God Grew tired of us (part 3)

So, today we waited for Mr.Schick because he was on a field trip. But he came around 1:15 pm. Then he came in and cried a little bit because our proctor said we were amazing and so quiet. We continued watching God grew tired of us and John, Daniel and Pather all got jobs. Some of them got more than one job. John is working in a factory packing gaskets and he is working in McDonalds grilling burgers. Daniel is working at a bank processing checks, he starts at 4:00 am and finishes at 12:00 mid-night. Pather works as a bust boy in a very nice hotel. The boys feel like no one in America is friendly but, in Sudan everyone talks to them and shows them around if they are new. They also feel lonely because they work all the time and don't see each other as much. Daniel  could not afford college so he went to  agencies and he had to live in a dormitory. One think that was shocking was that the boys were walking into seven eleven and the owner called the cops on them because they thought they were intimidating. Daniel, Pather and John have lived in the United States for about a year.

God grew tired of us (part 2)

We watched another part of God grew tired of us. The more we watch the more intriguing it is. The United States agreed for some of the people to travel to the United States. John, Daniel, and Pather also traveled to the United States. Daniel and Pather traveled to Pittsburgh. John traveled to New York. Each of them had to learn the basics of living in America, like turning on the light, how to flush a toilet, and where to throw the garbage. When they lived in Sudan everything was very different. On, their way to the United States they ate all kinds of food. They didn't know that you are to spread mayo and butter on bread so they just ate it right out of the rapper. John had thought that God grew tried of them because of their bad deeds. He thought that there was going to be an end when they were living in the United States. But, he also stated that there is an end for everybody, which is true. John, Daniel, and Pather are a part of the Dinka tribe. Their life is changing drastically day by day.

Nothing....

Today, we went over the answers from our first test. Mr.Schick stressed that we really needed to know the information because it was going to appear on our mid-terms. We did a lot of unnecessary talking today and Mr.Schick warned us so many times. So he walked out. We all got quiet right away. He told us that being quiet is what a classroom should be like. We were all silent after that happened. Then we watched like five minutes of the film we were watching.

God Grew Tired of Us (part 1)

Today, we took our first test on population terms and concepts. It was an easy first test but I am assuming they are going to get harder. After the test we watched a film called God Grew Tired of Us. It talked about how these three boys: Pather Bior, John Bul Dau, and Daniel Abul Pach struggled through the war between North and South Sudan in 1983. The Muslim attacked because they wanted to take over the land in Sudan because of all the oil Sudan had.  Two Million were killed. Basically all of Sudan fled from their home to Panyidu in Ethiopia. They remained there for three years until the  an new Ethiopian government kicked them out. They then fled to Kakuma, Keyna. There they stayed at a refugee camp. In 1987, the Muslims wanted all the Sudan males killed regardless of their age.

Projects cont.

On Friday, the last couple of groups shared their projects. Listening to the projects is very helpful in trying to take in a lot of information. Having each group use the same definitions but have different information really helped with learning about different countries. We also talked about what our first test of the year is going to be about. There is going to be questions about A Message to Garcia, Did you know 3.0, The CIA fact book, and questions about Ancient Greece. Hopefully the test goes well.

Projects!

Today, some groups presented our projects in front of the class. I liked sharing the projects because it helped us learn about more than one country. Doing those projects makes you learn things that we never knew about the country. We were able to use the definitions we learned in our projects. For example, the death crude rate of Nigeria is thirty-nine deaths per thousand. I never knew that about any country. I like learning new facts about things I never knew anything about.

Group Project

Today, in class we got into groups and worked on a group project. My group members are Matt, Michael, and Carly. We are doing our project on Nigeria. We all split up and did three slides each and tomorrow we are going to present them in class.

Population and Settlement

Right now on this Earth there is about seven billion people. The number of people is increasing by seventy-seven million per year. Ninety percent of the population growth takes place in devolving (have problems and trying to improve) countries of Africa, South & East Asia and Latin America. It took a very long time for the world to reach seven billion people. Now, that the people on the Earth are increasing rapidly, by the time we all get older there might be about ten billion people on this Earth. The life expectancy of someone is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. In the U.S, the average age is about 79 years old. Women usually live long than men do. The reason for that is because men work dangerous job. They also have the higher risk for hypertension and heart disease.

Ever wonder why people migrate? Well the push forces are: Civil war, Environmental degradation, Unemployment and religious or ethnic persecution. The pull forces are: Better economy, better heath, religious freedom, political freedom. The pull forces are definitely some choices that will help with a serious decision between a family or even an individual.




Vocabulary: 

-Crude Birth Rate: # of births per 1,000 of the population.
-Crude Death Rate: # of deaths per 1,000 of the population.
             -Rate of natural disease: produced by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate, the divide by 10 (Death-Birth)/10 
-Net Migration Rate: difference between the number of people coming and leaving a country during a year. ( People entering the country.)
           (People leaving the country= Net immigration)
-Total Fertility Rate (TFR): average number of children born per women.
          - for the population to remain same the TFR has to be 2.1
          - Higher than 2.1: population rises
          - Lower than 2.1: populations falls
    - The U.S TFR= 2.06

Explanations "Did you know?" Questions

Today in Class we talked in further detail about the "Did you know?" video...We talked as a class about each question.

India has more honor students than the Unites states does. The reason being is because India has 4x more people than the United States.

One of the most shocking questions was that China will soon be the most English speaking country. But Mr. Schick said that the Chinese teach the kids English as a second language just like in the United States we learn Spanish, German and French etc.

One confusing question that was in the video was that there are 13,000 people that are just like you but it does not mean that there is like duplicates of you. It means that you are unique and special.

Now, since we have smart phones and iPod's we store everything on them from photos to music to even games. Back in the day, everyone played records and now we can just go to iTunes and click shuffle and our songs can play for like three days.

Since everything is progressing I have a feeling that someone is going to invent a micro chip that we insert in our brain and we are going to be able to play and listen to music by just thinking about it.

Everything in this world is progressing sooner or later everything is going to be electronic.

Did you know?

Did you know that China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world?  Just reading the question is shocking, because China’s main language in Chinese and the United states’ is English. Did you know: Today, the number of text messages sent and received every day, exceeds the total population of the planet? Knowing that we as a whole text every second of everyday and it adds up to being more text messages the population of the earth! Today, all we do it text on our phones- it’s the means of communication now. Some people don’t talk on the phone or talk to people they are consumed with their phones. This world is changing drastically every minute of every day.

Today in class, most of the class’s blogs were down; they were either spammed or deleted. We took the majority of class to fix them….but we had no luck! Besides that, we finished talking about the rest of the CIA questions.  One interesting fact I learned today was, it took a long time to reach a billion people in the 1800s. The major thing that people are struggling with today is the economy and once one price goes up everything goes up. Lastly, today the class found out that Mr. Schick used to work for television, T.V shows, movies and credits. His name is in credits of the productions he worked for. Overall today was a good class, besides having some of our blogs not up and running. 

CIA Class

Today in class, we went over the answers to the CIA questions that we did for homework. We talked about the questions more in depth. Mr.Schick talked about why he wanted us to to answer some random questions like: which country has the most airports? Mexico was the answer, because of the tourism that goes on. Also, Mexico is a destination spot. We talked about how China makes most things and why we see 'Made in China' on a lot of our belongings. In the United States, using energy is expensive these days and most of the energy comes from coals. Another thing we talked about was a republic and what it means. It means the electing of representatives. And we notices how "and to the Republic" is in the pledge of allegiance and how it is significant. The one thing I was jealous of is how many of my classmates have been out of the country. Some have been to Germany, Australia, Nigeria, Mexico, etc. Learning about what is going on  in the world is very important and informational.

CIA Question and Answers

1. What is the population of the United States? 313,847,465

2. What are the five largest countries in the world, by population? China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan

3. What is the population of Pakistan? 190,291,129

4. What kind of government does the United States have? Constitution- based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe? 95%

6. What is the largest country in the world by area? Russia

7. What country has the third greatest number of airports? Mexico

8. What country has the greatest number of exports? China
9. What country exports more oil than any other? Saudi Arabia
10. What country imports more oil than any other? United States
11. What country consumes more oil than any other? United States
12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military? yes
13. What is GDP? Gross Domestic Product- value of all final goods and services produced within a given year.
14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? Liechtenstein:$141,000
15. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita? No
16. Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent? Africa
17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent? Africa
18. What other country is in the top ten? India
19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths? 18
20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones? no
21. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic? 23.9%
22. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic? 76.5%
23. What is Net Migration Rate?Contribution of migration to the overall level of population change  
24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? No
25. What is the current population of the entire planet? 7,021,836,029 

The two compelling questions that were answered above was that the United States only has 23.9% of Roman Catholics. A question that shocked me was that the United States was NOT the number one country to have the most cellular phones.

Taking Notes

Learning to take appropriate notes are vital in school. But knowing how to take notes is very important.When listening to a lecture in class writing in complete sentences is not smart, because you are trying to get down what the teacher said and then you miss the next fact. So, writing in fragments while taking notes is best. It allows you to listen and concentrate on what the teacher has to say. Another part of taking good notes is to abbreviate. When abbreviating, be able to know what word you are abbreviating so when you go to study you know what your notes are about. If you know you are not going to remember what the abbreviation is then put a key on your notes and look back at it just in case you forget. Learning how to take appropriate notes are very important in high school and especially college.

Evaluating Websites

Looking at reliable sources is key when doing research. Today, in class we went over reliable and non-reliable websites. Some websites may look reliable but in reality they are filled with junk and facts that are not true. Did you know that Mr.Schick is in love with Wikipedia? I had no idea. He told us that Wikipedia is more accurate than an encyclopedia.We explored some reliable and unreliable websites. I was surprised to see some websites people have posted on the internet. Another thing we learned about today was how to put a link list on the side of blog. Mr.Schick told us that there is going to be at least twenty websites underneath our link list. Being able to identify reliable and unreliable sources in life can really help with writing papers and especially research.

Essays

Essay #1 

Arete has many different definitions. To me, arete is reaching the highest human potential. You can demonstrate arete during school, sports or anything as long as you think you are doing your very best. Socrates was a man who fought for what he believed and even developed his own method. He challenged the minds of others by having them explain themselves and not have them give him one word answers. Socrates was a very intelligent man he probably had many people's mind racing with thoughts. Being the best person you could be in this day and age will get you very far and very successful. People may not realize this but, Socrates has really taught many and made a difference in the lives of others. 

Essay #2

I walked into the grocery store on a hot summer day and I looked to my left and there was Socrates and Elbert Hubbard. I was in awe to see the man who changed the meaning of philosophy. But I didn't want to say anything so I kept walking. As I walked down the aisles to find some Popsicle's  I thought to myself "What would have happened if I stopped and said hi to them?" But that thought quickly left my mind. As I was on my way to the cash register. I looked behind me and of course Socrates and Mr.Elbert Hubbard were standing right there. I kept doing what I was doing. It was my turn to pay for my groceries. Being very polite I said "hello" to the cashier. The cashier was very rude and said nothing back to me....not even a "hello how are you?" I didn't let it bother me. I gave the cashier my money and I felt like she snatched it and threw it back at me. I was appalled. If Socrates ever lived during 2012 he would be very disappointed. He would think we are lazy and rude. Socrates was a kind of man who explained himself and always got the job done. He would probably had said something to the the cashier. Today, Americans like to go the easy route and just want to get things done and not have a care in the world. If Socrates lived in the year 2012 things would definitely be a lot different.    

Essay #3 

Just thinking that after this year I am almost done high school is a very big deal. Being a Sophomore, I have a lot to juggle. Between the homework and studying I need to be able to have a plan on how I am going to succeed. The first thing I am going to have to do is turn in my homework on time because in high school homework is a big deal. Not turning in your homework can be very detrimental to you grade. Homework is a very big part of your grade and can add up to being a big portion of your grade. The second thing I must do is study for tests. Not studying can also hurt you as well as not turning in homework. Thirdly, I am going to make sure to ask tons of questions. Asking questions is a good thing because it helps you better understand what is going on. The fourth thing I will make sure to do is,  look at assignments online. The reason being is because we use our computers all the time and teachers post assignments online if they do not get a chance to tell us during class. The last and final thing I want to do is make tons of friends and have fun. But, having fun when it is the right time and also know when to be serious. Having an action plan can really help you get through high school and can help you with your future. 

A Day of Learning.

Socrates taught a lot of lessons, the one lesson that we learned was excellence. Socrates was a man who would not let anyone get away with not explaining themselves when he talked with them. In class, we went over the definitions that we defined for homework and talked about them more in depth. Some of the definitions I did not understand when I defined them at home but once we got in class and Mr.Schick explained them I had a better understanding. We learned that Socrates didn't want people to take the easy way out when he talked to them by replying with one word answers. He wanted them to take the time and explain themselves so others could understand. Socrates has taught many people and his lessons are still being taught today.