Helping with my Band

Today I was not able to attend Mr. Schick's class. Because I am in my school band, I was helping the band set up the gym for an assembly at the end of the day. We were going to preform in a prayer service for the school shooting in Connecticut that occurred recently. We were also going to say goodbye to the Japanese foreign exchange students, who were leaving to go back to Japan today. I helped set up chairs and carried pedestals for the chorus into the gym. The band also had its secret Santa today. I got my person movie tickets, and I was given a bit of candy from my secret Santa. I was really excited to play for everyone, because not many people had heard our concert music before. I feel we preformed well, because everyone had a loud applause at the end. I also feel that this won't be the last time we will see these wonderful exchange students. I also hope that I do well on my final exam. Because I want to get a very good grade.

Thursday December 13, 2012

In today's class, we finished presenting our PowerPoint projects. There was one group left, and overall I thought that they did very well. There was a few grammatical errors in the presentation, but other than that, it was very good. Oh, and yesterday, this one student (Ben) was very fired up when speaking about his PowerPoint. It was actually really funny the way he was talking. Everyone wanted him to present the PowerPoint that was just presented in his fired-up voice. To be honest, it made the PowerPoint much better with him presenting it. After all of the PowerPoint's were presented, we started to review for the final exam coming up on Monday. Ben also presented the review sheet to the class as well. We reviewed topic from the beginning of the year, like "A Message to Garcia", and the Ancient Greeks and Socrates. I am interested to see what we will do tomorrow.

Presenting Our Projects

Today was the day that are U.S - China Relationship PowerPoint were due. We were either supposed to convince the public whether they should buy foreign in China, or here made in the United States. We were the first to present our projects. Our job was to convince our classmates to buy products made in the U.S. I feel like we did a very good job presenting. There was one problem we did have though. Before we presented, we planned out who would present each slide and who would do what. At the very last slide, when it was my turn to present once again, the words on the PowerPoint were blocked off by a picture in the middle of the slide. So I wasn't able to read the slide to the class, and there was a really awkward pause between. So we just continued to present the slide and we finished. We also graded other PowerPoints, and many of them were very good. We will continue to share the PowerPoints in class tomorrow.

Monday December 10, 2012

Today in class, we continued to work on our PowerPoint projects as a group. Today, there were many Japanese students visiting our school for the week, and some of then were with us in our class today to see what our school was like. They introduced themselves and the teacher shook their hands. When we started to work on our projects, I had noticed that one of my group members had worked on the project over the weekend. I am fortunate for that, because now we have a head start on the project and will finish earlier. Most of the class period, we were revising the project and making changes so it sounded good. This project is not due until Wednesday, because we do not have his class tomorrow. We should get it finished by that time, and I am looking forward to sharing the PowerPoint with the rest of the class.

2nd Quarter Project

Today in class, Mr. Schick told us about a new project we were going to do over the weekend. We were supposed to gather in groups of 4 or 5, and make a power-point presentation. The group you were in was either supposed to convince the public to buy products made foreign in China, or made here in the U.S. The group I was in was on the U.S side. I'm fortunate for it to, because I can come up with more reasons for why the public should buy products from the U.S instead of China. Currently, the group I am in and I are working on it over the weekend. I will try to get a very good grade on it, because Mr. Schick said that it counts as our Unit test for this quarter of the year. He even said jokingly whether he should make it 100 or 200 points. I feel that my group has a good chance of getting a good grade on it, and I look forward to finishing it up on Monday.

People's Republic of Capitalism 5

Today in class, we continued to watch the third part of "The People's republic of Capitalism". Mr. Schick wasn't here today, so we used one of the students computers to watch the movie. During the video, we kept getting ads and pop-ups, and it was very hard to pay attention to the video. we also heard the sounds and noises of the ads, so the ads blocked out the sounds of the video itself. The owner of the computer went up to it one or two times to try to close them, but they just kept appearing when she sat back down. About 10 more minutes into the video, the substitute of the class told us that we should switch computers out. The new computer was a lot faster, and I didn't see a single ad appear during the video. However, during the time of the video when the first computer was displaying it, I did not get much information. I remember in the video that there were many cars in China that were American brands of cars, like Ford and General Motors. Also, there are reasons why America doesn't have China-made cars on its roads. First of all, the looks of some of the cars do not appeal to all Americans. And two, the way Chinese cars are made does not meet Americas safety regulations.

Notes for 12-5-12

Some definitions of vocabulary word we are learning


Capitalism: A social system based on the principle of individual rights                                                      
Capitalism.org

Communism: A political system that aims to establish a classless society based on communal ownership
of property.
Chegg.com

free enterprise: freedom of private business to organize and operate for profit in a competitive system without interference by government beyond regulation necessary to protect public interest and keep the national economy in balance.
merriam-webster.com

free market:  a market where the price of a good or service is determined by supply and demand, rather than by governmental regulation.
Wikipedia.org

People's Republic of Capitalism 4

Today, we continued to view the video "The People's Republic of Capitalism". We finished the first segment today, and we are now going to the third. We skipped the second because Mr. Schick believes that the second isn't as important as the others. The third parts title is called "The Right Lane". The video covers the topic of automobiles in China, and how they affect the economy and China's way of life. In China, the usage of the automobile is fairly new. China only started to use automobiles about 20 years ago. Before, everyone used bicycles for transportation. Now that everyone is using automobiles, you can now travel long distances instead of going as far as your feet can take you.
Because the usage of the automobile in China is pretty recent, they're are little laws regulating who can drive and what happens when you get into an accident. In the United States, you are required to have auto insurance if you own a car, but insurance acts differently in China. The video showed Liberty Mutual, an American Insurance company, solving a problem with a n accident. Usually, the people who get into an accident apologize to each other, give the other some money, and go their separate ways. No liability, no court, and the problem is solved right on the spot. Liberty Mutual had its own van, and the company used it for arriving at accidents, and helping the people come to a solution.

People's Republic of Capitalism 3

Friday, we watched some more of "The People's Republic of Capitalism". In the video, the newscaster Ted Koppel interviewed a few Chinese people in Chongjing. One of the people she interviewed was a farm worker. Her husband is an alcoholic, and she has to do all of the farm work to send her daughter to school. Every week, when she harvests the crops, she must take the 120 pound load on her back, all the way to the place where she is selling it. Plus, with the 600 dollars she makes a year, over half of it goes to her daughters education. Another man that the movie interviewed was a local "bang bang man", or some one who carries luggage for people. From what he hears, he believes that the United States and China are in a very important relationship with each other, and that because Americans have more money, they are more generous and give good tips.

People's Republic of Capitalism 2

Today we continued watching "The People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie featured a former Briggs and Stratton worker named Pam Le-sour. She and many other employed were recently fired because the factory they worked at was relocated to China. Even though it costs less to manufacture in China and saved the company money, it left the employees of the factory without a job. In the video, Pam was applying for a new job at a local job expo. The video interviewed her, and asked questions related to the Briggs and Stratton factory being moved to China. In the interview, she stated that since she is short on funds, she does all of her shopping at Walmart. However, almost all of the products in Walmart were at one point associated with China. So even though she is against U.S companies having their factories in China, that is the main reason why Walmart has "everyday low prices" in the first place. So in reality, she is benefiting from it, and not benefiting from it at the same time.

People's Republic of Capitalism

In today's class, we continued watching the video "People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie explained how the U.S's economy and China's economy are so different, yet so intertwined with each other. In the United States, the minimum wage is 7.25 an hour, but in China, there is no law or regulation with business criteria. For example, regulations to have a clean or safe factory, or laws to pay their workers a certain amount. Usually, Chinese are lucky to be paid 4 dollars a day, when any American job gets you 7.25 an hour. In the video, we saw a Chinese demolition team destroying a house. One of the workers had her child with her while she was working, because she couldn't leave her at home and couldn't afford a daycare. It was actually quite sad to see people working so hard to earn so little in the end.
Because Chinese workers often work for very cheap, many foreign companies in the United States produce their goods in China. This allows for jobs to be lost in the United States. The reason so many things in the U.S are produced in China, is because it costs only a fraction of what it would cost to be produced in the U.S, even with round-the-world shipping costs. Yet, Chinese workers depend on foreign companies to create jobs for them, so that they may support themselves. Even though  both economies are very different, they still depend on each other so that they may prosper.

Monday November 26, 2012

After a long Thanksgiving break, we all came back to school today. In Mr. Schick's class, we got our tests back. I was glad to hear that I got a perfect score on it. When Mr. Schick called on me to reveal the answer of number 11, I was not paying attention, and there was a long awkward pause. I finally realized I was being called on, and answered the question.

After we reviewed the test, Mr. Schick told us that he arranged a guest speaker to come talk to the school tomorrow. He told us that it was Gerry Sandusky that would be talking to us. However, he isn't the child molester from Penn State, he is a local news broadcaster and announcer for the Baltimore Ravens. He has been having a bit of trouble recently, because people think that he is the Penn State coach that abused his students, when really he just coincidentally has the same name as him. He has received death threats on twitter, and  people have been giving him suspicious looks and bad comments. People automatically make the connection to the coach Jerry Sandusky, and they don't realize that the BAD one is in prison. So the main reason why he is coming here to talk to us is to give advice on what to do in a bad situation, and to talk about the trouble he has been getting from people recently.

Later, we started a video called "The Peoples Republic of Capitalism". The video is about China's economy and how it is affiliated with the United States economy. We only got through about 10 minutes of it before the bell rang. I am excited to watch the rest of the video, and most of all, to hear Gerry Sandusky speak to the John Carroll student body.

Israel / Palestinian Conflict

Today in class, we continued to review countries and the relationship between the United States and other countries. Today, a particular group of countries caught our eye. The Israel and Palestinian conflict has definitely caught everyone's attention this week. In 1948, Israel became an independent state. However, many of the surrounding Arab Countries did not approve of the newly formed country. When you have a Jewish country in the middle of many Arabic countries, it can create some problems. Recently, the Palestinians, an Arabic territory, have gotten fired up with the Israel, and have been launching rockets into Israel's territory. Israel did not like that, so they returned the favor, by launching rockets into their territory also. This has been a constant pattern for a while, but this week has been the worst it has ever been. Now, Israel is sending troops and tanks into the Palestinians territory, so there is a chance that there will be a war starting between the two. I just hope that the U.S does not get involved, because the U.S and Israel are good allies with each other.
Another assignment I have this weekend is to write a 500 word essay on 2 groups of countries, and how they relate to one another and the U.S in business, trade, etc.. This essay is due Monday during class, so I hope I get a good grade on it.  

Reviewing Countries Origins

Today in class, we reviewed the countries origins that we researched the previous night. We started off by talking about China. As of about one week, China has had a new president, Xi Jinping. The former president that I included in my past blogs, Hu Jintao, is now retired. Next we talked about Afghanistan. Right now, the US is helping Afghanistan fight the Taliban, which is an Islamic Terrorist group. President Obama is planning on removing the 64,000 US troops currently in Afghanistan by the end of 2013. He hopes by then, Afghanistan will be able to fight of the terrorist group themselves. During our discussion about the UK, Mr. Schick was explaining how big the British Empire was back then. At one point, the British Empire was so large that it took up nearly a quarter of the earth. There was an old saying about the empire, which was: "The Sun never sets in the British Empire." The meaning behind the saying, is that the empire is so huge, that there wasn't one place in it that didn't have the sun shining.
Many of the other countries we reviewed were at one point in its history a part of the British Empire. Some examples include Iran, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Countries Origins

For today's assignment, we are researching countries origins. The following countries I am researching are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, United Kingdom, and Venezuela. The other 5 included in this blog were researched by my partner for this assignment, Alex. 

Iran

Iran gained its independence in 1979, when the Monarchy ruling
 the country was overthrown. The country was previously known
 as Persia, but that changed in 1935. After the fall of the monarchy,
 conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of
 government with a supreme ruler. During the 1980's, Iran was 
involved in a bloody war between Iraq. Iran can be found in the 
middle east between Iraq and Pakistan.






Venezuela

When the country of Gran Columbia collapsed in 1830,
 Venezuela was one of 3 countries that emerged from the
fallen country. Democratically elected governments in
Venezuela started in 1959. Venezuela can be found
in northern South America bordering the North Atlantic
Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.    





United Kingdom

During the 19th century, the British Empire stretched
 nearly a quarter of the earths surface. During the 1940's, 
the UK's power was quickly diminished in 2 world wars and
the Irish Republic's withdrawal from the Union. The country has 
never gained any sort of Independence and has never
been subjects of another country. The UK can be found in 
Western Europe.



Saudi Arabia

Modern day Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932. Since
then, it has been a Monarchist country. No country 
has ever been the subject of Saudi Arabia and Saudi
Arabia has never gained independence. Saudi Arabia can be 
found in the middle east, bordering the red sea and the
Persian Gulf





Mexico

Ancient civilizations have existed in the area of Mexico for 
thousands of years. Mexico was conquered by Spain in
the early 16th century. It had achieved its independence from
Spain in the 19th century. Mexico can be found between South
America and the United States.

Afghanistan declared their independence on August 19, 1919. Before they were independent, Afghanistan was a conquering nation as well as a conquered one. Before Christ they conquered nations such as Persia. They were also later taken over by the British after the Anglo-Saxon War. If you were to look on a world map you could find Afghanistan in the Southeastern part of Asia between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

Brazil gained their independence from the United Kingdom on September 7, 1822, when they became the Brazilian Empire. Before their independence, Brazil was frequently invaded by various nations due to lack of Portuguese interest. When they became independent they broke away from Portugal who started the Brazilian colony, however, the Portuguese were only successful in controlling a portion of the original land that they had colonized. You could find Brazil on a world map in South America located in the Eastern part of South America and overlaps the equator.

France unlike many nations, never exactly became independent because they were independent from the start. As France was forming, I was populated by the Franks, which then overtime got the nation its France. Thus, one could assume that France was always an independent nation. Want to know where I am talking about? France is located next to the Bay of Biscay and borders Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Germany officially became independent at the German Empire Unification on January 18, 1871. Germany is located in Europe and borders France, Belgium, and Poland.

India became an independent nation on August 15 1947 from the United Kingdom. Before gaining their independence, India had very little say in government since most legal decisions were made by the British. India is located in Southern Asia and is bordered by Pakistan, Nepal, China, and Bangledesh.       

Reviewing the Second quiz

Today we got our 2nd quiz of the 2nd quarter of the year today. As I predicted, I got 100% on the front of the quiz, but the back I got a few wrong. My grade totaled up to about 84% for the whole quiz. Today was Veteran's Day, a day where we celebrate the heroic accomplishments of our former servers of the military. Since we had an assembly in the gym for an hour during the day, today's class period was shortened to about 40 minutes.  Most of that time was spent going over the test and how we did compared to other classes. Ours unfortunately, had the lowest average of the other two classes. Also, two of my classmates shared the same birthday today. We sang "Happy Birthday" to them and then resumed with the reviewing of the test. Another thing  Mr. Schick mentioned was that we would have to be writing an essay on presidents of countries. He said that he would give more information as it comes, but it only has to be a mere 500 words. That shouldn't be to much of a problem to me. But for now, i'm satisfied with my quiz score.

Friday November 9, 2012

Today we had a surprise pop quiz. I found out that it was the same exact thing as the previous quiz on presidents, but on the back of the paper were facts about the presidents and their political backgrounds. I felt that the quiz was pretty easy, but I had a bit of trouble on the back though. We STILL were talking about the countries and what they were doing after the quiz. The details are a bit foggy, but I do remember learning about how most things are made in China. A while back, Mr. Schick made everyone look at the tags on their shirts, and I think every one was made from a foreign country. Today, Mr. Schick added to that, and said that the US and China are big trading partners. When he said this, I asked him what China buys from us, because it seems like China just gives their stuff away to us, when we only give them a little. Mr. Schick said that we give them a lot of soft drinks, but a major thing we trade are film productions and interactive media. In fact, he said that is how most of the money we make from trading is produced, by trading movies and other media.   

Finishing Presidents

Today we finished up reviewing facts about the presidents of the countries we've been studying. We started today by commenting on Barack Obama, who has been re-elected for a second term for President of the United States. We found out that he was the Senator of the state of Illinois, and that he was a graduate at Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Mr. Schick told us that when Mr. Obama resigned from Senator of Illinois, the Governor of Illinois at the time, Rod Blagojevich,  needed to find a new Senator for the state. He was actually considering appointing Oprah Winfrey for the role at one point! Instead, he got greedy, and decided to sell the position to whoever would pay the highest. Since that's apparently illegal in the United States, he was arrested and remains in prison to this day.
We also learned from Mr. Schick that there was a recent picture of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama after they won the 2012 election. He told us that it was the most liked picture in Facebook history.

We also learned about Israel and Iran. We learned that it is very possible that there could be a war between the 2 countries because Israel is a Jewish country surrounded by many Islamic, Arab countries. There is also a lot of speculation over Iran's nuclear program. Many countries suspect that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, when they just claim that they are building a nuclear power plant that's completely harmless.

Some students were also commenting on facts of presidents with facts of their own, however Mr. Schick kept asking them where they got there information. Mr. Schick reminded us all to use reliable internet sources to get information, because there was no way of telling if the facts from the students were true.

Reviewing Presidents (again)

Today in class, we reviewed our quizzes on the various presidents of the countries we learned about. We each shared our facts on the presidents listed in our blogs, while Mr. Schick added from our comments and told us about each of the presidents different life styles. When we were talking about Brazil's current president, Dilma Rouseff, Mr. Schick explained that she was arrested and tortured for committing a coupd'etat, or in other words, a revolt to gain control of power in a country. We learned that she was in prison for 3 years, and she was tortured using a method of torture called the parrot's perch. Basically, you were stripped down naked, while being tied to a pole by your hands and legs. As you are in this position, people shock you with electrical pulses too. So to think that Dilma Rouseff became the persident of Brazil years later is astonishing.

We also learned that the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has escaped at least 4 assassination plots since his presidency. Also the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has 13 wives and at least 35 children! There is so much about people that we just never knew about.

Facts About World Leaders

For our homework assignment, we have to find facts about the world leaders of the countries we researched  a few blogs back. These are facts about their political experience though, so our job is to see if they are a country that the United States would want to work with. (Source: Wikipedia)

China: Hu Jintau

• Hu Jintau graduated in Hydraulic Engineering in 1965
• At the 1992 CCP Congress, Hu was appointed a member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee

Brazil: Dilma Rouseff 

• helped found the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Rio Grande do Sul
• was once the Minister of Energy of Brazil
• She was also tortured by attempting a coupd'etat. She was in prizon for 3 years.

Mexico: Enrique Peña Nieto

• Was the former Governor of the State of Mexico located within the country of the same name.
• he obtained a Master's in Business from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education  

Saudi Arabia: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

• Was the mayor of Mecca
•  in 1962 he was appointed commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard

Germany: Angela Merkel

•  currently ranked as the world's fourth most powerful person by the Forbes magazine
• can speak Russian fluently/  awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry

Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu/ Shimon Peres 

Benjamin

• Also the Health Minister, and the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.
• studied political science at Harvard University.

Shimon

• won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister
•  appointed Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Defense

Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• earned his PhD (1997) in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology
• joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution

Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai

• selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six month term as Chairman of the Interim Administration.
• Obtained a Master's Degree in India

France: François Hollande 

• Served as the Mayor of Tulle
• served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008

India: Pranab Kumar Mukherjee

• senior leader of the Indian National Congress
•  Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012, and the Congress party's top troubleshooter.

Venzuela: Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

•  leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
•  leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party 

UK: David Cameron

•  studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree.
• First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party

US: Barack Obama

• Senator of Illinois
• Graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

Friday November 2, 2012

On Friday, Mr. Schick returned to school to teach us. We reviewed the governments of major countries of the world with him. It was kind of an uneventful class period. Besides reviewing the governments, and having  shadow in our class, not that much happened. Mr. Schick also told us some other presidents we have to know, so I put their names under the post of the presidents. He told us some interesting stuff about the presidents and other rulers, for instance the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has more political power than the Queen of England. Another one is that the king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has 13 wives and has fathered at least 35 children. I'm interested to see what Monday's class will be like

Thursday November 1st, 2012

In today's class, Mr. Schick was absent from school. When we went to his room, there was another teacher there saying that his class was down the hallway for today. When we arrived at that room, I realized that my math teacher was the substitute for today's class. We reviewed our test on cultural characteristics, then worked on our government blog assignment. Fortunately for me, I had already finished the assignment last night, so for most of the remainder of the class, I was passing the time by playing chess on my computer. About 15 minutes later, I realized that I had to do a homework assignment on the computer for my next class. I had completely forgotten about that. I intended to do it over the weekend, but I lost electricity from Hurricane Sandy, and was not able to complete it. I managed to finish it right before the class was over, which I am glad about.

Research on Governments 2 (Rulers)

Mexico President- Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa 
current: Enrique Pena Nieto 

China President- Hu Jintao

India President-Pranab Kumar Mukherjee

Afghanistan President- Hamid Karzai 

Iran President- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Israel President- Shimon Peres
Benjamin Netanyahu: Prime Minister  

Germany President- Joachim Gauck
Angela Merkel: Chancellor 

United Kingdom Prime Minister- David Cameron
Queen Elizabeth: Queen

France President- François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande 

Brazil President-Dilma Vana Rousseff

 Venezuela President- Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

Venezuela President-  Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Research on Governments 1

Over the weekend, Mr. Schick sent us an assignment, saying that we had to research some of the major countries governments. I will post the pictures of the countries rulers on a separate blog from this one, due to some issues with posting the blog. Here are a few examples of some countries governments.

Mexico- Federal Republic

China- Communist State

India- Federal Republic

Afghanistan- Islamic Republic

Iran- Theocratic Republic

Israel- Parliamentary Democracy

Germany- Federal Republic

United Kingdom- Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm

France- Republic

Brazil- Federal Republic

Venezuela- Federal Republic

Saudi Arabia- Monarchy

Religion Questions

Next Wednesday is our test on the major religions of the world. Mr. Schick wants us to write 5 questions about the religions in our blog. He will borrow some of the questions from our blogs so he can come up with questions on the test. Here are my 5 questions.

1) Christianity is considered a monotheistic religion, but the Christian God is  split into 3 persons. What are the names of the 3 persons?    A: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

2) Who is the main prophet of the Islam faith?    A: Muhammad.

3) What does the term "nirvana" mean?      A: happiness; content; at perfect ease.

4) What 2 religions originated from Judaism.     A: Christianity, and Islam.

5) In Buddhism the ________ Path helps Buddhists to receive nirvana.    A: Eightfold

Reviewing Religions

Today was spent recapping on the major religions of the world. When class started, Mr. Schick found a spider behind his chair. He squished it with his shoe, which led to a conversation about how stink bugs are such a nuisance to all of us. Mr. Schick said that he found about 50 of them behind this one picture hanging on his wall. After we talked about that, we started with Islam. I found that the Islamic faith is very interesting, and the way that their culture does things is very different from the way Christians do. I found out that Islamic people (Muslims), must know the direction of the holy city of Mecca, in relation to wherever they are. I also learned that that they must pray 5 times a day, facing the location of Mecca. I think that's really cool.
Next, we reviewed Buddhism. I found out that Buddhism doesn't have a god or holy book. It's more of a practice, or a way of living your life if anything. Hinduism is very much the same concept. Both are ways of life, rather than believing in a god or worshiping a higher power.I heard that following some of the practices or methods of living your life can help you reach Nirvana, or in other words, content or happiness. Both religions are very old, with Buddhism dating back to 500 B.C.E and Hinduism dating back to over 3000 years ago! After we discussed those religions, we went over Judaism a little bit before class ended. Judaism was actually the original religion for what is now Christianity and Islam. This means that both of those religions originated from Judaism. There have been records hat trace back to Judaism 3000 years ago. That's 1000 years before Jesus Christ was even born!

Cultural Characteristics

In today's class, we reviewed cultural characteristics that can combine or separate different ethnic groups. Some examples include: language, ethnic heritage, and religion. During the 'language' part of the lesson, we talked about a few examples in which language either joined or separated 2 groups of people. One example of how it joined people, is when Canada became a bilingual nation. Currently, its 2 official languages are English and French. One reason on how language can separate people, is how Brazil is the only South American nation which does not have Spanish as a dominant language. Its main language is actually Portuguese. This pattern continued until we got to the 'religion' segment of the lesson. During that time, we reviewed the major religions of the world, and reviewed our answers to the research about the religions in our previous blog. Again, the 5 major religions of the world are: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  

P.S.  Feel free to feed my fish   :D

Information About Major Religions

In today's blog, I will be giving research on the major religions on the world: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. 

CHRISTIANITY

Christianity was founded in the mid first century in the Middle East. It began as a part of the Jewish faith, but eventually became its own religion over time. The Christian faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning that they believe in only one god, or deity. Christianity has a holy book called the Bible, and contains important scriptures and teachings about the Christian faith. Christianity focuses on the profit Jesus, who they believe is God in human form. Currently, Christianity is the most popular religion in the world, with about 2.2 billion members. Christianity  is the predominant religion on Europe, North and South America, and Africa. Christianity can be found on almost every continent.

ISLAM

Islam is a monotheistic religion founded in sub-Saharan West Africa just after 1000 A.D. There holy book is called the Qu'ran. It is believed to have been revealed to the profit Muhammad, through the angel Jibril during his lifetime. Currently, the religion has about 1.6 billion followers. There are very high numbers of people in the Middle East who are Islamic, and Islam can also be found in various parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism started in Lumbini, Nepal around 600 B.C.E. This makes it one of the oldest religions still practiced in the 21st century. Buddhism is actually neither polytheistic or monotheistic. Buddhism does not have a holy book, but rather separate sayings of Buddhist teachings called sutras. Currently, Buddhism has around 350-500 million followers, and a vast majority can be found in China and countries bordering it.

HINDUISM

Hinduism was founded around 1500 B.C.E or earlier in India. Hinduism has traces of polytheism, but can be classified as pantheistic (concerning God). Hinduism contains many texts, including: Vedas, Upanishads, Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita. Hinduism is not centered on one person, but rather a multitude of profits. About 1 billion Hindus live in the world today, making Hinduism the 3rd largest religion today. Hinduism can be found in various parts of Asia, especially India. 

JUDAISM 

Judaism is a monotheistic religion which was founded in the middle east. The central figures of the religion are Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, however Abraham was the one to found the religion. Judaism has a holy book called the Torah, written in the form of a scroll. There are about 13-14 million Jewish people in the world today, and they can be found in a variety of countries around the world.

Learning About Polls

     Today in class, my group for the Google presentation about Christopher Columbus finished presenting. Yesterday, all of the different groups presented their projects about vikings, and Native Americans. After we took notes on all of the presentations, Mr. Schick moved on to a new topic. He taught us about polls and how they can work sometimes. He first showed us a map of the United States, including the state boundaries and the individual counties located inside the states. The map showed the locations in the United States in which the majority of the population for that area calls soft drinks a particular name, like: pop, coke, soda, and other. On the map, the various counties had many different results, so the map was a big vibrant of colors, indicating what the population calls the soft drinks. However, at the bottom of the map, it stated that this is a result of 120,000 submissions. Mr. Schick pointed out that this map is not completely correct. Out of the 312 million people that live in the United States, only 120,000 participated in the survey. Mr. Schick explained that not everyone is asked to contribute to the poll. Although polls give a good insight to what is or may happen, not all polls are 100% correct.

     Another interesting statistic is HOW people get the results. As an example, I will use a presidential election. Lets say that the people conducting the survey call someone, but they are secretly for President A. They call to ask who they want to vote for. If they say President B, then they will say a statement that will go against President B. If that changes their mind on who they want to vote for, then they check them off as wanting to vote for President A. That's one method in which people conducting surveys get people to vote for a particular thing. So you can also know that polls can be fixed to be in favor for a particular person.

Our Second Project

Today in class, we got our "God Grew Tired of Us" tests back. I was surprised that no one got below a 70% on the test. However, there were no 100%'s either. All of us got in between those numbers on the test. I got an 85%, which isn't bad. After he finished passing out the tests, Mr. Schick introduced a new student in our class from Nigeria. We are all excited to have him with us in Human Geography. Today in the United States, we celebrate Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus discovered America while trying to make his way to India for trading purposes Mr. Schick said that when he was a kid, he had school off on Columbus Day, while nowadays it is not celebrated as much and we have school today. We had to do a project on Google documents today about a topic that he gave us. My group coincidentally was assigned to research Christopher Columbus. During class, we worked on the presentation so we could have it completed to share in class today. Besides that, not much else happened.

Our Second Test

Today in class, we took our test on the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us". The test consisted of 20 questions, each worth 5 points, to make a total of 100 points. All of the questions were "fill-in-the-blank", which meant that you had to fill a word in the blank to make the sentence true. If you got the answer wrong, you got 0 points. If you got the answer right, you got 5 points, but if you spelled it incorrectly, you lost a point. I was a bit unprepared because I was not expecting the test to be in this format. Luckily,  Mr. Schick gave us 15 minutes before the test to review our notes so we could do well. I feel pretty confident about how I did. I though that after I reviewed my notes, the test wasn't so bad after all. One of my classmates had the town name in which one of the lost boys lived in, on her sweatshirt. Plus, that question was on the test. It was funny when many classmates spelled the town name wrong, when they could have just looked at the students shirt to get the answer. I am excited to start our next unit so we can learn about more fascinating things.

Sharing Our Information

Today in class, we shared the information we got from the charities websites yesterday. Anyone who thought that they had a good charity they would like to present, was allowed to do so. During the class, we talked about the different charities and looked at their websites. Some of the charities we looked at seemed very organized, and have donated large amounts of money in the past. We were also discussing on how we could raise money  to give to the charities that would help people in Sudan, like the John Dau Foundation. We actually e-mailed John Bul yesterday to see if he could come to our school to talk to us. However, we found out that in order for him to come to John Carroll, it would have to cost between 6,000 and 10,000 dollars plus Johns airfare to get here. The 10,000 dollar part does not go in John's pocket though. It is used to go to his charity to help the people in Sudan with diseases and those who need proper healthcare. We will need to have a BIG fundraiser if we ever think of receiving that much money. Tomorrow is my test on "God Grew Tired of Us", so I need to review my notes if I am to get a good grade on it.

Working with Charities

Today in class, Mr. Schick posted an edible document that the whole class had to partake in. The purpose was to find information on charitable organizations so we could get a better understanding of the charity we want to contribute to. We paired up in groups and started to find good charity websites so we could write about them. I was working with one of my classmates Alex. We were looking on the John Dau Foundation website and adding information about the foundation on the document. As we were adding, we saw that there were more people on the document then there were people in our class. Plus, some anonymous users on the document kept deleting peoples work as they were typing it up. Mr. Schick then disabled editing on the document so no one would keep deleting other peoples work. He told us to copy what we have typed, and to continue working on a word document. He would then allow 5 minutes at the end of class, to copy their work from the word document onto the document that everyone was working on. That is exactly what we did before the bell rang. It was a very productive day, and Mr. Schick told us that there will be a test on the movie "God Grew Tired of Us" on Friday. I hope that I do well on it.

"God Grew Tired of Us" 3

Today we finished the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us". During the last 30 or so minutes, the lost boys have been in America for about 3 years. The boys are now fully accustomed to American life, and know how to function in society. They find themselves remembering many traumatic events during their childhood, as a result of PTSD ( or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). During Independence Day in the United States, the fireworks and the loud noises reminded them of the war in Sudan. A little later, the UN is able to locate Panthers mother in one of their refugee camps. Panther sends his mother money so she can take a flight to America to see her son. It was very emotional to see Panther and his mother reunite after being apart for 17 years. Also, the lost boys come together at a family reunion so they can talk about issues with Sudan and what they can do to help. At the end of the video, it talks about what the boys are doing from this day forward. Panther wants to open a school in his village. He also marries a woman in his village and reunites with his brother. John is the founder of the John Dau Foundation, and he plans to build medical clinics in South Sudan. Daniel is beginning to go to collage, but has yet to meet or hear from any of his family members. After the movie, Mr. Schick wanted us to come up with a few ideas in which we could help the people suffering in Sudan. One of the ways we cold help is we could donate to the John Dau Foundation. The link is provided here  http://johndaufoundation.org/

Another way we could help is to make a fundraiser to raise awareness about the war in Sudan. We could also send care packages to Sudan to give the homeless and the hungry some food and other materials. There are infinite ways in which we could help these people, and I hope that this madness in Sudan comes to an end in the nearby future.

Friday September 29, 2012

I came to class today knowing that Mr. Schick was on a field trip with the Film Club, but it turned out to be a lot more than that. In my free mod right before this class, I read Mr. Schick's blog, saying that section 1 (that's us), would have a substitute while he was on the field trip. However, when we arrived, there was no one in the room! All of us were very confused as 10 minutes went by without anyone to teach us. A few of my classmates remembered a school rule stating that if no teacher was available, a student must contact the main office immediately. So a few students called the main office and told them that our substitute was not here. They said that they would fix the problem and send someone to look after us. A couple teachers stopped in occasionally to check on us as time passed. After a while, we got news that Mr. Schick just got back to the school and that he would be with us in a couple minutes. When Mr. Schick finally cam, he played "God Grew Tired of Us" for us to watch. In the movie, the lost boys have been in America for a while. They got small jobs to support themselves, like cooking burgers at McDonald's, and working in factories. Later, one of the lost boys, Panther, received a letter from his parents saying that they were having financial issues in Uganda. Panther is now working very hard in America so he can send money to his parents. I am curious to see what happens next in the film. 

"God Grew Tired of Us" 2

Today we watched more of "God Grew Tired of Us" in class. In the movie, the UN learns about a large group of boys who are running away from Sudan to avoid religious persecution. The UN decides to set up a refugee camp in Ethiopia, where the boys can live in peace. The refugees predict that they only will be there for a few weeks, maybe a month, before things get better and they can go back to Sudan. However, the civil war in Sudan rages on for another 10 years, and is still going on today. For 10 years, the boys had no choice but to stay in Ethiopia, for if they set foot in Sudan they would be killed. Later, the United States agreed that they would take a handful of the refugees and allow them to live in America. The documented 3 boys are among the few hundred who are selected to live in America. As they are travelling to America, the boys are amazed at the technology that they encounter along the way. They have never seen electricity before, and have never eaten food like Americans do. It was a bit funny when they were served a meal with and butter on the side, and they started to eat the stick of butter alone. It was a very interesting to see how they reacted to their new life, and I am very excited to see what they will encounter next!

  

Thursday September 26, 2012

Today, we got our tests back from the other day. Before he started to pass them out, he said that if we heard a bell sound ( him pressing one of those bellhop bells), it means we got an A on our test. If we didn't hear the bell, it means that you either got a B, C, D, or F. When my turn came around, I was glad that I heard the bell. I thought that I would have done worse because of this one set of questions I was unsure about, but whatever. We spent much of the class period reviewing the answers to the questions on the test. I didn't have many wrong answers, so it was a bit boring for me. During the entire class, people were talking while Mr. Schick was, and he had to keep reminding us to stop talking. After the 5th or 6th time, when the class kept talking, Mr. Schick actually left the room. It took a bit for the entire class to realize that the teacher left. Everyone eventually got it, and we stayed silent until Mr. Schick came back in. We now know that it is rude to talk over the teacher. After that whole thing was settled, we watched a bit more of "God Grew Tired of Us"

"God Grew Tired of Us"

Today was our first test in Mr. Schick's class. I made sure to study my blogs and review my notes so I would be well prepared for today. I thought the test was very easy, and I was very glad I studied. After everyone was finished, Mr. Schick told us about a video he wanted to show us. The title was called "God Grew Tired of Us" It is a true story about 3 boys who lived in Sudan during the late 1980s. There was a civil war in Sudan, and the 3 boys along with many others try to make their way out of Sudan to avoid religious persecution. We watched the first 20 minutes of it, and I was horrified at what I saw. Some people looked like skeletons with skin on them. Others were so skinny that they couldn't even walk! When I see these people it makes me realize that I take many things for granted. I am very interested about what will be in the rest of the video tomorrow. I also hope that I get a good grade on the test I took today.

Friday, September 21

Today's class period was a lot like Thursdays period. We still had a few groups who haven't presented their presentations to the class. We watched their presentations and they were very interesting. That part took up most of the period. When everyone finally finished presenting, Mr. Schick told us how to study for the Test he was assigning Monday. He said that it would be on everything that we have discussed since the first day of school. He told us that one of the main reasons for writing these blogs is to help us study for tests he will assign us. These blogs will tell us about what we did everyday in class. He said we need to review Socrates and A Message to Garcia, and the Did You Know video. His test will also cover some of the population terms we were talking about recently. I hope I copied down enough information about what we did in class.

Sharing our Google Documents

Today, we presented to the class all of our Google documents. My groups document was about Nigeria. Others included Indonesia and India.Our group was the second or third group to present. Each of the members of my group shared what they wrote in the document. When I was presenting my portion of the document, I found that I made a typo when writing it. I pointed it out and told people to ignore it. I get nervous when I am speaking in front of a lot of people, and my face started to get red. Mr. Schick asked if I was alright, and I said yes. He then asked me if I was going to cry (as a joke), and I responded by saying no in a high voice. My voice cracked, and everyone laughed including me. I thought that we did pretty good presenting. I was also interested by the other presentations people gave. I am also glad that Mr. Schick postponed the test he was going to give Friday, to Monday. That will give me extra time to study about what we learned.

Nothing Important

Today in class, we had an assignment we were supposed to do. We were supposed to make a powerpoint about Nigeria. That's all.
:D

Population

Today in class, we dealt with the topic of population. We took notes on the different populations of various countries, and learned about life expectancy, Net Migration Rate, Total Fertility Rate, push and pull factors, and so much more. I was surprised to learn that it took more than 10,000 years for the total human population to exceed 1 billion. Now, it only takes about a decade for the total human population to increase by 1 billion! I also found out that most of the increasing population is coming from developing countries: like countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Whats also interesting, is that for the population to remain at a constant rate, the Rate of Natural Increase (RNI) must stay at 2.1. You would think it would be 2.0 because their would be a direct replacement from the parents, but the reason it is 2.1 is because some of the people wont make it to the age where they can have kids. Plus, you add the factors of war, starvation, and crimes to all of that. We also learned about what pushes a person into a country, or out of one. Currently, there are about 7 billion people on this planet, and it is likely to grow to 8 in the next 9 or 10 years. I hope we will be prepared.

What is a "Record Player"?

We came into class today ready to share what we thought was the most interesting facts in the video we were assigned to watch. I mentioned some of the interesting facts in my previous blog. We had a very interesting discussion about what was in the video we saw. Mr. Schick told us that half the stuff that was in the video didn't exist when he was a kid. He said that there were no such things as i pods and cell phones when he was young. Back then, you had these big music discs that you put on a big record player. You also had a home phone that was attached to a cord, plus it was fairly large. If you were to go back in time about 25 years, they would think you were crazy when you told them that you will be able to take pictures, or surf the internet on your phone. They would also think you were crazy when you said that computers would be in every home in America 25 years from now. If this much can be accomplished in 25 years (music discs to i pods), think of how much will be accomplished in another 25 years. We talked about what we thought would be in the near future. One person suggested that there would be microchips installed into peoples brains, and you could play music by just thinking about it. The next generation of kids will think it is crazy that we had i pods everywhere, when you can just listen to it in your head instead.

Did you Know?

Today in class, we had a big problem with the blogs. When Mr. Schick told us to open our blogs, almost every-bodies said that it was under review for being a potential span threat. I was surprised because it was working fine the previous night. We spent about 1/3 of class time trying to fix the problem. Eventually Mr. Schick told us to deal with it and to access our blogs from his. We continued to review the answers to our homework from Tuesday, and dealt with topics like Gross Domestic Product (or GDP), the Net Migration Rate (or NMR), and the population of various countries. With the last 5 minutes of  class left, we also watched a video that showed interesting facts about today's society. I thought the 2 most interesting facts of the video were: "The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's... is greater than the total population of the United States. Translation: India has more honers kids than America HAS kids." And, "There are about 600 tweets per second on Twitter." It is really amazing to see how much we have accomplished in the in the last 2000 years. It makes you think what will the future be like.

Reviewing Answers

Today in class, we went over last nights homework. Since our homework was a very lengthy subject, we pretty much spent the whole time reviewing answers. That however, doesn't mean that it was a boring class day. We learned about interesting topics that are going on in the world today. Like the fact that Iran and Pakistan have control over nuclear weapons, share borders with each other, and are not very good friends with each other either. We also learned other things, like the reason Saudi Arabia is doing so well is because it is sitting on one of the largest oil reserves in the world, and that the United States imports and consumes more oil than any other country in the world. Besides the fact that we reviewed or homework, we didn't really do much else. I was looking at Mr. Schick's blog today, and I noticed that their was a video link for a video section 1 watched today. I am very curious to know what that video is about. I am interested to know what tomorrow has in store for us.