Maddie's Western Civ Blog

Today we learned that we have a quiz tomorrow. The quiz is on the countries of South America and North America. I studied a lot tonight so I think that I will do well tomorrow.  In class, we took notes on latitude and longitude. I really like taking notes and I find it very relaxing. I usually make my notes look perfect and neat. However, today when I was taking I notes, I took up too much time making sure my handwriting looked neat. I got behind very quickly and started to get stressed. By the end of class, I realized that some of the information I was supposed to have written down was not on my paper. Next time I take notes in Human Geo, I will try to get the notes down as quickly as I can in my notebook instead of taking up extra time and making everything look neat. Then, after I take the notes, I can make them look neater at home. 

Today in class we moved on from learning about site to situation. Situation is the location of a place related to other places. We describe places based on situation everyday. For example, the other day, when my grandmother was driving my brother and I to school, I had to describe to her where John Carroll was located based on situation. Our class also had a big discussion about self-driving cars and new technology that will soon be produced. In my opinion, I think that self-driving cars are super cool and have many benefits to them. Self-driving cars have many cameras and can detect things that humans cannot see. These cars can even make sure that they stay a certain amount of distance away from the car in front of them. The cars can also automatically stop when needed. For example, if a driver is on his/her phone and does not see that traffic has stopped, the car could prevent a potential accident.

Notes on Sites: site is the physical characteristic of a place --> (climate, water sources, topography, soil, veg, lat, elevation) combination = distinct character selecting locations for settlements humans have the ability to change the characteristics of sites Notes on Situation: location of place related to other places  way to indicate location (finding an unfamiliar place, understanding its importance) locations = important because accessible to other places My Thoughts: In class, we discussed what a site was and how us, as humans, are able to change the characteristics of a site. For example, humans have started taking down trees in the Amazon Rainforest. These trees are very old and valuable. Although selling the wood from the trees can make Brail a lot of money, I believe that it is wrong to be cutting down trees that are that old and sacred.  Any place with unique characteristics can be a site. Even my own home is a site! For example, the climate from

The Mercator Map: Cons- inflates the size of objects away from the equator Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger than they are only accurate along equator, nowhere else many other countries are either smaller or larger than they actually are    distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the Equator to the poles, where the scale becomes infinite Pros- became first standard map for navigation used by street map services on internet accurate along equator ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments that conserve the angles with the meridians . The two properties, conformality and straight rhumb lines, make this projection uniquely suited to marine navigation: courses and bearings are measured using wind roses or protractors, and the corresponding directions are easily transferred from point to point, on the map, with the help of a parallel ruler or a pair of navigational protractor triangle

In class we rewatched the video from yesterday. It is still so weird to me that throughout my whole life, I have been looking at a very inaccurate map. I hope more schools will start using the Gall-Peters map instead of the Mercator map. I don't agree with what the people in the TV show suggested. Maybe it's because it is what I'm used to but, I like the way the map looks now. I think flipping the map upside down would confuse many people who are used to the way it looks now. After discussing maps some more, Mr. Schick handed us back our tests. I already knew what I got because I looked on Veracross, but I was still a little nervous. When I got my test back I was very happy with my grade. I hope to do as well on other tests and quizzes this year.

When I walked into class today, I saw three different maps on the board. One was a map of the United States. The other two were maps of the whole world. Even though both maps were of the world, they looked very different from each other. We discussed the differences between the maps. Throughout the discussion, I was thinking, "Why does one map look so weird while the other one looks completely normal?" The "weird" map looked like the continents were stretched out and longer than they should be. As it turns out, the map that looked really weird was actually more accurate than the "normal" map that I am used to seeing. It is so weird to me that I have been looking at the "normal" map my whole life and today I found out that it is wrong! Greenland is not even that big! We also watched a video from the tv show The West Wing about maps and how one was more accurate than the other. The fictional characters were just as shocked as I was.

I just finished my first test for Human Geography. I think I did pretty well. The hardest questions on the test were the essay short answers. Hopefully, I did well on those too. And I'm 99% sure I got the bonus question correct! I have been very busy the last few days, and I was only able to study last night and this morning during my off-mod. In the future, I would like to plan my week better and figure out which nights I am going to study for each test that I have that week. Overall, I thought the test was very fair and not too difficult. I think that if I would have studied more during the week I would feel more confident in my short answer answers. I'm excited but nervous to see what I got on the test whenever Mr. Schick gives it back to us!

Socrates was one of the greatest western philosophers. He created the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is basically a way for the students to answer their own questions and stimulate thinking. Today in class, we got to try it out. It starts out with a question. When the question was asked, everyone started sharing his/her thoughts about the topic. I thought this activity was really fun and unique. I liked speaking out about what I believe in and listening to other people's opinions. After that, we learned more about how Socrates was charged with two crimes--the corruption of Athen's youth and impiety. Because he was found guilty, he was sentenced to death. Socrates did have a chance to escape and not be put to death, but instead, he chose to die because he wanted to prove his loyalty to democracy. He had to drink hemlock, a poison that shuts down your organs one by one.

Agora- a public open space used for assemblies and markets, center for athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life Polis- a city-state in Greece, political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens, words formed from polis--> politics, metropolitan, poll 508 BC- democracy is introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes (leader), establishes a constitution, formalizes democracy, first time in recorded History people revolted against their ruler, Other examples of countries that have revolted against leader--> France, China, Russia Socrates- a Greek philosopher and is considered the father of western philosophy (in Europe and the Americas) The death of Socrates- poisoning, charged with two crimes, found guilty, died in 399 BC The Socratic method- a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between people, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking Idiot- when the greeks called someone an idiot they meant that that person did not contribute to p

The greek word for excellence is areté. Areté basically means to live up to your full potential. I know  that sometimes I do not live up to my full potential. For example, there have been many nights when I don't feel like studying for a test/quiz and keep putting it off until the night before. Although I do end up studying, I know I would have been more prepared for the test or quiz if I would have studied before the night before. This year, I know I can't do this because I want to be more prepared and ready for whatever test or quiz I am taking. I find it really interesting that humans are the only species that are able to think about thinking. It is wild to think that my dogs really have no idea that they are thinking while they are thinking. They really have no idea what is even going on in the world. Since they don't know any better, they find even the simplest things fascinating, like a tennis ball. Dogs always treasure the little things. I think that is a great way

In class today, we finished reading "A Message to Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard. Although Hubbard's ideas were somewhat extreme, I did agree with some things he explained in his essay. However, I did not agree with some of his ideas either. In his terms, Hubbard defined what it meant to be excellent. According to Hubbard, someone who is excellent has to have a specific set of qualities. For example, an “excellent person” never gets distracted and never complains when assigned to a task. However, I believe that if a person who gets distracted and sometimes complains can still be excellent. We are all human—and we all complain and get distracted sometimes. There is no such thing as the “perfect human” Hubbard wants people to be because we are all imperfect. However, Hubbard did make a good argument about how an excellent person does his/her work even when the person in charge isn't watching. This applies to students in the classroom. For instance, if the teacher sits down

Today, our class discussed how high school was such a big leap from middle school. In the past few days, I have felt very overwhelmed even though I haven't even finished a full week of school yet! Everything about JC is so new to me. I can barely even find my way around the school! I am always so nervous that I won't be able to find my class or get there on time. I know with time that these things will become easier, but right now it feels like a lot. After school, I have soccer practice. By the time I get home, I am ready for bed. However, I have homework that I need to complete. I know it doesn't sound like much, but my day is very tiring. It seems that there is so much to do but only so much time to do it. In class we also read and discussed "A Message To Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard. We learned that the President needed to send a message to Garcia, however, Garcia was nowhere to be found. We also learned that a man named "Rowan" would be able to find

My first day at JC went very well. My favorite part about the day was advisory, where I was able to spend a little bit of time getting to know the upperclassmen. Fortunately, someone was nice enough to bring in brownies. While I ate my brownie, I talked to my friend Lauren about what classes we had together. My least favorite part about today was Spanish class. In this class, I was very bored and found it very hard to listen to what Mrs. Michael was saying. I didn't really know anyone sitting near me and was surrounded by sophomores. I really like where I am seated in class. I sit next to Alex and Charlotte. Although I am just getting to know Alex, she is very nice and is always willing to help. Charlotte and I went through elementry and middle school together and have remained very good friends.