12/12/12

Today's class was really fun! We listened to 4  presentations and all of them were really good. Some of them were really well presented and really held my attention. Some of the presenters, especially Ben, were really enthusiastic and they really made the power point a lot more interesting than it originally was. I didn't present today but my group will tomorrow Hopefully the class and Mr. Schick will think we did a good job. We tried to be different and take a different approach so our power point would be more unique compared to other so hopefully people will like it. I guess we will just have to see what happens! Our grade is in the classes and Mr. Schick's hands. -_-

12/7/12

Today in human geo Mr Schick gave us a project to do over the next couple of days. We broke into groups of 4 and I was put in a group with Madison, Melissa, Eleanor, and Savannah.Our group is doing pro-USA. We each assigned our selves a shoe company and we each have our own slide to design and put information on. I picked the company TOMS. Since we just started today I don't have a lot but I have a feeling we will do well. I found the head quarters for the TOMS website and it has a lot of information so I think it's safe to say I should be able to get my work done with out it being too hard.

12/6/12

Today in class, which I am in right now, we continued watching the video "The People's Republic of China". We had a sub, so we had to use someone else’s computer to watch the video on. First we used Darian's computer and a lot of ads kept popping up so we ended up just using mine. We learned a lot about the car companies and how they are progressing in China. They said in the video that Chinese cars were coming over to the US in the next year and a half but keep in mind this video was made in 2008 so they should have been here in 2009. But they aren't. They weren't successful for business reasons and safety reasons. Chinese cars would also have a bad effect on the American car industry business wise and Chinese cars aren't as luxurious as American cars.

Terms to know

Capitalism- an economic system by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.

Communism- a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless and stateless social order structured upon common ownership a theory advocating elimination of private property. A system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed.

Free Market- an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition.

Free enterprise- freedom of private business to organize and operate for profit in a competitive system  without interference by government beyond regulation necessary to protect public interest and keep the national economy in balance.

11/30/12

Today in human geography we continued to watch the video about Chinese economy. It told a lot of stories on several families/people. There was this one woman who was miserable in her marriage and planned to divorce her drunken husband after her daughter pursued the rest of her education and graduated college. She was an EXTREMELY hard worker and carried about 120 pounds of produce on her back. Her pay was about 3 dollars a day. Then there was another family who was rich. They bought only the highest quality of furniture and technology and they bought a sofa that had literally traveled around the world. There was also another family who was a family of four in Maryland. The father had returned back to China to start a company for a cheaper price than it would have been in MD. His company worked on making a cure for AIDS. We left off on learning about the "Bang Bang Man" and the difference of the Walmart in China verses the Walmart in America.

11/28/12

Today in human geo we continued watching the video on China and it's economy. I learned a lot of stuff that I would of never imagined would be possible that is just terrible. Like for example women who do hard labor almost all day, only get payed 1-2 dollars...A DAY. This one family only had 600 collected from working all year. 600 dollars...between the mother AND the father. FOR THE WHOLE YEAR. That's just crazy. And the men that worked labor all day only got payed 3-4 dollars a day. It was so irrational and sad. In the video the woman who was working with heavy labor and dangerous things had her daughter with her, and her daughter was helping with the dangerous job, because she probably couldn't afford day care. It is so sad. We also saw how this company had to shut down because the same company was in China and the Chinese company was doing better, and the original company in Missouri had to completely shut down and over 600 workers ended up losing their jobs. Some of them were close to their 70's for crying out loud! It is absolutely crazy.

hmmm

Working now!

11/ 15/12

Today we had our double mod period, which is SO long. Today it didn't feel as long as some of the other double mods in human geo but it was still pretty long. We went over over our homework, which was to answer a couple questions about a country that you and your partner assigned to each other, and we went over what we really need to know for the quiz on Monday. It was a pretty interesting class, and I was especially interested in a story that Mr. Schick was telling us about his friend that was Iranian. She and her family had been forced out from power in the Iran government and she was homeless for about a week until they moved to Oregon. I thought it was very interesting. Mr. Schick said she always had a back packed just in case it was safe to come back to Iran.

France

Declared Independence on July 14th, 1789.

The steps of France's independence were: Frankish tribes unified under the Merovingian Kingship, Western Francia established from the division of the Carolingian Empire, the French Monarchy was overthrown, the first French Republic was founded, and the Fifth French Revolution was founded. Mainly France was ALWAYS an independent country.

Brazil

Declared Independence on September 7th, 1822.


Brazil used to be attached to Portugal. After the Treaty of Tordesillas, which settled the disputes between Spain and Portugal land wise, gave Brazil its independence.

Afghanistan

Declared independence on August 19th, 1919.

Afghanistan used to be thought of as a "buffer state" between the British and the Russian empires. The International Security Assistance formed in Afghanistan to support an independent government for them. Afghanistan was kind of all over the place beforehand. There were Soviet Union and United States influences in Afghanistan.

11/12/12

Happy Monday! Today in class we went over the quiz we took last week. I received a much better grade than I expected. I got a B! I was so relieved I didn't fail it or anything. Mr. Schick interrogated Alex by having him repeat over and over "Achmidinijad". I probably did not just spell that right...well after that Mr. Schick told us about an upcoming 500 word essay on 2 countries of our choice. I am not very excited for that. I usually like to write essays but this particular subject does not interest me. In the middle of class there was a mini freak out because there was a stinkbug but Moh saved the day and threw it out the window.
P.S. - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE AND WILL!

11/9/12

Today in class, which I am in right now, we had a pop quiz. I don't think I did that great but I am greatful that Mr. Schick gave us the privilege of using our blog as an aid. A lot of what I had really helped me in the quiz and I was happy I thought it was important enough to write down so I had it for the quiz. Before the pop quiz Mr. Schick gave us about 10 minutes to study. I ran upstairs to the second floor and grabbed my quiz that we took a couple of days ago and I used it to study. It turned out that the front of the quix was the exact same thing as the front of the quiz I was about to take. I used my 10 minutes study time to quiz Savannah King. It was fun...I guess. Well hopefully I did better than I think!

World Leaders

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz (Prime Minister and king of Saudi Arabia)
> He has proved himself a good leader and an adjustable person because of all the titles he holds, such as: deputy of defense, king, prime minister, mayor of Mecca, commander of the Saudi Arabian National Gaurd, and many more leadership titles.
> He is good with money and balancing it within the government.

President Hugo Chávez(President of Venezuela)
> Has became apart of the olivarian Revolution and gained political skill.
> He was born into a working-class family so he grew up in politics and business.

President Dilma Roussef (President of Brazil)
> Suffered through hardship(getting tortured in prison) that made her into the strong person she is today.
> A good pragmatic deal maker.

President François Hollande (President of France)
> Is good with socialism (which is the government of France right now)
> He is one of the first presidents who do not have prior experience as a minister or Junior Misister so he is bringing something new to the France government.

President Enrigue Peña Nieto (President of Mexico)
> He is bringing back a political party that has worked for Mexico for over 71 consecutive years.
> He has had experience as a governor.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany)
> She has stepped up to be the first woman Chancellor of Germany.
> She has held countless leadership roles in government and it has made her confident and politically smart.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister of Irael)
> Has held office once before.
> Is good at keeping peace with adversary countries.

Mahmoud Ahmadineiad (President of Iran)
> He was re-elected so he has an extra 4 years of presidential experience under his belt.
> He has an ultra-conservative side that can be vital in moments of his presidency.

Hu Jintao (President of the People's Republic of China)
> He was re-elected so he has experience and has learned from his early mmistakes as the president.
>He has made corruption a mandatory problem to work on.

President Hamad Karzai (President of Afghanistan)
> Attains a Masters deegree.
> He helped negotiate the defection of 500 of Dr. Najib's forces.

President Pranab Mukherjee (President of India)
> Has been a central figure in Indian politics for 4 decades.
> Is indeispensabl in India's coalition government.

Prime Minister David Cameron (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom)
> Has a quality education ever since grade school and was thought to be a kid progiy in academics.
> He sought to modernize the government of the UNited Kingdom and people were ready for change.

Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of England)
> She has conferred over 387,700 honours and awards.
> The Queen is a patron of more than 620 charities and organizations.

President Barack Obama (President of the United States)
> was re-elected. He won by 300 more electorial votes than his oppenent.
> was a lawyer, so he strongly believes in justice.

11/2/12

Mr. Schick finally came back! It had been like two whole days...way too long. He said he had (and still had) a sore throat and he just overall didn't feel well. He handed our tests back and we talked a lot about the midterms and the change from 1st quarter to 2nd quarter. There was a shadow in the class named Will I think. For most of the class we went over the assignment we had about the world leaders. We were given a country and the responsibility to research the leader, a picture of the leader, and the type of government. After that we kind of just chatted about more little stuff and Mr. Schick decided to have us change seats on Monday. I hope I sit next to Savannah King.

Saudi Arabia

 Saudi Arabia

Islamic State

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz (King AND prime misister)

Venezuela

Venezuela

Federal Presidential Republic

President Hugo Chávez

Brazil

Brazil
Democratic Republic
Dilma Rousseff

France

France

Semi-presidential system

President François Hollande

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Constitutional monarchy

Prime minister David Cameron

Germany

Germany

Federal parliamentary republic

Chancelor Angela Merkel

Israel

Israel

Multi-party parliamentary system

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Iran

Iran

Theocracy

President Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad

Afganistan

Afganistan
Presidential system, Islamic Republic
President Hamid Karzai

India

India
Democratic Republic
President Pranab Mukherjee

China

China
Single-party republic
President Hu Jintao

Mexico

 
 Mexico

Constitution-based federal republic

President Enrique Peña Nieto

Things to know

What was the landbridge the Native Americans crosses? The Beringian Landbridge
What does nervana mean? The highest happiness
How many poeple do not have any religous claim at all? 1 billion
Did Colombus discover America?  No people already lived there
What language does Brasil speak? Portugese
When did Christopher Columbus arrive? 1492
Is Buddhism monotheistic or polytheistic? Neither because they have no god.
How do Muslims pray(specifically)? They pray 5 times a day in the direction of Mecha, which is the birthplace of Muahmmed
What is the holy book of Judaism? The Talem and the Torah
Does the Islam relgion have a holy book? Yes. The Koran.
What is the oldest monotheistic religion? Judaism
What is teh oldest relgion? Hindusim
What is the holy city of Islam? Hajj

10/19/12

Today in class we were given the assignment of making up 5 questions that could possibly be put on the test. Mr. Schick said there is a chance that he might take some of them so everyone needs to really try with the assignment. So here are my five questions:
1.) What part of America did the Vikings first come to?
Answer: Canada
2.)What are the 3 main characteristics that either link or divide a country?
Answer: Language, Region, and Ethnic Heritage.
3.) How many world religions are there? Name them.
Answer: 5. Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism.
4.) What religion is most followed?
Answer: Christianity
5.)What religious followers prays five times a day?
Answer: Islam

10/18/12

Today in human geography we talked about four of the five main religion. We talked about Buddhism, Hinduism and we started to talk about Judaism. Buddhism is a very interesting religion. Buddhism does not have a so called god but they worship the leader that discovered the religion of Buddhism. You will recognize the founder in the statues and models of Buddhas. Buddhists believe in happiness in the highest form. We also went over Hinduism. Hindus have several gods. They do not have one specific god. We also started talking about Judaism. We didn't cover that much of Judaism but we covered enough for us to know that it is a very strict religion. The other religion we went over was Islam. Muslims have to pray 5 times a day and they always have to face towards what they call their holy place. I would say they have the strictest religion. Overall it is very interesting to learn about all of the religions.

10/15/12

Today in human geography we continued to study the PowerPoint that we began last class. We covered ethnic heritage and religion. We talked about they hold a country together or pull them apart. Ethnic heritage can pull people apart like you wouldn't believe. One thing that is different about a person can change the way someone looks at them. It is the definition of ridiculous. Religion can also be a main factor that pulls people apart in a country, but it is also a strong bond that holds us together. There are 5 main religions in the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. There are certain religions that specifically do not get along. For example Islam and Christianity are two very opposite religions that have a lot of opposing views.  But religion can also bring people together. There are churches or synagogues that make you feel a part of a community. There are funerals that bring people together and bring closure to their family members, friends, or acquaintances. Usually a country has a high population of one specific religion so in most countries is usually isn’t a problem.

10/12/12

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism are all major religions. All these religions were founded in different places. Christianity was founded in Palestine around 30 AD; Islam was founded in Saudi Arabia in the year 590, Buddhism was founded in India in the 5^th century (BC), Hinduism was also founded in India in 2000 BC, and Judaism was founded in Canaan in 2000 BC. Most of the religions are monotheistic. Judaism, Christianity, and the Islam religion are all monotheistic. The only religion that is polytheistic is Hinduism. All that leaves is Buddhism. Buddhism is surprisingly neither monotheistic NOR polytheistic because they haves more than one god. Most of these religions use some kind of book as a form to worship their God or gods. Christianity uses the Bible, Judaism uses the Torah, Hinduism uses the Bhagavad- Gita, Islam uses the Holy Qur’an, and Buddhism does not use a holy book.  Each religions has a lot of followers. Judaism has 14,000,000 followers, Christianity has 2,100,000,000 followers, Buddhism has 350,000,000 followers, Islam has 2,000,000,000 followers and Hinduism has 1,000,000,000 followers. Each religion has a central figure history. Christian’s central figure is Jesus, Muslims central figure Mohamed, Buddhists central figure is the Buddha, Hindu’s have several gods, Judaism’s central figures are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel. They also all have geographical concentrations. Christianity’s is predominant in the Western World (North America, Europe and Oceania), Islam’s is Middle East, Northern Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Western Africa, Indian subcontinent, Malay Archipelago with large population centers existing in Eastern Africa, Balkan Peninsula, Russia and China, Buddhism’s is Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, East Asia, Indochina, regions of Russia and The Netherlands, Hinduism’s Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad, Mauritius, Suriname, Bali, Australasia, Northern America ,United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Malaysia, Switzerland, and Judaism’s is Israel, and small pockets of North and South America, Europe and Asia. Overall each religion is widely ranged in the interest of their followers.  

10/11/12

In human geo today, the Christopher Columbus group finished their power point on Columbus.  There was only about 3 or 4 slides left but it was a really good presentation altogether. I jotted down more notes in addition to my notes from yesterday. After that group finished up Mr. Schick started to present his own presentation on what we are now learning, as of today, about. We learned about why language was important to a country. For example, people is Germany have to speak German to communicate to each other to get things done and to generally work together. We started to learn about ethnic heritage but the class ended before I could write any notes on it. It was a very long class period though because it was a double mod but the time always flies but in human geography so I didn’t mind.

10/10/12

Today in human geography we presented our power point on Native Americans. We explained when they came to the Americas (about 14,000 years ago), how they got there, and a lot of other things. The other two groups also presented. The other two groups were Vikings and Christopher Columbus. Something I never realized until the recent presentation on Columbus is how horrible of a person he was. He was someone I learned about as I grew up and someone that everybody knows the name of but there is a lot more to his story. First of all he did not discover America. People were already living there, he just brought more people there to make profit off of the country. It also talked about how he actually cut off the hands of the natives and he enslaved people to do his work for him and he even raped women. I realize what a horrible person he is and how undeserving he is to be so famous in history. The only word that comes to my mind when I think of his story now is: disgusting. We are going to hear the rest of the presentation tomorrow, so I am very interested to hear the rest.

10/8/12

Today in human geo we were separated into 3 groups of 9. Each group was given a topic to do assigned questions on. The 3 topics were Native Americans, Viking, and Columbus. I wanted to be in the vikings group but there were already too many people so I settled with my second choice, Native Americans. I did my question that I was assigned as a group (number 1: When did your group first arrive in America?) I found the answer but the link I was emailed to post the answer isn't working so I will have to fix that problem in school tomorrow. Besides our assignment, a new addition of our class was added today. Michael!!! And he sits right next to me, so that made my day. We don't have class tomorrow so the next time blogger will see me is on Wednesday. Bye for now.

10/5/12

Today in human geo we took our 100 point test on the video documentary God Grew Tired Of Us. I think I did really well personally. Carly Lyon had a shadow and the shadow read off the answers after everyone had turned in their tests. After hearing the answers and comparing to them to what I remember putting I feel pretty confident in my answers. Hopefully I will receive a good grade. I am already eager to get the test back even though I handed it in less than 5 minutes ago. After we finished the test Taylor Sommer was called down to the office, according to Mr. Schick she was invited to a party by Mr. Ireton, but I think he just had some news for her or something. We all talked for a little bit at the end of class and then we were dismissed to my our last mod of the day, in my case it was an off mod. 

10/4/12

Today in human geography we went over the links to charities that we found. We found a lot. We found out that Toms, which is a shoe company, donates shoes to a child every time someone buys a pair of toms. We also found a website that helps kids that were born disfigured. The website gives money to kids who need surgery to fix the disfigured part of their lip. We also had a discussion on what we can do to help Sudan. I had the suggestion of making gel bracelets with some kind of saying on it to raise awareness. Tomorrow we have a 100 point test on the video God Grew Tired Of Us. I'm pretty confident about the test. It seemed like everyone paid really close attention to the video so I have a feeling we will all do pretty well.   

10/3/12

Today in human geography we did a group project. We were connected to a link that brought us to a website that we all could submit information too at the same time. You could write a sentence and every student had the power to edit the sentence or erase it so we were given a huge responsibility. Mr. Schick said he trusted us not to edit the words or delete anything. Most of us were not doing anything but there were a couple unnamed people that were messing with the sentences and messing with what people have written. At the end of class our group found a link to a charity that supports the people in Africa. We could not write it on the page Mr. Schick gave us because he had to disconnect us from the website because of the select view that were messing with the page. Over all it was an eventful day for my personal group. 

10/1/2012

Today in human geography we continued to watch the inspiring video, God Grew Tired Of Us. I realize now that I judged the title wrongly. When I first heard the title I thought of people who had suffered majorly and lost their faith in God forever. But I realize now that God is more important to them now, than before the  war even happened. John Bul Dau felt like at the time that God had grew tired of his people and forgot about them, but now he has an even stronger faith than before. In the video John saved up enough money to bring his mother to America to meet her. John was made secretary of the Lost Boys organization, and he opened a medical hospital in his homeland. Panther opened a school in his homeland and graduated school and he found his brother. Daniel sadly did not find any of his family but is still taking school classes and working. Over all the video was inspiring and I think we should raise awareness of the crimes in Sudan by having fundraisers or having John himself come and speak to us. We could also use the money from the fundraisers to make gel bracelets saying something like " Sudan-the war ends now" or something like that. Each kid at John Carroll could be given at least 3 and he/she could give them to their friends and family members.

9/28/12

Class on Friday was very interesting. In the beginning of class we waited for Mr. Schick to come in but after what seemed like about 5 minutes we all decided to wonder where he was. Some people were saying maybe it was a test to see if someone was going to call or we were just going to shut off the lights and sit in the room quietly to avoid class, some people were saying he probably wasn't back from his field trip yet, and some people were saying he wasn't teaching today and we had a substitute who probably got lost. So after about 5 minutes Mo suggested calling the office and I asked her if I could do it and she let me. So I talked to the nice lady on the phone and told her what was happening and she said, " Mr. Schick is on his way." So after another 3 minutes Mr. Schick finally came and we watched more of God Grew Tired Of Us. It showed the 3 main characters and how they were adjusting in America after a whole year. Joe ended up finding his family was alive and he decided not to spend his money on school, but to use his money to help them.

9/27/12

Today all class we watched God Grew Tired Of Us. It is such a good movie. The video part we watched was about how the United States government picked a bunch of the Lost Boys and relocated them to America. The first part of it followed Panther and Daniel. They were relocated in Pittsburg PA. The video follows them and a group of other people and their new understanding of America.  They go to the super market with no understanding what so ever what most of the food is and how to cook it or anything. They are then assigned to their 4 person apartment and are introduced to all the machinery      (blenders, toilets, alarm clock, refrigerators…etc.). After seeing them get settled in Pittsburgh the video follows John. John is relocated in New York and he also is new and inexperienced with the food and the machinery. As he is talking to the camera the mystery of why the video is called God Grew Tired Of Us. John explains how he felt that after he and his people were ran out of Sudan by the Muslims that he felt God just grew tired of them and forgot about them. Overall the video was amazing and inspiring and the same time it was sad and heart breaking.

9/26/12

Today in human geography we reviewed the test that we took on Monday. We debated if certain answers could be accepted and realized what we did wrong on our wrong answers. We went over the test because Mr. Schick said we need to know it in the future for exams (midterms).  Someone in our class was shadowing a student from another school who was looking at John Carroll as their possible future high school. A little bit into the class people wouldn’t stop talking and it got to the point where Mr. Schick had to walk out of the room until we quieted down.  When he came back we finished going over the test and then we started to watch God Grew Tired Of Us again. We only watched for about less than 10 minutes because our mod ended and we had to go to our next class. 

9/24/12

Today in human geography we took our first test. It was worth 100 points and I thought it was fairly easy except for this one sections about Nigeria, India, Italy, and the United States. Most of it was multiple choice so that was a bonus too. After we finished the test we started to watch a video documentary called God Grew Tired Of Us. It was a really sad film about how the war in Sudan affected people’s lives. Thousands of people died. Kids werelocked into a house and the house was set on fire. The documentary followed “the Lost Boys” I their journey to find safety. They traveled to Ethiopia and for about 3 years they had safety until a new government power came to power and kicked the Sudan refugees out. They then had to travel to Kikawa Kenya (or at least I think that is where they went). There was a camp in Kenya that was created by the United Nations. The Sudan refugees still live there and they are creating a new culture.

9/21/12

In human geography on Friday our group presented our power point on Brazil.  We accidently forgot to put Eleanor’s real last name and put “Eleanor Butt face” instead. Mr. Schick and our group had a miniature debate on if Brazil was a developed or developing country. We ended up finding evidence on why Brazil was a developing country and we “stumped the teacher”. Well actually not really but you could say we did. Besides our power point there were 2 other power points that were pretty interesting.  Besides widening my knowledge on Brazil I also had a lot of fun with everyone on the group (Eleanor, Olivia, and Savannah). I learned a lot from this assignment and I’m looking forward to doing another assignment like this, hopefully with the same group. 

9/20/12

Today in human geography I didn't actually present my own power point, but I watched about 3 and a half power points. The power point that interested me the most was the power point about Nigeria. Just a couple facts that stuck in my head were was Nigeria was a developed nation and it has a 10.22 net migration rate. I always thought of Nigeria to be a developing country. It definitely surprised me and proved me wrong. There was also a power point about Indonesia, which was pretty entertaining because of the people that presented it.  They were a little disorganized but it all in all a good presentation. The last power point was cut off by the bell and the people who were presenting it didn’t get to finish it. Tomorrow my group is probably going to present. 

9/19/12

Today in class we were put into groups and were each assigned a country. I was put into a group with Savannah, Eleanor and Olivia. Our group is the best ever!

9/17/12

Today is Monday, which is supposed to be the worst day of the week, but human geography brightened up my day. The lesson whizzed by as we went through a power point and were told we were going to have a test on either Thursday or Friday. We learned a lot through the power point that Mr. Schick made. Something that really interested me was the fact that women tended to live longer than men. The reason behind this is men tend to take on more dangerous jobs, such as: firefighting, coal mining, joining the military. There are also small factors that tie into the topic because health is also a problem for men. Men tend to have more heart problems than woman. Another big topic we talked about was how the population of the planet is growing and the life expectancy now-a-days. The population of the world now is 7 billion people, and by the time I am in my 40’s the population will most likely be in the 10 billions. And in 2003 the life expectancy was thought to be in the 60’s. Now in 2012 the life expectancy is thought to be in the 70’s. Summing it all up we learned a lot this class period.

9/14/12

In human geography today we talked as a class the whole time. Everybody gave their opinions and asked questions about a video we had watched the previous class. We talked about the facts in the video that stood out to us. For example, there are more honors students in India than there even are students in America. Some of us gave our opinion on the fact and we all dissected the statement and discussed it more deeply. It really shows how huge India’s population is, especially compared to America’s population. Another thing we talked about is the fact that 1 out of every 8 couples get married after meeting online. I would never go on an online dating sight because first of all, people lie all the time about their physical appearance, there financial situation(they can say they are rich), and everything you could possibly lie about. Over all we had a really successful class and I ended up having a lot of fun.

9/13/12

Today in human geography we had some technical difficulties in the beginning of class. Most of everyone’s blogs weren’t working because they were either removed from the website or they needed a verification to continue blogging.  We talked more about the questions we did 2 nights ago for homework, and for some reason we talked a lot about if men could be pregnant. Madison kindly enlightened us that it was impossible for a man to have a baby because if they went into birth it would break their ribs…anyway we ended to class watching a video. I found 2 facts especially interesting, the fact that there are more honor students in India than there are students in the US. I also was found it very interesting that if Facebook was a country it would be the third biggest in the whole world (behind India and Japan). It was a very “interesting” lesson. 

9/12/12

Today in class we went over some of the questions we did for homework and deeply discussed them. It was really interesting to go more into our answers as a class and discuss the questions more deeply. I’ve always known that we have it better than a lot of other countries but I never realized how much. Even the things that we take as a negative, other countries have it way worse. A good example is how much our gas is here. In America we charge about 3 dollars per gallon and in all in ends up being about 40 to 70 dollars. But in other countries, such a Europe, they charge per liter. So it is probably triple the amount than our every-day gas prices. I really liked learning about the differences between the countries and I’m looking forward to continuing our lesson on them tomorrow.

Most interesting questions

I thought the most interesting questions were "What country has the greatest amounts of exports? (China)" because it shows how much a lot of countries depend on China for resources, and 
 "What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? (Liechtenstein 141,000$)" because it shows how important Liechtenstein is.

CIA Factbook Questions

What is the population of the United States? 313, 847, 465

What are the five largest countries in the world, by population? China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil

What is the population of Pakistan? 190,291,129

What kind of government does the United States have? Constitution-based federal republic

What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe? 24.9%

What is the largest country in the world by area? Russia

What country has the third greatest number of airports? Mexico

What country has the greatest number of exports? China
What country exports more oil than any other? Saudi Arabia
What country imports more oil than any other? United States
What country consumes more oil than any other? United States
Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military? Yes
What is GDP? Gross domestic product ( the value of all the final goods and services produced in a nation over a year.
What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? Liechtenstein 141,000$
Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita? No
Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent? Africa
11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent? Africa
What other country is in the top ten? Asia
Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths? 18
Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones? No, it is 3rd
What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic? 23.9%
What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic? 76.6%
What is Net Migration Rate? Difference of immigrants of an area at a period of time
Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? no it is 26
What is the current population of the entire planet? Over 7billion

9/6/12

Today was a REALLY fun day in human geo. We started off the class with a note taking exercise about Illinois, and I didn’t do very well in it. We then found out the exercise was really for a 4^th grade class. Finding out you didn’t do well in a 4^th grade exercise isn’t a real confidence booster if you ask me. Somewhere in between the exercise Mr. Schick told us the story of where he was born. Supposedly all the hospitals in Chicago were closed and his mom had to travel, in negative 12 degree weather, to a shady neighborhood in order to find the only hospital that wasn’t closed. After that, a few selected students read their notes (which they formed into a paragraph) to the class. We learned we should not write complete sentences and abbreviate in order to take quick and efficient notes. At the end of class Mr. Schick allowed us to start our blog early. I already can’t wait for human geo tomorrow!

9/5/12

Today in human geo we spent most of the class listening to Mr. Schick tell us about what websites are safe for research, and what websites are not. He pulled up several websites and had us guess if they were good solid websites that we could use for a research paper or a website with false information that is not true. Up till now I thought we should never use Wikipedia. Well I was wrong. Mr. Schick enlightened all of us on how amazing Wikipedia really is. It is pretty much the latest edition of the encyclopedia but it is on the web. I have always neglected to use it because I was told people edit it all the time, but Mr. Schick let us know how often people do that and they do not do it a lot. Most of the knowledge on there is trust worthy and I will definitely use it more in my future essays/ projects.

Essay #3

I am definitely aiming for excellence over my next four years at John Carroll. A number one topic for me that I need to work on is organization. In middle school I was SO unorganized. I would be all over the place for midterms and finals and be stressed out more than I should be for tests. This year I’m going to keep everything in a designated place so I can just bring a folder home for a test instead of several notebooks, a text book, and several folders. Another huge thing I need to work on is procrastinating. Again in middle school I would push everything to the last minute and stress myself out. Instead of rushing to do my homework before sports I would wait till the last minute after. This year I am going to make sure I do my work right away or as soon as I get it. I’m also aiming to work just a little harder in my weaker subjects.  Maybe if I study a lot harder in my weaker areas I will possibly be able to make them one of my strong subjects. Another thing I’m going to aim for is balancing my sports and my academics. I usually would look forward to my sport’s practices and just not think about my homework until I had to. This year I’m going to use my off mods wisely so I can get some of my homework done before my practice or game. One more thing that is a big “DON’T” this year is using the computer as a toy and not a work device. I am going to make sure to not go on any other sites besides the site I am supposed to be in class. This year excellence is definitely a huge goal for me and I hope to follow everything I said in this paragraph. 

Essay #2

If Elbert Hubbard and Socrates traveled into our time period they would be disgusted. A lot of people nowadays are lazy because of the use of technology. They have all the knowledge of the world at their fingers and what was meant to be a more efficient way to do things has turned into a way for people not to do their work properly. People used to have to go to the library, pick out a book and read it to find the information that they need. Now people can just go on yahoo answers and ask the question on the internet for someone else to answer. People have taken full advantage of the internet and not in a good way. Elbert Hubbard would especially be disgusted. It’s rare to find people nowadays who will just do the task given to them without dreading it and putting it off and even making someone else do it. It’s hard to find a modern day Rowan. Socrates would probably be less disgusted though because people in the US have an equal say in voting for the president and the governor. Maybe he would even be happy and proud to know that his teaching method, The Socratic Method, is still being used today in schools worldwide. He would also probably be very confused when people start throwing around the word idiot because it means a completely different thing from the time period he lived in. The point is they would both be shocked and disappointed in the dramatic change between their time period and ours.

Essay #1

My original definition of arête is excellence of many varieties. Someone with arête is smart, brave, witty, athletic, and confident, features that an everyday hero needs. And some people like this were considered hero’s back then. One example, someone we should all know by now, is Socrates. Socrates was smart and witty. He was confident in his beliefs to the point where he died for them. Socrates thought outside of the box. His teaching method, the Socratic Method, is a perfect example of how unique his mind was. He repetitively asked question in order to make his students become their own person by making them develop their own opinion and debating it in class. The Greeks demonstrated arête by giving everyone a say in their government and making everyone equal in opinion. They looked down on idiots, who were the opposite of arête. Idiots were anti-social civilians who didn’t participate in voting and kept to themselves.  Arête was definitely a huge part of the Greek civilizations and in a way it still is today.

8/31/12

Friday afternoon in human geography we went over mainly the definitions that we did the night before for homework. We talked about arête, and the date 508 BC, but there was one thing that interested me the most, the death of Socrates. You can’t help but admire if someone had the courage to not only stand up for their beliefs but to die for them. And the thing is he didn’t put up a fight, he didn’t try to run away when he had so many opportunities to do so, he accepted the death so freely that it makes me belief it is the pure definition of courage. Everyone wanted Socrates to do the simple thing and just say he was sorry, even if he wasn’t all he had to do was say it, but he denied the easy way out and he chose his beliefs over his life. While his followers, his friends and family cried over his decisions he freely chose the cup of liquid that would lead to a painful and terrible death. You can’t help but admire the pure courage and solitude of Socrates and I can without a doubt say he is one of the bravest men in history. 

8/30/12

Today was a very fun day of human geography! We read a piece by Elbert Hubbard where he talked about “A message to Garcia.” Basically he talked about how lazy people are nowadays (this was written in the late1800’s) compared to the olden days. People used to strive for greatness and work hard to do the best they can in jobs and school and now people are lazy and do the bare minimum work. The only inspiration there is for a job is not getting fired. I completely agree with his entry and understand what he is trying to say. We need more people who will not just do the work or tell someone else to do the work but to do more than necessary and even be an over achiever. After the discussion of Hubbard’s piece Mr. Schick gave donuts to the people who were answering questions. I ended up answering a question and chose a chocolate donut! Eventually Mr. Schick gave everyone a donut and we ended the class with a discussion of the honor pledge and of how wrong plagiarizing is and the consequences of it. I am already looking forward to class tomorrow. 

8/29/12

 Today was very very boring. We opened the class as we normally opened, with a prayer, and the whole class forgot what to say back ( Let us rejoice and be glad.) So we had try it again. The goal for the class was to make sure everyone was to get there blog up and to send their URL to Mr. Schick's email. I already had my blog posted successfully so there was absolutely NOTHING for me to do but sit there and sometimes chat with a person near me. After what felt like hours everyone finally posted their blogs and emailed their URL. But it actually took the whole entire class period for everyone who couldn’t post their blogs on the first day, to finally post it today.  So besides writing our everyday blog we were also given one other assignment. To research some terms and find what they mean so here I go:

Arête- arête is a Greek word that basically means excellence of many varieties.

Polis- a polis is an ancient city-state in Greece.

Socrates- Socrates was an Athenian philosopher. He is famous for being the teacher of Plato and for making paintings that made his students skeptic.

The death of Socrates-  the death of Socrates was a painting by Socrates of his closing moments because Socrates was unjustly condemned to death . His paintings began to make people skeptic and the Athenian government were very unhappy so they gave Socrates the choice of exile or death. He chose death.

 The Socratic method-  the Socratic method was named after Socrates, who used a teaching method he made up where he would ask the students question after question in order to get them to use critical thinking and argue and debate with him in order to make them solidly confident.

The date 508 BC- the Klisthenis came to power and strengthened the Athen government.

Agora-  the agora was used for several things. It was basically a meeting place for any kind of gathering or assembly.

Idiot someone who prefers to keep to themselves and avoid public affairs. Some one who lacks professional skills.

8/28/12

Today in human geography we definitely got a lot accomplished. We opened with a prayer that expresses being grateful for the day present and then Mr. Schick did a short roll call.  We were then assigned seats and I, being the helplessly confused person I am, got my seat wrong the first time. After my seat confusion was all cleared up we dived into the lesson. Mr. Schick introduced us to the syllabus and pretty much prepared us for the year by telling us what we need for class(our tablet PC, a composition note book, pens, and a mind open for learning.) We were also informed that we had to write on our blog every day about the day’s human geo class, which I am looking forward too because I’ll admit I really like writing the blog. Human geography is definitely going to be a personal favorite of mine.  

First day at JC

My experience at John Carroll could be summed up into two words, fun and exciting.  Now I know the words fun and school aren’t supposed to be able to fit in the same sentence but I couldn’t help but enjoy my experience at JC. I came into the school eager to get started and we began our day with a parent/student breakfast. After greeting my friends and meeting a bunch of new people we all gathered in the auditorium where several people made a speech about what we should expect in our future as a Patriot. When that ended we were all sent to our advisories where I met Mr. Iacchei who will be my advisor for the next 4 years. The fire alarm interrupted the advisory session but it was only a drill so we could learn where to go in case of an actual fire. After we went inside we had a quick snack in the cafeteria and then split up into groups and visited four different classrooms where we were given various speeches on recycling, and the library rules, and the dean of discipline made a speech, and we also had our pictures taken. When that was wrapped up we had lunch in the cafeteria and we then had a run through of our Wednesday schedule. This involved constantly ripping my schedule out of my folder to see what room I was in next and hoping I wasn’t late! Finally at the end of the long day we had a short wrap up in the cafeteria and everyone said their goodbyes unless they had practice for a sport which in my case was volleyball. Over all it was a fun and exciting experience and I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.