3/21/13

Today in class we worked on our power point some more. Lexi and I got most of it done and Anna was absent. We are leaving her a little work so it is fair. We added a lot of more information and we added a picture to almost every slide. We have everything cited so I think everything is good right now. Hopefully we will get a good grade. We put kind of small bullet point so we can elaborate more, hopefully that won't be taken as a negative. I will probably check it again before we have to present. I think we are presenting tomorrow actually so I will have to check everything tonight and make sure we didn't spell anything wrong or we didn't follow directions somehow. I'm sure we didn't. It looks really good so far.

3/20/13

Today in class we were given partners to work on a power point about Alexander the Great. My partners are Lexi and Anna. We were given the the death of Alexander the great. We have to research how he is thought to have died and the aftermath of his death. So far I found a video on the most famous prediction of Alexander's death and written over about 4 facts on his death. I know Lexi has done a lot and I know Anna is doing a lot with the aftermath. We are doing really well so far! I'm pretty sure Mr. Schick said this was the only day we had to work on the power point in class. The rest we have to do it home. We got a lot done though so I don't think that should be a problem!

After Test Blog Assignment

Hellenistic-The Hellenistic Era  was when Greek civilization was the leading international culture but their way of life was also influenced by the peoples they ruled. Pertaining to or designating the style of the fine arts, especially sculpture, developed in the area conquered by Alexander the Great from the end of the 4th to the 1st century b.c., chiefly characterized by delicate and highly finished modeling, dramatic, often violent movement of forms in space, representations of extreme emotion, highly individuated characterization, and a wide variety of subject matter. 

I think the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian war because they weren't versatile. Their only strength was their Navy. They could put up a good fight over sea but that was about it. A huge army of triremes could only get you so far. They also had a huge number in deaths. Especially in men, who were fighting and losing most of their battles against Sparta. Plus about 2/3rds of the population died of the plague, including the leader of Athens himself. Without a leader Athens was "an unsteered trireme". They were bound to crash with no one at the wheel. Unqualified politicians tried to lead the city-state of Athens but that did not work out so well. Athens also had too many great enemies. They posed such a great threat when they were strong that their enemies took this chance to strike when they were weak. Persia actually combined forces with Sparta to end the Athenians. They Athenian's navy was destroyed and the grain that had been coming in on the boats was then cut off. The Athenians were sadly starved into surrender. Not a very fair way for the Spartans and Persians to win if you ask me. 

359- The king of Macedonia, King Phillip the second, takes control of Greece. 

Macedonia

3/16/13

In class on Friday we went over the review that Mr. Schick uploaded to his blog. I did some of the dates beforehand and I did all of the people. We finished the people and that is as far as we got. We went over a lot of important stuff such as the marathon and the Pelippinesian War. We went over a lot of people like Xerxes and Pericles and Cleisthenes. It took the whole class. No one talked this class, thank God. We ended up changing seats though because of how bad the class has been lately. I sit behind Victoria and in front of Abby.

9/14/13

Today in Western Civ we began our class by talking about the picture of Socrates drinking the hemlock. Everyone around him was crying and they were really sad but he didn't look scared at all. Then after that I thought we were going to watch the video, but we didn't. About half the class kept talking and they weren't paying attention at all. It was really rude. So Mr. Schick went out into the hallway and then came back after about 3 to 4 minutes and told us we had to work on our own, and do whatever we thought would prepare us for the test. I can't blame him. It's really annoying how disrespectful some people are, I mean don't they care about their grades at all? Well I don't really understand why the people talking can't just take notes and pay attention but now they are affecting the whole class. I'm hoping they will stop after this.

3/13/13

Today in class we watched more of the video. The video is really long but I honestly like it. The part of the video was mainly about Socrates. Socrates was an old man who was brave enough to publicly criticize the Greeks way of life. After he is arrested for this he is put on trial. They give him a chance to say he is sorry but instead he does the complete opposite. He tells the jury they should not be punishing but giving him free dinners for life and thanking him. He says that Athens is like a big and lazy horse and he is the horse fly. He has to bother the horse and constantly annoy it and sting it so it will get off its butt and move. After making that speech the jury votes and he is sentenced to death. There was only like a 20 vote difference between the people that voted him to live and the people that voted him to die. Socrates gracefully accepted his death by hemlock and perished proud and admired by his many young followers.

3/11/13

Today in Western Civilization we went over our most recent test. I did pretty well! I wish I did better but I am satisfied with my grade. I think I will do really well on the next test thought because the chapter we are studying right now is very interesting. I have written a lot of notes and I am understanding the timeline of events a lot better than the last chapter. I think it is because of the video. The video is really interesting and I have already taken over 5 pages of notes. Maybe more than 5 pages. I am looking forward to seeing more of the video on Wednesday.

3/7/13

Today was our long mod and we watched the video. I found it really interesting especially today. The video was mainly about Themistocles and the battle against Persia. So here is a summary of went happened:
The Persian army grew very big under the reign of Xerxes, who was now the king of Persia. The first thing Xerxes wanted to do was avenge his father and destroy Athens. The Athenians grew panicked, seeing how powerful the Persians were and realizing that they were the first and biggest target. In the Athenians panic they turned to the gods. They sent a few people to Delphi, where a priestess would read an oracle about what the Athenians fates would be. Myth was the god Apollo spoke through this priestess in Delphi, who was the most famous oracle of the Greek world. It was known as the center of the world. Greeks would come from far far away just to get one reading and in some cases people from outside of Greece would come to get a reading. The Athenians received bad news from their first reading. The reading said they were doomed and they needed to leave. News got back to Themistocles, who was the leader of Athens, and he sent more people for a second reading. The second reading said they needed to rely on the wooden wall to gain victory. The people did not understand and assumed they were doomed and began to panic again, but Themistocles saw it differently. He told the Athenians, this means we need to turn to the triremes, which were huge boats armed by tons of men who used brute strength to row the boat and ram into other boats. The Athenians then formed a clever plan under the instructions of Themistocles. The women and children were evacuated to Troizon, and the men stayed to arm the ships. A messenger was then sent to Xerxes, and he acted like a traitor. He gave Xerxes false information about the Athenians saying they were weak and if the Persians wanted to crush them they needed to go on boats through the Straits of Salamis. Xerxes was so excited about this news he didn't even think twice. So the Persians did just as the messenger said to do. But once they got there the Athenians were not unprepared, they were lined in wall of triremes. The Athenians crushed the Persians, and destroyed 200 of their ships. After that the women and children and men returned back to Athens where they made compromises with other Greek city-states to form the Delian League. Athens was the main power in the league and they made the government democracy. In the end of the video the unexpected happened. There was an annual vote for who was to be ostracized each year. Shockingly the people ostracized Themistocles. Humiliated and hurt Themistocles wandered from Greek city-state to city-state. He died in exile in Persia.

3/4/13

Today in Western Civ we watched more of the video. I find the video very interesting. We took of from where we left off, the red light district. This is where all the pottery was made. It was a kind of dirty place with prostitutes and just bad people over all. The potters started selling their art after freedom was given to them. The part of the video that we watched was mainly about Cleisthenes though. After he came to power the Spartans eventually took over and sent Cleisthenes and his family away. I think the man was named Igoras who conspired again Cleisthenes and turned the Spartans against Athens (sorry for the names, I lent my notes to someone because they were absent). After a short period of time the common Athenian people uprised against the Spartans. The Athenian people won and they brought Cleisthenes back to Athens to rule. We left off at the decision that Cleisthenes had to make over how to govern the people, who were obsessed with power. So he was trying to figure out how to "control them".