Reviewing for Middle Ages

Today in class we did our review for our middle ages test tomorrow, i think i will do pretty good on this test because i really made sure i paid attention this unit because i really need to bring my grade up so i am going to write down every fact he said should be on the test

Middle Ages = Medevil
AD 476 - AD 1453

This new society has roots in:
- Classical heritage of Rome
- beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church
- customs of various Germanic tribes

Germanic Invaders
Overrun the western half of the Roman Empire causing:
- disruption of trade
- downfall of cities
- population shifts to rural areas

Effects of Invasion
Decline of learning
- tribes had oral tradition, songs, but couldnt read Greek or Latin
- Romance languages evolve (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian)
- few besides priests were literate

Germanic warriors loyalty is to the lord of the manor, he provides them w/ food, weapons, treasure

Clovis rules the Franks (which is where "France" comes from
in 496 he has a battlefield conversion - he and 3000 of his warriors became christians

Church plus Frankish Rulers equals rise in Christianity
in 520, benedict writes rules for monks:
- vows of poverty
- chastity
- obedience
his sister scholastica writes similar rulers for nuns
they operate schools, maintain libraries, copy books

Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads, and raise armies
This is Theocracy
Gregorys spiritual kingdom extends from italy to england, from spain to germany

Clovis descendants include Charles Martel, known as Charles the Hammer
Hammer defeats a Muslim raiding party from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732

Charles Martel's son is Pepin the Short
Pepin the Short dies in 768, leaving two sons
one of them being Charlemagne

Charlemagne fought the Muslims in Spain
fought germanic tribes

Reviewing Charlemagne

Today in class we got to see the google presentation of the Charlemagne power point, it had a little bit more detail so it was good so we can do better on the test. There was also quite a bit of old stuff from the word powerpoint so there was quite a bit of review as well. Mr. Schick said our test is next wednesday so i really need to try my best on this test to bring my grade up.

Notes on The Dark Ages

• Feudalism - a political, military and economic system based on land handling 
• Manor: The lord's estate
• It is a self-sufficient community
• It is harsh if you are a peasent
• Peasents are poor and pay high taxes
• They live in crowded cottages
• Live with animals and insects
• Eat VERY simply
• Many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire were reunited under Charlemagne's empire
• Charlemagne spread christian civilization throughout northern Europe, which is where most of us came from
• Middle Ages - medieval period
• 500 - 1500 AD
• medieval Europe is fragmented
• Invasions trigger changes in western Europe
• Invasions and constant warfare spark new trends
• Disruption of trade
• Europe's cities are no longer economic centers
• Money is scarce
• Downfall of cities
• Cities are no longer economic centers
• Population Shifts
• Nobles retreat to the rural areas
• Cities don't have strong leadership
• Invasions trigger changes in western Europe
• Decline of Learning
• Germanic invaders are illiterate, but they communicate through oral tradition
• Only priests and church officials could read and write
• Knowledge of Greek is almost lost
• Loss of a common language
• Dialects develop in different regions
• By the 800s, French, Spanish, other roman-based languages are evoloving from latin
• Germanic Kingdoms Emerge
• The concept of government changes
• Roman Society: loyalty to public gov't
• Germanic Society: Loyal to Family
• Germanic chief led warriors
• During preace, he provided food, weapons, treasure, a place to live
• During Wartime, warriors fought for the lord
• Germanic Kingdoms Emerge
• The Franks Under Clovis
• Another battlefield conversion
• Clovis and 3000 of his warriors are baptized by the bishop
• The church in Rome approves of this alliance
• Clovis and the church begin to work together
• Germanic peoples adopt christianity
• Pope Gregory 1 expands papal power
• 511 AD - Clovis unites Franks into one Kingdom
• Fear of Muslims in southern Europe spur many to become Christians
• 731 AD - The Venerable Bede wrote a killer history of England
• Monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and copied books
• Charlemagne aka Charles the Great
• Built the greatest empire since Rome
• Fought the Muslims in Spain
• Fought Germanic tribes
• Spread Christianity
• Reunited West Europe
• Became most powerful king
• Pope Leo III crowned him emperor in 800 AD after he defended him from an unruly Roman mob
• This signaled the joining of Germanic power, the Church, and the heritage of the Roman Empire
• He limited the authority of the nobles
• He regularly visited every part of his kingdom
• Kept close with huge estates
• Encouraged learning
• Opened a palace school
• His son Louis the Pious was ineffective
• Louis' three sons Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German split the kingdom up in the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD

Taking Notes on The MIddle Ages

Today in class we went over our last rome test, which honestly most of the ones i got wrong were the ones that i really had trouble with. Then after that we started to take notes one The Middle Ages which Mr.Schick says is probably the most boring unit we have done. We really arent too far into it to know how boring it is but i guess we will just have to wait and see.

Reviewing questions for test

Today in class we reviewed for our test which is tomorrow and i am actually feeling really good about this test on rome. It is on all of Rome and what has to do with it and i really think i will do well. Ive said that a lot of times where ended up failing but i truly have a feeling about this one.

Notes on the Decline of the Roman Empire

• Christianity was growing to the point where even some Roman leaders started to embrace Christianity
• AD 313: Constantine has a battlefield conversion
• He had every person paint a cross somewhere on there gear and before the battle they prayed to the christian God and ended up winning
• After that Constantine gave all the credit to God for them winning
• AD 180: Rome has problems 
• economic (trade became risky, taxes were high, food supply wad dropping)
• Military (frontiers were hard to control, Roman generals fought for control, soldiers loyalty declined)
• Diocletian divided the empire into two
• Greek- Speaking east and the Latin- Speaking west
• Diocletian (Latin: Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus) (245–311) was Roman emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus' other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. Diocletian's reign stabilized the empire and marks the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian as augustus, co-emperor, in 286.
• AD 324 - Constantine becomes emperor over both halves of the empire
• moves the capitol from Rome to Byzantium (renamed constantinople), where asia met europe
• after his death, empire is divided again
• this time, barbarian invaders overrun the frontiers
• thats it for the Roman Empire (AD 476)
• Diocletian ruled from 284 - 303, hated christians, wanted a big army and government
• Constantine ruled from 306 - 337, liked christians, was a christian, built a new capitol in the east
• The Edict of Milan refers to the February 313 agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Milan and among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians.The document known as the Edict of Milan (Edictum Mediolanense) is found in Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum and in Eusebius of Caesarea's History of the Church with marked divergences between the two. Whether or not there was a formal 'Edict of Milan'  is debatableThe version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict. It is a letter from Licinius to the governors of the provinces in the Eastern Empire he had just conquered by defeating Maximin later in the same year and issued in Nicomedia.
• Struggle of the Peasents
• Country dwellers are getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• new farming system
• peasents can avoid paying taxes, but they are getting hit just as hard by the landlords
• paying off debts and being allowed to live on the land, in exchange for endless back breaking work
• landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power than the faraway empire
• foreshadowing feudalism
• Romes power is decreasing, while nomadic barbarians gain power
• western empire is too poor
• huns migrate to eastern europe
• visigoths take over spain, and actually capture and loot rome
• vandals control carthage and western mediterranean
• other barbarians tribes, ostrogoths, franks, and the angles and saxons
• Roman Timeline
• 500 BC - monarchy is abolished
• 450 BC - the 12 tables are established
• 44 BC - end of the line for Julius Caesar
• 27 BC - 180 AD - the pax romana
• 475 AD - the last emperor was installed, who was a teenage boy whos name was Romulus Agustulus
• BOOM! End of an empire

Test Day!!!!!

Today in class we took a test and i actually thought i was going to do pretty good. Then he showed me my grade. It sucked, i study and i pay attention its just when a test comes around i just cant do good.

Reviewed our Test on Rome

Today in class we reviewed our test on rome that we took before spring break and im not too happy with the results. He had shown us our scores before and posted them on powerschool but after taking a closer look at it, i really should have done better. Lot of the questions i got wrong were easy ones that really shouldnt be wrong. Then after that we started reviewing julius caesar and all that has to do with that and we have a test on it on wednesday so i am going to study really hard for this one and making sure i do a lot better this time.

More Notes on Rome
- After Caesars death there was split power between Octavian/Augustus, Mark Antony, and Lepidus

- Soon the three began fighting over the power and Octavian was able to defeat both of them in 31 B.C.

- He then managed to turn military dictatorship into a permanent monarchy

- Augustus's power kept many features of the roman republic and allowed subject peoples a good deal of self-rule. He also brought Rome's expansion of their empire to a halt

- This led to 200 years of stability that scholars call Roman Peace (Pax Romana)

- When Augustus gained power he killed many of the senators and replaced them with his friends and family, the assembly was completely destroyed and the common people no longer had a say. But this was ok with the citizens because they trusted Augustus

- Augustus made people worship him as a god and made them believe that he actually cam from the gods

- Augustus made many changes to Rome, first he brought the system of government appointments under his
personal control, He made the army more loyal and reliable by only having volunteers serve in the army for a period of 25 years

- After stopping the expansion of Rome Augustus had his army stationed in permanent camps instead of allowing them to fight in different countries

- Augustus wanted a loyal leader to take over when he died like what Caesar did to him, but he didn't have a son, so he adopted a son named Tiberius who he wanted to take over after he died and he did take over

- This led to a system that kept the roman government in stable monarchy for 200 years (Pax Romana)

- The power was handed down through son to son, but most of the emperors didn't have a son so they would adopt the boy who they wanted to take over power

We Get a Break

Today we had a break class which means we didnt do anything. Basically we have a free mod to do whatever we want. I really liked it because it gave me a chance to get my work done. Thanks Mr. Schick

Finally got our Project Grades!!!

Today in class we finally got our project grades and i was pretty happy with ours because at least we didnt fail the project. I mean we probably could have done better but we started out with 4 rectangle pieces of styro-foam so i think we succeeded. Then after that we started to take more notes on Julius Caesar and Rome on our laptops.

Talking about Rome

Today in class we continued to talk about Rome and there history, we actually talked about a few interesting things. We talked about Julius Caesar, Soldiers, etc. and i thought most of it was pretty interesting and I think this is going to be a good unit because it really isn't too hard of unit, mainly because last year my S.S teacher did a huge unit on Rome. One thing I remember from last year was when Julius Caesar was murdered. I'm pretty excited for this unit and what is to come with it.

Sucky Test

So today we took a test, and i bombed it. I am really upset and just wish i did better, I dont know what happened i studied and did everything to help my score but it really didnt work out. I am going to have to do really good on this project so that  I dont fail

More Talking about Rome

Today in class we continued to talk about Rome but today was more review than anything. It was a lot about government and how it all worked. We really didnt do much but review the government.

The Romans Create a Republic

1.) How did geography affect the development of Rome?
Rome is located near the Mediterranean allowing it to trade with other islands in the area. The farmland in the area was of a very high quality, allowing it to sustain a large population.

2.) How did the Etruscans influence the development of Rome?

Rome adopted the Etruscans alphabet. Etruscans were responsible for their outstanding building program that the Romans adopted. Romans also adopted their dress style.

3.) Which were the main groups that competed for power in the early Roman republic?

The Nobles and The Common People

4.) What is the significance of the Twelve Tables in Roman law?
The twelve tables in the Roman law is very significant because they began to have set of rules and standards which they have to follow. Before twelve tables came to existence, the decision about conflicts are decided by judges as to what they believe is right and just.

5.) How did Rome regain control of Italy after the sacking of the city by the Gauls?
During the next century the Romans capitalized on their advantageous geographical position and rebuilt Rome

Talking about Rome

Today in class we talked about Rome and how they came to power and how they ran things. I thought alot of the stuff about Rome was pretty interesting and cool to hear. Mr. Schick was talking about quite a bit of things, at first he was talking about who all settled in Italy first and how Romans weren't one of them. Greeks were one of them and he was saying how after Greece fell the Romans took over. Then she started to talk about how we took the Roman government and put a little twist on it and it called it our own. It really just shows how much of a influence they had on the world.

New Project!!!

Today in class we spent the entire time talking about our new project we are doing. We are going to start working on it now and they aren't due until after spring break, I am pretty excited about this project and I really think it is going to be a good one. Me and Devin are working together for this project and we are planning on building a colesseum out of styro-foam and make a pretty cool sculpture. I am pretty excited and can't wait to get started on this project.

Test Day!!!

Today in class we took our test on Greece and I think I did pretty good, there were a few questions I had trouble with and I am a little shaky on but besides that I think I will get a good grade. The test wasnt really that hard, I mean I forgot about the test and I remembered most of the stuff on it. I think I got a B, I dont think it was good enough for an A but I definitely did better than a C. I was happy we were allowed to use our blog for this because without it I wouldnt have done as good, it actually helped me out quite a bit because some of the questions I was stumped on I had right in my blog so thats good.

Reviewing for test....again

Today in class we continued to review for the test tomorrow and i really think I am going to do good on this test. I am pretty confident in myself and I think i will do fine. At the beginning of class I had just opened my computer and saw I had an email so i checked it real quick and Mr. Schick got mad at me. He even made me go to the back of the room I don't think he needed to do that bu whatever.

Reviewing for the Test

Today in western civ we went over the handout. We got it like 3 weeks ago and we just went over it. It was based on the video that we have also been watching. That was what we did the entire time.

Reviewing for Test

Today in class, we went over our notes and corrected out answers from the work we had for cyberday. That was a really long sentence. I learned in class that the USA is part of the Western world. China is not because it isn't in the west. I also learned about oligarchies. Russia is an oligarchy that is taking over many countries. I also learned that Athens was the wealthiest city-state. I was wrong and put Corinth. Corinth is rich but not nearly as rich as Athens. Athens traded a lot and that is why they were so successful. I learned a lot in this class. Greece is very confusing with all of the weird names.

Have a Sub..... Again

Today in class we had another sub but this time it was because Mr.Schick had to go to the academic team playoffs. So we had had Mr. Del Puppo and we pretty much just sat in silence and did our work, all we really did by ourselves was review the quiz he gave us and just review any work that we have done. So yeah we really didnt do much today.

Cyber Day Assignment

1.  Many islands is not a characteristic of Greece
2. Approximately 3/4 of Greece is made up of mountains
3. barbarian means when  the Greeks first used this term to describe those foreigners that they could not understand, but seemed to be saying "bar bar" when speaking
4. A megalith structure is a massive  rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs
5.  the term tribe refers to all of these
6. tribes were governed by all of these
7.  Greeks were the first European barbarians to make contact with civilization
8. The US would not be considered a member of western civilization 
9. The Ionian Sea was located just west of the Greek mainland
10. The Aegean Sea was located just east of the Greek mainland
11. The major crops the Aegean people lived on was grain, vines, and olives
12. The Minoan  civilization arose on the island of Crete
13. The Mycenaean civilization established settlements along the Greek mainland’s southern shore and on some islands
14. the Mycenaean civilization built massive walls to protect themselves from attack
15. The Dark Ages was a period of Greek history in which the population dropped, ships no longer sailed, and writing fell out of use 
16.  Following this time period, the Greeks joined which group as the leading commercial and seafaring nation of the Mediterranean? The Phoenicians
17. The letter C is none of the above
18. By 600 BC, Greek city-states dotted the coastlines around the Mediterranean Sea.  These were called Colonies 
19. City-states most resembled cities
20. This is a form of government in which a small group of citizens dominated, and the power of the majority was limited in various ways- oligarchy 
21. This is a form of government in which decisions were made by the majority of adult male citizens- democracy
22.  This is a form of government in which a self-proclaimed dictator held power- tyranny
23. This is a form of government in which power is held by a single ruler, and is often passed along from father to son- monarchy 
24. Sparta had an oligarchy  government 
25. At age 7 Spartan males began their military training 
26. Athens was the wealthiest city-state
27. The acropolis was the religious center of an ancient Greek town
28. Peloponnesus was the name of the southern peninsula where Sparta was located
29. triremes  were massive fighting ships with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships
30. hoplite was a heavily armed and armored citizen-soldier of ancient Greece

Short Answer:

1. the dark ages began in 1100 Bc and ended in 800 BC
2. They were called the Odyssey and Iliad.
3. Mediterranean meant middle of the land
4.  Aristocrats were land-owners in Greece 

More Projects...

Today in class we continued to watch the video projects, we actually finished all of the videos except for one which was devin's and he was absent, i think. But yeah we got through most of them today and they were actually pretty good. Mr. Schick really liked that some of them included the school of Athens and a few other things. Mr. Schick said there were some really up and down projects. Ma and aidens project was last of the day and I dont think ours was that bad but it the greatest. Honestly you pretty much just sat there and watched other peoples video the entire time, you even just sat there and watched yours so we really didnt do much except for the videos.

Watching Projects

Today in class we started watching some of the projects that were due today, only a few groups got to go because Mr. Schick wanted them to stop and explain parts of their video. They were all pretty cool videos I liked them all and thought they were cool. My group never got a chance to go since he wanted us to explain the videos so we are going tomorrow. I think my group will do pretty good on it and we should get a pretty good grade.

Watching the Video by Ourself

Today in class we had a sub so mr.schick couldnt play the video for us so we had to watch it by ourselves. Alot of people were just watching others screens so we didnt have that many computers playing the same video. Then some people plugged in their headphones and watched quietly, a lot of people also just listened and did the worksheet. I think this is a really interesting video because it is showing us what life was like back then and i really find it interesting. That was really all we did during class, we really didnt do much.

More of the video

Today in class we watched some of the video again. This time we got farther in though. We had once again another short class because today is Ash Wednesday! So we only got through like a couple minutes of the movie. We took some notes down and that kind of stuff. We only took a few though. One thing was like there were I think ten thousand slaves in Greece. I thought that todays part of the video was really interesting and helped me learn a little bit more about Athens and Sparta

Started Watching a Video

Today in class we really didnt do all too much because class was shortened a little bit due to being 2 hours late. What we did do was first we got there then we started talking about the cyber day and he showed us the video he posted on it telling us to work on our projects and to blog because it is still technically a school day. I thought the video was pretty funny because he went from talking about the assignment to a made up conversation with his horse. Then he handed out a paper that used to be a quiz but he now gives it out as a study guide and we started watching a video on ancient Greece and it was funny because to give people a look at what the actual people looked like they had actual people just sitting there motionless acting like statues. We really didnt get that far into the video and he said we will be working on it the next couple days of class.

Mr. Darrington

Today in class Devin went over our notes again for mr schick. He wanted to see how he did and everything but it was pretty much just looking at the same thing twice. We went over just about all of class with mr schick jumping in occasionally. My computer is in the tech lab so I couldn't look directly off of my notes but I just sat there and listened. 

The Odyessy

Today in class we were going over the Athenians and Spartans and how they were so different. Then we started getting into this guy named Homer who wrote these "poems" which were like over 11,000 lines or something. Then he started talking about this guy named odyesse who was in the odyessy. Then he started telling us all of these stories about him and I thought the stories were really interesting. I really liked the one about the cyclops and how they found out how to get away from him and I thought it was really interesting.

LO3- Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-States

•  Tribal communities of the Dark Ages began to develop into city-states
•  Polis - Social and political development of the Greek city-state
•  City-states were small usually consisting of a small town and a few square miles of countryside surrounding it
•  Athens and Sparta which were no bigger then a few U.S. counties were giants compared to the City-States
•  The towns were usually built around hills so the Acropolis would stand atop the hill
•  Acropolis - The high fortified citadel and religious center of an ancient Greek town
•  Fortresses and Temples were a huge part of the City-States
•  The City-states fought among each other
•  Most important civic activity was the worship on the go or goddess on which they depended on
•  The notion on citizen participation seems to have originated partly in geography
•  Hoplite - A heavily armed and armored citizen-soldier of ancient Greece
•  Phalanx - a unit of several hundred hoplites, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy
• Monarchy - A state in which supreme power is held by a single, usually hereditary ruler (a monarch)
• Oligarchy - A state in which supreme power is held by a small group
• Triremes - Massive fighting vessels with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships
• Tyranny - Rule by a self proclaimed dictator
• Democracy - In ancient Greece, a form of government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part in decision making
• The Spartans were the descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the southern mainland, the territory of Laconia
• By 8th century B.C., they were a minority of landholders
• Helots - Noncitizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta
• As the Spartans moved west and conquered they became outnumbered 10-1 by noncitizens
• How the Spartans developed their government is unknown
• Girls were required to participate in drills and exercises that were designed to develop them into healthy, child bearing women
• They lived relatively free and active lives
• The freedom of Spartan women aroused both admiration and disapproval among the other Greeks
• To the Athenians, Spartan life was not worth living
• Athens was a warlike community
• Athens eventually grew to become the wealthiest and one of the most powerful of Greek city-states
• The Spartans descended from the Greeks
• Cultural Isolation was when they stayed with one culture 
• Spartans wanted there citizens to be elite 
• Spartan kids started military training when they were 7 and married when they were 20
• Spartans had little contact with foreigners
• The 6th century the Persians conqeured a huge area
• Ostricism is the banishment of a citizen for 10 years
• Aliens were the people who were not from greece who traveled there

Audition for Subs!!

Today in class we reviews our notes we posted to our blogs a couple of days ago. First we talked about how he is not going to be here on Monday and we are going to have a sub. Then he said he was going to have one of us sub for the last 15 minutes of class on Monday. Then he started having kids go up to see who is going to sub and he had us review what we posted to our blog on the Greek barbarians. There were 3 people that went up and one of then was me and I think I gt the job. Really after me it was just repeating notes because me and the 2 other people had some similar notes so then with like 10 minutes left in class he took over and pretty much did the same thing we did but with better notes. That was pretty much all we did in class today .

Reviewing our test

Today in class we got our tests back and I honestly was surprised with my score. I thought I had done a lot better than I actually did And I was pretty disappointed. But I have to put that test behind me and keep going. I actually thought that I was the only one who did bad but I'm really not, there were only 2 questions that everybody got right and that really surprised me. The test wasn't long so if you got more than 3 wrong you did bad, I got six wrong. Our class was actually gettin pretty loud and hectic and I was just sitting in the back just looking over it and it was pretty funny how much people were talking. A few kids in our class were arguing about the questions and I thought that was really funny because even though they were wrong they wanted to still argue with him. Overall today was a loud and hectic day in mr a hicks class.

Chapter 3, LO-1 notes

• Greek-city states were the first to practice citizen participation in government
• the city-states also traded and colonized along the Mediterranean Sea
• after 500 BC it enabled them to preserve their independence against the kings of Persia
• over 3,000 years up to the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands to right across from southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa
• 4000 BC farming and village life had spread throughout the continent
• by 3500 BC there were peoples in western Europe who could construct ceremonial monuments
• archeologists have found traces of them in the soil
• Stonehenge was a huge open- air monument built by a prosperous farming and trading people wets of England
• was built in 2000 BC
• 2500 BC was when Indo European Peoples moved into Europe
• European peoples had traditionally worshipped that turned to Gods of fatherhood and thunder
• when a leading warrior died all his belongings would go with him in his grave
• the warriors wife would be buried next to him
• tribes formed loose alliances under warrior kings or queens and together they would battle comrades
• tribal groupings fought for metals, slaves, and other items that brought prestige the their possessors
• these groups were mostly temporary
• people who spoke Indo-European were most likely skilled in many things
• barbarians was from the original word barbaros meaning non-Greek

Test Day!!

Today in class we took a test, i was actually pretty confident with my test. I think i did a pretty good job, i dont think i got an 100% but i definitely passed with like a 80 or 85. There were a few questions that were confusing to me but i thought i knew most of the questions and i was confident with my answers. It was funny because before we took it he said that last year he gave this test out on January 27th or something like thats like 2 1/2 weeks earlier than when we took it today. It is suprising how much snow can effect your school days. Then the crazy thing is that were supposed to get more snow tonight and tommorow! I love the snow especially when we dont have school because i honestly prefer the cyber school work better. I am pretty excited to see what my grade is.

Short Answers

Short Answer A:  Name and describe three technological innovations or inventions of the ancient Egyptians?
Ancient Egyptians became popular for there famous irrigation of the Nile. Shipbuilding was another invention that helped them advancing trade along the Nile. Then paper, medicine, and such advanced structures were part of that

Short Answer B:  Describe three important features of the Egyptian pyramids?

The pyramid is guessed to have about 2,300,000 blocks weighing from 2-30 tons each with some of them weighing as much as 70 tons. Nowadays, those blocks look beat up and destroyed. Even though when they were first built they were marble. Through time the marble was destroyed by many different factors. Each one of the stones was about 100 inches thick and weighing about 15 tons each.

Essays'

ESSAY A: Egypt's social hierarchy was very organized and put together. You could see how high up they were based on their clothing. The lowest people in Ancient Egypt were the slaves and servants. They helped the wealthy with chores. Next was the farmers. The farmers raised wheat, barley, onions, and cattle. The Nile had a big impact on the farmers, they used the Nile to help get fertile land for their crops.

 Then the artisans which were the people who did arts and crafts. They would help with building statues and reliefs showing things in the afterlife. Egypt's statues are big remarkable structures that would require a lot of time and effort, like the great sphinx. Higher than the artisans were merchants who were in charge of money and currensy. Later over the years coinage came about. The use of coins changed Egypt a lot and mostly the use of trade. The scribes wrote scrolls and kept records of their history and told stories, they wrote hieroglyphs.

The soldiers were really high in ranking of Ancient Egypt. They would hunt and do other jobs for the city. The soldiers had wooden weapons with bronze tips and rode in chariots. Above them were priests who were actually a huge part of society back then. Last were the pharaohs (AKA "Lord of the two lands" and "high priests of every temple"), They were the religious and political leaders. They were the most powerful man on earth to there city .

ESSAY B:  Upper Egypt was a 5000 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile. Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile could give them water for drinking, irrigation, bathing, and transportation. The Egyptians created sail boats to go with the Nile for easy transportation, the sails were created so that they could go where they wanted to
The Nile would provide and help the Egyptians with the gain of food.

The Nile always seemed to flood and change at the right times and the Egyptians benefited from it. Every July it floods and in October it would leave behind rich soil. The Egyptians would use the rich soil  to plant crops.

 Controlling the Nile required technological breakthroughs in irrigation. The Nile River flows south to north and has a delta at the top. The delta is a broad and marshy triangular area of fertile silt. The river eventually flowed into the Mediterranean sea.

Substitute!!!

Today in class we had a substitute so we really didn't learn anything today but we did get to review for tomorrow's test. My computer was dead so I couldn't review for the test but I got to finish all of my homework so I am pretty happy with that and just waited till I got home to do the blog and review. 

Egypt Prezi

Today in class we were shown a prezi made by Mr.Schick and i had never heard of them before but they are really cool. We talked a lot about how the Egyptians lived and how they used the Nile to their advantage. We also talked about where the people stood back then in far as power. There are quite a few types of jobs back then that wouldn't be as high of a job as now. Like the scribes were the people who wrote things down and they were a real high class back then but now they are nowhere near that. Then farmers were a real low class back then but now farmers are real important part of this society. We also talked about pyramids and the mummification process which i thought were real interesting subjects because they are the main staples Egypt. I thought that there were some really interesting subjects to this prezi today.

The Land of the Pharaohs

Today in class we talked about Egypt and the Pharaohs. I really liked this part of our unit so far because i thoguht that this part is really interesting and i thought it was really cool. I like the story behind the Pharaohs and egypt. We talked a lot about how Egypt came about and the Nile river. Then we really strted getting into the Pharaohs and what there lives are about. Pharaohs are who the people thought was a god-king, they thought he could communicate to the gods to make life better is they declared him as king. The title of Pharaoh is almost like the Britains where it is handed down through family. Then we started getting into how they all had numerous wives and some of them were even sisters! But then Mr.Schick told us they were only for running parts of the palace they weren't used for any reproduction. That was for the non-related wives to do. Most Pharaohs had many children from different wives, then we kinda started to get off track and with about 5 minutes left Mr.Schick decided to end class and we just sat and talked the rest of the time we had.

LO-3 Land of the Pharaohs: Egypt

-During the Neolithic Age, the people of the Nile had moved toward civilization
- Egypt stretches along the lower part of the Nile river
- The Nile played a part to Egypt similar to Tigris and Euphrates did with Mesopatamia
- Pharaoh- a name derived from the Egyptian word for "palace", which they used to mean "the king" in the same way that the white house is today used to mean "the president"
- Egyptians thought that Pharaohs were given power by the gods.
- The pharaohs mother and wife also had a touch of "divinity"
- Many Egyptian deitites were originally made in the form of animals
- The egyptians were known for there huge pyramids and temples that they built that are still intact today
- Pyramid- a massive structure with sloping sides taht met at an Apex, used as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt
- After awhile the pyramid building phase of egypt slowly died down and not many were constructed
- Shortly after pyramids started to fade temples started to emerge and that became the new thing
- The last temple in Egypt was built shortly after 250 B.C.
- After the "new kingdom' came around in Egypt they became a target for invaders in Africa
-Egypt was not really the big dog anymore after all of the other civilizations around them started to catch up to them and they found themselves close to the bottom of the totum pole
- Egypt was in charge for a long time in the Middle East

Notes on Prehistory - Civilization

- Prehistory to Civilization

3000 - 1200 B.C.
The temple of Amon- worlds largest religious building made in 1600 B.C.
prehistory- the period before history was recorded through written documents
before civilization was the prehistoric era
Paleolithic- old stone age
Hunting and gathering way of life in the paleolithic age
Neolithic age - when metals replaced stone
cave paintings
Agricultural revolution also called the Neolithic revolution
agricultural revolution- the shift from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life based on farming
several things contributed to the beginning of agriculture new environmental conditions, the development of techniques for domesticating plants, the development of techniques for domesticating animals
polytheism- the belief of many gods and goddesses
Mesopotamia- 3500 B.C.

New Teacher (sort of) and Hammurabi's Code

Hammurabi's Code:
Law #22- I think this law is really harsh and really isnt fair. I mean i can understand if they steal a lot of things but if it is just a small thing that is unecessary in life than why should they be summoned to death?

Law #15- Is a little more undertsandable than 22 but it is still very unreasonable i mean nobody should be sentenced to death unless they REALLY deserve it

Law #127- is a little unreasonable now but back then religion was a much bigger part in society than it is now but i really dont know what pointing a finger at the gods really means though

Today in class we reviewed what we went over yesterday, but this time we had a new student teacher do it, his name was Mr. Darrington who is really a student in our class. It was funny to see him try and do what Mr.Schick does everyday because he really didnt know as much as Mr.Schick and it was funny to see him attampt. He didnt even know the questions that Mr.Schick made him ask which i thought was hilarious. Then after a little bit Mr.Schick took back over and started teaching us about Hammurabi's Code which are pretty much the first written laws ever. Then he had us do what you see right above you and I find a lot of these laws a little outlandish and cruel.

Actually Doing Some West Civ Things!!!!

Today in class we actually started doing stuff relating to West Civ. We started off class by giving a few kids who hadn't set up there blogs yet time to do that. Then we actually got into it and started doing West Civ. We started off by talking about the pre-historic era of West Civ, we went over a good 30,000 years in one slide which i thought was really impressive. Then we started getting into Mesopotamia and a city called Sumer, and how they had specific people for things and that was how things worked back then. I really liked how things worked back then, i was also pretty interested in how they bought things with no currensy. They really traded more than anything. It wasnt really buying. So yeah today we actually got to West Civ and i think i am really going to like this course.

Setting up Blogs and Getting Started

Today in class we started by working on getting our blogs up. It was easy for me since i had Mr.Schick last semester so i knew how to do it but a few kids had trouble getting it up. Then after that he started going over some of the stuff we are going to need like a composition book. There are a few new kids in my class and i know most of them. I am actually pretty excited with this class and i think it will be fun. It was practically everything he went over on the first day of school in which he was actually my first class of first quarter. Well now we are starting the third quarter and i pretty much know what he is going to expect from the class this semester. I really think this is going to be a fun semester.