Summary of today's class

Today in class we had a lot of shadows that came to visit our school as well as our Human Geography class. All of them play a sport, one in which his basketball team is twenty first in the state I'm pretty sure. The other two either do cheerleading or any physical sport. Miranda, one of the shadows, I actually personally know from middle school. She was in my 8th grade team and in my English class. But, in class today we just worked/finished our three maps and if we completed those then we could work on our blog or any other homework that we had in class. Something that made my day was I was just told that I'm a good writer. Which kind of surprises me because personally writing is a struggle for me and I'm not the best at it. Overall, today was a good day and I cannot wait for the next class.

Todays class summary

Today in class all we did was label 3 maps with different requirements that you gave us. A couple of the requirements that you gave us was to locate the seven continents, the five oceans, the equator, etc. I think the most difficult part of this was drawing the international date line because some of the maps like cut off and so on one side you would draw a part of it then you would draw the rest on the other side. But other than that, I think this was pretty easy if you were trying to make it difficult for us. I did not know that there are different types of maps that are more accurate, or people think should take over the ones we have used for all of our lives. Like I know there are different types of maps, but I did not know about all of the crazy looking ones that people have created. Overall, I like this unit a lot because of some of the things that you have mentioned that I never ever thought about before.

9/25/18 class notes

Today in class we talked about many new things about maps that we did/ did not know from before. We talked about longitude and latitude on a map and how it can help us find specific places by using two coordinates. Another thing that we talked about in class today is that when we draw maps on paper, it actually causes everything to have a distorted look. The main thing that it changes is the shape of an area, the distance between points, relative size, and finally the direction. Which makes some places bigger or smaller than they actually are. Something else that I learned from our notetaking was that if you were to divide 360 degrees by 24 time zones you would get 15 degrees. But every 15 degrees is actually assigned to a specific time zone which I thought was interesting. Overall, I learned many new things about maps and some small details that are involved with them as well.

Mind blown over a map

Today in class I think almost every student could say that their mind was blown over all the map stuff that we learned today. Mine was definitely blown on the first sentence that you said during class. So, pretty much the maps that I have seen in almost every class is incorrect. And the continents on that map are not actually the same size that they are in the real world. Why would someone do that in the first place, shouldn't they just have the map as it’s supposed to be. Also, if the continent is more powerful or populated then it should be bigger than the others on the map. Now that does not make sense, put it as the size it is in real life and be done with it. Then you realize that Greenland is bigger looking on the map (that's in all the schools) than Africa but actually Africa is 14 times bigger than Africa. I don't understand why the people that created the map put Greenland being bigger looking than Africa when actually it's not even close. That just blows my mind in so many ways. After you blew my mind you then showed a movie and it said that all the continents should be almost flipped around. Like that might sound like a good idea, but maybe we should have done that 100 years ago. Doing it now would confuse me and the millions of kids that grew up with the map. Overall, I think the whole map concept is mind blowing and I cannot wait for it to be even more mind-blowing.

New Unit Notes

Today was our first day working on the new unit. Overall, I think it sounds like an interesting unit especially learning about how people back then even created their maps. But, today we learned many new words that go with the unit as well as a little background information. One of the things that I learned today but I also knew already was that geography is the study of where things are found on Earth's surface and the overall reason for that location. Another thing that I learned was a map has two purposes, one being as a reference tool to identify objects absolute and relative location. The second purpose is to be a communication tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. The last thing that I thought was very interesting that I learned from my notes was that the first map was prepared by Eratosthenes in the B.C. years. That was a long time ago, and I bet you it was a difficult task since they did not have the technology that we have today. In conclusion, today I learned a lot of new things about maps and what they were like thousands of years ago.

Test

Today we took the first test of the year on the unit excellence. Overall, I think I did fairly good, there were one or two questions that did slump me but other than that it was pretty easy. One of the questions that I was not too sure about was, I'm not sure the exact question but you had to name two other countries or something like that. This question definitely gave me a hard time mostly because I did not write anything about it in my notes. So, I should definitely improve on writing notes or maybe it was not in the PowerPoint I'm really not too sure. The other question that got me thinking was what other words are originated with polis or something. I think one of my answers was correct because I remember you mentioning it but the other answer I was 50/50 on. Other than those two questions I think I did fairly good on the first test of my human geography career.

I was not in class due to a soccer game against Bel Air.

Should Socrates be dead or alive?

Many people have different opinions on this subject, it all depends on how you look at it in a way. In my opinion I think he should have been kept alive. Mostly because the things he did were not very harsh or could be looked at in a different way. It’s not like he talked to them about fighting or drugs. All he did was talk to them about different beliefs and other things that their parents have not said that he wants to teach them about. I don't think he's trying to threaten them to believe in this or that, he's just giving them options that they could choose in a way. I also think that the whole death penalty is a little too much for just a little thing that he believed in that could help the youth in a way. In a way I could see why they thought it was wrong for him to do that but is it something that could threaten the citizens in a more violent way. Maybe a couple years in prison is reasonable but a death penalty is a little extra. But he also had the option to escape so that’s his fault for not taking that as an advantage. In conclusion, I think Socrates should have been seen as in not guilty and these are the reasons why.

9/12/18 class notes

In class today, I learned many new things that I did not know from before. One of those things that was really interesting to me was the word arete. This word is something that most people like me don't use in their everyday vocabulary. Arete means the aggregate of qualities, as valor and virtue, making up a good character. In other words, it means the act of living up to one’s full potential. This word is definitely going to be used later in my vocabulary, mostly because I like the way it sounds. Something else that I learned about our notes is that an agora is a type of gathering place where people talk about problems or mostly anything. Like today in class and how if you wanted to pave a road then everyone would me up at this agora place and do a vote on if we're going to pave this road or not. It’s something about this words that make me love them so much. I think it’s the way they sound, because the words we use on a regular bases are so boring. A fact that caught my eye was how 508 B.C. was the first time anyone revolted against their rulers. It just makes me curious to think why they chose that time, why not sooner. Was there something that their rulers did to make them revolt or was it just time to revolt. The last think that I learned from my notes was a lot of background information on Socrates. We learned that when he was younger he worked as a stonemason as well as that he was a heroic fighter in the Peloponnesian war. I also learned that he was a great teacher to younger and older people. He liked to meet with students in workshops just outside the agora. 

Overall, I learned many new things such as what arete means and who was Socrates as well as many other interesting information.

A Message to Garcia notes

Today in class I learned a lot about the background information that went into A Message to Garcia. The essay was published in March 1899 and eventually printed into a pamphlet and book that sold over 40 million copies in 37 languages. The essay was so popular that it was made into a movie twice (1916 and 1936). The essay was taken place during the Spanish- American war. At that time William McKinley was president from 1897-1901 and was latter assassinated. There was one main character that they addressed in the essay. Which was Rowan who was an army officer who graduated from West Point in 1881. In the essay there was many different vocabulary. The main one that I didn't know, and I founded most interesting was slipshod. This word means someone/something is careless which I thought was cool. Overall today in class I learned a lot about the essay and the background information that went into creating such a good essay and I cannot wait to learn more.

A Message to Garcia

The essay "A Message to Garcia" had a wide variety of different meanings that could have been displayed in the essay. One of the meanings that I got from reading it was dedication. Dedication is huge thing in every one’s life. You need it at work, school, and even in sports. If dedication didn't exist in someone’s life, they would be so lazy, to a point where they would feel like they didn't need to do anything in life. We need it in order to achieve something in life. Say you want to be a doctor, in order to do that you need to be dedicated in school and out of school. In the essay, Rowan, the message deliverer, was dedicated to deliver the message no matter the dangers he faced. He put his life into delivering this message and he succeeded in doing so. The last meaning that I got from reading this essay is hard work. This also is a huge thing in everyone’s life. In order to achieve something, you need to work hard at it, put effort into doing something and you will eventually succeed at it. Rowan worked hard at delivering the message and put a tone of his effort into achieving the goal that he was giving, and eventually delivered the message. Both of these meanings can be carried into the beginning of my high school carrier in many different ways. They can be put into both school work and high school sports that I participate in. I need to put all the dedication and effort into my homework and when I'm in class doing a test or class work or else I will not succeed. As well as I need to be dedicated in practice and in a game so that I can help my team succeed this season. I need to work hard on the field and when I'm just hitting the ball around at home in order to become a better individual player. There could be so many more meanings to this story as well as how they both speak to me as I begin my high school career, but these are just the main ones that I thought meant the most in the essay as well as in my life as a high school student.

My first few days as being a John Carroll patriot were amazing. On the first day I was a little nervous at first, but after like 2-3 classes I wasn't at all. I did however have trouble with my locker, so I asked an upper-class man to help me but after he did, I had figured it out. My classes went really well, all we did was went over class rules and expectations. So, I guess you could say that was a good thing since we did nothing. I think my favorite class is probably Spanish mostly because I've never had it and it interest me a lot. Not to offend you in anyway. Something that I love about high school is the freedom you get. In middle school you barely had freedom but now it's like you can do so much stuff without a teacher yelling at you. But overall my first few days at John Carroll were amazing and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my high school career at this school.