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 ...