Test tomorrow

Tomorrow in class we will have a test on Ancient Greece. Today some people finished their essays, but since my group was done we watched the video that Mr. Schick had on his blog. The video was about Ancient Greece and was almost an hour long. I think that I know most of the content on Ancient Greece and I think that I will get a good grade.

Group essay

Today in class we worked in our groups on the project. My group is mostly done we just need to add a few more facts on some of our paragraphs and we have to review our work. I think my group will get a good grade on the project. Tomorrow we will probably work on the essay then we will watch the video that Mr. Schick has on his blog.

Essay

In West Civ on Friday we worked on our group essays. Mr. Schick was on a plane to the Netherlands to visit his daughter so we had a sub for class. My group worked on our essay and we are almost done our individual parts for the essay. I feel that my group will get a good grade on our project.

Greek people and philosophers

Greeks were warlike people. Spartans were trained at the age of seven to become soldiers. Athenians had a great infantry but nothing could compare to the their navy. The Trireme was one of the greatest weapons of its time, it was the fastest ship and it could be used as a battering ram. Phalanx-close rank, dense grouping of warriors, they were armed with long spears and shields.

The three great philosophers in Greece were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Socrates looked to science and logic in the world. The Socratic method fostered critical thinking and got people to think for themselves. Plato was a student of Socrates, he wrote two books the Apology and the Republic. The Apology was about Socrates' trial and the Republic was about what he thought government should be like. The Apology was and still is one of the most influential book in the world. Aristotle was one of Plato's students, he had his own school. This school was called the Lyceum, this was a place were information from all over the world and the information could be discussed. Technically Aristotle created the idea of the internet, because it was a place to find information.

Democracy and the Gods

After Hippias, two aristocrats, Isagoras and Cleisthenes, ran to take power of the government. Isagoras became the tyrant, and after he came to power he ostracized cleisthenes. The Greeks did not like the way Isagoras was controlling the government so they revolted against his power. This was the first time in history when regular people joined together to revolt against the government. This occurred in 508 BCE and after they threw Isagoras out and brought back Cleisthenes into the government. After being brought back, Cleisthenes decided to give government power to the people. This created lead to the creating of democracy where everyone who was a citizen had a vote/part in government. Greek Gods and Goddesses, in their mythology, had interactions with humans. Most Gods and Goddesses had some sort of connection to Zeus, The ruler of heaven and earth. The Gods were the gods of normal things such as Zeus- the God of the sky and thunder, Aphrodite- the Goddess of love and beauty, or Apollo- the God of music and arts.

Presentations pt. 2

Today all of the groups presented their power points. We had West Civ first so we had extra time, but Mr. Schick's computer took a long time to load. After his computer loaded people presented their projects. After the presentations we talked about the essay that we will write this week. Also Mr. Schick showed us his sample essay about writing an essay that he put on his blog.

Presentations

In West Civ most of the groups presented their projects. My group was the third and last group to go because when we ended there was only a couple minutes left in class. I felt that my group did a good job presenting our project, also i think that we will get a good grade on it. The rest of the groups will present on Monday then we will work on our essays.

3 Forms of Government in Greece

Aristocracy- Ruled by the aristocrats. The aristocrats ran city states such as Sparta, Athens, etc.
Symposiums were meetings where aristocrats would about government and politics and at these meetings they would have entertainment. The entertainment would be watching acrobats and dancers and drinking wine(a lot of wine). This was an Exclusive club, no women, people from the middle class, no slaves, and sometimes even some aristocrats when they were falling out of favor. These aristocrats would be ostracized from the symposiums. when they were forced outside they would from alliances with hoplites (elite and well trained soldiers) and they would create a tyranny. A Tyrant ruled outside of the government and would seize power.
Hippias- a tyrant who ruled from 527-510 BCE. When his brother was murdered he became a harsh ruler. When he found who killed his brother, he killed them and everyone connected to them. He was then ostracized from Athens (This punishment was considered worst than death). After this he formed an alliance with the Persians and told them about was to attack Athens.

Greek notes

Today Mr. Schick was at the playoffs for academic team so our assignment was to take notes on the new slides of the Greece is the word power point. During the seventh and sixth centuries BCE the aristocrats controlled most of the government in Greece. the rich people held most power in society and this relates to many other governments such as ancient Egypt where the white kilt class held most of the power. Aristocrats would have parties where they would talk about government and have forms of entertainment such as drinking wine,reading poetry, and watching acrobatics. No women or people from the middle class were allowed at these events unless they were entertainers. Aristocrats would sometimes form alliances with hoplites (well-armed soldiers) and make a tyranny. a tyrant is someone who rules outside the framework of the polis. Tyrants are abusive rulers who seize power in government.

Group project work

Today in West Civ we worked on our group projects. We had West civ for the first mod so we had more time to work on the project. My group found more information on Greek art and architecture and i think that we are really close to being fully done. I think everyone in my group has contributed equally when coming to the work put into the power point.

Group work

In class on Friday we were given back our pop quizzes. I got a 100%, and my classes average was 90.5%. After we were given back our test we worked on our group projects. My group worked on finding information on Athenian art and architecture. I found information on the three different styles of structure in Greece. My group found good information on our subject.

Popquiz

POP! Today in west civ we had a pop quiz on the information on the Ancient Greece powerpoint. There were ten questions on the test and we had 10 seconds to answer each question. I thought the test was very easy and it turns out that I got a 10/10. After we went over the test we talked more about our project and about Gumby.

Projects and crying babies

Today Mr. Schick talked about the survey that his human geo class took. There were many miss spellings in the writing part of the survey. Then we watched videos of crying babies. This was a pretty weird class. Then Mr. Schick said that we would be doing a project. Our project would be on Athenian Art and Architecture and my partners were me, Jake meadows, and Avery Dinger.

Facts on Greece

The Greeks were very good traders because they were skilled sailors. They traded grapes olives and grains with people who lived in/near the Mediterranean sea. In Greece there was not really anywhere to grow a lot of types of food except for grapes, olives, and grains. Olives were very essential because they could be made into many things such as soaps and oil. Also they only grown in Greece and Rome, but Greece was better at transporting and trading their olives.The temperature in Greece was usually a high of 80's in the summer and a low of 40's in the winter
The Mycenaeans, Around 2000 BCE they influenced what was going on in Greece and made a 20 foot thick wall around the city-state. The Myceneans ruled over Greece with kings from 1600 BCE to  1200 BCE. Once they invaded the Dorians they mixed their cultures and languages.These people were constantly invaded by the "sea people" and the sea people would burn everything. There is not a lot of information on these people because they did not write down anything for a long period of time. This period of time was called the "Greek Dark Ages" During this time a blind story teller composed stories about the Trojan War. Homer wrote stories like Iliad which is about the last conquest of the Myceneans. The Odyssey was a story about a man trying to get back home and his journey is thwarted by Posiden. There is a theory that homer didn't even exist and that the stories were just multiple people making it up together. This theory is called "Homeric question"

Plato

Plato was a philosopher and a mathematician born in  428/427 or 424/423 BCE and lived to be 80 years old. Plato was bon into a rich family which was a very politically active family. Plato was a student of Socrates and he taught Aristotle. Socrates Plato and Aristotle all worked together to lay down the foundations of science and western philosophy. Plato wrote many books such as The Republic and in his books he would talk about questions of justice, courage, and virtue. He founded one of the first European universities. Plato had many forms of philosophy such as the state, theory of forms, and dialectic. There were multiple accounts of his death but no one knows the real reason for death.

Cyber day and the future

Today in West Civ we talked about how we would not really have school tomorrow and that we would have a cyber day. Mr. Schick also said that there was a good chance that we wouldn't have school on Friday along with Thursday. Mr. Schick saw cyber days as a time were everyone in class does a big video chat and it would be like having class online. After talking about how cyber days are we talked about how technology has progressed. We talked about a man who had a heart monitor in his heart and how if his heart had problems a message would be sent to his doctor and he would deal with the problem. We continued talking about this subject and then class ended. I thought it was a pretty interesting class.

Greece notes in class

Today Mr. Schick gave back the Egypt test and the scan trons so we could use it as a review for the exam. After going over the test questions we talked about Greece and went over the power point.
Ancient Greece
- The world's great civilizations were all located near rivers.
-Water is an essential part of the success of civilizations
-The biggest cities in America were built on forms of water
- The cities of Greece had hatred for one another even though there lifestyles were similar such as wearing the same clothing, having the same religion, etc.
-Greece is surrounded by many islands and seas
- The terrain of Greece was very mountainous, 3/4 of Greece is mountains
-Mediterranean's root word is Terra. Terra means earth, therefor Mediterranean means "Middle of earth"

Ancient Greece

Most of the great civilizations of the world were located near rivers such as Mesopotamia located near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers or Egypt located around the Nile river. But in Ancient Greece's case, This civilization was surrounded by the Mediterranean sea, the Ionian sea, and the Aegean sea. Also Ancient Greece's land seems to be elevated meaning it was a very rocky land with mountains towards the center of the country. Since Greece has this type of geography the civilization could have been very isolated from the rest of the world. This can affect there culture by allowing the Greeks to have one official religion of Greece and to have there own government system. These factors of Greece can go unaffected from the rest of the world. There is a large island south of Greece called Crete. Athens was located near the sea, and Sparta was located in an area surrounded by mountains and it had a river going through it.