Last day of Semester 1

Today was the last day of Human Geography. We took the test on North Korea as one of the last grades going into PowerSchool. It was actually a lot harder then I expected but I hope I did well. It's kinda sad that this was our last class but I have Mr. Schick for next semester too!

1/14/15

Today we started off the class by doing the online survey for Mr. Schick. Then we continued going over the North Korea PowerPoint. We started the PowerPoint talking about Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-Il. We are finishing up talking about North Korea because we are preparing for the test.

Almost the end of the semester

As we are coming to the end of the semester, Mr. Schick has scheduled a test for this Friday. The test will be on North Korea and we will be reviewing tomorrow. Today we finished the North Korea video which I found to be really interesting and educational. I learned a lot about North Korea and will hopefully remember everything for the test.

Pow Wow and North Korea

Today Mr. Schick told us all about the Pow Wow tomorrow and how if we attend, he will give us 10 extra credit points. It sounds really cool and I would enjoy going but I will be doing service hours tomorrow.We also watched more of the North Korea video.

North Korea Video

Today in class we went to Mr. Schick's classroom and watched a video on North Korea. It was a really interesting video and it was basically secretly taken. A man traveled to North Korea to do eye surgery on hopefully 1,000 people within 10 days and he took a camera crew with him and pretended they were a group of his doctors. I can't wait to watch the rest of the video and learn more about North Korea!

Break is over :(

Today was the first day back from break and we got right to work. We took notes and learned about North and South Korea. I found it very interesting how 2 places can be completely different even though they are so close. I am very excited to learn more about this new topic

Winter Break is Coming Up!

Today in class we talked about stuff that is going to be on the exam tomorrow. Mr. Schick answered all of the questions that we had and told us what we should know for the exam. There will be 130 Scantron questions and 2 essays which isn't as overwhelming as the other exams, but still a lot. I am really nervous that I am not going to do well, but I am definitely going to try my best. Good luck to everyone!

Reviews

Today in class we went over the test we took yesterday and the Political Geography test. For people that failed, they are able to come after school Monday and retake the test to get a the highest score of a 70%. It is a great opportunity for people to bring up the grade a little bit. Monday we will be reviewing for exams.

Test

Today is the day we took the test and I'm very thankful I took time these past few days to study. I think I did fairly well even though some of the questions were kind of difficult. I really hope I did well because I want my grade to be higher. I hope everyone else did well too!

Mr. Schick's Birthday

Today is Mr. Schick's birthday so he handed out cookies to each of us but then he had to leave to set up for an academic meeting. So Mr. Kimble came in as our substitute and I got to spend time studying for tomorrow's test and finished homework I had.

End of PowerPoint

More on Buddhism
Four Noble Truths
There is suffering
Attachment to desire is the origin of suffering
There is a cessation of suffering
The Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of suffering

The Eightfold Path
RIGHT VIEW
RIGHT INTENTION
RIGHT SPEECH
RIGHT ACTION
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
RIGHT EFFORT
RIGHT MINDFULNESS
RIGHT DEDICATION

Judaism 
number of adherents- 14-18 million
called- Jews
geographic location- Israel
founder- Abraham ?
holy book- Talmud and the Torah
beliefs- ethical monotheism- God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind. Ten Commandments and 13 Principles of Faith

More Cultural Characteristics Notes

Today in class we talked about spatial divisions, religion, and we also listened to Mr. Schicks rap song.

Examples:
Political Alliances
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Commonwealth of nations
Organization ofAmerican States (OAS)


Five Major Religions 
Christianity
-# of adherents: around 2.2 billion (largest in the world)
-called Christians
-geographic location: Europe, the America, southern Africa
-denominations: Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians,etc)
-founder: Jesus Christ
-holy book: The Bible, especially the New Testament
-beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine
-clergy:  the Pope is head of the church, priests are local authorities.

Islam
-member of adherents: 1.5 billion (second largest)
-called: Muslims
-geographic location: Indonesia, Middle East, north Africa
-denominations: Sunnis 975-90%), Shiites (10-20%)
-founder: Muhammad (570-632)
-holy book: Qur'an
-beliefs:monotheistic, Abrahamic, Five Pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage)
Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God), and observing Islamic Law.

Hinduism
number of adherents: 1.1 billion (third largest)
called: Hindus
geographic location: India, Nepal
holy book: the Vedas- eternal truths revealed to ancient sages; written in verse form (meant to be sung and easily memorized)
founder: no distinct founder- series of intellectual philosophical points of view. Probably the oldest religion, although Hinduism is less a religion than a way of life. Believe in reincarnation.

Buddhism 
number of adherents: 500 million- 1.5 billion
called: Buddhists
geographic location: southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan, there are over 1.2 million in the US
founder: Siddhartha Gautama
denominations: Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, Amidist

Cultural Characteristics Part 2

Religion: can be both a unifying force.

There are 5 major religions in the world today--Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They have millions of followers all believing the same thing. 

Religion can also be a dividing force around the world. Hindus and Muslims fight in India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim). 

There are conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (two forms of Christianity) in Northern Ireland. 

Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim Jerusalem as their religions holy site. They are constantly fighting over the land. 

Spatial Divisions 

Spatial divisions are how we divide the livable space found on the earth by establishing social, economic, and political control. 

You can be a member of more than one spatial group.

Spatial divisions can also cause conflicts or cooperation. 

Examples: Countries, Economic alliances, European Union (EU). Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

PowerPoint Notes- Cultural Geography

Cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life. There are the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members. These same characteristics can also link or divide a region.

Examples:
Language- Arabic unites the Arab world. Spanish unites the Hispanic World. Brazil is the only South American nation which does not speak Spanish. It speaks Portuguese.
Canada is a bilingual nation. French and English are their official languages.
The United States does NOT have an official language.
Switzerland has multiple languages but very little conflict between the groups. English is now considered the world language and is used for most business transactions around the world.

Religion- 

Ethnic Heritage- In Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians). When strong leadership died out, the different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they all have separate countries. In the countries of Rwanda and Burundi in Africa, two ethnic groups are dominant, the Tutsis and the Hutus. The United States and Switzerland have peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their countries. Korea, China and Japan have primarily one ethnic group.

Slumdog Millionaire

Today Mr. Schick let us re-watch the ending of Slumdog Millionaire because some people didn't get to see the ending. It was definitely a great movie I really enjoyed watching it. After we watched the movie we had like 10 extra minutes so we discussed the movie and asked questions. Tomorrow we will be starting PowerPoints again so today was a nice break.

More of Slumdog Millionaire

Today we watched more of the movie and we got to some really good parts right before the bell rang at the end of the day. I was really  hoping I could stay to watch the rest because I really like the movie but I had to leave. I'm really happy because today was the start of our Thanksgiving break!

Slumdog Millionaire

Today the class started out by giving me a synopsis of what was happening in the movie since I was absent Friday. Afterwards we went to Mr. Schick's classroom and watched some more of the movie. I have never seen Slumdog Millionaire so it was interesting to watch. I am really enjoying the movie so far even though I missed the beginning. It's somewhat sad but it's definitely a really good movie. I can't wait to watch more of the movie!

Not in school

I was not in class today so this is today's post.

Extra Credit Songs

Home- Chris Daughtry
Only in America- Brooks and Dunn
Pink Houses- John Mellencamp
She's Leaving Home- The Beatles
Going to California- Led Zeppelin
Home- Dierks Bentley
Rest of my Life- Soja
Leavin This Town- The Beach Boys
Leaving California- Maroon 5

French National Anthem

English Translation of La Marseillaise

Let's go children of the fatherland,

The day of glory has arrived!

Against us tyranny's

Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)

In the countryside, do you hear

The roaring of these fierce soldiers?

They come right to our arms

To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!

Form your batallions!

Let us march! Let us march!

May impure blood

Water our fields!

This horde of slaves, traitors, plotting kings,

What do they want?

For whom these vile shackles,

These long-prepared irons? (repeat)

Frenchmen, for us, oh! what an insult!

What emotions that must excite!

It is us that they dare to consider 

Returning to ancient slavery!

What! These foreign troops

Would make laws in our home!

What! These mercenary phalanxes

Would bring down our proud warriors! (repeat)

Good Lord! By chained hands

Our brows would bend beneath the yoke!

Vile despots would become

The masters of our fate!

Tremble, tyrants! and you, traitors,

The disgrace of all groups,

Tremble! Your parricidal plans

Will finally pay the price! (repeat)

Everyone is a soldier to fight you,

If they fall, our young heros,

France will make more,

Ready to battle you!

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,

Bear or hold back your blows!

Spare these sad victims,

Regretfully arming against us. (repeat)

But not these bloodthirsty despots,

But not these accomplices of Bouillé,

All of these animals who, without pity,

Tear their mother's breast to pieces!

Sacred love of France,

Lead, support our avenging arms!

Liberty, beloved Liberty,

Fight with your defenders! (repeat)

Under our flags, let victory

Hasten to your manly tones!

May your dying enemies

See your triumph and our glory!

Refrain

We will enter the pit

When our elders are no longer there;

There, we will find their dust

And the traces of their virtues. (repeat)

Much less eager to outlive them

Than to share their casket,

We will have the sublime pride

Of avenging them or following them

My comments:

France's national anthem is very gruesome and maddening whereas ours is basically happy. Ours shows how proud we are of our country, it talks about our flag, our braveness during battle and that at the end of the day, after all of the bombs and explosions, our flag was still standing. Almost their entire anthem is about bloody war and fighting. You would never think it was so gruesome by listening to it because it sounds pretty uplifting and pretty. I would say the tone of their anthem is definitely military.