Exam Review

Hello,

Today we review for our exam. Mr. Schick finally posted a study guide on his blog, but it had no information. It was just everything that we learned. If I would have known that the study guide would just be him putting what we have learned on it I wouldn't have waited for it. I don't know why it took so long for him to do this, I thought that it would have a bit of notes on the things we learned, but no. Even though this is too bad, most of the notes that I have on the things we have learned are either in my notebook, blog, or on a powerpoint that he made that is posted on his blog. I believe that I am going to do very well. He basically just sped through the study guide as fast as he could which didn't really help but I don't think he really had a choice. Although I think that I will do very well on the exam even though it is a lot of information.

He said we will review again on Monday if we have school because of the snow, I hope we can review more.

Going Over the Test and Exam Study Guide

Hello,

Today, in class, we went over the test. Today was an unproductive day because I got a 100% on the test and there wasn't anything that I didn't understand. So while everyone went over it I didn't really pay that much attention to the answers because I had all of the right ones. So this class was fun because I really slacked off. I also got to listen to Grace rant at lunch about her test, which was interesting. Also I thought that we were going to get the exam study guide, but then Mr. Schick told us that he will post it on the blog. It would have been better if he just gave us a written copy, but this is fine. I just hope that he finishes it fast so that I can start studying.

I hope we have a good class tomorrow or he finishes the exam study guide!

Test Today!

Hello,

Today we took a test on micro finance. I didn't think that it was very hard and I think that it was a good way to get some extra points in the class. Before, Mr. Schick gave us some time to study our notes. I think he did this because it had a lot to do on Kiva. Some of the questions asked for like specific number answers. When I turned it in I was almost positive that I got a 100% and if I didn't I was 100% positive that I at least got an A. After Arri was done Mr. Schick went over and graded all of our tests. After he announced what we got I found out that I got a 100%! I was very happy that I got a 100% because that will very much help out my grade. I was about 1 of 3 that got a 100% on the test and it will most likely bring my grade up to an A.

I hope we go over microfinance more on Monday because I think we need to learn more about it.

Academic Team/Microfinance

Hello,

Today in class we went over a presentation that Mr. Schick made. We didn't do much other than that. In the beginning of the class however we talked about the academic team that Mr. Schick runs. He told us about how some people just hang around and only answer about 1 answer correct. Then he talked about how John Carroll has won a lot of the matches that they have played against other schools. One of our matches was even filmed and we got on a popular TV show called "It's Academic." Also in that match that was filmed we won! I think that I may watch the episode that is on TV even though it is on a Saturday. I watched one episode and it was very boring, but I think it would be better watching people that I actually know on the show!

We don't have class tomorrow but we have a test on microfinance Friday!

Micro-finance Questions!

Hello,

Today for our blog we are supposed to make 10 questions for the test that we are going to take soon on micro-finance

1. What is Micro-finance
A: A general term to describe financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

2. What are the benefits of micro-finance?
A: Saving Accounts, Fund Transfers, Loans, and Insurance

3. Name three problems in developing countries that can helped by micro-finance
A: Drought, Malaria, Polluted Water

4. How do loans affect small businesses?
A: Loans helo small businesses to get a kick start with their business

5. How many people die a year to malaria?
A: 655,000

6. What is a micro lender?
A: It is an organization that makes business loans to individuals who are not able to obtain financing from traditional lenders.

7. In what year did doctors discover the real cause of malaria?
A: 1890

8. What is malaria?
A: A life threatening disease transmitted by mosquitoes

9. Are there any cures for malaria?
A: No

10. How can we improve micro-finance?
A: We need to think of a solution to give people a chance to have a better life/business.

Thanks for reading!

Going Over Our Powerpoint

Hello,

Today we came back from Thanksgiving Break. I am really disappointed that the break is over, but it had to end sometime. Anyway, what we did today was that we went over the presentation that we all worked on as a class in google documents. The presentation was on the topic of micro finance which is what we have been learning about for a couple days now. Our presentation wasn't as good as the other sections. We really didn't have a lot of coordination in our presentation because some people didn't even make slides and others made basically the same slide, with the same information. I think that our presentation went good because we had a lot of information that we needed. Apparently Mr. Schick thought that we had more information, but the other class had a better look to their presentation, and it was a better presentation. I think when it comes down to it the information matters. So I think that ours was better.

Soon we will have a test on this subject and I will make notecards to remember things about Micro finance.

Mr. Schick's Childhood

Hello,

Today in class we did nothing productive. This is always great though. Today we talked about Mr. Schick and all of the things that he did in school. Most of the stories were him being a bad kid and how he used to throw things in class, then get in trouble. He told a story about how he used to throw gumby across the room to his friend and try to not get the teacher to see. Another thing was that he didn't do this just once, but he did it twice. Another thing that he did was that he went to the bathroom one time and flush the toilets so much that he overflowed all of them. Eventually the water from the toilets came all of the way out into the hallway. I thought that all of the these stories were hilarious and a bunch of other people to share stories of their own which were also funny. I have a story that I wanted to tell in class but did not get too, hopefully I may be able to share it when we all get back from Thanksgiving Break! I'm so glad that we won't have classes for another 5 days and when we come back we will be close to exams. When we come back I should start getting ready for our Human Geo Exam and hope to do great on that.

I so glad for the break and next Human Geo class on Monday I hope is great

Micro-finance Powerpoint!

Hello,

Today we started a micro-finance power point. This wasn't like any other power point though. Mr. Schick made a blank presentation and our class had to fill in all of the slides. We all thought that this would be an easy thing to do. Even Mr. Schick thought that this would work. Unfortunately, the other class that did this power point had no problems coordinating with each other and they got most of the power point done. Our class however couldn't coordinate at all. We tried to make a list of topics for the power points, Erica, Grace, and I. Even though we did this no one coordinated. I think the lot of the blame goes to Arri. He is honestly no help and ended up just yelling at Grace when she was trying to help him. So this class definitely did not go as planned and I hope tomorrow's class is better.

Sub Today!

Hello,

Today Mr. Schick wasn't here! This was a shame because toady was the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. I thought that if he was here would could have a discussion on this topic. I saw a show last night that was questioning the assassination and was talking about certain police and crime scene investigators still trying to find out if there was only one shooter or multiple. Instead of doing something fun like this we had to finish the game that we had started. I was still confused on the game and I think that it is actually a really bad way for us to understand the topic. I know that sometimes the people don't listen to him talk or doesn't copy down any notes, but I don't think that this was a very good way to learn the topic. I hope that when we finish all of this game nonsense that we actually learn more about the topic because I don't completely grasp the topic and I think that Mr. Schick could explain it much better than this game can. I hope that on Monday we can talk about this game and actually learn more about the topic and talk about the questions that we were given on the sheet that he handed out a couple days ago.

I hope that Monday's class is much better because we didn't learn much and I hope we talk more about the topic at hand Monday.

Talking About Small Businesses

Hello,

Today we spent the class talking about small businesses. We also talked about some of the answers that we were supposed to get while playing the game. We only went over about 2 of the questions, however. After we went over some of the questions we then talked about small businesses. We sort of got side-tracked in this class. I'm not sure that we should have been talking about this, but I think that this was a great discussion. We all talked about how it is good to buy things from small businesses because the chain places are destroying all of the small businesses. We also talked about a thing called Small Business Saturday. This is where you are supposed to donate, by buying something from a small business. I think that it is great to support small businesses because all of the chains that are there today were once very small and started from where these stores are. There is the problem with price however and obviously you are going to buy from the store that has the cheaper price, which is the logical way. Unfortunately, the cheaper price is usually the chain stores and this is why small businesses are hurting.

I liked the discussion today and I hope we have a great class tomorrow!

Going Over the Test

Hello,

Today we went over the World Leader test that we took a couple days back. I thought that I did a lot better than a 77%. I was very disappointed with this, but most people didn't do that good. Mr. Schick wasn't very happy with these as most would expect. I got above the average that the class got but it still wasn't good. Even though I got this grade I think that I will in the end bring my grade back up but everything put together right now I have a B in that class. This is not too bad, but I hope to bring it up. Mr. Schick made a lot of mistakes on the test and he had to have a lot of people email him about that this was most likely because he was watching football and wasn't pay full attention to grading. I think that I will end up with a good grade in the class. I hope that this quarter I will end up with an A and not a B. But I have plenty of time to do this.

I hope that my next test doesn't end up as bad as this one.

Some Game..

Hello,

Today in Human Geo we had an extended class because it was Monday and we always have an extended class on Monday. Other than that we play a game to teach us about micro finance. Basically, we made decisions for the town on how to help certain situations throughout the town. I didn't think it helped me understand it better. Though it did get us out of doing regular Human Geo things, so all in all it was a pretty good day. I hope we learn more about the game because it was a bit confusing. I'm pretty sure it all ties in with Kiva however, but we will see.

Not sure what's happening tomorrow, but I can't wait!

Test Today

Hello,

Today in class we took our test. During the mod before I realized that it was probably going to be really hard and ask a lot about the leaders. I thought that it may only be like a matching to the leaders to the country, but I was wrong. So on my off mod i updated my blog even more, just in case. Mr. Schick was there though. He told us that we could use our blogs. I was so happy because for a second I thought that I was going to do really bad. After that I was a bit relieved. With the blog I thought that the test was very easy. I was the first one done so I beat Grace which is all that matters. I think that I did fairly well. Not sure that I got a 100%, but I am very confident in myself that I got a good grade.

That is all that I did today and I will do more on Monday!

Going Over the Test

Hello,

Today we went over the tests that we took a while ago. I thought that I did better than I actually did. I still, however, got a B. I still think that it was unfair that the other class got to take the test again. We may have gotten more study time, but they got to actually see the test and what was actually on it. Anyway though. I didn't start the quarter off the way that I wanted to, but I still have plenty of time to bring up my grade!

Nations of the World

Hello,

1. Mexico:

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: President Enrique Pena Nieto

Birth date: July 20, 1966

Birth place: Atlacomulco, Mexico

• 
  

• He was the eldest of four siblings in a middle-class family; his father, Gilberto Enrique Peña del Mazo, was an engineer for the electric company and his mother, María del Socorro Nieto, a schoolteacher.

• • Reports that he fathered two children in extramarital affairs while his wife Monica raised the couple’s 3 children, plus the investigation into the sudden death of his wife at home in 2007, have prompted many to call him the Teflon candidate because trouble seems to slide off him.

2. China:

Type of Government: Communist State

Leader: President Xi Jinping

Birth date: June 1953

Birth place: Fuping County, Shaanxi Province, China (some sources say Beijing)

• Xi Jinping is the son of revolutionary veteran Xi Zhongxun, one of the Communist Party's founding fathers.

• He married folk singer Peng Liyuan, who also holds the rank of army general, in 1987. To many in China, Ms. Peng was the better-known half of the couple before Xi Jinping became leader of the Communist Party.

3. India: 

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: President Pranab Mukherjee

• 
  

• He taught Political Science at the Vidiyanagar College, and worked as a journalist before entering politics.

• Mukherjee was rated as one of the best finance ministers of the world in 1984 and was adjudged the best parliamentarian in 1997.

Birthday	December 11, 1935
Birthplace	India

4. Afghanistan:

Type of Government: Islamic Republic

Leader: President Hamid Karzai

• 
  

• He emerged as a resistance leader under Taliban rule and worked to undermine the regime. 

• He is well versed in several languages, including his native Peshto, Persian, Hindi, French and English.

Birthday	December 11, 1935
Birthplace	India

5. Germany:

Type of Government: Federal Republic

Leader: Chancellor Angela Merkel

• 
  

• Graduated from University of Leipzig in 1978 with a degree in physics and physical chemistry; earned a PhD in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1986

• Has been Chancellor since November 2005

6. United Kingdom:

Type of Government: Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm

Leader: Prime Minister David Cameron

Birth date: October 9, 1966

Birth place: London, England

• At the age of seven, the young Cameron was packed off to Heatherdown, a highly exclusive preparatory school, which counted Princes Edward and Andrew among its pupils. Then, following in the family tradition, came Eton, Britain’s top private school.

• His first child, Ivan, who was born profoundly disabled and needed round the clock care, died in February 2009.

7. France:

Type of Government: Republic

Leader: President François Hollande

Birth date: August 12, 1954

Birthplace: Rouen, Normandy, France

• 
  

• Hollande has no previous experience in a national government position.

• The mother of his four children is Ségolène Royal, with whom he shared a 30-year relationship.

8. Brazil
Type of Government: Federal Republic
Leader: President Dilma Rousseff

Birth date: December 14, 1947

Birth place: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

She opposed Brazil’s military dictatorship of the 1960s and ‘70s, and served three years in prison, where she was repeatedly tortured.

She has been divorced twice.

She has a degree in economics, and now rules the country with the eighth-biggest economy in the world.

9. Venezuela:
Type of Government: Federal Republic 
Leader:  President Nicolás Maduro

Birth date: November 23, 1962

Birth place: Caracas, Venezuela

• Nicolás Maduro Moros worked as a bus driver before becoming politically active in the early 1990s.

Maduro was introduced to Hugo Chavez in 1992, after Chávez and other disenchanted members of the military were imprisoned for an attempted coup and Maduro began campaigning for  Chávez's release. (Chávez was released in 1994 and won election to the presidency four years later.)

10. Saudi Arabia 
Type of Government: Monarchy 
Leader: King Abdullah

Birth date: August 01, 1924

Birth place: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

He has fathered 22 children, the youngest when he was 79.

He is worth approximately 21 billion dollars.

11. Iran:
Type of Government: Theocratic Republic 
Leader: President Hassan Rouhanni

Birth date: November 12, 1948

Birth place: Sorkheh, Iran

• In 1963, took part in street protests against the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran. After the uprising was quashed, Khamenei was exiled. Khamenei was imprisoned multiple times and, in 1975, was internally exiled to a remote region in southeastern Iran.

• Was elected President of Iran in 1981 and re-elected in 1985.  Became Iran’s Supreme Leader in 1989.

12. Israel: 
Type of Government: Parliamentary Democracy 
Leader: President Shimon Peres 

Birth date: August 15, 1923 (some sources say the 16th)

Birth place: Vishniev, Poland (now in Belarus)

• Shimon Peres was born in Belarus. To escape the persecution of Jews there, the family fled to Palestine in 1934. 

• When Arab forces launched their attack on the new state of Israel in 1948, Peres was given the chief responsibility for securing military equipment for Israel from abroad.

Test Today

Hello,

Today in Human Geo we took a test. I think I did pretty well because I studied hard. This will be a good grade to start off with for the quarter. It was a bit unfair that the other class got 2 chances to do the test, but apparently we "got a longer time to study." When we didn't even see all of the power points. However, I think that I did very well. There was one question that I wasn't sure about and after I was done I looked and I was wrong. That was the only one that I think I got wrong though. I hope to get at least an A on this to get off to a good start to this quarter. I only have blogs in so far and this will keep my grade as an A. The test wasn't too hard, but I think that it was harder than I thought it was going to be.

I'm glad that I think I didn't get too many wrong and I'll start the quarter great.

NO TEST!

Hello,

Today we were scheduled to have a test. Every other section had theirs, but us! I think that we didn't have it because we had a shortened mod and because we didn't finish all of the power points. So now we have to take it on Monday. Which is fine because it gives me an extra day to study. This means that we won't see the other power points. However Mr. Schick gave us all that we needed to know on a presentation that is on his blog. This way we don't see the others, but we get to study the things that we are going to have to know. The test was on Cultural Geography. This part is mainly about religion, that is what all of the power points were about.

Well, we take it on Monday so just another day to study. Can't wait to start off the quarter with a great grade!

PowerPoint Presentation

Hello,

Today in class we finished Grace's presentation. It was good that she had her Powerpoint printed out. We still had to fill in a bunch of blanks, but It was much better. This was we didn't have to copy down a bunch of notes on the subject. After Grace had finished her powerpoint, my group went. We had Judaism as our topic and I was confident that our powerpoint was great. We researched the topic for a full class and we had some major things that Mr. Schick told us to touch on in our research. We talked all about those topics and our presentation went great. We had a few bumps and one incorrect thing, but  I think it went very well. Both my group members did great and I hope that if it was graded we got an A!

Going Over the Tests

Hello,

Today in Human Geo class we got our tests back. I already knew what I got because Mr. Schick had already put the grades in a short time after we took it. I already found out I got a 100%. Mr. Schick also told me this the class after the next. It was my first 100% in Human Geo, besides the blogs. After that and the Class Participation grade I still did not get an A. This is a bit of a shame because I thought that this class was pretty easy and I still did not get an A. I thought that overall my grades were really good for the quarter and I'm happy with them. After he passed back the tests and we looked over them Grace started her powerpoint. She didn't get too far because we ended up going over the tests for a while. So next class we will finish her powerpoint and others will present theirs.

Judaism PowerPoint Presentation!

Hello,

Today we worked on a PowerPoint presentation. We all had to get into groups and make a Powerpoint about different religions, there was Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. The religion that we got to look at was Judaism. I think that I learned a lot more about the culture than I had previously known of. Mr. Schick gave us some good topics to branch off of which was nice, so were wren't just putting random stuff down in the presentation. My group I believe got some great facts and all kinds of things about Judaism. Our presentation ending up being about 13 slides long so I hope that's enough. We only had one day to research it, but I think that we got a lot of useful information about the religion. We will be presenting them tomorrow, which I think will take most of the class. It will also teach everyone about the religion that the group studied so we can learn more about the 5 major religions in the world.

I hope our presentation goes well!

Cultural Geography Quiz

Hello,

Today in Human Geo we took a quiz. We had a quiz because many people requested it because some grades weren't the ones they wanted. So he had this quiz to give us another chance to get some points. I forgot that we had a quiz, until this morning. Grace sent us a little quiz that didn't really help. I studied all of my notes in Advisory and in the class before because we had a sub. I think I was well prepared and the test wasn't that hard. It wasn't really easy and I think I could have studied more, but it wasn't too hard. I think I got a good grade and I may even get a *DING* for getting an A. I wont know for sure what I got, but doing this test was good to get extra point because the quarter closes today so I may have just gotten an A to bring my grade up a bit before the quarter ends. We will be talking more about Cultural Geography on Monday.

I hope I got an A!

Which Country is Best?

Hello,

Today we watched a video about if America was the best country. The man in the video that was an actor in the TV show "The Newsroom," said that America isn't the best country. After listening to his opinions and giving my own, I would have to agree with him. I think hat all countries have their strengths and their weaknesses, but I think it's untrue to say we are the best. There are many countries that have the same problems we have. We clearly aren't perfect and we don't have everything together, but we could definitely change this and make ourselves the superpower. It would take a lot of tim, but with the right government and everything we could do it. I think that it is absolutely absurd to say that there is a superior country to everyone else's. Clearly everyone is going to have a different opinion and I don't think that there really is a right or wrong answer.

On Friday we will talk more about Cultural Geography and take more notes.

Cultural Geography

Hello,

Today Mr. Schick ranted. He ranted about wars, specifically religious wars. Well we first learned that religion can be both unifying and dis unifying force. There are 5 major religions and those are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Most religions in the world have a sort of nationalism approach. Nationalism is the belief that your country is superior to all others. In this case I think that a lot of people believe this for their country and also, their religion. Not all religions feel this way, but I think this is what really starts many of the religious wars. There are some religions like Buddhism that will allow you to still believe in God and be a Buddhist. Since there are millions of followers in certain religions a lot of them are going to want to speak there mind and sometime offend people of other religions. 

We will be talking more on this topic tomorrow

Mr. Schick's Vacation

Hello,

Well today we focused more on cultural geography. It was a sad day because Spirit Week was over which means we miss some classes and some are shortened and stuff. Mr. Schick told us about how he went to Emerson in Boston to visit his daughter. It sounded pretty fun. First, he told us about he saw his daughter, who studies journalism at the university, Emerson, but Mr. Schick's "adventures" had just begun. He was in her dorm and heard the sounds of the Red Sox game because it was right near Fenway. Well he decided to go over and check it out. He saw all of the news crew cars and stuff. He said that he wanted to go inside and there was a gap in the fencing. So he just walked in like he owned the place. He said hi to the cops and just walked in. He ended up getting to meet a man who he emailed later and said if his daughter needed an internship he would put a good word in for her. So it seems like he had a good trip

We will be talking about Cultural Geography again next class.

AP Human Geo Test

Hello, 

Today we took an AP test for Human Geography. The score on the test wouldn't affect your grade though. Instead, we are using it to see how much we know. When we take another test at the end of the year, we can now compare our final scores to this test and see how much we have learned. I didn't get far at all on the test. I think if I had another class period I would have finished. It was too bad that Mr. Schick wasn't there today, because today's class wasn't fun. I thought the test was a bit difficult. Mostly because I just simply did not know a lot of it. For a good amount of the questions I guessed too. I think that this big test really gave us an idea of what we would be doing later in Human Geography. From what I have seen it doesn't seem like it will be easy. 

Going Over Test

Hello,

Today in class we went over the tests that we took. I didn't get a great grade, even though I thought it was a bit easy. I originally got a B, but I got 2 questions right. After some convincing. After adding those points back I got an A. It was a bit disappointing not hearing the ding from the bell in class, but over email is good too. We carefully went over the test and then we started going over what we a re going to be learning next. We went over cultural characteristics. Cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life. Its the ideas and themes in which the group will teach to all of the members. Having similar characteristics can link regions, but they can also divide them. Some examples of cultural characteristics are: language, religion, and ethnic heritage.

I can't wait to learn more on this topic. 

KIVA

Hello,

Today in class we took a quiz. I think the quiz was a little easy. I hope I did well and I think that I did. After that we didn't have that much time left because some people took a while to finish the quiz, so we talked a little more about KIVA. KIVA is an organization that allows you to loan to someone that needs money in a struggling country to get something like clothes, food supplies, and even college tuition. The great thing is that eventually you will get repaid your money when the person can pay off the loans that people gave them. People usually go and give a loan to someone else with that money then. I think this website is actually pretty amazing when I think about it is that you can make a loan to someone from another country around the world. I think if you did this as a class or school it really could make a difference in many people around the world's life.

This is a great thing to do for people and I can't wait to learn more about KIVA and maybe even make my own account.

Population and Migration Pt. 2

Hello,

Today we talked more about the population charts. We also talked more about the 3 types; the X-Mas Tree, The Box, and The Cup. We took a look at a lot of the countries that have different types of populations. Many of the population charts had to do with something special like we took a look at Ann Arbor, Michigan today. The 20-24 age group was fairly high because in Ann Arbor there is a huge college; Michigan University. It is a great school and has one of the largest football stadiums in the country! That's even include professional stadiums! Populations in towns can be highly affected by something this small like a college. Another place we looked at was a fort in North Carolina. The 30-35 age group in both men and women were huge because it was a military town which is why there was an extremely low number of older people living there. This just shows you what a small thing can do to a places population.

We have a quiz on Friday and I hope I get an A on it! Can't wait for next class!

Population

Hello, 

Today in class we had a shadow which was cool, and I think he noticed that are class is awesome! Anyway though we talked about population in class. We talked about 3 types of population graphs the Christmas Tree, The Box, and The Cup. Basically a Christmas Tree form is when you look at the population and how many people of each age there are in a country. On a Christmas Tree graph it is usually a developing country that has a high birth rate, but doesn't have a lot of older people. The Box is a very good country that has a normal birth rate and has plenty of older people. Therefore the population chart is in the shape of a box. The Cup is for a nation that has a lot of older people in it. These graph are very interesting and I can't wait to learn more tomorrow!

Ending of God Grew Tired of Us

Hello, I was told to write an epic blog so.. here it is.

      So today we finished God Grew Tired of Us, after watching it for 4 classes. In today's part, Daniel wants to go to a community college, but since he doesn't have the money he enrolls in the Work Core. This allows him to get a job and lets him enroll in college. Although this makes him leave his home with the Lost Boys and stay in the college's dormitories. John Bul also receives a letter that is from his mother and sisters that says they are still alive. The only problem is that they are living in a Ugandan refugee camp. The camp is not doing well and his family is naked and ill. After hearing this John believes he has not choice, but to skip the college that he was going to attend and juggle 3 jobs at a time. He decides to do this because he wants his family to come to America, because the conditions in Uganda are so bad for them. He sends money to them from America so they can get food, medicine, clothes, and come to America. Soon one of the "lost boys" that traveled with them was reported missing. He was found a few days later in bad shape and got arrested because he was mentally unstable. Eventually he was admitted into a psyciatric hospital for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many of the lost boys were suffering from this because they were reliving the times of the war in Sudan. All of the lost boys soon try to get in contact with their families to see if they are still alive. One of the lost boys starts a walk in Syracuse to tell people about their country and to tell them about the war. Sudan later came to the agreement to because North Sudan and South Sudan. They divided the countries by religion, which was the reason that they had been fighting. After the walk all of the lost boys have a reunion in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The lost boys at this point have now been living in America for over 3 years. Panther graduates from high school and gets his official diploma and thinks about going back to Africa to go marry his long-time girlfriend back in Africa and help the people of his village. John Bul then travels to Phoenix because he has been elected the secretary of the lost boys. The whole organization is being formed to raise money and and help the lost boys and girls survive. The oraganization also tells many people about the situation they have and many of the lost boys tell their stories and how they came to America and what they saw in Sudan. After much contact with his family John Bul finally gets his to see his mother and sister after being separated for over 17 years. John tells the press and they are there for the loving reunion. His mother and sister come and his mother is so over joyed to see him that she collapses of happiness. She later skips through the airport singing songs because she is just so joyed to see her son. After this Panther packs his bags for Africa to go and marry his girlfriend and see his homeland. After marrying his girlfriend he reunited with his mother and brother and returned to America. There he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Economics and plans to go back to his homeland and build a school there for the children to be properly educated. John Bul continues to support his family. He founded a non-profit organization that will eventually build a medical facility in his hometown, Duk, Sudan. Daniel continues to in Pittsburg, is still enrolled in the Job Corps and is taking classes at a community college. However, he has yet to locate any members of his family. 

      This documentary was in a word, fantastic. The dedication to film something like this is absolutley outstanding. It took over 4 years to film it and that doesn't even include editing it and everything else. That is just outstanding. We have a quiz tomorrow on it and I believe that I am very prepared. I can't wait to see what we do next

God Grew Tired of Us Part 2

Hello,

Today in class we continued to watch the documentary. It was very sad in the beginning because all of the people that they had started with, most of them had died. After a while in Egypt three of the people came to the U.S. The change for them was amazing. I can't imagine coming from Africa to the U.S. Two of the people that we were following went to Philadelphia. The other one went to Syracuse, New York. The crew followed them everywhere and it showed what dramatic change it was for them. They came from living in dirt houses to living in a nice apartment. They followed them everywhere and things to them that we take for granted everyday like electricity, quality food, and appliances were so new to them. They didn't know how any of these things worked and they didn't know how to properly eat and what foods to eat. It was just the biggest change that they have ever faced.

We will be watching more tomorrow and most likely Friday. Hope it gets really good!

God Grew Grew Tired of Us

Hello,

Today in class we started watching a documentary called God Grew Tired of Us. It is about people in SUdan having to leave there country. They had to do this because of war and the fact that their government said go find all of the men and boys and kill them. They then endured a journey. This journey was thousands of miles long. They had to walk from Sudan to Ethiopia. After they couldn't stay there for long they left and went to Egypt. They found safety there and found that over have of the people that they started with had died.

So far this is a sad documentary, I hope it gets better soon because we will be watching it for the rest of the week.

Going Over the Questions

Hello,

Today in class we went over the answers for Wednesday's homework. For this assignment as you saw in the last blog, it was 25 questions. We were only allowed to use one website, the CIA Factbook. All the answers were on the website but a bit scattered so it was in a way a scavenger hunt. Most of my answers for the homework were correct and I learned a lot throughout this homework assignment. We learned to use this website because we may go over it and use it in the future. I believe that I learned to navigate the website very well and I will be good to go to use it again.

Next class we are told that we will be watching a video called "God Grew Tried of Us."

Answers

1. What is the population of the United States? 

316,667,567

2. What are the five largest countries in the world, by population?

China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil

3. What is the population of Pakistan?

193,238,868

4. What kind of government does the United States have?

Constitution - based federal republic; strong Democratic Tradition 

5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?

95%

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

Russia

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

Mexico 

8. What country has the greatest number of exports?

China

9. What country exports more oil than any other?

Saudi Arabia

10. What country imports more oil than any other?

United States 

11. What country has the second largest proved reserves of crude oil in the world?

Venezuela 

12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military?

Yes

13. What is GDP?

Gross Domestic Product 

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it?

Qatar 

15. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita?

No

16. Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent?

Africa

17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent?

Africa

18. What other country is in the top ten?

India

19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths?

18th

20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones?

No

21. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

23.9%

22. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

82.7%

23. What is Net Migration Rate?

The difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,00 persons

24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world?

No

25. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet?

7,095,217,9080

PowerPoint Finished

We finished the power point today, and we went over what we think on immigration.  I believe that immigration is a good thing for this country and others. Immigrants are happy to do a lot of manual labor that some Americas don't enjoy or don't have the patience to do. Mr. Schick told us a story about how his wife found that only immigrants were doing the manly jobs of gardening and landscaping. I believe that they take these jobs because they are very grateful to be in America and they really want to earn money to send home so they take what they get. I don't think illegal immigration is okay though. I think that there are still a large amount of illegal immigrants in America today and there are some in other countries as well. Since we finished the Powerpoint I can't wait to see what we will be working on next class!

Test and Vocabulary

Hello,

Today in class we took the rest of the test. I think that I did very well. I only had one last essay question to do so I didn't leave myself with too much work, which was good. After we all handed in our tests we learned some new vocabulary. We also learned some of the issues that people have with population. I learned that the U.S. has the #50 life expectancy of all of the countries in the world. You would think that our country would be higher on the list, but they aren't. The top is Monaco with has a life expectancy for all people around 90 years of age. That is UNBELIEVABLE. When you think about it that is a very long time to live. The last thing that we learned is that the world's population has increase by billions in the last 40 years. We are now on a steady pace to gain a billion people a year. This comes from the birth rates being higher than the than the death rates in most of the countries in the world. That's all we learned today and I hope to finish the PowerPoint tomorrow!

PowerPoint Behind the Swoosh

Hello,

Today in class we presented our powerpoint. Our powerpoint was about globalization. Throughout our research we realized that there are a lot of pros and cons about globalization. One major pro of globalization of globalization is that pretty much everything that is in America is made in other countries. For example, 98% of clothes are made in other countries and not America. One example of a con is that globalization leads to things like the Nike sweatshop incident. Globalization is also bad because sometimes it leads to bad things like Nike hiring officials in Indonesia to force kids into working for Nike. The bad part about this is that Nike pays their workers less than minimum wage and the working conditions are terrible. But now I have to go study for the test and review all of the great stuff I researched on globalization.

Behind the Swoosh #2

Helllo,

Today we learned that after the whole thing with sweatshops in Indonesia, Nike increased the people's pay by $1.25 to $3.70. I think that this is at least a start, but it's still not a lot. Also the factories are also in bad condition. The pay increase was a good start, but the minimum wage for that area is $4. Nike has hired government security to force people on taking the $.30 decrease and working for Nike. This is absolutely outrageous. It may be better that they increased pay, but they are literally forcing people in Indonesia and other countries to work there. If they don't like it then they are told to find another place to work, which there practically isn't, and they are not welcome to work there again. If you ask me this is not fair at all. After learning more about that we went back into our groups to work on our powerpoint. I hope that in the future Nike pays at least minimum wage and doesn't force people to work for them.

Behind the Swoosh

Hello,

Today in class we learned more about the meaning of sweatshops. We learned that Nike has many of them in the world and has people working in them for only about $2 a day. In the video that we watched a man named Jimmy, who wouldn't wear Nike products because of the way the workers were treated, went to Indonesia where one of the sweatshops is and tried to live off of the wages that they were given. They wanted to live just like them (minus the work) to see if they could actually do it. During the summer that they spent there he experienced things like extreme sickness and severe weight loss. He then realized that doing this plus having kids is no where near enough to live off of. Jimmy was a soccer coach at St. John's which was at the time the best soccer team in the nation. They then signed a $3.5 million with Nike and they supplied many products for them to use and their coach, Jimmy, refused to wear the things. He was later fired which made him want to experience what it is like working in Indonesia and seeing where they lived and how they lived. After living their for the summer they met with the CEO of Nike who declined to speak to them. No people from Nike are supposed to be talking to him and people who are found talking to him are said to have immense consequences. No Nike workers will now talk to him and he still to this day stands by what he believes in and thinks that action should be taken against Nike. This whole experience and video has a lot to do with globalization. This is one way that globalization isn't the best, because of sweatshops and low wages like this. I can't wait to learn more and learn more about the topic of globalization.

More Globalization

Hello,

Yesterday in class we talked more about globalization. We formed groups to make a project about whether or not we thought that it was a good idea. I believe that it is. If we didn't continue to help out so many other countries I think our world would fall apart. Since we help so many other countries I think that if we would just stop helping them, then more people would go to war, because then they wouldn't have the protection of us and then other countries that are in conflict with them would then attack, because they don't have a good enough army to sustain their people. Then they would stop exports to our countries and we would not get many of the things that we need in our county that is essential. After reading that I would think that you would agree with me. You may not believe me, but so many things that we have in the U.S. come from other countries. This is why I think it is essential to use globalization in our country.

Hello,
In Human Geography today we talked about the definition of globalization. Globalization is a process that is old as civilization. The process of globalization has spread religious faiths far beyond their areas of region. Globalization is happening everywhere and we are trying to make it happen. One example, is the United Nations. The United States is constantly trying to achieve globalization. It's in a way like world peace. We want to be 'friends' with all of the countries in the world. Sadly though the world doesn't all want to be friends with us. We also took more notes on globalization in through google documents. I didn't get to use google documents earlier because I wasn't in class yesterday, but I really like the whole concept. I think it is a great technology to use in class and would be throughout the school. I can't wait for class tomorrow!

Hi,

I wasn't in class today because I couldn't fall asleep last night and tallied about 30 minutes in sleep all together so I was exhausted. I thought that I wouldn't be able to participate in class today.

Thank You

Hello,

Today in Human Geo class we went over the definitions that we had to do for homework. I learned that most places back then were considered city-states and not countries or something that they are considered today. Something that I definitely learned more about is Socrates. He was a famous Greek philosopher that was very well known at the time and had to suffer a painful death by poison. Not everyone agreed with his studies and he was sentenced to death. Mr. Schick was very fond of him and would want to meet him more than anyone else in the world. Socrates seemed like a very smart person and I will enjoy learning more about him in the upcoming Human Geography classes.

My five point action plan throughout John Carroll is:

-Don't fall behind when sick, or absent

-Be Rerespectful, don't talk when others are talking and treat everyone with respect

-Get involved, in sports, activities, and clubs

-Study for every quiz or test because it can go a long way

-Pay attention in class and don't slack off or miss work, because it will come to hurt you later

Here are the Definitions:
Agora - A gathering place where you talk 

Arete - Very excellent or excellence 

Polis - A major city

The year 508 BC - The city of Athens was established in 508 B.C.

Socrates - A Greek Athenian philosopher. One of the founders of the Western Philosophy. 

The Death of Socrates - He died because he was criticizing critias. The Tyrant of Athens was really pissed off and told him that he can either drink a cup of poison or he can be faced exile.

The Socratic Method - Its a method were you will ask yourself a question and you will answer so that way it can create a stimulate critical thinking. Created by Socrates.

  What the Ancient Greeks meant when they will called you an idiot - They called you that because you were a private person and that's what idiot meant in Ancient times.