More presentations!!

Today we finished Grace's power point (finally), then we did our presentation on Judaism. We didn't start  too well, because the website that we got the information from wasn't really accurate, but other than that we were rolling. It was neither too long nor too short, so for me it was perfect. Then Ryan's group was next. They talked about Buddhism, it was a really good presentation, the beginning was pretty funny too, because of the picture of Buddha (he was fat). They weren't able to finish it though. So that is really it, it was a pretty good day considering that it rained in the morning and that I barely got to school in time. Also Annie had another shadow, I don't remember her name, but she was the sister/twin of the girl that shadowed Annie yesterday. Last of all today is HUMP DAYYY!!! Oh and we have a test on the 5 main religions on Friday this week.

Going over the quiz and Grace's long power point

Today is Tuesday the best day of the week  for me, but Friday is pretty awesome too. We went over the 50 point quiz, and as always it took so long to look over. It was actually pretty fun. We had 2 shadows today, their names were Lee (I think that is how you spell it) and there was another guy, but I can't remember his name... whoops. So after using up a whole mod just reviewing the quiz, we finally got to doing a presentation and of course we started with Grace's group. She actually had the cool idea to print out her group's presentation. Therefore, we wouldn't be stressing out writing all of "Grace's important facts." We didn't get to finish her presentation, which wasn't a surprise to me and I think to everyone. Tomorrow we will have to finish Grace's presentations and do all the other presentations. Hopefully everybody can finish in time...

Groups!

Today in class we got into group of 3 or 4 to research one of the 5 main religions. The 5 main religions are Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Me, Grant and Caroline got Judaism. It was a long mod today, so we were able to get most of our presentation done. It looks really cool too. We researched a bunch of things and I'm pretty impressed with what we got. After the first mod, we got a 5 minute break, therefore I went to my locker and got some pretzels, but my pretzels didn't last that long, because I started to share them with everyone, but I'm cool with that because I was still able to have some. On the other hand some people went all out and got some fries, but they were pretty nice about it though, because they let us have some. Well I really can't believe that it is the start of the second quarter, but I liked this how this class started for the beginning of the second quarter :) .

It's only a 50 point quiz...

Well today we had a 50 point quiz that will counted in our 1st quarter grade. I really hope I did well, but I have no idea whether I did or not... So we had a shadow and her name was Mikalya, and she was shadowing from Fallston Middle School. Mr. Schick gave her the quiz also, so maybe she did well, or maybe she didn't. It wasn't too bad, but towards the end of the quiz, I just started to guess, but I looks like I guessed pretty well. We were crazy today, so hopefully Mikalya wasn't freaked out. Also Mr. Schick was wearing all grey!! Thought it was pretty cool/funny. I had a velvet muffin in health class, and it was really good. Last thing is that today is the end of the 1st quarter, can’t believe that I have completed one quarter of my freshman year!!!… J

We watched a video, then we talked

Today we didn't do any writing, which is surprising (at least for me). Instead we watched a video, on America, I cant really remember the title of the show we watched, or else I would tell you. The main point that the guy who had the blonde hair in dumb and dumber says that America isn't the greatest country in the world, and he supports this statement with so many data, that you obviously believe the guy. I mean I really don't know what is the greatest country in the world is, but I don't think that it is America, but it might be wrong. The thing is that sometimes, I might think that Switzerland is the greatest country of the world, because of all the green etc, but that is wrong because you can't just base a country on its greatness on whether or not it is pretty enough for you. You got to go with the data about that country.

Religious Wars

Today Mr. Schick ranted. He ranted about wars, specifically religious wars, and I can see why he is a little frustrated with this topic. 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, the things is that there are so many conflicts between these religions, but they almost believe in the same thing. You see the Jews believe they came from the descendants of Abraham, but Muslims and Christians also came from the descendants of Abraham, and I can bet that there is so much war between these faiths, especially Muslims and Jews. Also religion can have millions of followers all believing the same thing, therefore you can expect there would be a little bit of conflicts. The thing is that even if you look different or have a different belief, it shouldn't be resulting in the using of bombs and tanks to destroy cities.

Cultural Characteristics and Mr. Schick's awesome vacation

Today Mr.Schick was here!! But Arri was not (he has been gone for almost all of the month)... Well Mr. Schick told us about his vacations, which sounded pretty fun. 1st he told us about he saw his daughter, who studies journalism at the university Boston, but Mr. Schick's "adventures" had just begun. The adventure that he did was going to the Red Sox's game with the television crew. How he actually got into the television crew section was actually pretty funny though. He decided to go walking around the stadium, because where he was staying was pretty close to where the stadium was. Then he saw all the television crew cars, but it was blocked by police cars, but there was a gap. So he went walking in "like he owned the place." and guess went he got in!! Well to make the long story short he had a really good time with the television crew and they got right in the middle celebration of the Red Sox's win. We did do classwork, but I thought it was more important to blog this. :)

Well we took a test...

We took a test today, and let's say that I did not get anything. Apparently Grace, was the only one to finish; bet she was determined to take those AP classes. Also a shadow student finished, so that we my moment of shock, I wonder if he did well... The big thing though was that Mr. Schick wasn't at class!! I was pretty disappointed, but unlike Grace, I wasn't SUPER disappointed. I liked the substitute teacher, but I never remembere3d his name. As you can I stink with names... This week was pretty crazy, but I really liked it, it was nice to have a change for a little while. It sort of stinks, because today is the last day of spirit day, so that means I can't wear sweat pants all day. Apparently we have a Pep Rally today around 1:00, hopefully it will be fun, which I think it will. Well tomorrow is going to be a long day, because we have homecoming, but I think everything will look pretty cool :).

Going over the population quiz

It was COUCH POTATO DAY!! Enough said ... Well today we checked our quizzes, and that took most of our class time. I think the reason why it took so long is because everybody kept forgetting to say the question, and then say the answer. I did ok, maybe I could of done better, but I'm happy with what I got. After we finally finished checking the quiz, we went on to review cultural characteristics. The components of cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life, the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all the members, and the same characteristics can also link or divide a region.  To be more general about these characteristics can be put as language, ethnic heritage, and religion. That is really it for today. Sooo tomorrow is PSAT'S, nothing really exciting, except we get to arrive at 9 and leave at 12:30, which is really nice.

Quiz Today and wrapping up population unit!!

Today was the day we had a quiz. It  wasn't too bad, I think the most challenging part was the shapes of the population, but you never know, I might of have done a lot better than I expected. We also had 2 shadow people, which were from St. Paul's, I don't remember their names, but for me that isn't a surprise because I'm not the greatest person with names. Actually, I think one of their names was Nick. D, maybe I'm wrong, but I think I am right. I feel like we didn't we didn't do much, because our class took up most of our mod(s) to finish the quiz. A funny thing that happened today though, is that Grant was about to say he was finish the quiz, but Mr. Schick warned him that he could not take the quiz back after he was done, so Grant decided to look over his quiz more. Then Android (it’s really sad that I don’t know his real name…) said he was done and Mr. Schick took it so quickly, not even giving him a warning! That is really all… Oh and it is Daniel’s birthday today!!

Population shapes and quizzzzz

Today we got our quizzes back, and I did pretty well. Apparently, the classes before didn't have notes for this quiz and they got higher grades than us, which isn't that good. To get on an even happier note is that we have a test on Friday, about migration and population, which sounds like it might be hard, so hopefully I can do well on it. The last thing that we did was look at some states to see which type of shape they are and what kind of age of population they have. For example, Ann Arbor, Michigan has a lot of people between their 20's and their 30's, because Ann Arbor is a huge college town. Another example is F. Bragg, North Carolina, and in this state there is a lot more men in their 20's, because it is a big military place there. The last state we looked at is Florida. Florida, obviously has a higher population in older people, because it's warm and there isn't too many young kids running around, therefore this creates a hot spot in retirement.

Quiz today!!

Today we had a quiz about the movie, it wasn't too hard, but I don't know if I got the last question and the last names of the 2 guys, Panther and Daniel, other than that I'm pretty sure I did well. We also had cupcakes, which were really good!! I got a vanilla cupcake, but then I gave to Devin instead because I wasn't hungry. Another thing, is that we are learning a new subject and the subject is the Population Pyramid. In this pyramid, we see the oldies, the economically active and the kiddos. The age groups that starts for these age groups are 60 - 64 for the oldies, 20 - 24 for the economically active, and 5 - 9 for the kiddos. The last thing that we learned is that there are shapes that represents nations and these shapes are the Christmas tree, the box and the cup. Well that ended our day... Oh and it was Erica's 14th birthday!! ( That's why we had cupcakes :) )  

We finally finished the movie!!!

We finally finished the movie!! It was really good, especially towards the end. The boys has been in America for 3 years now and it seems to me they are doing things that they would never imagine they would in their lives. The things that are most inspiring is that they are all getting jobs to support their family and there friends back in Sudan and some of them are trying to getting a degree. The person I felt most inspired from is John. John isn't here just to live a better life but he is trying to learn everything. One of the accomplishments that he was able to achieve was finding his mother and sisters, he also became the sectary for the 'Lost Boys" foundation, and the last 2 things is that, he got his Bachelor Degree at Syracuse University and he went back Sudan to build a medical clinic, which is a non profit organization. Panther also went back to Sudan to get married to his girlfriend, but before he did that he got a Bachelors Degree in Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Last of all Daniel has a job at Whole foods and he is in a community college, but he still hasn't   located his family members, this may sound like he isn't going to be as successful as Panther and John, but he is the youngest. I think what I learned from this movie is to take nothing for granted, because you can achieve so many things that you might of not known you could.

Ya we are still watching the movie...

Instead of watching the movie right away today, we checked our test answers. Seems like it might of took up a lot of time, because we didn't see much of the movie (but we also had 1 mod, so maybe that's why). Then after checking our answers, we continued to watch the movie. We sort of focused on John in this part of the movie and about the jobs that he got. His 1st job is in a factory making baskets, which he says if very simple and his 2nd job is at McDonald's grilling burgers. One major aspect that John is doing is that he isn't going to throw out the traditions of the Sudan people and the other thing is that he wonders what Christmas trees mean and if they are in the Bible, because in, Sudan the people get in a big area and start to dance. The other person that we focused on too is Daniel. Daniel also has a job, but his job is at Bank of America. They all have been here for a year and they agree that the people here in America aren't very nice; they also are starting to feel lonesome. In the last part of the movie, which we will watch in Monday, we'll discover how these men can overcome these hardships.

Continuation of God grew tired of us...

Well we continued to watch the movie and just to be really general the Sudan people went to America. This process was no easy trip, in fact it was sad and challenging. The reason it was sad was because Panther, John, Daniel and many more had to leave all the people, who had been with them through the many years of hardship. After saying their goodbyes they went on the airplane, which was quite humorous. For example, some of them started eating the square butter whole and they even started to eat the hand sanitizer wipes. Even Panther had to keep asking whether or not they were eating milk or cheese etc. Once they got to Brussel, Russia, they had to take a connection flight to New York. Well they finally got to the United States and for them it's a completely new ball game. First they started to get accommodated to their apartments with the help of some helpers from the program. They showed them how to use a shower, toilet, microwave, and kitchen etc. Well, after they gave them a couple of weeks to settle in they still didn't eat with forks and spoons, instead they ate with their hands because they always will think of Kenya and they aren't going to throw out all the traditions they grew up with. Lastly, we left off at how they were getting their security cards, for they can get a job to back pay back the airfares, and rent etc.

God grew tired of us

We watched a movie today, which was pretty exciting. The title of the movie that we watched was God grew tired of us and it is about the civil war between north and south Sudan and the results of it. The cause for this war, is because in the north section it is mostly all Muslim and the south section it is both Christian and Animists. The north side wanted to have an ethnic cleansing, therefore they killed all the young men or put cuts on their foreheads from south Sudan. The results of this cleansing is devastating, all the 27,000 young kids that escaped, had to travel all the way to Ethiopia for refugee. It was no easy trip; kids had start eating dirt, drinking urine and a lot of them were starting to die from starvation, dehydration and malnutrition. They finally got to there, but it wasn't after 3 months that they had to move to Kenya. Sadly, the same situation happened to the kids except for this time, it was worse. They had started with 27,000 kids and ended up in Kenya with 12,000. Here in the Kenya refugee camp, is where we talk about 3 men, Panther, Daniel and John, who have lived in the refugee camp for almost all of their lives, and is now having the opportunity to go to America. We didn't finish all of it, but I will blog more tomorrow!!