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.