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!