March 29, 2019 Class

Well, you totally did not wonder why I did not write my blog yesterday, but I will still tell you why:

I did not have enough battery on my laptop to write a blog at the time. I mean... my laptop turns off at 5% and I only had 8%. I also had to finish a German PowerPoint before the classes ended. But I knew I had time to write the blog between yesterday and today. Right now, I am tired out of my mind and still have to write this blog. I want to go to sleep so badly but I know that after writing this, I probably will not for a couple of hours.

The group whose presentation I liked the best was the first one: with the children of Athens and those of Sparta. I was laughing my butt off and did not stop until their presentation did.
I liked the pancake-like food that Katie and i-forgot-her-name did were pretty good but their project was something done in a rush and without much thought put into it. Although I was surprised they actually did research and all.
Tibo(?) and other-guy's presentation was plain boring. I feel like they portrayed no emotions toward the subject, therefore all students were very bored. Perhaps even Mr. Schick. If they liked the subject and showed interest toward it, we all may have been able to understand better and enjoy the presentation at all.

March 28, 2019 Class

Well, our project was a complete mess. For the first 10 minutes of class, I did not know where any of my group members were. Mr. Schick looked like he was having a bad time well before we came I came into class and after our project was over, he seemed even more upset. I do not know what is going on. Because I asked a friend of mine who is in another section if the same happened in her class, but she said that he was fine and probably just expecting more from the honors students.

After the presentation, I checked to see in which range we qualified in the rubric and it was a C/D average. I am literally DYING.
I will not be able to rest the same after the presentation until I get the grade back. I will not be happy when it comes, but at least I will be able to rest in peace and not freak out. My grade will probably be brought down to a D before the quarter even starts 🤦.
I was at least able to be in first honors the first three quarters of the school year. Am I happy? Not exactly. Disappointed? Very.

I really hope we serve as a reference on what not to do for future groups and fellow classmates.

March 25, 2019 Class

Today's class was a project preparation day. Honestly, it sucked. Nobody has done anything. Everything was left to the last minute. And, I believe I speak in behalf of all of the groups in all of the sections (or at least the honors section). The pillars of my group were absent today and I feel we're going to do very poorly, or at least I will. I am definitely NOT excited about this. I think the due date for the project should be moved towards either Friday or Monday of next week. We did not have enough time to prepare.  In less than fifteen minutes into the class, all the groups were done discussing their plans, that is because they have none.
At least the test on Ancient Greece was not as much of a failure as the Ancient Greece project will be. I got one question wrong. Which wasn't great... but I will be OK. At least I get one 'ding'.

March 22, 2019 Class

So... we had the Greece test yesterday. I did not study beforehand because I was too tired. I had come back from a doctor's appointment which I attended right after school and had come home at six. To then have dinner with a pile of homework I also had to do. I was tired and decided to go to bed earlier. So that I could rest and, if for some reason, I had awoken earlier than normal, I could study. But that, of course, was not the case. Instead, I had to study in between classes. The class right before Western Civilization was the one in which I studied the most--Biology.
Mr. "Jonnah" Gzanna is one of the most chilled teachers I've ever met. I was studying mid-class and he did not say a word. Special thanks to Alita Pirozzi who helped me throughout the entire class. She helped me review all eight pages of notes TWICE. I could not have asked for a better helper.
As to how the test went, I believe I got at least one wrong because I confused the Aegean and Adriatic seas. Pretty dumb, am I right? I must have gotten that one wrong, and perhaps another one, too. So I got either a 95% or a 97.5% on the test. If I got a 95 percent on the test, my grade would go up to a 94.13% to end the last quarter; while with the latter grade, my grade would go up to a whooping 94.71%. And, in the rare case I did not miss any questions (a very rare case, indeed), my grade would be raised to a 95.31%, which in complete honesty, would not do anything noteworthy to my overall GPA. therefore, it is not of my interest.

Greece Notes #8

Greek, important philosophers

• Socrates
• Unlike most people at the time, he turned to science and logic--instead of mythological gods--for explanations on how the world worked.
• Socratic method: fostered critical thinking.
• "The unexamined life is not worth living."
• "I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think."
• Charged with serious crimes of:
• Impiety (disrespecting the gods) and
• Corruption of Athens' youth.
• At his trial, he descripted himself as the stinging gadfly of the lazy old horse that Athens was.
• He did not deny what he had done, but instead had asked for free dinners for life.
• Found guilty by Athenian jury and sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock.
• Plato
• Was a student and follower of Socrates.
• He wrote out Socrates' teachings and described his trial in Apology (which at the time meant explanation).
• Another famous book of his was called Republic.
• In it, he wrote about Socrates' discussion of justice and an ideal state.
• Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle believe the perfect society would be one were philosophers such as themselves lead the government.
• It is one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written.
• Aristotle
• A student of Plato (who was a student of Socrates)
• Helped to foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination.
• His school--the Lyceum--focused on cooperative research--building on knowledge gathered from all over the world.
• Did Aristotle invent the internet?
• Not exactly, although he did dream of having sum of mankind's knowledge easily accessed in one location.
• He wrote extensively on numerous topics such as:
• Logic, physics, biology,
• Ethics, politics, rhetoric,
• Motion, theatre, poetry,
• Metaphysics, psychology, dreams, et cetera.
• Also tutored Alexander the great.

Creece Notes #7

Is teh United States a republic (the people vote for their leader and the leader makes decisions) or a democracy (people vote directly on issues that concern them)?

The Greeks' gods interaction with humans is what makes their relationship unique.

• Examples are:
• Poseidon (god of the sea) interfering with Odysseus.
• Aphrodite (goddess of love) had lovers who were both gods and men.
• Dionysus (a demigod of wine) was the son of Zeus (basically, god of gods) and Semele (a human princess).

• Greek city-states military forces
• Spartans
• Greeks certainly were warlike people, but especially the Spartans.
• Spartans were known for having a rough, ruthless infantry--soldiers who fought on land.
• Spartan boys were trained since age seven.
• Athens
• Athenians also had a great infantry, but their navy was incredible.
• Their most efficient weapon was the trireme.
• It was a technological marvel which was rowed by up to 170 men distributed among three levels.
• It was the fastest ship at the time, which could also be used as a battering ram.
• Phalanx
• Close-rank, dense grouping of warriors on land.
• Armed with long spears and interlocking shields.
• Soldiers would advance slowly towards their enemies until ranks were broken.
• Then, the soldiers would take the place of the person in front lowering their spear.
• Persian War
• Greek army
• Soldiers used iron weapons (so that ordinary citizens could afford to arm themselves).
• Armed with spears, swords, and shields).
• Foot soldiers (hoplites) were trained from an early age.
• Often fought in the phalanx formation.
• Had a "home field" advantage.
• Were motivated to preserve their nation so that they would not have democracy taken away from them.
• Persian army
• Had huge numbers of soldiers.
• Were a long way from home.
• It was a professional army composed of soldiers by hire (aka mercenary).
• Sequence of attack
• Archers, who do damage from afar.
• Cavalry (horses), which disrupt communication between the enemies' generals and soldiers.
• Lightly armored infantry.
• Carried spears, swords, and bows.
• The Greeks were victorious and formed the Delian League.
• Which took taxes from all of the citizens in the city-states that made up Greece (especially Athens) and used the money toward military growth.
• Built up army to be able to defend Greece from another attack and invasions.

March 18, 2019 Class

Today, we were given the choice whether to have today as a meeting day with our group or Friday, along with Monday (the class day before our presentation--which I believe is too early). We chose today. And, now we have normal class taking (and finishing) our notes tomorrow. Then, I believe we have the test on Ancient Greece (which I am also not looking forward to). In our meeting, we decided who would do what. Olivia and Leigh are both making food to bring on the day of the presentation--Olivia is baking some kind of dessert, I believe, and Leigh is cooking a traditional, Greece plate. Caitlin and Miel (who is a new addition to our group) are doing makeup. And I am sewing, which has actually become weaving (which I, luckily, also know how to do... kind of). Again, I am really NOT looking forward to this.