The first CIA Investigation

Today in class we continued our migration and settlement PowerPoint and explored the CIA website. We only went through one slide, and it was about TFR (Total Fertilization Rate). TFR is made up of the average number of children born for each woman. For the population to remain the same in an area the TFR must remain at 2.1. Any higher, and the population goes up, and lower and the population drops. The current world TFR is 2.42. Therefore, the world’s population is growing. As noted before, the undeveloped countries tend to have a higher population growth, which means they have a higher TFR. After that we visited the CIA website. CIA stands for Central Intelligence Agency, and the CIA has a lot of information about every country on the planet. We explored individual countries specific statistics, but it appears that the CIA has info about a wide variety of subjects for each country. A brief list would include population, religion, and the economy, along with other categories.

I present our new student, Mr. Schick! (First name Mr., last name Schick)

Today in class a new kid joined honors. His name is Alec, and he is in band and plays the flute. Because he didn’t see the PowerPoint we went through yesterday, we had to go back through the PowerPoint in a squished form. The presentation was run by Kiana, while the other new student, Mr. Schick made helpful comments. The whole first part of the PowerPoint took up most of the class, but then we started getting new information on migration. We discussed migration rates, and a lot about why you would want to migrate from one place to another. The overall two groups of reasons to migrate were push and pull factors. Push factors are factors that make you want to leave the country. Examples of these could be the government, or lack of it, religious persecution, environmental changes, as well as others. Pull factors are factors that make you want to come to a country. Examples of these would be better healthcare, better economy, or generally everything that is better than what you are currently living in.

How can half a person be born in a second?

Today in class we started our population and settlement. After a brief comment on not being a stenographer, we started the PowerPoint. The first slide was mainly statistics about the current amount of people on the planet (7 Billion is the current count) and about how many people were being born every second (We didn’t copy the statistics part but 2.5 people are born every  second). The next slide went over population growth in different places, and the current longstanding fact is that the countries that can afford to have more people the least have the most people, and vice versa. America and other developed countries (developed meaning having an infrastructure such as roads, a government, etc.) have actually leveled out on population growth. However, undeveloped countries such as Africa and parts of Asia have large population growth. Some developed countries are even instating population control by only allowing small amounts of children for each family. Our next slide went over life expectancy. Apparently, all over the world women live longer than men due to the fact that they take better care of themselves. Monaco has the highest expectancy rate due to it being a ‘playground’ for the rich, where richer people can afford better health care. The lowest expectancy rate is in Chad, where the average life expectancy is 49.81 years. The next slide was about measuring population, by using the crude birth and crude death rate to create an overall average.

Magical Test Review

Today in Human Geography Mr. Schick gave us back our tests. Mr. Schick introduced a long standing tradition where whenever someone got an A they got a ring on the bell, and 10 and above got two rings. Unfortunately for me, I got an 89 (so close to a ring I could taste it!). Apparently our overall class score was an eighty-nine. We went over the correct answers with the rest of the class, and we went over the short answer questions in great detail. The short answer questions were based all off of the Greek section for our class (How the agora works, Aristotle’s trial, etc.). Magically, our test turned into a study guide after going over it. This took a very long time, as somewhere around 3-5 people gave their opinions for each question that was short answer. The handing out and going over the test took about the whole class period too complete and I wish we could have done something else so that I could have more to write about for this assignment.

Shadow Day Hypercube

                Today in class we had two shadows. The shadow’s names were Kelly Ann and James. First, Kelly Ann goes to St. Joan of Arc, my old school. I actually know her and her brother, so it’s pretty cool that she’s thinking about coming to our school. Second, there are way too many James’ in our school, although I don’t really have an issue with another one joining, it’s just that it’s going to get even more confusing. For the whole class we mostly discussed the pros and cons of automated cars (based on the statistics in the video presented yesterday) through agora style discussion (without Mr. Schick moderating and without the standing). There were many pros to automated cars, most based toward convenience, some more geared towards people that drunk drive or are falling asleep at the wheel (Pokemon GO while driving, anyone?). The cons were that your car could get stolen by hackers, or that the car would be too expensive to buy. Also, the word of the day is Latin Hypercube. If you don’t know what it means, go look it up and learn something.

'Did you know' problems of the future paradoxes

                Today in class we watched and discussed a did you know video. This video talked about population growth, technology, and lots of statistics for the future. The video mainly focused on how the world is going to be in the future with technology, as well as very advanced concepts involving the birth rate and how that will affect our whole world in the future. The video went into so much detail it’s very hard to write about it without the reader having to watch it, but the discussion that ensued was even more interesting. During the discussion we discussed how the issues that affect us now would be totally different later, and that we need to be prepared for things that we don’t even know about yet. The crazy thing is, our technology is advancing so fast that by the time high-schoolers are in their third year for college the stuff they’ve already learned will be outdated. The speed of acceleration of the knowledge we gain has multiplied so much that everything we learn will outdated within years. This discovery rate is also supposed to multiply over time, making our learning and the ability to out date our current information even greater, raising the new question. How will we continue educating the next generation of people?

Adventures in the Metric System

                Today in class we had a choice. The choice was either to have an agora type discussion, or just do homework. For about 20 minutes we debated over the specifics on debating. We mostly discussed what the topic would be for the debate, but some people also suggested doing both choices. Mr. Schick also discussed how many people actually vote in the country, and how most of them are old people. He also said that teenagers should be allowed to vote at 16, which I think is pretty cool because teenagers at 16 are smart enough to vote correctly and they probably won’t make the mistakes of their ancestors (That last part was sarcasm). After about 20 minutes of debating, we finally had a vote. It was a landslide towards homework time. After getting my papers, I started my biology web quest. This web quest was based on the metric system (It’s about as exciting as it sounds). After finishing the web quest, I did this blog.

                Today in class we had a choice. The choice was either to have an agora type discussion, or just do homework. For about 20 minutes we debated over the specifics on debating. We mostly discussed what the topic would be for the debate, but some people also suggested doing both choices. Mr. Schick also discussed how many people actually vote in the country, and how most of them are old people. He also said that teenagers should be allowed to vote at 16, which I think is pretty cool because teenagers at 16 are smart enough to vote correctly and they probably won’t make the mistakes of their ancestors (That last part was sarcasm). After about 20 minutes of debating, we finally had a vote. It was a landslide towards homework time. After getting my papers, I started my biology web quest. This web quest was based on the metric system (It’s about as exciting as it sounds). After finishing the web quest, I did this blog.

The open brain surgery test.

                Today in class we took a cumulative test on what we’ve learned so far. The test was relatively easy (Thanks to Mr. Schick teaching us correctly! Thanks!). I think I may have gotten one or two questions wrong, one about who was president during message to Garcia and one about words that had originated from polis. I put in police and policy, but I’m not sure those counted. The essay questions took some time, but those were pretty easy too. All I had to do to remember all of this was Mr. Schick’s role play scenarios, and I’m 90% percent sure I got the essay questions correct. The one thing that I didn’t really like was the format for the multiple choice question. I’m OK with the formatting because it’s easier on the teacher, but for some odd reason I don’t like the format. Overall, I think I got an A on this test.

Agora style debate tactics

     Today in class we did agora style discussions. We discussed whether or not it was disrespectful to not stand when the national anthem was played. Our basis for this discussion was multiple sports players protesting black lives matter movements by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem. Many viewpoints were brought up during this discussion (and I kind of wish we could have kept going after the bell rang). Me. Schick moderated, questioned, and pointed out things throughout our discussion. This argument was actually about two issues, not one. The main issue was the flag disrespect, the second issue being the black lives matter movement. Due to my ideas on the second issue most likely being misinterpreted and making the overall debate much more confusing and heated, I chose not to voice these opinions. However, I did openly voice my opinions on the disrespect shown to what the flag truly represents, being freedom, liberty, justice, and everyone who died for it. There were many opposing viewpoints on this, most pointing towards the fact that the players could have been doing something worse. Others said that they approved the support of the black lives matter movement.

Aristotle goes to court for free dinners.

                Today in class we finished our Socrates/pep talk slideshow. We went over Socrates’ trial in more detail, as well as his death. Socrates was accused of poisoning the youth of Athens and of impiety. Impiety in this case meaning that Aristotle wasn’t loyal to the gods of Greece (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and so forth). Aristotle didn’t hire any lawyers, instead choosing to defend himself. Aristotle didn’t deny that he was the one who said those things, and openly stated that he did. Aristotle actually used philosophy to try to win the court case. Aristotle’s two major arguing points were that he A.: Was the gadfly to a horse, meant to stir up the horse from being complacent and to doing other things; and B.: That he was doing Athens a favor and deserved free food. Aristotle almost won the trial, out of 500 people he lost somewhere around 221 to 227. Aristotle was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, and he accepted the punishment due to not wanting to disrespect Athenian democracy.

This blog is totally pointless, so please read it.

Today in class Mr. Schick reviewed our blogs. We had a lot of free time for the class, so I took advantage of it. I worked on my Short Story Literary terms for English class. We are starting a short story unit where we first are going to be doing a PowerPoint on writing/Short Story terms. Of the five I had to do, I did Imagery and Perspective as two of the slides. The slides took up most of the class time. Meanwhile, my classmates were talking about an interesting mix of things. One of them was discussing the multiple incidents involving Mackenzie trying to give me peanut butter. (I’m actually allergic to peanuts, so it was an interesting conversation.) Mr. Schick called me up to review my blog, and said it was O.K. He even helped me set my time to Eastern Time, which was a very odd process (Hint hint to whatever Blogger programmer is reading this). Overall this blog was extremely hard to stretch write in order to fit in 150 words.

Socrates on WWE? 9/7/2016

Today in Human Geography we went through a PowerPoint with Mr. Schick. This PowerPoint went over some of the things we already learned, and added some new things to the bank of knowledge as well. First we went over the finer details of A Message to Garcia. Apparently A Message to Garcia was so popular that it went from a short story, to an extremely well known and published book. Originally handed out as pamphlets, it eventually turned into a 37-page book. That’s an incredible amount of stretching, and I don’t think even I could accomplish something like that on a paper. Eventually, ‘take a message to Garcia’ became a well-used household term. A Message to Garcia was also made into a movie. Twice. We even went over vocabulary that was used in A Message to Garcia; some words being slipshod and imbecile. After reviewing that, we went on to Socrates. We went over some of the Greek terms we learned, and talked about Socrates’ background. Socrates had quite a bit under his belt, being a stonemason, what would have been WWE standard material in his day, and even being a ‘heroic’ Peloponnesian War veteran. Socrates apparently had his meeting spot for his followers right outside the local agora, in a workshop.

The Return of the Schick (Star Wars Episode VI.2) (9/6/2016)

            Today in Human Geography our teacher Mr. Schick discussed the values of hard work. We reviewed what we went over with our sub in the last few days. We talked about Aristotle, and how he died. Mr. Schick also asked us to research Aristotle’s trial. What I found by using the History channels website is that Aristotle was actually forced to leave Athens due to anti-Macedonian sentiment. This sentiment was due to the death of Alexander the Great. According to the site, Aristotle died of a stomach issue. I’m not totally sure this is reliable, but the fact that Aristotle died of causes that had to do indirectly with politics and directly with bodily issues (hemlock?) this leads me to believe that there is a connection between the two different stories. Mr. Schick also discussed how he doesn’t think that teenagers are the only ones that are self-absorbed (or Narcissistic) about ourselves. I for one agree with this, although there are the occasional few who are really what the media says they are. As always, there’s an exception to every rule. We discussed the Message to Garcia, and a little about the Spanish-American War. Mr. Schick also went over his syllabus on the class.

Five Points to Excellency for High School

My Five point path to excellency for this year of high school is:
1. Start my path to Eagle at Boy Scout's
2. Get all A's every grading period
3. DO MY BEST!
4. Practice for band more than last year
5. Act like Jesus and be nice to everyone

Ancient Greece Terminology and history

Today in class we learned about Ancient Greece. We learned some Greek terms, but we mostly focused on Socrates. We learned a lot of terms having to do with the city-state and a little bit of politics. We learned Agora and Polis, which both have to do with the city-state as Agora means meeting place or town square, and Polis means city. We also learned about two words that tie in with A Message to Garcia. The two words were Arete, and alternatively, idiot. Arete is a summary of good qualities that make a good person, where A Message to Garcia demands the reader to act with good character when doing work. The word idiot when spoken by the Greeks actually meant a secluded, self-centered person that didn’t make very good decisions. An ‘idiot’ in Greek terminology usually didn’t make good decisions, and also didn’t have a professional job. We also learned a lot about Socrates, but not about his teachings, with the exception of the Socratic method. I did do research before this class on Socrates for a school project, and Socrates taught some of the values that are represented by A Message to Garcia.