Projects and Papers Finished!

Yay!, I just finished the last part of Zaire, Jayla, and I's essay paper on the Triremes and Hoplites. We will have to print out a copy of it and hand it in tomorrow to Mr Schick. It is 1,365 words so I think the splitting up of the work really helped us all put in our own parts of the story. I'm not 100% sure but I haven't checked Mr Schick's website today, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading that our test on ancient Greece is tomorrow when Mr Schick finally returns. I'm excited to hear about how the Netherlands were with his daughter. I better take home my book tonight and study off the website's link to the power point. I really want to do well on this test. (I'm also very happy that tomorrow is the last day before spring break!!!!) Wish me luck!

Papers In Progress Part 2

Today is the second day without Mr Schick and we are supposed to continue watching the video and writing our papers. Zaire and I's plan is working perfectly of splitting up the work. Jayla is going to finish her paragraph today on the phalanxes and I come right after her with the Triremes tomorrow on my Saturday. I will continue watching the video now in class. Yesterday I got to the part about the Spartans and their war based community. They took over most of the land surrounding them and when they did they would make the people of the country be their slaves. They called these people slaves helots and every once and while the Spartans would declare war on them. This showed their dominance over them as a strong war nation. This is all I have for right now but I will report more on Monday and start studying for the test.

Papers In Progress

Today was the first day of Mr Schick's vacation to go see his daughter at her college in Europe. We will have a substitute for the rest of the week and we will be working on our 1,000 word paper. Zaire, Jayla, and I have decided to take turns writing parts of the paper. Zaire said she would start the paper off with the hoplites because she was the one who knew the most about them for the power point. Either tonight or tomorrow I will continue the paper to talk about the major war weapon the triremes and after I do that Jayla will finish it off on phalanxes. We also have to watch a video before Mr Schick returns but I will probably watch that on my ride to Pennsylvania this weekend. I think splitting up the paper will help us all put an equal effort into the project so no one feels like they're doing all the work. I'm glad I didn't have to start off because I have a huge English paper to write tonight due tomorrow morning. I will most likely work on my part of the paper tomorrow during our class. I will now start the video we need to watch while Zaire works on her paragraph of the paper. Hoping for an A!

The Worst Day of My Life

I don't even know how I'm typing right now because of how upset I am. If you have not heard yet, one of the most important and loved members of One Direction has left the band due to depression. It's the best thing for him but I'm still very sad for him to go. I thought I should share that but in other news we finished up the projects in class today. First was Veronica and Adam telling us about the mythology of Greece. Greeks were polytheistic and their religion was developed around 700 BC. These gods and goddesses resembled human form and showed human feelings like anger and jealousy. The major deities of the Greek Pantheon were Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestro, Hermes, and Hesita. Zeus was the God of the sky and is the King of the Gods. He over threw his father for the thrown and he made his sons compete for it. Poseidon was the god of the sea and was forced to build the walls of Troy as a punishment but later destroyed them with a sea monster. He controls the oceans and waters with his emotions so you wouldn't want to sail on Poseidon's Monday. We went over all the other Gods but I'm going to skip to one of the most important Hades. Hades was the god of wealth and the ruler of the underworld and he myself is not the representation of death. He was one of the three major gods to the Greeks. Then Parker, Dylan, and Jeremiah went and talked about the Government of Greece which we have also have been studying in regular class. We discussed Aristocracy and the birth of Democracy and then after that we took some notes from Mr Schick's power point. We discussed the famous philosophers of ancient Greece and how they are still influential today. Tomorrow I think we will continue the notes on Mr Schick's powerpoint. Until then good luck to Zayn.

Presentation Day

Today my group presented our project on Hoplites and Triremes. We had a group go before us that explained Pericles and the Golden Age. Pericles was the leader of Greece during the time of the war between Greece and Sparta. Sparta has won that war due to their upper hand in military strength and due to the plague striking the Athenians. Today we started off our presentation with Zaire explaining Hoplites and their formations in war. Hoplites were soldiers who were healthy enough to buy their own amor and a lot of it. Their formations were absolutely spectacular with the way they had the next line ready to drop their spears down and attack. Hoplites usually had shields that also protected their neighbor and they also had large breast plates. Heaves were almost like shin guards worn on their shins and they also had helmets upon their head to protect themselves from danger. Then we went on to Triremes with me and Jayla throw into a couple of slides. We all did pretty equal work by the way which I am very happy about. Triremes were the nuclear war weapon of the time of the Persian war. They were large ancient galley boats used for warfare, trade, and piracy. They were called Triremes because they had three sets of oars. The ship was very light weight and could glide across the water swiftly and quickly. The ship itself was used to bash into the side of other boats to jump on board and steal stuff. These boats were very advanced architecture to the Greeks and helped defeat the Persians in a battle. Next we learned about philosophers from another group and art and architecture from another group we learned a lot of things that were gonna be on the test coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to remember them.

Leaders In Greece

Today we went on with our notes about the leaders of Greece. As I ended yesterday Hippias was ostracized and a new leader had to be chosen. Two other aristocrats were put in line for power and the power ended up going to another tyrant named Isagoras. Isagoras tried to banish the more favored aristocrat for power Cleisthenes. The people of Athens were so angered by their new leader for the couple years he was in power and revolted against him. This was one of the first acts of democracy in our known history. They trapped Isagoras on top of the acropolis for two days then he fled and was banished. The year 503 BCE was one of the most important years for the history of democracy. Cleisthenes was a member of a very elite rich family and was insulated from the Hoi polli. Even though he was definitely not one of the people he was a pretty crafty politician. We also talked about the impending weather that might be coming our way tomorrow and the possibility of a cyber day. We discussed our projects that are due soon and our activities that we will be doing when Mr Schick is gone. That's all for today and all for our notes.

Todays Notes

Today I will be typing my notes we take in class into my blog because I'll be getting home very late night so I want to get my blog out of the way. We are still learning the topic of Ancient Greece so here we go!
Transformation of Government
-during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, aristocrats ran the show in most of Greece
-Rich people held much more influence in society, and held much more governmental power, than the middle class or the poor
Aristocracy
-aristocracy is rule by aristocrats
-the attached symposiums meetings where the elite mean would enjoy wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras while discussing politics (almost like underground strip clubs and shows with escorts)
An Exclusive Club
-no women except the entertainment
-no middle class
-certainly, no slaves
-sometimes, even certain aristocrats (who didn't have the right connections or who fell out of favor) were excluded
-what to do if you're on the outside
ostracized 
Tyrants Seize Control
-sometimes aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites (well-armed soldiers)  and set up alternative form of government called a tyranny
-tyrant: someone who rules outside the framework of the polis
-modern meaning of tyrant: an abusive or oppressive ruler
-the greek meaning of tyrant: someone who simply seized power (usually with hoplite help)
UPDATE: Mr Schick just threw water everywhere cool.
Clash of the Tyrants
-Hippias was a tyrant who ruled from 527 to 510 BCE
-his brother was murdered, and his rule became harsh
-eventually he was expelled fromAthens
-in revenge, he began working with the Persian king Darius I, helping then invade Marathon
And that's all for today!