Giada's Honors Human Geography Blog

   Today in class, we took our Ancient Greece test. It actually went pretty well and I think I did good on it. I used a lot of quizlets and I went over the powerpoint a lot. I might have got one or two questions wrong. There was one that I know I got wrong because, for some reason, I thought east was west. Anyways, I hope I did well. I almost forgot that we have another test coming up, which is part two of Ancient Greece. Overall, this is one of the tests I am really confident about in this class. When we go over the second half, I will be expecting to study a lot so that I can be prepared.

   Today in class, we took notes on the powerpoint still. Tomorrow, we have our Ancient Greece test (part one). There are two parts to it; the one tomorrow will cover slides 1-32 of the powerpoint, and textbook pages 123-133. I am really scared because there is so much I need to go over and study. Also, I really don't hope there is some trick question or complicated wording on the test. However, you really never know what to expect on Mr. Schick's tests. So, I am just going to study really hard tonight and hope that everything goes well. I have a bed feeling about this test and I don't know if I will get a good grade. Maybe if I look over everything I need to know, very carefully, I will be okay. Let's hope tomorrow will go by smoothly and that we will have an easy test.

   Today in class, Mr. Schick told us that our test is going to be two parts. We will take the first part on Thursday. This will cover the first half of the powerpoint and the first part of the textbook pages we read/took notes on. Here were some of my notes from today: Iliad (one of Homer's epics) about Trojan War Odyssey- Odysseus gives into temptation from Poseidon- stays on island- eventually realizes he needs to get home Dorians- "all about us"- trades with no one- Dominated 1150-750 BCE  part monarchy, part aristocracy, part democracy symposion comes from sympinein , meaning "to drink together" ( symposiums) with Hippias gone, Isagoras and Cleisthenes (both aristocrats) engaged in a power struggle Isagoras had support from some fellow aristocrats, plus from Sparta Cleisthenes had support of the majority of Athenians Isagoras becomes archon eponymous (tyrant) He ostracizes Cleisthenes  Cleisthenes’ supporters - and the ordinary Athenian citiz...

   Today in class, we took a pop quiz on Greece. No one really did great on this quiz, but I guess no one did too terrible. There were three people who got 100 percents on it and I'm jealous. I got eight out of the ten questions correct :( Mr. Schick gave us exactly ten seconds to look at each multiple choice question and write down the answer. I didn't get to answer one of the problems and Mr. Schick wouldn't go back to that slide, so I had to guess the answer. I could have done better on it for sure if I studied, but I didn't do too bad. Once we get our real test, I feel like it will be hard because there is already so much information we covered, and it will be a lot to study. After we took the pop quiz, we were assigned to take notes on pages in our textbooks on even more Ancient Greece. Overall, I will need to prepare extra hard for the upcoming test and study everything we've been working on.

   Today in class, we reviewed more of the "Greece is the Word" Powerpoint on Ancient Greece. Our main focus was on government they had. While Mr. Schick talked about the slides, we took notes. Here are some of the notes I wrote down today: polis : fundamental political unit, made up of a city and the surrounding countryside politics (affairs of the cities), policy, political, etc. 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  During the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece Aristocrats : members of the ruling class - they attended symposiums , meetings where the elite men would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and...

   Today in class, we spent about 20 minutes talking about this famous painting of a pipe. There were written words at the bottom that translated to “This is not a pipe.” This is interesting because our minds would think “well, of course it’s a pipe!”, but the point of this is that it is not really a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. Looking at it from the computer, it is a painting that was duplicated/replicated onto the screen using our technology. So, no, there was no pipe; it was just a picture/drawing representing a pipe. Ancient philosophers found this interesting and many people found this strange. The philosopher who drew this wanted people to think about what was really being presented in front of them. This is why Mr. Schick wanted to share this with us today. After this, we went over more of the Ancient Greece Powerpoint. While Mr. Schick talked about the slides on the board, we took notes in continuation of our other ones for this powerpoint. These notes will help...

   Today in class, we watched a video on the deeper meaning of The Allegory of the Cave. Basically, we spent all our class (which was shortened to 45 minutes today) watching a 6 minute video. This is because we were playing Mr. Schick's famous game "okay, stop". He was asking us many questions during the video and stopped it to say something important, or say what stands out in the video. I took notes on this just in case there are going to be quiz/test questions on it, and I found the ideas that were being expressed very interesting. One thing the narrator pointed out was that no one chooses to be in the "cave", we just start out there. This leads into the idea that everyone has the potential to reach the "sunlight", where you can start discovering/learning new things, and can start gaining wisdom. The prisoner was enlightened by the sun. He found what real creatures/beings look like, and not just silhouettes him and the other prisoners thought to be ...

   Today in class, we started to take notes on the "Greece is the Word" Powerpoint Mr. Schick showed us. We learned a lot about the geography of Ancient Greece and how it affected their culture. Mr. Schick told us that there is going to be a part on the test with a map of Ancient Greece, and we need to fill in the names of the seas, city-states, etc. The terms we will need to label include the following: Aegean Sea Ionian Sea Adriatic Sea (it’s just north of the Ionian Sea) Peloponnesus Athens Sparta Crete Asia Minor Macedonia We will also need to know w hat bodies of water surround Greece, w hat large island is to the south/southeast of Greece, and where Athens and Sparta are located relative to the sea/to each other. Also, on the test, we will need to know the significance of Greece’s location, know Greece’s surroundings, and d escribe Greece’s topography. We will then have to match the civilization to it's important river/ body of water. T...

    Today in class, Mr. Schick and Lily read a part of Plato's whole book called The Allegory of the Cave . This story is a discussion between Socrates and Glaucon, Plato's brother. In this story, Socrates is telling an allegory to Glaucon. Glaucon is fascinated by this story and agrees with what he is saying. An allegory is  a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one . The allegory that Socrates is telling consists of three parts. Part one is called Setting the Stage. In this first part of the story, it provides us with the setting of the story, and allows the reader to paint a picture in their head on what the setting might look like. In the story, there is a cave where prisoners are shackled to the ground/wall. There is a wall that blocks their view of what is behind them.  Behind the wall is a fire that gives them light and a highway leading to the outside of the cave, into the daylight....

1. Mycenaen - Some of the Indo-Europeans migrating from the Eurasian steppes who settled on the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C.     Trojan War - A ten-year war fought against the Mycenaeans and Troy, an independent trading city located in Anatolia, during the 1200's B.C. For many years, historians thought the stories that were told of the Trojan War were totally fictional.     Dorian - A group of people who moved into the war-torn countryside of Greece. They spoke a    dialect of Greek and may have been distant relatives of the Bronze Age Greeks.     Homer - According to tradition, Homer was the greatest storyteller who was blind.     epic - Narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds.     myth - Traditional stories about Greek gods. 3. Nearness to the sea was crucial for the development of Ancient Greece. The major Greek rivers included the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the neighboring Black Sea. They proved to be ...

   I was not in class today because I was not at school. I was at home, sick.

   Today in class, we reviewed some concepts that are going to be on the test tomorrow. I feel as if I go over my notes, the vocab words, and the powerpoint Mr. Schick put on his blog, I will do good on the quiz tomorrow. We finished with our little review and we watched a video on the mummification process, which was pretty cool, a video of this guy singing a King Tut song, which apparently was released as a single and got really popular, and we watched a Mr. Nicky video on ancient Egypt, with some decent information in it. We didn't really do anything besides this in class, but we did learn a way to remember "ka" - which is the continuum on life (afterlife). We think of a crow and how its a symbol of death/can symbolize an afterlife and it says "ka". The illustration Sierra drew on the board today actually helped me remember this.

   Today in class, Nick took his Mesopotamia test since he was absent and missed it. Meanwhile, everyone else either finished taking notes from the textbook or were on there computers. In fact, they are doing this right now and Nick is in the middle of doing his test. I decided to write my blog now because I already finished taking notes on the textbook pages and don't have much other homework to do. However, when he is done taking his test, I think Mr. Schick will grade it and hand the tests back out to everyone. I hope he does because I got a 95% on it and I really want to know what I got wrong. I thought I was going to get an 100 on it. (I'm updating this now, when class is over) WE DID NOT DO THIS IN CLASS! WE TOOK A POP QUIZ ON EGYPT AND I DID TERRIBLE ON IT :(

   Today in class, Mr. Schick said we get to have a "make-up day" since so many people have been absent due to sickness. We finished reading and taking notes on pages 35-43 in the textbook on ancient Egypt. Here are just a few of the notes I took as I finished reading: The pyramids show that Old Kingdom dynasties had developed the economic strength/technological means to support massive public projects, as well as the leadership and government organization to carry them out Egyptians believed in an afterlife and that they would be judged for their deeds A wealthy or middle-class woman could own/trade property, propose marriage, or seek divorce (if she granted a divorce, she would be entitled to one-third of the couple's property) Simple pictographs were the earliest form of writing in Egypt, but scribes quickly developed more flexible writing system- hieroglyphics (meaning "sacred carving) A better writing surface than stone/clay = papyrus reeds, which grew in...