a hog

Today in class we are meditating while Nick is making up his test. He will be the last honors student that has to make-up the test and it is not exciting because we get our tests back after that. I think I did well on the test because I got an A on it. Also Mr.Shick just read a joke from Giada's computer, but I don't think it was funny to him because he didn't laugh. I just tried to go on a western civ jokes website but it was blocked so I clicked on another one. The one I am on has the worst jokes ever because they are very disturbing and gross. I don't know what they have to do with western civ, but I am surprised that this website isn't blocked like the first one. Western civ jokes are hard to come up with because we're only a chapter into the class, but I'm sure I will come up with some when we start learning about new things. The Old Egyptian Kingdom was a great place and a really advanced civilization. If you are wondering about the title of this blog; it is because we have done nothing in class yet. We are all waiting for Nick to finish his test, so that's why I am typing this blog.

the old kingdom of egypt

• Today in class since a lot of people were sick, we finished notes on chapter 2. Here were some of the main vocab:

• Narmer -  A king of Egypt identified by modern scholars as the Menes of tradition and depicted as the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt 

• Pharaohs - Egyptian god-kings thought to be almost as splendid and powerful as the gods in the heavens

• Theocracy - Government in which rule is based on religious authority

• Pyramid - a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top, especially one built of stone as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt

• Mummification - How royal or elite Egyptians bodies were preserved, which involves embalming and drying the corpse to prevent it from decaying

• Hieroglyphics - were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt using pictures to represent things and sounds

• Papyrus - A plant that was used as a writing surface in ancient times

Egyptians were taken over by the I forgets, and the Old Kingdom officially ended. A new Egyptian Kingdom would rise later though.