Maddie's Western Civ Blog

Today is Friday! Western civ was my first class today. I am excited that the week is almost over. Today, I checked my veracross and I saw that I got a 100 on the quiz. I am very happy with my grade. This way, I can start the quarter off well with a good grade. Today in class, we started off by finishing our notes in the textbook. Next, Mr. Schick pulled up a powerpoint on the board and we starting taking notes from that too. Here are some things I learned today: 1. upper Egypt was in the south 2. lower Egypt was in the north 3. women could divorce their husbands as well as obtain political power 4. pharaohs had many wives 5. pharaohs were treated as a God 6. Egyptians were polytheistic 7. upper and lower Egypt were united by Namer

Today, we took the Mesopotamia quiz. I was planning on studying for the quiz a lot last night, but I was extremely tired and ended up going to bed really early. Luckily, I had an off mod during second mod so I was able to study then. Also, Mr. Schick gave us ten minutes before the quiz to study. I used this time to study from the quizlet and look over my notes. The quiz was really short and easy. There were only 20 questions. The first part was match the definition with the answer. The second part was multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank. I thought I did really well on this quiz so hopefully I got an A. I would really like to start the quarter off with a great grade. After the quiz, we took notes on our new unit from the textbook.

Tomorrow we have our first quiz in Western Civilization. I am not nervous. I know that I am going to do well. I really want to do well on this quiz so I can start off the quarter well. Today was a very laid back class. At the beginning, Mr. Schick showed us a video from Mr. Nicky. I remember when my fifth grade teacher showed our class the same video when we were studying Mesopotamia. I really like this video. Now we are watching videos on youtube. Also, one of my classmates made a quilt for the quiz. Here is the link: https://quizlet.com/477808591/western-civilization-chapter-11-flash-cards/?new I will use this to study from tonight.

We have a quiz on Wednesday on Mesopotamia. Today in class we went over some of the questions that might be on the quiz. This quiz is 75 points. I really want to start the quarter off well and get an A on this quiz. During the review today, I did not know a lot of the answers to the questions. However, I am going to study very well before the quiz and hopefully I will be prepared. Here are some questions that we went over today: 1. What is slit? -dirt left behind from floods; used to plant grain 2. What was the Neolithic Age? -marked by advanced tool making and agriculture 3. What was the Paleolithic Age? -prehistoric age 4. What is cultural diffusion? -a new idea/product that spreads from one culture to another 5. What is a city-state? -each city and the surrounding land it controlled

Today in class we took more notes on Mesopotamia. During the second half of class, we also looked at some of the laws in the " Code of Hammurabi." I found these laws very interesting. In my last blog, I said that these laws protect women and children. I was wrong. Many of these laws DO NOT treat women and children fairly. Through these laws, it is clear to see that the men in the family had he most power. Here are some absurd laws: 196. If a man destroys the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye 282. If a slave has said to his master, "You are not my master," he shall be brought to account as his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.  129. If the wife of a man is caught lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the water.  If the husband of the woman wishes to spare his wife, then the king shall spare his servant. 1. If a man brings an accusation against another man, charging him with murder, but cannot prove it, the accuse

Today in class we finished our notes about Mesopotamia in the textbook. I finally had enough time to finish my notes and write down all the definitions that I needed. After we took notes, Mr. Schick had a power point that he presented. We took a lot of notes on the power point. Our homework tonight is to answer question #5 in the textbook. The question is : What areas of life did Hammurabi's code cover? Here is my answer: Hammurabi's code protected women and children from unfair treatment. It set different punishments for the rich and the poor and the men and the women. Many of the laws in this "code" were related to property issues. Overall, Hammurabi's code helped many women and children from being unfairly treated. It made women and children feel safe from the law.

Today was the first day of Western Civ. Today we took notes from the textbook. We had to answer some questions: 1. Define each word Fertile Crescent: an agricultural region extending from the Levant to Iraq Mesopotamia: an ancient region in west Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers City-state: each ancient city and its surrounding land Dynasty: series of rulers from a single family Cultural diffusion: the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point Polytheism: believing in more than one God Empire: government under an  emperor or empress. Hammurabi: king of Babylonia (I planned to write all the definitions at the end of class but didn't have time. This is why I had to look up some definitions.) 2. What were 3 environmental challenges to the Sumerians? -unpredictable flooding -no natural barriers for protection -natural resources were limited

Today is our last day of Human geo. I am very sad. I have no idea who is going to be in my class. I know that Reagan and Charlotte are in a different section. This class was really fun. I will miss human geo.

Today we took the Guns, Germs, and Steel test. The test was all multiple choice. The test was only 26 questions. I was a little nervous coming into the test because I had not watched the part of the video that I had missed. Luckily, I was able to study from someone else's notes from the day that I was gone. On the test, there were a few questions that I did not know off the top of my head, but once I really thought about it, I was able to mark down a good answer. I know I got on answer wrong because I could not figure out if the answer was longitude or if it was latitude. It turns out that the correct answer was latitude but I put longitude. Other than that question, I think I did pretty well but I am nervous to see my grade. Hopefully, I got an A.

Tomorrow we have a test on Guns, Germs, and Steel . The test will be one hundred points and will be multiple choice. The semester is almost over so I really hope that I can get a good grade on this test and be able to maintain what grade I already have. Today, we asked Mr. Schick what type of questions he was putting on the test. Some of the things he said I didn't understand because I was out on Friday. I guess I'll have to get the notes from someone else and study what I missed. After discussing the test, we watched Teen Jeopardy for the rest of class. Watching this was more fun than I expected. It was really fun to try and guess on the answers I didn't know and yell out the answers that I did know. One time, I even guessed on an answer and got it right!

On Friday, I went to New York. This is why I was not in class. Sorry I forgot to do this blog.

A couple days ago we watched the video again about guns germs and steel. It was very interesting. Diamond talked about why some countries were more developed than others. It all comes down to geographical luck. I forgot to do this blog because I went away on a trip.

Today we had a two hour delay. I was pretty upset that we did not have off today. I really wanted to stay home because I was really tired. When I walked into class today there was a dog. The dog made my day a lot better. Unfortunately, the dog left and then we had to start class. We all sat down and then Mr. Schick showed us some pictures of his winter break vacation. His daughter and her boyfriend even got engaged. After that, we watched the video Guns, Germs, and Steel.  We took more notes on the video. In the video, the women made food out of a tree. I thought this was really cool. I had no idea that you could get food from a sago tree.

Today in class Mr. Schick showed us are exam scores. I got an 86. When I saw my score on Veracross over winter break, I was not surprised. I thought the exam was pretty hard. I really should have studied more because I wanted to get an A. I think I need to spread my time out more evenly when studying for exams. I did not spend as much time on Human Geo as I did for other subjects. When Mr. Schick was showing people their scores, he told us to start researching Guns, Germs, and Steel . Germs, Guns, and Steel is a book written by Jared Diamond and was published in 1997. After we all got our exam scores back, we started to watch a video about Jared Diamond and his book. We learned that Jared makes regular visits to Papua New Guinea and loves bird watching. During one of his trips, a man asked him why all the white men had so much cargo and the people who live in Papua New Guinea did not. This is known as Yali's question.