Giovanna's Western Civ. Blog

Today was an eventful day to start off we switched seats. I really liked my old seat so I was definitely a little disappointed to switched. Many people were complaining about the whole switch as well. Then we went on to discuss site. We started talking about how New York is twice the size it was many years ago.We then went on to discuss the Hurricane Harvey and how that affected everyone. Houston has become a large city and attracts many people and businesses. Some of my classmates mentioned that they even knew people who were affected. Hurricanes are formed by warm water and hovers over the area before the hurricane hits. My class believed that the water didn't have anywhere to go. This affects not only the city it's in but the nation itself not knowing how to fix it.

Today we had an interesting class that consisted of rearranging, shadows, stories, and pop quizzes.  I thought it was going to be a normal day but Mr. Schick had something different in mind. We said our prayer at the beginning of class and he mentioned that we have a pop quiz. I was shaken by the news as I hate pop quizzes with every ounce of my body. I feel students should be given time to prepare before tests so that they can perform well. After taking the test I felt I did ok. I checked the worksheet and noticed I only got two or three wrong so I guess the quiz wasn't that bad. It was fairly easy except the fact that I had just gotten told we were going to take it five minutes before the quiz was handed out. Hopefully we won't have this often because it brought a lot of unnecessary stress to me but it quickly went away when it was easy.

Site A way that geographers describe the location of a place Physical character of a place Important characteristics: climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation Physical features gives each place a distinctive character Essential in selecting locations for settlements, although people have disagreed, depending on cultural values Some preferred a hilltop site for easy defense from attack Other located settlements, near convenient river-crossing points to facilitate communication with people in other places We have the ability to modify characteristics of a site NYC's Manhattan Island is twice as large today as it was in 1626 Peter Minuit bought the island from its native inhabitants for the equivalent of $23.75 worth of Dutch gold and silver coins Additional land area was created by filling in portions of the East river and the Hudson river In 18th century lan

Today in class we had a blog review/check. Mr. Schick called each of us up one by one to go over how our blog looks. He noted things such as: The title should not be the date change the format to make it easier to access and view posts  Since I am the last in the alphabet for this class I had time to fix mine. The change made it easier to read and I like the set up better. I changed the titles so when we have an open blog quiz or test I will know where everything is. Mr. Schick complimented mine saying he liked the layout of my blog. The next thing we did is review our map worksheets we completed last week. This worksheet made us locate continents and countries so we could get to know our world a bit better. We had a big discussion about Brazil when it came up. We discussed how much money was not gained back after they hosted the Olympics and how they destroyed many people's houses who were poor.

Why is Each Point on Earth Unique? Each place on Earth is in some respects unique and in other ways similar to other places. The interplay between the uniqueness of each place and the similarities among places lies at the heart of geographic questioning about why things are found where they are. Two basic concepts help geographers to explain why every point on Earth is in some ways unique- place and region . The difference between two concepts is partly a matter of scale: a place is a point, whereas a region is an area. We watched a video that Mr. Schick created about the fire drill. The sound of the alarm in the beginning kept being played which was almost as annoying as the actual thing Region: an area or division, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not only fixed boundaries place: a particular position or point in space (realized that Thursday I accidentally hit the save button instead of publish)

Mental Maps and Activity Spaces How do you describe where things are? How do you describe your daily routine? A mental map is a person's point-of-view perception of their area of interaction, most commonly called your activity space.  Today in class we had to make a mental map of the world and a sketch of our path/routine to school. I think I did pretty well on my mental map. Of course, it wasn't perfect because I couldn't look at a map but my routine to school was the best. I had everything labeled and Mr. Schick loved it. Then we went on to looking up our addresses to see how correct we were. Even though i didn't check mine I knew I was correct because mine was extremely detailed and I go on it everyday. I think writing it out was a really cool to see everyone's ways to school. It helped me learned something I was familiar with but did not have memorized. 

Today in class we didn't learn anything and basically had a study hall. I worked on my science homework and watched Netflix but Mr. Schick made me turn it off. We were allowed to go to our lockers to get books and such. I went up with Kelsie and wrote my name on her stick on chalkboard that's in her locker. It's crazy the difference of the hallways when there's classes going versus when there's not. We went back to class and I worked on my blog, english, and science homework. I like having these types of classes because it not only helps the teacher get things done but also students get homework done. I think we should have these classes often. Possibly every other Monday would be great. It gives us a chance to unwind during the busy day. It helped me come home from school today and not have much work to do.

On Friday we learned about Mercator vs Peter maps. The mercator map is used in most schools and is the map people recognize. The mercator map distorts the world from what it actually looks like meaning some people don't realize how big some places are. It distorts the size and shape of objects approaching the poles. Mr. Schick showed us a video about people realizing the map we know is wrong. The important places are bigger than ones that are not. I am posting this on September 17 at 12:11 a.m as I remembered at 11:59 to do it. I have had a very hectic week. Im in a show that has required me to go to the University of Delaware tuesday-sunday right after I finish dance at JC. I had my first performance today and I got home about thirty minutes ago and just remembered this so I'm hoping I can at least get partial credit.

Thinking Geographically key questions: how do geographers describe where things are? why is each point on earth unique? why are different places similar? why are some actions unsustainable? Intro- regions are a highly contest yet important concept in the study of human geo and can be studied as they relate to space, place, and location.  Regions allow us to generalize about a characteristic so we can better group them. A formal region is an area with a high level of consistency in a certain cultural or physical attribute. Formal regions are uniform or homogeneous areas where everyone in that region shares common attributes or traits like language, climate, or political system. formal regions are primarily used to determine and outline political, cultural and economic regions. We completed a map that listed regions such as North America, South American, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Russian Federation, Antartica, Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa

Today in class we took a 100 point test. I felt I did alright but I know there were some answers I was unsure about. I forgot what a perihelion and a stenographer was. Although, I felt I did pretty well with the essay questions. I tried my best to answer each one with as much detail as possible. My guess is that I got around a B on the test. There were a lot questions I felt confident on but definitely some I didn't know on the four point questions. I liked how the test was set up. If you study right from your textbook you'll be sure to do well. Next test, I'll make sure to review my notes/vocab a little bit more. Mr.Schick made the test challenging, but not to the point to where I thought it was impossible. Next time I will be sure to improve my study habits and hopefully feel more confident than I did today.

Today we discussed 9/11 and what information will be on our test tomorrow. Some things we discussed about 9/11 was where Mr. Schick was, students that were affected by it, and how everyone dealt with it. Exactly sixteen years ago the entire school went to mass like we did on Friday. Mr. Schick told us everyone was shocked and upset by the news. Most people imagined it to be tiny planes or even a helicopter to be flown into the Twin Towers, not a jet. Sadly, a girl who went to John Carroll her father was in it and passed. My mom always talks about it to me saying she remembers it like it was yesterday. Although it is sad, I find the topic quite interesting and would love to learn more about it by going to the museum in New York City. Then, we talked about our quiz tomorrow. Tomorrow we will have a 100 point test with four mini writing answers. We have to review things from Garcia, vocab, Ancient Greece, and Socrates.

The Controversy Athens was a great city which attracted brilliant thinkers visitors form all over the world shared their knowledge of astronomy, medicine, meteorology. literature, philosophy and all things scientific this was often at odds with traditional teachings which centered around the Greek gods, which got young people thinking and questioning The Trial Socrates was charged with 2 crimes corruption of Athens' youth impiety ( not believing in the gods of the state) His defense: "it's my job to be gadfly to the lazy, sluggish horse that is Athens" "I should actually be rewarded with free dinner for life" a jury of 500 male citizens found him guilty (279-221) sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock he had the opportunity to escape, but refused, proving his loyalty to Athenian democracy idiot- someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private as opposed to public aff

Agora: a public open space used for assemblies and markets. Also the center of athletic, artistic and political life in a city (especially Athens) Polis: a city state in Greece. Political entities ruled by citizens, origin of words, politics, metropolitan and poll 508 BC: Democracy is introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes. He establishes a constitution and is often called the "Father of Athenian Democracy". This is the first time people have revolted against their nation. Socrates: A classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He fought in the Peloponnesian war and was a teacher. Death of Socrates: He died in 399 BC. He lost the trial and was sentenced to a death penalty. His death was labeled a suicide after drinking a cup of poisoned hemlock. The Socratic Method: A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking.

Today we talked about "A Message to Garcia" some key notes were slipshod: putting a horseshoe on poorly and having it fall off published in 1899 sold over 40 million copies made into pamphlets   made into two motion pictures written by Elbert Hubbard We talked about the importances of each character and the essays we wrote. We took notes about important vocab that would be on future quizzes. We read through the essay and comprehended the vocab words that we didn't understand before. We saw a picture of a comparison between then and now. It was another Message to Garcia but this time in reply it was said that they would just tweet the person. My class and I understood where they were going but didn't feel it was accurate because the person wasn't giving up. They were just making it easier on themselves by tweeting it instead of delivering it but they were still getting the job done.