End of the Year

Time, Is it really that time again? It seems as if we have only just arrived. We've done a great deal in a small time span. It seems as though I have only spent a couple of days in this class and wish I could stay another year. However, like all good things in life, I must move on from this class of fun and randomness. As Max said in his blog there are many people in this class who were annoying at times, but I tolerated them and didn't move away, I wasn't scared. OK maybe a little bit scared. I still think that this was the best class this year, and probably the best I have had ever. Now, as Max did, it is time to share my favorite quote with you: "The right man in the wrong time can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, wake up and smell the ashes."

Exam Layout

120ish question
15 on Guns Germs and Steele
10 on Ancient civilizations
10 on Ancient Egypt
35 on Greece
20 on Rome
12 on Feudalism

-GUNS GERMS AND STEEL-
Sega
14 domesticated animals
Cuneiform
Prehistory-Not written down
History-Written down
Agricultural Revolution- When people settled down and farmed
-ANCIENT HISTORY-
Tigris and Euphrates
Hammurabi's Code
-ANCIENT EGYPT-
Nile center of Egyptian life
Nile flowed south to north
Pharaohs
Pyramids were Tombs
Sphinx was guarding Pyramids
Sphinx was built 2500 BC
-GREECE-
Oligarchy was a small group of men that ruled the government
Monarchy was a king who passed his rule down his family line
Athens was into individual effort
Sparta was into working for the group
Athens held off Persia twice
but failed to defeat Sparta
-ROME-

-FEUDALISM-

West Civ Blog 5/28/13

Today in class we took a test and got results for it almost immediately, I got an A. I don't know what else to say here so yeah.

West Civ Blog 5/22/13

Today was a great day. Max and I taught the class because Mr. Schick believes that students connect better with each other rather then a teacher. We reviewed what we did yesterday such as feudalism, fiefs, vassals, lords, barons, Oh and the iron plow. We may have even referenced the iron plow more then Mr. Schick.

West Civ Blog 5/21/13

Today during class we learned about the age of Feudalism. Oh, and iron plows. The iron plow was invented around the time of Feudalism and was used by serfs and women to plow the lords and barons fields. Many variations of the plow, and some originals, are still used today by modern day farmers. However, the iron plow was the first of its kind and was made completely out of iron. Iron. IRON! Oh did I mention the Iron Plow?

West Civ Blog 5/20/13

Today in West Civ we, section 1, got our tests and quizzes back (lucky us!). I was quite surprised at the number of people who got less than 100s on the pop quiz, however, I still managed to get all of them right. That's pretty much all we could do this class because of mass and freshman retreat.

After Rome 500-700 Blog 5/17/13

Barbarians!!
-Barbarians were nomadic tribes that moved all over Europe and Northern Africa
-The Huns even came over from China
-Barbarians who assimilated into Roman culture became the "nobles"
-The Angles and Saxons dominated Britain
-Anglo-Saxons were mostly converted to Christianity
-The most powerful Germanic tribe was the Franks
-But the real power came from the "mayors of the palace" who were royal officials and nobles

Meanwhile...
-The Eastern Empire changes names to Byzantium
-Justinian tried to take back the West in 527, but failed and lost a TON of men to plague and war
-Justinian succeed for a time but ended up having to retreat from a loss of men
-Byzantium goes Christian
-Leaders from Byzantium saw themselves as the Roman leaders and Heads of the Church
-Justinian built the Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") the most glorious church of all time
-Took three years to build, but it was worth it

Rome Fades Away-Blog 5/15/13

Diocletian

-Rules from 284-303

-It's cool to persecute Christians

-Rome needs a big army

-Rome needs a big government

Constantine

-Rules from 306-337

-It's cool to BE a Christian

-Converted to Christianity

-Built a new capital, Constantinople

The Struggle Of The Peasants

-Country dwellers are going bankrupt from tax collectors

-New farming system where peasants work for elite landlords

-Paying off debt for endless back breaking work in the fields

-Foreshadowing Feudalism

The Western Roman Crumbles

-Romes power is decreasing while nomadic barbarians are gaining more

-Huns migrate from China to Rome

-Franks in Gaul

-Ostrogoths in Italy

-Anglos and Saxons in Britain

-Visigoths in Spain

-Vandals controlled Carthage

End Of An Era

-500 BC the monarchy is abolished

-490 BC the twelve tables

-44 BC end of Julius C.

-27 BC Pax Romana

-The last emperor was a teenage boy installed by his father in 475

-Barbarians disposed of Romulus Augustulus without killing him

West Civ Blog 5/14/13

Today in class we took a test, not necessarily a hard test but a test that will mess with your mind. If there is one thing I took away from this class, it is that the last letter of Pax is not "peace", it is in fact "X".  After that we read about some new stuff and got ready for a class discussion tomorrow.

West Civ Blog 5/13/13

Today in class we worked on procrastinating and thinking of questions that might be on the test for tomorrow. Personally I think that us thinking of the questions is just a way for Mr. Schick to get more questions to put on the test. some of the questions that Max and I came up with (yes Max and I because when there is a chance, everything is a group project) were:

• What religion was Jesus born in to? - Judaism
• Who was Diocletian? - A Roman Emperor from 284 to 305.
• What revelation did Constantine have? - Seeing the conqure by this cross over the sun.
• Where did Constantine have his revelation? - In the battlefield

West Civ Blog 5/8/13

Today in class we took notes on the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. After taking notes we went on a treasure hunt to find out the secrets behind some facts that Mr. Schick had on his power point. After awhile of looking, Max found out that he could edit Wikipedia with an account. So it all went downhill from there. Max began to edit the pages that people in class would see such as this

-as edited by Max Butschky

So yeah that's basically how today went in the 1st section of Mr. Schick.

Christianity in the Pax Romana-West Civ Blog 5/7/13

It all begins with Jesus- Jesus was only a preacher who set himself apart from other "Messiahs"
-Jesus taught that one must strive for perfection since God was perfect
-Jesus sought out the imperfect in society
-Jesus was believed to be both man and Son of God
-He was said to be a threat against Roman Rule because he empowered normal people (Like the Gracchi)
-His followers believed that he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven
Then, it comes down to Paul of Tarsus
-Saul was a persecutor of Christians who would just beat down believers of Christ in the streets
-One day he was knocked of his horse and blinded by God
-Jesus told him what he was doing wrong and how he could fix it
-He took up the name of Paul and became a traveling preacher
-He wrote letters to cities and people that were turned into Gospel readings

West Civ Blog 5/6/13

Today in class wee took a test that was a surprise to most of the class, however I think I did pretty well on this test considering the topic we have been studying is something that I have always been interested in. I can not wait until we get into the Middle Ages because that will be my favorite subject to study.

West Civ Blog 5/3/13

Today in class we got a project to do a 500 word essay with a partner on Google Docs. My partner was Max, obviously, and we are going to rock this assignment. We already have over 100 words for one paragraph worth of info on (Drum roll please...) The Pax Romana! This is going to be a fun project I can tell because I like this subject and Max is an all-around fun person.