Today in class..

Today in class Mr. Schick was not here. He went on a feild trip with one of his other classes. My advisory teacher, Mrs. Stathes, was are substitute. I like Mrs. stathes becuase she is very nice and kind. In the begining of class she had us explain what was going on in the movie. Then she asked me to go to Mr. Schick's office and see if he was there to find the movie. He was not there when I got there, so she asked me to go to her mailbox and see if he dropped th e movie in there. The movie was not there. When I got back my class was taking notes on refugee camps. Mrs. Stathes then went to Mr. Schicks office in search for the movie. She found it in his office somewhere, and we got to watch it the rest of class. In the movie the boys are finding jobs, and I am excited to see what happens next!

From Sudan to America

Today in class we continued watching God Grew Tired of Us. We started at the part were some of the boys were selected to come to America. The boys were very new to most of the things that they saw in America. They did not know how electricity worked, and they thought it was very cool.On the airplane ride over some of the boys did not know how to eat the food that was givin to them. This one boy ate just plain butter becuase he did not know what it was. When they got to America they were given apartments to live in  and showed how to work things. They were showed how a fridge works, and how to wash dishes and their hands. Throughout this time for them many of them are happy but sad. They are happy they have been given this oppurtunity but sad that not all of their friends and family could go with them. Alot of them want to work hard, so they can be successful in America and then go and help out in Sudan.I enjoy watching this movie and hope that all of the boys will find jobs and be succesful in America.

Reviewed Test

Today we got our first test back. This test will be in our first midquarter grade. When we got back the test we went around the room and said the answers to all the problems. We did this so that everyone knew the answers to the problems they got wrong. Mr. Schick said that some of these questions might be on the final, so we need to save this paper. If we lose this paper we might not be able to study all the information that we need to know for the final. We also got chocolate chip cookies that were very yummy. After we disscussed our test we only had about five minutes of class left. We used this time to watch more of the movie, God Grew Tired of Us. We are at the part were some of the boys are leaving to go to America. This is a great oppurtunity for them becuase it offers them a better life. They can get jobs and be succesful in America.

Test/ God Grew Tired of Us

Today we came in and took our first test in Human Geo.I tried to prepare myself for this,so I think I did well on it.We had a two mod class today, so we used the ifrst mod to take the test andthe second mod to watch a movie. The move was called God Grew Tired of Us.  This movie was about the civial war of Sudan that started in 1983. In the movie it expolained that Sudan there was tension between the Muslims and Christians. The Muslims ruled the goverment and the north of sudan. They decided to take over all of sudan and kick out the Christians. The goverment of Sudan annonced that that all men in the south were to be killed. About 27,000 young men between the ages of ten and five fled SUdan. They are known as the lost boys. The lost boys faced many hardships to finally reach a settlement camp that they live din for about ten years. The United States took some of the refuges and gave them homes in America. Not everyone was so lucky and some of them are still at the settlement camps.

Presenting Projects

We were suppose to have a test today, but it was postponed until monday. It was postponed becuase we had not finished our presentations yet. Today in class India finished sharing their presentation.  I learned that India is a very populated country. Then Indonesia shared presented their project. One interesting thing I learned about that country is that there flag is just red and white. Red on a flag usally means blood, which means that a country fought war to win their independence. White on a flag usally means purity. We only had about five minutes left of class, but my group still presented our project before the bell rang. We did the USA, which was fun becuase I learned facts about were I lived. It  was more interesting to learn about were I live instead of another country that I do not know.  I think it is important to know about the goverment and economy of the place that you live.

Class Projects

Our class projects are going very well so far. Two groups presented in class today, Italy and Nigeria. they both did really well at presenting facts to the class. I like how Nigeria's presentation was colorful and used a picture of the flag as the background. We learned that Italy is a developed country, which means it can take care of its population. Nigeria is a developing country, which means it can still not take care of all of its population.   The people presenting India started to share some information about there topic, but then the bell rang and they did not get to finish. They will probally finish sharing there  presentation on friday.On Friday my group will share our presentation of the USA. I think that we have alot of good information that will help show the class that the USA is a develpoed country.

Class Groups

 Today in class we were divided into groups. There where five groups with four people in each group. I was in group one with Nick,Daniel, and Maddie. All of the groups were assigned a country to research.  My group is doing the United States of America.We had to research the information that we learned yesterday about the countries. Yesterday we learned the vocab words that we used for todays class. For each group there is one person who is in charge of setting up the powerpoint for our coutry. In my group it is Daniel. The rest of us research the information that we need to put on the powerpoint and emial it to Daniel.I think my group's powerpoint will turn out well.

PowerPoint

We discussed population and settlement today by using a powerpoint. Each powerpoint slide had many facts that we need to know for the test.  The first slide talked about the population in general, like the total population of the planet. The second slide showed us a chart of how the population has gone from one billion to seven billion people. The third slide talked to us about life expectancy, which is the aveage number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. The fourth slide was about measuring population. On that slide we learned the following words that we need to know for the test,crude birth rate, crude death rate, and the rate of natural increase. Net migration rate was on the fifth slide, this is the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a year.  If a country has an excess persons entering the country it is net immigration, and if a country has an excess persons leaving the country it is net emigration. People migrate becuase of push and pull forces. The last slide  was about the total  fertility rate is the average nember of children born per woman. If the population is 2.1 per woman then the population stays the same. I think the powerpoint notes will help me be more prepared for the test.

Today in Class..

In the event of an emergency our school needs to know what we should do. We talked about how we cannot panic and, we would need to stay calm.  We have a practice evaluation today at 12:15, so we learned that we should go with our class to the closest section.  If you have a free mod then you would go to the section closest to you or follow the class that you see. If you are in the cafeteria you would go the teacher’s parking lot. The three sections to go to are the teacher’s parking lot  ,stadium, and the girls varsity field. Some people's blogs are not working, so we talked about how blogger.com is working on fixing the problem. We also talked about the video that we watched the day before. Mr.Shick wanted to let the students talk more today in class and let us lead the discussion. We disscused which facts were our favorite.

Did you Know?

We discussed the questions that we did not finish yesterday in class.  We talked about how in other parts of the world people do not live like we do. Other people in different parts of the world do not think like we do, this is not a bad things but some people are not as educated as us. Mr. Schick also told us a story about when he first used a cell phone. It was very funny how big cell phones use to be. Everyone use to get excited over having or using a cell phone but now no one gets excited becuase everyone owns a cell phone. Did you Know is a very interesting video that we watched in class today. This was my favorite part of the whole class becuase I loved all the interesting facts. My favorite fact that I learned is that by 2013 a computer will be built that is smarter then the human brain. This fact amazes me becuase that is only next year. Since today I heard about a story were someone used a cell phone for the first time it amazes me how much technology has changed in such a short time.  The fact that China will one day become the number one english speaking counrty seems kind of weird to me. That all of those poeple living in China will learn English. Maybe alot of Americans will emigrate to China and that is why  there will be so much use of the english language their. I loved learning all those interseting facts.

9/11

Nine Eleven is a very sad day for our country. We talked about this day for a little while in class.  It was brought up becuase we were disscussing our questions from homework last night.  The day the twin towers went down was very sad. I was only in pre-school, so I did not know what was going on. Everyone around me was very sad for the loss of people's lives. My uncle worked in those building, so my mother was trying to call into New York to see if he was okay. Thankfully, he was fine. This summer my family went to new york city and went to see the nine eleven memorial site. It was very pretty, and it had the two waterfalls were the towers use to stand. Around the waterfalls their are names ingraved into it of everyone who died. Today in class we also went over our questions we had to do for homeowork last night. I like last nights homework becuase  I learned alot of intersesting information that I did not know before. Using the CIA World Factbook is a very useful thing. I am happy we learned how to use it yesterday. we also got smarties today!  Smarties are one of my favorite candies.

CIA Factbook

Questions:
1.Population of the United States:313,847,465
2.Five largest countries in the world by population: China,India,United States,Indonesia, and Brazil
3.Population of Pakistan:190,291,129
4.Kind of government that the United States has:Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
5.unemployment rate in Zimbabwe: 95%
6.largest country in the world by area: Russia
7.Country with the third greatest number of airports: Mexico
8.Country with the greatest number of exports: China
9.Country that exports more oil than any other country: Suadi Araba
10.Country that imports more oil than any other: United States
11. Country that consumes more oil then any other: United States
12. Can woman serve combat roles in China's military: Yes
13.GDP= value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year.
14. country with the highest GDp per capoita in the world and how much is it:Liechtenstien and 141,00
15.  Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita: no
16. most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent: Africa
17.11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/ AIDS can be found in which continent: Africa
18. what other country is in the top ten: India
19. where does the US rank in HIV/ AIDS deaths: 18
20. Is the US #1 in the number of cell phones:no
21. What percentage of the US is roman catholic: 23.9%
22. percentage of mexico that is roman catholic:76.5%
23. Net Migration rate: the figure for the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons
24. does the US have the highest net migration rate in the world: no
25. what is the current population of the entire planet:7,021,836,029

The two most important questions in my opinion are the current population of the entire world and what kind of government the United States has. I think that knowing the population of the world is a good thing becuase we should know that our planet is very big and has alot of people. I think knowing the type of government the United States has is important for us to know. Knowing what kind of system is running where you live is an important thing. You should know who is making the rules and decisions that you live with everyday.

Note Taking

Taking notes is a very good skill to have and will help you later on in life. We learned that note taking can help you get better grades in classes. In college the classes have many more students then we do. Sometimes they can have up to four hundred kids in the class. The teacher sometimes never stops, and you can never asks questions. You just have to sit their in your seat the whole class and make sure you get all of the information becuase you might need it for a test or quiz. When Mr. Schick went to college he said you could buy notes off of other people. I think that would be very fun to do becuase then you could focus on learning the information and not just worrying about getting all of the notes down. When you are taking notes you need to write in fragments and not in complete sentences. If you write in complete sentences then it will take you to long to write down the information, and you could miss something that the teacher says next. I hope I can impove in my note taking skills over the course of my highschool career.

Websites

Today In class we talked about which websites are good to get information off of and which ones are not. Wikipedia can be a good source but also a bad source. Some teachers do not like it when students use it, but Mr. Schick does not mind it. He explained to us that yes people can change it but that it gets checked, and it is very hard for someone to write something totally false and it to go undetected. I also learned that at the bottom of a Wikipedia page their are websites of where the author got their information from. When I need to write a research paper I know that I can not use Wikipidia, but I could use the sources listed at the bottom to help me obtain more information. When I am doing research I need to be careful of where I am getting my information. If I am not sure if the website I am on has real information I could look up the author of the website and see if that person actually knows the things they are writing about. I need to always make sure I am using a reliable source when I am researching information for any of my classes.

Essay #3

I think excellency is a great goal to strive for at John Carroll. To achieve this goal I need to have a plan that I will use everyday at school.  My  first step in my plan is my homework. I need to make sure all of my assignments are turned in on time. They also all have to be done to the best of my ability. The second step is my bed time. This may sound like a not very important thing, but it is. I need to make sure I have  enough sleep so I have enough energy to stay focused all day. The third step to my plan is to take good notes in class and pay attention. If I learn most of my information in class by paying attention I will have less studying to do when the test on that information is annuonced.  The fourth step is to not put things off until the last minute like studying for big tests. I sometimes only study the night before, and I need to learn to start preparing for big texts like a week before I have to take them. The last step in my plan is to have fun and be involved in extra activities. i am already a part of the soccer team, which is so much fun! Once soccer is over I would like to see what other activies this school offers  and hopefully join some of them. I hope by doing all of these things my highschool years will be fun, and hopefully I will learn alot of new things.

Essay #2

If Socrates and Elbert Hubbard time traveled to the present I think they would have mixed opinions about how we live our lives. I think Socrates would be proud of how people share their opinions more. I think he would like that in the United States of Amercia we have freedom of speech. He would also like that people express their beliefs and their different religions openly. I think Ebert Hubbard would be impressed with certian parts of the present. He would like all of the technology we have created becuase it took some very intelligent, determined,and hardworking people to create these things that we use in our everyday lives now. Mr. Hubbard would also be  disappointed in us. Some people our society us these new technologys to not work as hard as they could be. Sometimes people do not try their hardest and become azy. I think overall they would both be very proud of us and the things we have accomplished, but they would remind us that we always need to work our hardest and to always do ur best in everything we do.

Essay #1

Arete in the ancient Greek time ment courage and strengh.  It means that you try your hardest at something that you believe in and you never give up.  The ancient Greeks are a great example of this. At the time peroid that they lived in all countries were run by dictatorship. The Greeks thought that this was not a good way to rule a country and that the citizens should have more of a say in how the government was run. The Greeks revolted against their leaders and took over the counrty and set up the very first demorcracy. It must have taken alot of courage to stand up to the leaders that have alwasy run their coutry. Another example of arete is Socrates. He was an ancient Greek philospher that taught the people of his time to think a different way. He made people defend what they were thinking and come up with reasons of why they thought the way they did. He showed courage and strengh when he was charged with disrupting the youth of Athens and disrisptecting the gods and was taken to trail. Socrates could have just said sorry when he was at trail, and they would have let him go. He never said he was sorry, and he stood up for what he believed in which took alot of courage and strengh.

Today in class..

Today  in class we talked about the definition homework. I did not do it becuase I thought that becuase we did not have class on thursday it was for the other classes. Now I know that I need to make sure I read the whole blog post to make sure I complete all of my homework. Since we went over it in class I took notes to help me with my definitons that I have to do over the weekend. Today was friday so it was officialy the last class of the first week of school. So far class has been fun and exciting. I am excited for more human geo class.

Vocab Words/ Late assignment

Arete= in the greek time meant courage and strengh.
Polis= literally means "city" in Greek. Polis is also the name of the Greek city states.
Socrates= was a classical greek philosopher that insisted people think about why they were thinking a certian way
The Death of Socrates= Socrates as charged with disrespecting the gods and disrupting the youth of athens and was sent to prison. Then he went to trail and did not say he was sorry. He wa sthen sentenced to death by drinking poison.
Socratic Method= method of asking questions and making people defend what they think.
The Date 508 BC= This is the year that the greeks first revolted against their leaders.
Agora= a public square were people voted.
When the greeks called someone an idiot it meant that the person did not vote and that person was not doing their duty to Athens