West Civ Blog 2/27/13

Today in West Civ we took note on the first part of a movie called, "The Greeks". During this movie both Mikenzhie and Kelly fell out of there chairs, and Kelly took hers with her. Back to the movie, which was narrated by Liam Neeson, they talked about a very general overview of Ancient Greece in the chapter that we watched. They basically explained the rise of Athens and other Greek city-states like Sparta or Argos. When they introduced Socrates Mr. Schick seemed extra excited and screamed, which caused Mikenzhie to fall out of her chair and make the rest of the class jump. Also Kate was warned of her upcoming birthday, and I am so glad my birthday is over the summer.

West Civ Blog 2/26/13

Today in West Civ we worked on a chapter 4 study guide which makes no sense considering we haven't started chapter 4 so it was harder then usual but Mr. Schick let us use the computers so I looked up a lot of the dates. I ended up finishing at least 3/4 of it by the end of class so I think its OK to forget about it till tomorrow. Overall I think I've done an OK job on it but I need to research somethings more deeply if I want to fully understand them.

West Civ Blog 2/25/13

Today in West Civ we took an open book test on chapter 3 that was surprisingly easy. I felt like I knew what I was answering, but the open book part really helped. I feel like the essay would've been easier had I had my notes instead of the text book because I didn't want to plagiarize and would feel more comfortable quoting myself. The short answers were the easiest by far because im not under the pressure of 4 or 5 set answers and its not a lot to write.

LO-1 Blog

In LO-1 Gavin Lewis talks about the earliest Europeans and how they lived their long, warlike, nomadic lives. Even though these people were hunters and gatherers they still progressed just as fast as the Sumerians in the Fertile Crescent did. By c. 3500 B.C. people in West Europe were numerous enough to construct Megalithic Structures such as Stonehenge. Megaliths are massive rough cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs. Constructing Megalithic Structures is not an easy task it would take a lot of man power and skills. I found the same link that Cameron found on how Stonehenge was built and my question is, would the earliest Europeans have thought of that technology to make a pulley system on a ramp. These early Europeans were barbarians in the sense that they kept no written records had no towns or fixed structures of government. These people traveled around with tribes made up of their families friends and people with common interests as the rest of the group. These Indo-Europeans didn't define themselves as barbarians but were instead given the name by the Greeks who called them barbaros which meant "non-Greek". They were Indo-Europeans because their ancestors had descended from the steppes of southern Russia. They migrated from the steppes into Europe which is why they are called western. Western describes that they are in the west of the Eurasian continent that Greece was part of and they were west of the Fertile Crescent. This is an outdated map of the east and west empires, but it gets the point across.

The way that we describe barbarians in modern times is people who did not live normal lives that we do but instead roamed around causing trouble and sacking villages, much like outlaw biker gangs. They're big, hairy and cause trouble just like early barbarians.

West Civ Blog 2/20/13

Today in West Civ we had the most boring class because Mr. Schick thought it would be fun to read us an outline in the most monotone voice he could. First off to start the class we sang happy birthday to Mackenzie and gave her a silly hat (OK it was stupid) that she HAD to wear all of class and could not take it off. Also the boring class was for her birthday (Thanks Mackenzie). Then we got onto talking about Sea People who threw the early Greeks into Dark Ages. I still think that the silly little "Sea People" were Vikings that survived a bit longer than others and wiped out the Greeks. The Dark Ages were a time when people didn't write anything down and all was spread by word of mouth like Homers stories of the Iliad and Odyssey.

West Civ Blog 2/13/13

Today in West Civ my computer was dead so max was kind enough to let me do work on our power-point from his laptop. We got a lot done today including the rest of LO-1 and some of LO-2. Our group isn't really productive because we argue a lot. I think that if instead of arguing we each had individual slides and trusted each other then we might be able to get this project done with an A.

West Civ Blog 2/12/13

Today in West Civ we worked on our group project that is one of the most fun yet annoying projects I have ever done. I don't like group projects normally because I either end up doing all the work or no work. However this group project mostly forces the groups to work together because if you don't then work with your group and actually do work then they might not put your name on it and you won’t get a good grade. I, of course, am going to work with my group as much as it pains me to considering I don't like people my age telling me what to do.

West Civ Blog 2/11/13

Today in West Civ we took notes on Ancient Greece and argued about how Stonehenge may have been made. I mean if people thousands of years ago made Stonehenge back the why do we not have time travel yet. We were told in class to  start a Google docs presentation with a group of 4 people so that we could work on it together even though we are not with each other. Well so far I seem to be the only one who really finds it interesting and like to make power points. I also find it weird that other people come up as "Anonymous User" and are only differentiated by colors and numbers.

West Civ Blog 2/5/13

Today in West Civ we played a stupid game that tested our skills to see if we are fit to build a pyramid in ancient times, I was not. This game was probably the stupidest game I have ever played because it was IMPOSSIBLE AND ANNOYING. The only reason that my group managed to complete it is because Max was able to somehow build the entire pyramid. My dad suggested that I write about the slaves that built the pyramids but I had to correct him in saying that there were no slaves used to build the pyramids, but instead skilled craftsmen built them for money.