Giada's Honors Human Geography Blog

   On yesterday's Western Civ. blog post, Mr. Schick posted a bunch of his thoughts on aspects of cyber school. One thing he mentioned in his list was accountability. During this time away from our regular school environment, we are finding that students really need to step up by focusing on doing our assignments with our 100% effort, by realizing the importance of doing our own work, and trying our hardest to manage our time so that we get our work done efficiently. I would completely agree with this. From my point of view, I am finding it harder to get my work done efficiently. Not only do we have an increased workload of schoolwork, but we have to give it our all and try our best on these assignments, with all the difficulties surrounding us. To be completely honest, I find myself wanting to just look up the answers to my work, but then I realize that I need to truly understand the subject/topic we're learning. This can make it even harder because, like Mr. Schick stated in

   In our world today, we are facing a world-wide pandemic called the Coronavirus. We can compare this to the plague that swarmed through Athens during the Peloponnesian War, usually referred to as the "Plague of Athens". The Plague of Athens broke out in the year 430 BCE and died out in 426 BCE. On the other hand, the Coronavirus originated in China in December of 2019 and has not died out. In fact, the virus has gotten much worse since then. One similarity between these two diseases is their symptoms. Thucydides, an Ancient Greek historian, was in Athens when plague broke out. He described the symptoms by saying,  "people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath" COVID-19 (Coronavirus) also shows symptoms of  cough,  fever, and shortness of breath! However, a difference  between these

Alexander the Great  - Alexander the Great was best known for his military leadership and for being a strategic commander. His father was King Philip II. He was king of Ancient Greece before he passed down his kingship to his son. Alexander ruled over a strong and united Greece from 336-323 BCE. When he was a child, he was taught how to ride a horse, how to fight, how to hunt, and many other skills like mathematics, reading, writing, and how to play a lyre. Philip II got an amazing philosopher, Aristotle to tutor his son, Alexander, when he was 13 years old. Alexander like to read writings of Homer such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Once Alexander was in control of Greece and was named king, he headed east, looking to expand his empire and conquer land. He first went through Asia Minor, winning battle after battle. He conquered Syria, defeated the Persian Empire, conquered Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and was going to go through India, but his men were angered and missed their wives and

   The bond between Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus, was very special. Bucephalus was a large, black stallion who was presented to Alexander's father, King Phillip II in 346 BCE by Philonecus of Thessaly, for a price of 13 talents. This price was 3 times the normal amount at the time! However, this horse was taller than the normal Macedonian horse and was described as "too wild and unmanageable". Because of this, King Phillip ordered it away, but Alexander insisted that he would pay for the horse himself if he couldn't tame it. Everyone laughed at him because they thought that he would definitely fail at this. However, young Alexander came up to the horse and realized that it was actually afraid of it's own shadow! So, Alexander pointed the horse toward the sun in order to get the horse's shadow behind it. While the horse was facing the sun, Alexander mounted it. All were amazed that Alexander could actually do this, and all the laughter turn

   This past week, we have all done cyber school and it's our first time. In some aspects, it's great! But on many other aspects, it really is not so great. One good thing about cyber school is that you can take breaks when you need to, whether you just feel like relaxing for a bit, or you just need a break from so much information. Another good thing about it is that you can decide (for the most part), what classes and what homework you want to do first. For example, I always like to get my easy homework done first, so that when I am doing the more difficult homework, I don't feel like I need to rush. On the other hand, there are many negatives of it. For starters, you're sitting down, probably in one spot for almost the whole day. You have breaks, but you constantly need to be working. Another negative for me, which is probably the hardest, is managing your time wisely so that you are getting your work done efficiently. Personally, I get distracted very easily, and te

   I think Socrates, and Sophists like Protagoras, would start questioning traditional beliefs in Athenian history because at this time, the war had come to an end and many changes followed. Pericles, ruler of Athens, had died from plague (along with many other Athenians), and the people gave up on the ideals of democracy. With all this confusion, scrambling to obtain power, and having complete control of the future of Athens, Athenians were searching for some kind of truth or meaning in their lives. This is why philosophers emerged in  Ancient Greece. Their philosophy was based on two main ideas: that the universe is put together in an orderly way, with absolute and unchanging laws, and that people understand laws through logic and reason. There were many different philosophers with many different ideas that started to come into play in Ancient Greece. For example, one group of philosophers were the Sophists. They questioned peoples beliefs and ideas about many traditional values that

   During the Peloponnesian War, Sparta's army invaded Athenian territory, burning Athen's farmland around their city. Athenians could only watch their fields and crops being destroyed from behind their city walls, because Pericles convinced his people to go with his plan. Pericles' plan seemed like an efficient strategy at first, but eventually, it led to devastation in Athens. Pericles believed that he could strengthen Athenian navy so that they would be the greatest power in the Mediterranean. By doing so, he decided that they shouldn't try to fight off Sparta's land army. Therefore, his plan was to keep Athens within their city walls. Because of this, Athens was relying on fleet and shipments from overseas to survive. This is the start to a great fall. One year into the war, the grain boats that fed the city of Athens brought plague along with them! Since the Athenian population was crammed together, within city walls, plague spread rapidly. Not only was this pl

   Pericles was a man who lived from 495-425 B.C. He came from a rich and high-ranking noble family. Pericles was a skillful politician, inspiring speaker, and a respected general. He ruled from 461-429 B.C. and led Athens during much of its golden age. In fact, the time of Pericles' rule is often called "The Age of Pericles." His three main goals were to strengthen Athenian democracy, to hold and strengthen the empire, and to glorify Athens. One of the things that Pericles did to strengthen Athenian democracy was increase the number of public officials who were paid salaries. This way, even the poorest citizen could serve if elected or chosen by lot. By doing this, Athens had more citizens engaged in self-government than any other Greek city-state. Athens became one of the most democratic governments in history. For Pericles/Periclean Athens, direct democracy was an important legacy. Direct democracy is a form of government in which citizens rule directly and not through

   Today in class, we had 40 minutes because of shortened classes. Mr. Schick told us about how we will continue to do our work, just like a normal school day, but on our computers. We will still have to write a blog everyday that our class "meets". We will write the assignments that are given to us on our blog. We also took pictures of a bunch of textbook pages so that we can use it for future assignments. Mr. Schick told us that we will not be having any quizzes or tests during this 2-week period (for now) of cyber classes because he knows that people will find ways to cheat on it. Anyways, this will be a new experience for everyone and I hope we don't find too many problems with it.

   Today in class, we first got new assigned seats. Also, Mr. Schick made us all put our phones up in the holder and he made assigned numbers for everyone. He seemed very prepared and enthusiastic today. Once we sat down and the bell rang, Mr. Schick told us that he wanted to talk about the Coronavirus that is spreading, not only in the U.S., but all over the world. He told us that it is a serious virus that is going around. He told us some facts about Coronavirus and told us that it affects the lungs. That is why older people and smokers are more at risk of getting the virus. People are now starting to realize that this is important because many schools are being closed and using online classes instead, and more people are becoming infected. Of these people, Tom Hanks and his wife have tested positive for Coronavirus. People are feeling affected because many people are fans of him, and it shows that they really need to start being careful. Mr. Schick talked about all the pre-cautions

   Today in class, Mr. Schick was not here, so we had a sub. We set up Sierra's computer to the projector and finished episode 1 of the Greece video as a class. We all took notes on it. Here are a couple of notes that I wrote down: Athens first artistic legacy- Vase (what was inside worth a lot)  artisans/potters- lowest class in Athens 527 BC- Hippias took over 514 BC- Hippias' brother murders- caused his behavior to become terrible, mad (insane) Cleisthenes assembled conspiracy against Hippies and in 510 BC he is very powerful Olympia- every 4 years men would come to compete in sports (Olympics) 776 BC- Olympic Games were founded chariot racing, running, boxing, etc. at Olympics 40,000 Greeks would gather (women were prohibited from entering) Isagoras seizes control with help of Spartans (betrayal) people revolt against Isagoras (Revolution) Isagoras and men blockaded themselves on highest point in Athens, but couldn't escape the people for 2 days - eventual

   Today in class, we watched a documentary on Ancient Greece (episode one), and took notes on it. Here were some notes I took: 508 BC- first revolution. Athens- ordinary people demanding freedom from oppression Cleisthenes comes into power in 508 BC- believes people should have freedom/rule themselves Heroductus- first great historian aristocrat- part of ruling class writing= rare skill life expectancy in Athens= 15 years old town (Athens) built around acropolis acropolis- rock center of Athens women- cooking, cleaning, weaving Helots forced to work in fields (war w/ Helots) Spartan lifestyle is bare minimum (not a bunch of nice "stuff"- only what you need) Stones and myths inspired Cleisthenes- memorized over a million lines of poetry most famous tales- Iliad and Odyssey (Homer) Heroic Ideal, individualism, arete(striving for) - should be the best person you can be in what you do Athena- thinks ordinary man should be in charge Pisistratus- Cleisthenes'

   Today in class, we took a pop quiz on Ancient Greece (on the slides we covered the last few days). Since we had this class first mod, I was studying for my religion test before 8:00 and was not expecting this. I was mad because I got a 70% on it, and now my grade is going to lower. I do not like pop quizzes because I always do bad on them, and now I need a good score on my test to balance it out. Anyways, we finally finished the Greece is the Word powerpoint. Here were my last couple of notes I took on it today: Aristotle was a student of Plato at the Academy he helped foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination his school - the Lyceum - focused on cooperative research - building on knowledge gathered from all over the world Aristotle dreamed of having the sum of mankind’s knowledge easily accessed in one location he wrote on these topics: logic -- physics -- biology  ethics -- politics -- rhetoric motion -- theatre -- poetry metaphysics -- psychol

   Today in class, we started out with taking notes on textbook pages 138-139. It talked about major philosophers from Ancient Greece. Then, Mr. Schick pulled up the Greece is the Word powerpoint. We went over slides 43-46, which talked about these philosophers: Socrates and Plato. Here were some notes I took: Socrates: looked to science and logic (not the mythological gods) for explanations of how the world worked the Socratic Method fostered critical thinking “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates was charged with serious crimes: impiety, and corrupting the youth of Athens at his trial, he described himself as a stinging gadfly, and Athens as a lazy old horse did not deny what he had done; asked for free dinners found guilty by an Athenian jury, and sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock Plato: a student and follower of Socrates he wrote out Socrates’ teachings, and described his trial in Apology Republic was Socrates’ discussion

   Today in class, we went through more of the slideshow/powerpoint. We are coming close to the end and to our next test on Ancient Greece. Today our main focus was on Athens military, Spartan naval power, The Persian Wars, and the Greek and Persian armies. At the end, we went over a little timeline   of the Persian War. Mr. Schick said we did not need to write it all down, so I did not. We learned that the Persian Wars started a little after democracy was introduced to Athens by Cleisthenes (by about 40 wish years.) Anyways, here are some notes I took: Greeks = warlike people - especially Spartans Spartans were known for their tough, ruthless infantry : soldiers who fought on land Spartan boys trained from the time they were seven Athens had a great infantry, but their navy was amazing their most effective weapon was the trireme trireme: technological marvel fastest ship in the world at the time rowed by up to 170 men on three levels could be used as a

   Today in class, Mr. Schick reviewed more of the Greece powerpoint we have been studying, in order to start preparing for the Greece- Part Two test that is coming up. Our main focus today was on Greek mythology including the gods and goddesses that were important in Greek culture. I found this interesting because it was a fun topic to discuss. Mr. Schick said that we won't focus too much on all this, but we are going to know some of this information. In class, people were asking questions about the gods/goddesses we talked about, and Lizzie could answer all of them. She knew so much about Greek mythology and I was pretty shocked. Anyways, we went over about three or four slides of the powerpoint and we all took notes.