12/10

Today we took a test in class. I thought I did pretty well but apparently I didn't. I even studied for the test, but still didn't get the grade I wanted. I thought most of the questions were fairly easy but that didn't show in my grade. Hopefully I do better on the next test.

12/8

I was not in class today because I had a doctors appointment for my knee.

12/5

• political alliances: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), commonwealth of nations, Organization of American States (OAS)

 We went over some religions that are the most popular in this world. The ones we went over were, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Christianity is around 2.2 adherents. They are called Christians. Islam is around 1.5 billion adherents. They are called Muslims. Hinduism is around 1.1 billion adherents. They are called Hindus. Buddhism is around 500 million adherents. They are called Buddhists.  

12/3

- reigion can be both a unifying force.
- there a five major religions in the world today, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
- they have millions of followers all believing the same thing.
- religion can also be a dividing force around the world.
- there are conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
- Jerusalem is the holy city/site to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
- spatial divisions are how we divide the livable space found on the earth by establishing social, economic, and political control.
- you could be a member of more than on spatial group.
- spatial divisions can also cause conflicts or cooperatioin
- examples of spatial divisions: countries, economic alliances, european union, and the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

12/2

- cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life.- they are the ideaas and themes which the group will TEACH to all members.
- examples of cultural characteristics are language, religion, and ethnic heritage.
- Canada is a bilingual nation meaning they speak two different languages fluently.
- Switzerland has multiple languages but very little conflict between the groups.
- English is now considered the world language and is used for most business transactions around the world.
- In Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians).
- When strong leadership died out, the different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they all have separate countries.
- In the countries of Rwanda and Burundi in Africa, two ethnic groups are dominant, the Tutsis and the Hutus.
- The USA and Switzerland have peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their country.
- Korea, China, and Japan have primarily one ethnic group.

12/1

Today in class we watched the end of the movie we were watching. Then we went back to the classroom and talked a little bit about the movie. Mr. Schick answered a phone call from the office that was for me and scared the crap out of me by saying I was in a lot of trouble, along with another one of my classmates.

11/24 - 11/25

I was not in class yesterday or today.

11/21

The movie that we watched today was very eye opening. Our culture and tradition is so much different. Trash is everywhere, streets, river, etc. Piles and piles of junk EVERYWHERE you go. There is no space at all in the Slums. There is barley any space for the kids to play at all. They were playing cricket on the runway.When everybody was getting chased, it was just a free for all. The relationship between the police and the citizens is horrible! Our lives are very different and it makes me grateful for what i have here in the united states. 

11/19

Mr. Schick was not here today so we had a substitute teacher. In class all we did was work on our songs on Spotify. I found a few songs that i thought were very good for the assignment we were doing. The assignment was to find songs related to push/pull factor. If we had gotten that done before the end of class we were aloud to work on homework for other classes. I got what i needed to get done for Mr. Schick's class and also got some of my other homework done which was very helpful because I have a lot of homework tonight.

11/18 continued

The Calling- Wherever You Go
The Fray- You found Me
Matisyahu- Live Like a Warrior
John Lenon- Imagine

11/18

May the reign of the Emperor continue for a thousand, nay, eight thousand generations and for the eternity that it takes for small pebbles to grow into a great rock and become covered with moss.

11/17

Today in class we looked at what we got on our test. I'm not happy with the way I did because i felt like i actually did pretty well on it. Mr. Schick also told us about how he and his team won the academic contest. They got first which is very impressive. There is a freshman on the team, Drew, who is in my advisory and is VERY smart. Once we were done talking about that, we started a new section called Cultural Geography. We look at a graph that was about what different people in different country's call soda.

11/12

Russia (cont.):

• legislative executive and judiciary
• presidents the commander in chief
• main political party is United Russia
• country's are scared to attack Russia because of Puttin and his weapons

Brazil:

• has a Federal republic
• 4 year terms
• can be re-elected 2 times in a row
• Dilma Rousseff president
• she was re-elected about 3 weeks ago 
• after this term she has to take a break if she wants to serve again
• impeachment, elect another president, assasination

Mexico:

• Enrique Pena Nieto president
• member of the Institutional Revolutionary party
• re-elected, impeached, assasination
• federal republic

11/10

Syria:

• repunlic under an authoritarian regime
• Bashar-al-Assad, born in Damascus
• born into a poor family
• had a republic under an authoritarian regime since 1941 (73 years)
• last election was held in June 2014

Germany:

• The wall started coming down 25 years ago since yesterday, 11/9/14
• president- Joachim Guack
• been in office since March 23, 2012
• independent political party
• Chancellor is Angela Merkel
• shes been in office since November 22, 2000
• the president can be impeached
• he is not elected by the people, he or she is elected by a Federal Convention
• Angela Merkel is nominated by the president
• the Bundestag can kick the chancellor out

United Kingdom:

• constitutional monarchy has been around since 1066 and developed over several centuries
• the prime minister has no term limits 
• appointed by the Monarch
• David Cameron- prime minister
• leader of the conservative party
• 2010- became prime minister
• prime minister appoints the members of the government
• 2 Houses: House of the Commons and House of the Lords

United States:

• President- Barack Obama
• Constitutional based federal republic
• by law a president can only serve a term for 4 years but can be elected for another term for another 4 years

Russia:

• federation is the type of government
• governed under the constitution of 1993
• Russia became Russian Federation in 1991
• Vladimir Putin president
• served as president from 2000 to 2008
• he changed the constitution from 4 year terms to 6 year terms
• he is in the united russia party

11/7

China:

• president serves for 10 years 
• Xi Jinping
• has only been president for 2 years 
• impeachment
• assassination
• re-elct
• nobody is allowed to say weather or not if some likes or dislikes the president

Canada:

• 12 parties
• leader of the government is the Prime Minister (Stephen Harper)
• Stephen Harper is 22nd Prime Minister of Canada
• no term limits
• prime minister is in office until they resign, dismissed, or dies

11/5

France:

• republic government and semi-presidential system.that measn it has a president alongside a prime minister. 
• president Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls are the leaders 
• Valls was elected April 1st, 2014
• prime minister is appointed by the president
• republic government- supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercized by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them
• gov. started in 1958
•  leaders can be changed by: new election, revolution, boycott, assassinate, 
• Hollande is likely to run for president once again for his second and final term
• potential runners for the next election: Nicolas Sarkozy, Manuel Valls, Alain Jupe, and many others

11/4

Today in "class" we went by the courtyard where there were people that had displays about different kinds of cancer. The cancers that were being told about were testicular cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer. The lung cancer table had two pig lungs, one that was healthy and one that was equivalent to somebody who had smoked a pack of cigs everyday for a year. Seeing the lung that was a smokers lung makes me never even want to see a cigarette again. I will NEVER smoke after seeing that lung. Also, the skin cancer table showed how significant it is to wear sunscreen. It's scary to think that you can get cancer from the sun!

10/29

Today in class we did more research on the country that we are doing a powerpoint on. The country I am researching is Japan.

• Tsugunomiya Akihito was born on December 23, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan.
• He began his education at the Peers' School in 1940, but left Tokyo for his safety toward the end of World War II.
• Akihito eventually returned to the Peers School in the late 1940s and enrolled at Gakushuin University in 1952, although he never received a degree.

10/20

Dilma Rousseff:
 was arrested for revolting against the brazilian government
 she was tortured in jail
 Enrique Peña Nieto:
He had a son with Maritza Hernandez while he was married to another woman; she later called him a neglectful father on Facebook.
 Vladimir Putin: 
He earned a black belt in judo when he was 18.

10/18

Mexico
Constitution: Federal Republic
President:Enrique Pena Nieto

China
Constitution: Communist State
President: Xi Jinping

India
Constitution: Federal Republic

President: Prenab Mahkerjee

Russia
Constitution: Federation
President: Vladimir Putin

Germany
Constitution: Federal Republic
President: Joachim Gauck

United Kingdom
Constitution: Constitutional monarchy and common wealth realm
Prime Minister: David Cameron

France
Constitution: Republic
President: François Hollande

Brazil
Constitution: Federal Republic
President: Dilma Rousseff

Syria
Constitution: Republic under an authoritarian reign
President: Bashar al-Assad

Canada
Constitution: A parliamentary
Prime Minister:  Stephen Harper

Japan
Constitution: A parliamentary government with a constitutional monarchy
Prime Minister: Shinzo Abe

Israel
Constitution: Parliamentary democracy
Prime Minister: Benjamin Netanyahu

test today

I thought the test was fairly easy. I liked how we were able to use our computers because I feel like it made the test easier because I knew what I was doing on the world fact book. there were a few questions I wasn't sure about but other than those questions I feel like i did very well on the test. Going over the vocab in class and review was also very helpful for the test if you took notes or just payed attention.

10/8

Today in class we went over a review for the test. Mr. Schick pulled up our vocab words and we went over them explaning  what they are and how they work. The words are:

• life expectancy
• crude  birth rate
• crude death rate
• developing nations
• developed nations
• rate of natural increase
• net migration
• immigration
• emigration
• push force
• pull force
• total fertility rate

I did not only write down the words i also did examples for the words so i know and understand them better. I feel like i know these words very well because i actually payed attention. Another word that we went over is infrastructure. Infrastructure is what a country needs to be connected to the rest of the world (to buy goods, trade goods, sell goods, import goods, etc.), also allows us to communicate with the rest of the world. Transportation infrastructure is how the infrastructure is transported around. Ex: railroads, roads, runways, airlines, etc. 

10/7

Today in class we talked about spotify. Spotify is a free site that you can download on your laptop, phone, tablet, etc. The reason we are doing this in class is because Mr. Schick wants us to find songs about moving around and migration. Any kind of music, rock, pop, jazz, country, etc. I think this could be a very fun thing to do but also be pretty difficult. If you are familiar with a lot of music it could be a very easy thing to do for you, but if you don't really listen to music a lot it could be difficult.

In class the other day we somewhat reviewed a powerpoint that some people missed because of the retreat. The powerpoint was on facts about life expectancy and other interesting things. Life expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. Right now on this earth there are over 7 billion people. Thats a lot!

absent

I was absent today because i got surgery on my knee. I will not be in class tomorrow either, but i will be on monday.

class debate

In class yesterday we debated on where we should sit. Mr. Schick thought we should have assigned seats but everyone in the class thought different. Everyone thought different because everyone likes sitting next to there friends. There are some pros and cons about sitting where we want. A pro is that we love sitting next to our friends and being able to talk to them. A con is if we are sitting next to our friends we are most likely not going to get our work done. But we are completely capable to get our work done we just have to be responsible and mature.

Agora- A public open space used for assemblies and markets
Arete- A sharp mountain ridge
Polis- A city state in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes.
The Year 508 BC- The year 508 BC was known as the Year of the Consulship of Poplicola and Tricipitinus.
Socrates- A classical greek philosipher who is credited with laying the fundamentals of modern Western philosophy. He is known for creating Socratic irony and the Socratic method.
The Death of the Socrates-   A 1787 oil on canvas painting by the French painter Jacques-Louise David.
The Socratic Method-  A form of inquiry and discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering questions.

another one

Todays class was boring. We sat on our laptops all class and did nothing. It was a little bit frustrating because i do not have my own laptop yet. I’m not sure if being slightly bored or totally overwhelmed with work is better, but right now I’ll enjoy easing into the new school year. I feel like I will really like the class this year because not only the teacher, but i love learning about the world and what is going on.

blog from 8/28

1. The first thing that will make me sucessful freshman year is being organized. By being organized I mean knowing what classes you have that day, what homeowrk you have to do, and what books you will need.
2. Another thing that will make you sucessful is getting to know people. If you know a lot of people that go to you're school and are friends with a lot of people, it will be easier as a freshman to be sucessful.
3. The third thing is do all you're homework! It goes along with being organized, if you do all youre homework that will help you out a lot!
4. Show up to class. That's very helpful!
5. One last thing is get to know the school before the school year starts! If you know where all yo're classes are before you even start school, you will be set!

9/2 log

- Elbert Hubbard was the author of “A Message to Garcia” in 1899
- Rowan- deliverer of the message
- Pres. McKinley wanted message to be delivered
- Pres. needs to get message to Garcia but there is only one man that can deliver that message and it is Rowan.
- the Spanish American War was going on during the time
- Takes place in Cuba
- Metaphor- being a reliable person