Essay

Today in class we wrote our essay. We had to choose 3 of the essays to write about, I am pretty confident on what I wrote. I hope i get a good grade.

5/27

Today was our test on Rome. I thought it was hard and i should have studied more.

5/22

Today in class we reviewed over notes for the test.

5/21

Today we still reviewed projects. This is the last set of projects.

5/20

Today in class we reviewed other people projects.

5/18

Today in class gabby and i shared our Rome Project.

5/15/15

Today in class we watched a video on Rome and Tiberius Gracchus.

5/14/15

Poor Plebs 

-How do you keep the plebs happy (or at least keep them from revolting)?

-The post Juvenal said the people “anxiously hope for two things: bread and circuses”

-Bread (free grain from the State) and entertainment (Circus Maximus Coliseum), partly to keep them alive, and partly to keep them quiet

A Change in Rule

-Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the plebeians (even though he was the ultimately unsuccessful)

-Military generals worked that angle – lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils

-Soldier’s loyalty was to their military leader, not necessarily to Rome or the Republic

Nobody did it better than Caesar

-Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BCE)

-A highly successful general

-He conquered the huge territory of Gaul

-The soldiers were getting rich (from all of Gaul’s money) and so was Caesar

-Made common folks happy

-Made friends in high places

            -Pompey (a general who conquered Syria and Palestine)

            -Crassus (the richest man in Rome, one of the richest men in all history)

-These three men formed the First Triumvirale (“rule of three men”)

5/13/15

Today in West Civ we had a pop quiz. It was hard.

5/11/15

Today in West Civ we watched a video on Rome.

5/8

Today Mr. Schick was not here. Gabby and i worked on our rome project.

5/7

Today Mr.Schicks computer was not working so Gabby and i did more research on our project,

5/6

Today in west civ, we took more notes about Rome.

5/4

Today in class we took notes.

Patricians

Rule of Kings is replaced by rule of two consuls

-Consuls are elected officials

-Term of office: one year

-Always aristocrats (patricians)

-Patricians traced their descent from a famous ancestor or “pater” (father)

-Duties: dealing justice, making law, commanding the army

-One consul could veto the other (reducing the power of the individual)

Plebeians

-Fifth century BCE – Patrician dominance of the government was challenged by the plebs (“people”)

-Plebs were 98% of the population

-How did the Patricians dominate?

            -Plebs had to serve in the army

            -But could not hold office

            -Plebs were threatened with debt slavery

            -Plebs had no legal rights

-Plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials

-Rome had no actual laws, just unwritten customs

-Patricians cold interpret these to their own advantage

So, plebs refused to serve in the military until…

-Laws were written out – The Law of the Twelve Tables

-These laws (on tablets) were posted in public (in 450 BCE)

-Tribunes “tribal leaders” were elected

5/1

Today in class we went to see the 1920's speech, it was juniors who dressed up and acted like they were someone from the 1920's. It was cool to see what they had to say.

4/30

Today in class we took notes :
Etruscans
came from the north-central part of the peninsula
metal workers, artists, architects
two foundation myths: Vigil's Aeneid (Where Aeneas escapes from Troy), plus the story of Remus and Romulus
What we know about them mainly comes from their paintings
Greeks

-They had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea

-Romans borrowed ideas from them, such as:

  -Religious beliefs

  -Alphabet

 Much of their art

 -Military techniques and weaponry

But who first settled there?

The Latins

-Descendants of Indo-Europeans

-Settled on the banks of the Tiber

-Situated so trading ships – but not war fleets – could navigate as far as Rome

-A commercial part, but not susceptible…

They drained a swamp

-Many streams flowed into the Tiber

-There was a marshy area called the Forum, between Palentine and Capitoline Hill

-Tarquin the Proud’s grandfather built the Cloaca Maxima (largest ancient drain), which channeled water into the Tiber

Tarquin

-Lucius Tarquinias Superbus

-The seventh and final king of Rome

-Known as Tarquin the Proud (sometimes referred to as Tarquin the arrogant)

-A true tyrant, in the old and modern sense of the word

-The people’s shock at the horrible behavior of Tarquin’s son and this horrible family made them never want to be subject to the rule of kings ever again – this was an attitude that lasted for centuries

4/29

Today in class Gabby and i researched some things to write on our trifold, about the roman forum.

Class Today

Circus Maximus: 

• In the Circus Maximus, attendance was free.  Anyone could attend.
• The Circus Maximus was not the only place to race chariots in the Roman Empire, but it was the biggest and best. 
• The Roman Place to race chariots and horses
• Almost 250,000 people could be seated in the Circus Maximus.

http://www.ancient.eu/Circus_Maximus/

Colosseum:  

• The Coliseum in Rome has over 80 entrances and can accommodate about 50,000 spectators.
• 500,000 people lost their lives and over 1,000,000 animals were killed during the making of the colosseum. 
• was used to events, and was also fed throughout the show
• The Ancient Romans would sometimes flood the Colosseum and have miniature ship naval battles inside as a way of entertainment.

aqueducts: 

• they still stand today, even a thousand days later
• Aqueducts enable many cities in the United States to obtain water from a considerable distance.
• The flow in aqueducts is ordinarily by means of gravity, although pumps are often used.
• The great and highly advanced Roman waterway system known as the Aqueducts, are among the greatest achievements in the ancient world.

Roman Forum:

• one of the most visited sites in the world today
• political, administrative, religious centre of ancient rome
• the roman forum shows remains from several centuries, due to roman practice of building over earlier ruins
• there were actually many forums in ancient rome however the inclusion of the senate house to the site made roman forum the most  important of them all. 

4/24

Today in class Gabby and i decided on what we were going to do for our project. We are going to build and do a poster on the roman forum.

4/23

Today in class we went over the Lyrics Mr.Schick put in the song. He explained the lyrics to us.

4/22

Today in class we took more notes. And Mr. Schick rapped to us a song about Rome.

4/20

Today in class we took notes.

City State and Empire: The Roman Republic

   Italy and Its People

-       Indo-European tribes moved into the Italian peninsula and some settled along the Tiber River creating the city-state known as Rome

-       The Etruscan people, originally from the east, had settled in the north of Italy and were also influenced by the Greek’s settlements to their south and learned the alphabet and city-state organization from them

Remus and Romulus – brothers

-       Mother: Ria Sylvia and Mars, a god, had an affair and had the boys

-       The twins were abandoned to die in the river

-       The River carried them to safety

-       She-wolf took care of them

-       A Shepard and his wife eventually “adopted” them

-       Both grew up to be leaders

-       They had an argument over where their land would be

-       Romulus killed Remus because of the argument

City State and Empire: The Roman Republic

 The Roman Republic: The Senate and the People

-       Originally, Rome was a monarchy on the Etruscan model with a council of elders called the “Senate”

-       C. 500 B.C., the Romans overthrew their monarchy and established a “Republic”

-       Since the Senate was populated only by patricians (aristocratic men), the plebeians (ordinary citizens) fought for a vote in Rome’s government

-       Each year the Senate elected two rules, “consuls,” who each served a term of one year

-       As in the Greek City-States, the Romans would appoint a single dictator in times on war or conflict

City State and Empire: The Roman Republic 

   The Roman Republic: The Senate and the People

-       Eventually the plebeians gained power in the Senate by electing their own magistrates called “tribunes”

  In 450 B.C.,  the laws of Rome were codified and written into the “Twelve Tablets”

The “mixed” government of patricians and plebeians had many of the checks and balances that modern democracies have today

4/17

Today in class we found out we have another project. The project has to do something with Rome. Gabby is my partner, we are not completely sure what we are doing for our project yet. I am hoping this project can help my grade.

4/16

Today in class we watched this weird video. The video was about people that are prisoners trapped in a cave. One man was released and he was very shocked when he realized all that he has been seeing his life was shadows.

4/15

Today in class we talked about our essays we all did. Mr. Schick talked about our mistakes on the essay and told us some tips to do while writing a paper.

4/13/15

Today in class, Gabi , Gabby and I got our greece project back. We got a 91. I was very proud of our group. We also went over the last test we took.

4/1

Today Mr Schick was back in class. I was very nervous for the Greece test. I hope my group gets a good grade on our project, i am hoping that will help my grade.

3/30

Today in class, we still worked on our project. We worked on our three topics that we are going to write about. My group still has lots to finish, but we will definitely finish in time.

Today in class, we worked on our Homer project. We worked on setting up the paper and our thesis paragraph and the thesis.

Again, today we worked on our project and got 3 paragraphs done.

Today we started our template for the Ancient Greece project.

3/25/15

Today in class we only took notes. We also talked about Mr. Schicks journey to Europe to visit his daughter.

today I was not in class because I was sick

Friday

Today in class we shared our presentation about Homer. I hope we did really good because i need the slideshow to bump my grade up.

Thursday

Today in class we ate cookies, and talked about greece and our slideshows.

Wednesday

Today in West Civ we took notes. Tomorrow we are going to have a party for Luke because his birthday is on Saturday!

Monday

Today in class Gabi and I still worked on our slideshows. When Gabby comes back we are going to get her to finish our last slide. We are basically finished besides the fact that we still have to talk about his legacy.

Friday

Gabi and I worked on our project on homer today. Gabby was at a cheer competition and will be back tuesday. Gabi and I worked hard and accomplished alot today in class. So when the other Gabby comes back we wont have a lot more work on the project.

Homer the Storyteller

Today we picked our groups. Gabi, Gabby, and i are in a group together. I hope we do really good on this project.

3/11/15

Today we took a pop quiz on Greece. I think i got 3 or 4 wrong so i hope it doesnt affect my grade. We also took more notes on the Greece.

Great Civilization/ Key River

Mesopotamia/ Tigris and Euphrates River

Egypt/ Nile River

India/ Indus River

China/ Huang He River

• Biggest Island in Greece- Crete
• the mountains in Greece cover 3/4 of Greece
• about 20% of the land is good for farming
• Greek diet consists of grains,grapes, olives
• lack of resources most likely led to Greek Colonization
• their influence began around 2000 BC
• Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20 foot think wall
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 BCE- controlled trade in the Region
• 1400 BCE- Mycenaeans invaded crete and absorbed minoan culture and language
• then "sea people"  & Dorians around 1200 BCE the mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace so, the dorians moved into this war- torn region
• Dorians were less advanced
• writings disapeared for 400 years

Friday- Cyber Day

Socrates:

Socrates was a Greek Philosopher and the main source of Western thought. Socrates was born circa 470 BC, in Athens, Greece. His Socratic Method laid the groundwork for Western Systems of logic and philosophy. He was sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning in 399 BC.  

Thursday- Cyber Day

The porch of the Maidens:
Also known as Caryatids. They hold up the structure like the columns. They are located on the Southwest side of the Erechtheum.

The Parthenon:
The Parthenon is a temple of the Doric order with eight columns at the facade. The construction and building of The Parthenon began in 447 B.C. and was finished in 432 B.C. The work began under the orders of Pericles to show the wealth and exuberance of Athenian power. The name of the building most likely came from a cult statue of Athena Parthenos housed in the eastern room of the building. 





The Acropolis: 
The Acropolis hill, so called the "Sacred Rock" of Athens, is the most important site of the city and constitutes one of the most recognizable monuments of the world. The Acropolis is a home to many statues. 

Class

Today in class we talked about Cyber days. We were two hours late so it was a very short class.
Mr. Schick bet that we are going to have off tomorrow and friday. If we have a cyber day tomorrow we are going to start talking about greece.

Cyber Day

How would this all affect their culture? 
Greece's location can affect their country by how they can farm, and by providing them what they need to survive in Greece.

The bodies of water that surround Greece are the Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic Sea,and Aegean Sea. 

The large island to the south/southeast is Crete. 

Athens and Sparta are not close but they both are close to the sea. 





Egypt started on the Nile River.
India started on the Indus River.
China started on the Huang he River.
Mesopotamia started on the Tigris and Euphrates River.

1/27/15

Today we had a test and i don't know how i did.I hope i did good, but i only had one day to study for it.

Cyber Day

Mostly all Egyptians lives are centered around the _______.    Nile

The Nile floods every ________.    July

The Spinx is __________.   A womans head and a lions body


The pyramids were made out of _____.  Limestone


Who was the woman who served as a pharoah?

2/25/15

Today in class we did a pyramid game. In the pyramid game the goal was to accomplish building a pyramid. Skylar and I finished first. I basically just guessed the whole thing. It was sorta self- explanatory. Skylar and I got A's. I am very happy because this is going to raise my grade.

Today in class we watched a video.

• In 802 A.D the youngest son of Harun Al Ashid set camp at the base of the Pyramid of Kias.
• He came with hundreds of stone masons, engineers and architects.  
• Scribes said all of this lied behind the stone plates of the Great Pyramid.
• Lifting the stone provides a secret passage to the grave.
• He hacked a tunnel through the pyramid but found nothing.
• His quest was to find the pharaohs treasure

The second video was about mummification. All organs were removed. Body was covered with salt for about 40 days. Oils were rubbed on the body. The mummy was placed on a wooden board. A pouch was placed on the test. A cloth was wrapped around the mummy.

• Ancient Egypt lasted from 3000 B.C. to 332 B.C. 
• Nile shaped world view for Egypt
• Nile- one of the safest and richest agriculture areas in the world at that time
• planting was very easy
• Egyptian communities existed ONLY along the Nile

Government by a God-King

• Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped as a god, and intimately connected to other Egyptian Gods
• Egyptians relied on the balance of the universe
• Pharaohs had multiple wives, all routes to their financial and social success was through the palace
• Women could inherit money and land, they could divorce their husbands, though only a few ever wielded any real political power

Gods, Humans, Everlasting Life

• Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this port-death journey
• All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and would either be sent to an after-world paradise or the jaws of a monster

The Writing of the Words of god

• Earliest Egyptian writing was formed c. 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs
• Hieroglyphs represented religious words or parts of words
• Hieratic script was shorthand developed by scribes/priests
• Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus
• Papyrus was stored in scrolls

Calendars and Sailboats

• Egyptians astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles
• Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, doctors wrote extensively on health issues an created potions and cures for a number of common ailments
• Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile

Pyramids and Temples

• The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble but the marble was later stripped off during Muslim conquest
• Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, they had no perspective and looked very flat, they were highly effective

2/20/15

The Calender: If they didn't have the calendar then they would never know what day it was/ when the Nile was going to flood

Medicine: The invention of medicine is very important, it helped the Ancient Egyptians with saving lives like it does now in modern days

Pyramids: The pyramids helped by conquering their neighbors and built an empire that stretched from Syria to Sudan

Eye Makeup: This helped them by helping them to keep the sun out of their eyes. We still use makeup today also.

Sun Cocks & Water Clocks: they measured the passage of hours. The device divided a sunlit day into 10 part plus 2 twilight hours in the morning and evening.

2/18/15

Today in class we went over all the answers for the test. I am going to save the test so that I can remember and study it for exams at the end of the year.

2/12/15

Today in human geo Mr. Schick wasn't there. We had no sub either. We all finished taking notes on the powerpoint.

2/11/15

Today we took notes.
Geography

Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River

·      The Nile River flows from South to North

·      Cataracts – water is rocky and rough

·      Water from the Nile was used for irrigating, for bathing, and for transportation

·      Every July it floods (snow melts/ rain water)

·      Every October it leaves behind rich soil

·      The delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile soil

·      Managing the river required technological breakthrough irrigation

Pyramids

The Great Sphinx of Giza

·      Built 2555-2532 BC

·      The Sphinx is a recumbent lion with s human’s head

·      The oldest monumental statue in the world

Daily Life

  Pyramidal Society: Pharaoh, Government officials – Nobles and Priests, Soldiers, Scribes, Merchants, Artisans, Farmers, Slaves and Servants

·      Slaves and Servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties

·      Farmers raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions – benefitted irrigation of the Nile

·      Artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes to the afterlife

·      Merchants eventually used the money/barter system – merchants might accept bags of grain for payment – later, coinage came about

2/9/15

Today in west civ we had a test. The test was multiple choice, I am not really sure how i did. I hope i do really good because i need to boost my grade.

2/5/15

Today we completed watching the whole movie. I don't have very many notes because there wasn't that much of the movie we watched.

2/4/15

Today in class we watched the movie again. We mainly talked about domesticated animals. There are 14 domesticated animals. They are goats, sheep,pigs,cows, horse, donkey, bactrcian camels, Arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mithons, and balie cattle.

2/2/15

Today I was not in class. I was sick.

1/29/15

Today we had a test. The test was kind of difficult, but we got to use our blog.

heres the map

1/28/15

Today in class we reviewed all of the information that is going to be on the test tomorrow. We also went over our power points where we researched Hammurabi's code.

1/23/15

Today in class we took more notes on Mesopotamia.
We talked about Mesopotamia population increased due to irrigation techniques.
How cities and towns were founded.
How there was better food storage for priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians and farmers.
The kings emerged.
Sumerians created the early language we call "cuneiform".

a Patheon of Sumerian Gods and goddesses emerged, with many of the deities representing the natural elements of the world.
Sumerians first divided the hour into 60 minutes and the minute into 60 seconds: they also organized a calendar based on moon cycles.
the Ziggurat was a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth.

Civilization in Mesopotamia

• wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia
• King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as "Hammurabi's code" - laws that included "an eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes.

Mesopotamia- the expansion

• Indo- Europeans were people from the grasslands of the Russian steppe who introduced the horse to the near east.
• the warlike Indo- European tribe known as the Hittites settled in Asia Minor.
• The Hittites had a lucrative trade in metals and conquered nearly all of the neighbors, even threatening Egypt

1/22/15

In class today we took notes on "prehistory to civilization".
Here are some of the notes.


From prehistory to civilization

• the origins and "ages" of human beings
• 200,000 years ago a human species emerged in southwestern Africa
• 14,000 years ago a world wide human race existed
• earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic age
• Neolithic age was marked by advanced tool making and the beginnings of agriculture
• initially humans were parts of migratory groups which hunted animals for food.

The agriculture revolution

• also known as the Neolithic revolution, this was a shift from itinerant hunting/ gathering to more permanent settlements centered on agriculture.

1/21/14

Today was our first day of West Civ. We walked in and picked our new seats and observed all the new people in our course. There are some people from my old class and many new people. We started off by Mr. Schick telling the new people about his website and the new things about his class.
It wasn't hard for me because already knew how to work my blog. I have a good feeling western civ is going to be an enjoyable class.

• 3000-1200 BC
• 200,000 years ago humans were emerged in Southwestern Africa
• These people didn't look like those today 
• They had long nails and a lot of hair they almost looked like animals
• 14,000 years ago a worldwide human race existed
• Paleolithic age is known as the old stone age
• Neolithic age is know as the new stone age 
• this time was marked by tools and agriculture
• When people started working together and agriculture was developing was known as the Agriculture Revolution
• For the most men were hunters and the women stayed home with the children
• A hunter was really important they were thought as more important 
• Villagers were polytheist
• The Fertile Crescent was the perfect place to have everything   
• That place now is Syria and Iraq 
• villagers were polytheistic they worshiped many God, human and animal
• Sumer was in between the two rivers 
• population grew to new irrigation techniques