Class Lecture

Today in West Civ, we had a class that was like a lecture. Mr. Schick talked about Socrates and Plato. He told us able this fable that a man named Plato told. It was about how people are faced forward and watched a wall and shadows of people were projected on it. They didn't know that behind them was a fire and the figures of the people were also behind them. One prisoner was sent free, but the sun was too bright for him. I liked class because we didn't have to take notes or anything. We just had to listen. I am so glad that we have the day off tomorrow. That means that we have a three day weekend, and then we don't have West Civ on Monday. That means that the next time we have class is next Tuesday.

Greeks Test

Today in West Civ, we took a test on the Greeks. I thought that the test was going to be really hard. I studied my note and the worksheet that he gave us. Mr. Schick told us that we could use our blogs. Being able to use our blogs was helpful. When I got the test, i remembered seeing the multiple choice questions before, and I remember going over them. I just put down what I had before. The fill in the blanks was not that hard, but I had to look at my blog for some of them. The hardest question for me was knowing where to put the Aegean and Ionian Sea on the map. I wasn't sure where they went. Other then that, I think I did really well on the test. Since we are done this chapter, I wonder if we are going to continue to study the Greeks, or if we are going to move on to something else.

Studying for the Test

Today in West Civ, we watched the ancient Greeks video. Tomorrow we have a test, so we watched it to review. I am going to study my old blogs that have some notes in them. I am also going to study any notes that I have in the copybook. I think that I took some notes in it, but I am not sure. Finally, I will probably read over that worksheet that we had. We got a worksheet that had a bunch of people, places, and events in ancient Greece. I think that the test tomorrow is going to be hard. I think its going to be hard because there are so many different people, and I get confused with them. I also get confused with some of the seas. I get confused with the Ionian, Aegean, and Mediterranean Sea. Hopefully the test tomorrow won't be to hard.

Notes on Ancient Greece

PEOPLE OF GREECE

Aspasia:

• had an influence on government
• Pericles and her fell in love, never got married
• Pericles got rid of his wife for her
• Pericles made Parthenon

Isagoris:

• Last of the dictators
• Rude to his people; corrupt
• So raped a high women, but got away from it
• People didn't like him
• People fought for 3 days and eventually won and threw him out 

Cleisthenes:

• Found him after Isagoris, wanted him to lead
• Thought regular people should have more decision
• Wanted to get everyone involved, Democracy

Ostracize: to be cast out, sent away. (did that to Cleisthenes)

Greeks and Persians had different complexions. Natural enemies

Xerxes and Darius:

• From Persia
• Invaded marathon
• Xerxes is son of Darius
• Come at Greeks with 1 million men

Phedippides:

• Sent to get help
• Ran 26 miles to another town to warn them
• Ran to Sparta (100 miles) tells Spartans, but dies

Xerxes came to Athens:

• Athenians decided to flee
• Bring women and kids to an island
• Persians decided to burn city and kill anyone left
• Greek man goes to Persia
• Said he was coming to their side
• At night, Persians came down straight
• Greeks are there ready to fight when sun comes up
• All a trick
• Lost a ton of ships and lost

Pericles:

• 30 year rule
• Hubris: so arrogant and full of yourself and think you cant go wrong
• Dealine League (United Nation): city-state defending Greece, not Sparta
• He decided that in the midst of their city doing so well, he wants to attack Sparta
• Build a wall around Sparta
• Take navy and surround Sparta
• Allow them to not get anymore supplies 
• Surrounder
• Spartans marched and got supplies other places
• Ships brount in supplies brought sick people with plague
• Go from being perfectly fine to die in 3 days
• 1/3 to 1/2 of people died, including Pericles 
• Spartans and Persians got together

Oracle of Delphi:

• Flights of birds
• Predict future 
• Tell by the way guts of animals came out
• Entrails of animals 
• Needed help and told people they were screwed 

Close Call

Today in West Civ, Mr. Schick had to grade our projects. He had to re watch them and read our storyboard since we had presented them a week ago, so he had to remember what we did. Carly, Ellie, and I got a 90%. I am very happy with that grade. For our video, we did pictures of the main places in Athens, and we each did a storyboard. Carly added music to our video which apparently took a long time to do. The music went nicely since it was "Greek Pop." While Mr. Schick was grading the projects, Carly, Ellie, and I talked. Ellie also quizzed Carly and I in math since we had a math quiz next mod. I think that i did pretty well on the math quiz. Tomorrow the quarter ends. I am really happy with my grades, I just hope that math stays an "A" and that my English gets bumped up. I can't believe that we are already done with 75% of the school year already! Also, at the end of class we watched this video called "Close Call." It was very funny, but also kind of crazy that those things could happen.

No Teacher Today

Today, my blog for West Civ is the 30 questions and the 4 answers in the blog below. Since Mr. Schick wasn't here, we had to do that for the class. We were in the gym, and I only finished the 30 multiple choice. I just finished the 4 short answers for homework. Tomorrow we have class, and Mr. Schick will be back.

West Civ Work

Multiple Choice:

1. Mostly Fertile land isn't a characteristic
2. Approximately 3/4 of Greece is covered by mountains
3.  The term barbarian originally came from the Greek "barbarous," which originally meant "Non-Greek."
4. A megalithic structure is a massive rough-cut stone used to construct monuments and tombs
5. A tribe is a social and political unit consisting of a group of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship
6. Tribes were governed by warrior kings or queens
7. The Greeks were the first European barbarians to make contact with civilization.
8. The United States wouldn't be considered a member of "Western civilization."
9. The Ionian Sea is located west of the Greek mainland.
10. The sea located the east of the Greek mainland is the Aegean Sea.
11. Aegean people lived on grains, vines, and olives
12. The Minoan civilization arose on the island of Crete.
13. The Mycenaeans established settlements along the Greek mainland southern shore and on some islands
14. The Mycenaeans built massive walls to protect themselves from attack.
15.  The Dark Ages were a period of Greek history in which the population dropped, ships no longer sailed, and writing fell out of use.
16. The Greeks joined the Phoenicians as the leading commercial and seafaring nation of the Mediterranean.
17. "C" means circa
18. The city-states that dotted the coastlines around the Mediterranean Sea were called colonies
19. Greek city-states most closely resembled modern-day states.
20. Oligarchy were the form of government in which small group of citizens dominated, and the power of the majority was limited in various ways
21. Democracy is a form of government in which decisions were made by the majority of adult male citizens
22.  Tyranny is a form of government in which a self-proclaimed dictator held power
23. Monarchy is a form of government in which power is held by a single ruler, and often passes along form father to son
24. Spartans used oligarchy
25. Spartan males began their military training at age seven
26. Athens was the wealthiest city-state in the ancient Greek world
27. The acropolis was the high fortified citadel and religious center of an ancient Greek town
28. Peloponnesus was the southern peninsula where Sparta was located
29. Triremes were massive fighting ships with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships
30. A hoplite was a heavily armed and armored citizen-soldier of ancient Greece

Short Answer: 

1. This was a period called, Dark Ages which lasted from 1150-800 B.C.
2. The tiles of the stories is the "Iliad and the Odyssey."
3. The word "Mediterranean" originally meant "in the middle of the earth" or "between lands."
4. Prominent and long-established Athenian land-owners were called aristocrats. 

Quizlet Notes

Today in West Civ, we used this quizlet to study for our test: http://quizlet.com/11153365/flashcards. Tomorrow in class, we have a sub so we will be working on the Cyber Day assignment that we had yesterday. Since we didn't have West Civ, we didn't have to do it. That is why we are working on it tomorrow.

• What were the major crops the Aegean people subsisted from?
• A: Grain, Vines, and Olives
• Barbarian (barbaros): "Non-Greek"
• Megalithic structure: massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs
• Tribes were governed by warrior kings or queens, chieftains, tribal leaders chose by warriors
• The first European barbarians to make contact with civilization was the Greeks
• Aegean's engaged in shipbuilding, piracy, metalworking, fishing, farming and lumber jacking
• Who were the first people to speak Greek?
• A: Mycenaeans
•   Mycenaean civilization developed no later than 1600 B.C. and during the Bronze age.
•  Minoans are inked to the Mycenaeans 
• What brought the Mycenaean Civilization to an end?
• A: There is no clear understanding of what brought their civilization to an end 
• Colony: a new city-state settled in oversea territory sponsored by the local city-state
• How many letters comprised the Greek Alphabet?
• A: 30
• What were the three great civilizations of ancient world by 500 B.C.
• A: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Greeks 
• Acropolis: high fortified citadel and religions center of an ancient town
• Parthenon: the "Place of the Maiden" that sits atop the acropolis. Statue of Athena is in there 
• More than a billion dollar building^
• Polites: a citizen of a city state in the Greek speaking world 
• Hoplite: a heavily armed and armored citizen-solider of the Greek speaking world  that had bronze helmets and armor
• Every able bodied male comprised the army
• SLIDE 1-27^

Sub Today

Today in West Civ, Mr. Schick wasn't there. We had a sub. Since Mr. Schick wasn't there, we watched another video on Athens. The video was about The Greeks. IT talked about how Athens went against the Persians in a war. Even though the Athenians were outnumbered 2 to 1, they were still victorious. The Athenians found silver, but decided to spend it on those big powerful boats for battle. The Athenians used those boats in the next battle against them and the Persians, and they showed no mercy. The Athenians had won again! WE were supposed to finish the worksheet that we already started. I finished mine. Since today is Friday, we won't have class agian until Tuesday. I think that we will go over the worksheet then.

Notes on Greeks

• Greek theatre had two themes: comedy and tragedy
• Oedipus Rex:
• Told he was going to kill his father- did in a car crash
• Marry his mother- did because he didn't recognize her
• Blinded himself because he didn't want to see the disapproval of people
• Tried to escape fait, but couldn't
• Had a child with his mom      
• People were so amazed that he could make it look like he blinded himself
• Written 2500 years ago
• So much to analyze
• The Greeks understood stuff
• Surprising that so much of the architecture is still standing because it has been around for a long time
• Located in an earthquake area
• Potters made vases to transport olive oils to other countries
• Took so much pride in everything so they always tried to do their very best
• Ex: making pots really well
• Wanted to be heroic like the heroes
• Made the huge boats
• They were amazingly built, took a lot of synchronization, and went flying fast
• Spartans did it by depriving themselves and making themselves fighting machines
• Athenians, tried to do their very best, and to learn everything
• Athenians weren't lazy
• Americans were lazy

Presenting Projects

Today in west civ, we presented our projects. A lot of people did Athens, but one person I think did Sparta. Carly, Ellie, and I did Athens. First the groups showed their project. Then, we watched the presentation a second time, and they explained what the slide was about. For our project, we each did one storyboard and I did the Movie, but Carly had to fix it for some reason. Then when we presented it, we explained what was on each slide. I wonder what we are going to do next in west civ since we finished with our projects. I think we will probably have at test or continue to learn about Sparta and Athens.

Mr. Perry Teaches

Today, Mr. Schick wasn't in class today. He was on Senior Retreat, so we had Mr. Perry as a sub. I have never had Mr. Perry as a teacher, but some of my friends have. We just watched a video and finished the worksheet. Carly didn't have earphones, so I shared mine with her. The worksheet took a while to finish, but eventually we finished it. Now I am doing my blog. Sometimes i forgot that the blog is due Saturday night, because I usually do my homework on Sunday. Now that I ma doing my blog now, I don't have to worry about that. I am glad that we finished the worksheet, because now I can use it to study, because i have a feeling we will have a test on it. We don't have class on Monday, so the next time our class meets is on Tuesday. That is the day that our project is due! Carly, Ellie, and I need to finish that soon!

Carly, Ellie, and I

Today, we had the class to work on our projects. We tried to figure out how to get music onto the Movie Maker, and that was hard. Them, Ellie was trying to figure out how to get the storyboard to work, which is very complicated. Also, Carly said that our video had to many of the same picture, which it didn't. For Tuesday, we have to finish the storyboard and edit the video. This project is a lot more then i thought that it was going to be. I knew what we had to do, I just thought that we could choose between making a storyboard or a video. Hopefully, we will eventually finish our project.

Watching the Video

Today, we had a shortened class. Luckily, Mr. Schick changed the due date of our video to next Tuesday. That is very good because Ellie, Carly, and I still need to finish that. I think that we are going to work on it on Thursday, and probably some day over the weekend. I am glad that we are working with partners because then the work won't be too much. We continued to watch the video on Greece. The video talked about Sparta and how they conquered so much land of Greece. Spartans seemed to have a really hard life. I think that its crazy that they made seven year old train for the army. I think that that is awful. They are still little kids and probably don't know whats happening. I think that the Spartan was of life was very hard and nothing about it was easy.

People of Athens

Today we started to watch a video in Western Civ about Athens. Athens was built on an acropolis which was a huge rock. It was very good to defend yourself, because you could see the enemy coming, and it was hard for them to get to you. Also, Persian tried to take over Greece, but Greece kept on winning battles. We also talked about aristocrats. Greece was originally run by an aristocracy. It was a miserable life for the people who weren't aristocrats. They weren't considered slaves, but they were maybe one tiny step up from being a slave. I am surprised that Persia wasn't able to take over Greece, since it was so small and Persia was so big.

Snow Day and Cyber Days

Today we didn't have school, which meant cyber day. I don't like cyber days because we get a lot more work then we would if we had school. But, I kind of do like then because when June comes around and we are off school, I will be glad that I did. Anyway, today we were supposed to write a blog even though we didn't have school. I am actually not sure if we are supposed to do a blog since we didn't have class today. I m just going to write one anyways because it doesn't take that long. We have a two hour delay tomorrow, I wonder if we will be off. If we are off then I have to work on our project with Ellie and Carly.