How Can I Help?

I love having Human Geo first thing in the morning on Fridays!  Yesterday is was a little bit depressing though.  We were watching God Grew Tired of Us and the movie kept showing us how the people in Kakuma had to live.  I think it is amazing that only one out of the three boys that got to move to the United States really wanted to help his family.  Africans figure things out very quickly!  They were only in America for about two months and they found out that people aren’t nice.  One of the boys, John, has two jobs.  He works at a factory and then he goes to work at McDonald’s to flip burgers.  Panther got a job at a fancy restaurant as a waiter.  And Daniel makes about six dollars an hour by depositing checks at a bank.  When Christmas came, none of the boys understood the meaning of a Christmas tree.  The boys that live in New York went to Central Park to go ice-skating.  All but one of them were scared to try it.

What's a Light Switch?

The start of today’s class was very interesting.  It started off with Ellie having a laugh attack.  Then we got out our notes from yesterday.  Mr. Schick asked us where we stopped in the movie.  Matt knew exactly where we stopped.  During the movie I learned that the United States arranged for some of the lost boys of Sudan to live in the United States for three months.  Two of the three boys went to live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It was kind of funny seeing their reactions to things that we take for granted.  For example, they had never seen a toilet, a sink, or a light switch before.  It was pretty sad seeing how they had to live before they came to live in the United States.  They had no idea how anything in the United States works.  The best part was when the person showing them around said that they don’t throw trash out of the window.  They have to use the trash can.

God Gew Tired of Us

Today in class we got our tests back.  I made a very stupid mistake on one of the questions.  It was a math problem and I copied the numbers wrong!  I made 2 more mistakes because I didn’t specify what I meant by economy and government as push factors.  I did get some questions right though!  We also finally started watching the movie God Grew Tired of Us.  The part that we got to see was very sad.  So many people had to starve because of the war in Sudan.  Little children got killed for no good reason during the war.  People were trying to flee their towns.  If they got out, they were too scared to ever go back.  The children that made it out of Sudan went to a safe place.  They had to create make-shift families though.  Most families had one older child taking care of a bunch of younger children.  I don’t know how they survived!

Oh Say Can You See...

Yesterday in class, the last group presented their presentation on the United States.  During their presentation, Mary Kate did an awesome job telling us how the United States is ranked out of the whole world.  After the presentation was over, we started going over the material that is going to be on the test on Monday.  Mr. Schick showed us the video Did You Know 3.0 again.  He paused the video at some of the interesting parts.  I’m guessing those facts are going to be on the test that we have last mod on Monday.  I have a feeling that the test is going to be very hard.  Surprisingly, we didn’t talk about cheerleading or Facebook yesterday!  It was actually a pretty quiet class!  At the end of class we found out that Mr. Schick sang the National Anthem on the fifty yard line at the Rose Bowl.  I was really confused, but then he explained that he was on a movie set.  For some reason, the class started singing the National Anthem.  Then we stopped because it didn’t sound very pretty!

First Project

Today in class, we started sharing our presentations.  The first group to go was Greg’s.  Their presentation wasn’t finished for some reason but they still did a pretty good job.  The next group to go was Kishan’s.  They did a really good job.  My favorite part was when they played the national anthem of Nigeria.  The last group to go today was mine.  Matt went up in front of the class and presented our presentation on Italy.  Cole did an amazing job of giving Mr. Schick the answers to his questions.  Our presentation was missing some information, but it wasn’t that much.  I think we still have one more group that has to go tomorrow.  I am not looking forward to the test on Monday!  I am happy that it’s not tomorrow though!  Today was probably one of the easiest classes so far.  I wish every day could be like this!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Today in class, we started working on a presentation that has to be done on Google Docs.  My group is awesome!  We chose one of the best countries in the world…Italy!  Today was also Morgan’s birthday!  For once, we didn’t have a big discussion.  It was a pretty quiet class.

When is the Test?

All I can say is wow!  We spent the whole class talking about population.  It took over 10,000 years for the Earth to have 1 billion people on it.  Now there are 7 billion.  For some reason, we always end up talking about China.  Today, the conversation was about population.  In China, you are not allowed to have more than one child if you live in the city.  You can only have two if you pay a lot of money for the other one to go to school.  If you live in the country, you can only have two kids.  There was one question that kept going through my mind the entire class!  Why can’t people just have more kids and hide them in the house for their whole lives?  I never did find out the answer.  I’m sad that I don’t have Human Geo class tomorrow!  It’s my favorite class!  Does anyone know what day the test is? 

If Facebook was a Country...

Friday’s class was pretty interesting.  We started by watching Did You Know 3.0.  After the video was finished, every person said something, in the video, that we thought was interesting.  My fact was “if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country.”  Then, Mr. Schick asked us how we use Facebook.  Most people said that they use it to talk to friends or find out what their homework is.  I said that people use it to bully other people.  After that, we started talking about twitter.  I’m pretty sure that all of the football players are mad at me because I said, “If cheerleading was easy they’d call it football.”  I think that they would say, “If football was easy they’d call it cheerleading.”  I was very excited to have Human Geo first thing in the morning because it always wakes me up!  I had so much energy the rest of the day!

Did You Know 3.0?

Today in class we didn’t do much.  Mr. Schick was at least five minutes late, and when he finally got there hardly anybody could access their blogs.  After we found out who could access their blogs and who couldn’t, we paired up so we could finish answering the CIA Factbook questions.  The people that couldn’t get on their blogs have to write about class anyway, even though they can’t submit their blog to Blogger.  As usual, someone gave an answer and that took us into a very long and interesting conversation.  Sometimes, the conversations don’t have anything to do with the topic we were talking about before, but today they did.   During the last two minutes of class we started watching a video called Did You Know 3.0.  Surprisingly, I didn’t say very much today.  I guess I was so tired that I didn’t feel like being annoying.  I am so happy that I have Human Geo first tomorrow!  It’ll wake me up and get me pumped up for the rest of the day!

Why China?

Today’s class wasn’t that exciting.  At the beginning of class, I was still half asleep.  When I finally was fully awake, we started going over the CIA Factbook questions from the night before.  Somehow, I managed to get all of the answers right.  When we got to the question that asked why Mexico had so many airports, I said that it is because they need to get to other countries to go to work.  After that, we started talking about China and why they are the major exporters in the world.  We also found out that the United States is the major importer.  Then, Mr. Schick asked us why we get mostly all of our stuff from China.  After a long conversation, we figured out that it’s because in China they can pay people much less than they can in the United States.  Therefore, things are cheaper in China than they would be here.

CIA Factbook

1.      What is the population of the United States?

313,847,465

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

China, India, United States, Indonesia, and Brazil

3.      What is the population of Pakistan?

190,291,129

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 consumes more oil than any other?

United States

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?

Liechtenstein-$ 141,100

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

No, we are 11

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?

           #18

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

No, China is

21.  What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

23.9%

22.  What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

76.5%

23.  What is Net Migration Rate?

The difference between the number of people entering and leaving a country

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

No, Qatar does

25.  What is the current population of the entire planet?

7,021,836,029

The two questions that surprised me the most were number 21 and number 5.  I really thought that at least half of the United States population was Roman Catholic because it seems like it is the main religion.  It was very shocking for me to find that only 5% of people in Zimbabwe have jobs.

Evaluations of Websites

I found that the CIA Factbook is not a good resource for a research paper.  I think that it has more opinions posted than actual facts.  A Message to Garcia is not a useful resource either.  The website tells an awesome story but it doesn’t give many facts.   The Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission’s website appears to be a good source of information because it gives a lot of facts.  NASA Kids’ Club is definitely not a good website to use.  There is no information, just games.  The name of the site, CNN Opinion, says that it is not a resource.  The word opinion tells you that there are no facts.  The New York Times has valid information.  It is an online newspaper so it has facts.  I found that Fox News is not a good website.  Right in the web address, it says opinion.  Wikipedia lists the websites that they got their information from.  Mr. Schick’s blog is not a good resource for a research paper.  It is a blog that tells us what our class’s homework is.  The only paper it would be good for is if we were writing about our homework!

Unicorns

The beginning of class today was kind of sad.  Mr. Schick told us that he was not going to be in class tomorrow.  After that we started talking about Wikipedia, a huge online encyclopedia.  There are some positive things and some negative things about Wikipedia.  One of the negative things is that people can change things on Wikipedia.  One of the good things is that the editors of Wikipedia can block some of the pages so people can’t edit them.  There are also so many people that use it that if someone adds something that’s not true, other people will fix it.  Another good thing is that, unlike the hardcover encyclopedias, Wikipedia is always updated.    I learned two major things today.  One is that Mr. Schick LOVES Wikipedia.  The other thing is that there are usually sources listed at the bottom of the page to state where they got the information.  We also learned how to add links to our blog.  I wonder who’s going to fill in for Mr. Schick tomorrow! 

Essay #3

During my four years in high school, I want to accomplish many things, but I have to have a plan first.  One thing that I have wanted to do since first grade is make the varsity cheerleading team my freshman year, I can cross this off my list.  Even though I’m m not that great at lacrosse, I would still like to make the lacrosse team my sophomore year.  During my junior year, I will focus more on grades.  I would also like to get into a good college.  I have two big goals for senior year.  One of them is to be the varsity cheer captain.  Another thing is to get the lead in one of the musicals.  These things might be hard to accomplish, but if I work hard, I will be able to do it.

Essay #2

     If Socrates and Elbert Hubbard came to America in the year 2012, they would be amazed at how much has changed.  One thing Socrates wouldn’t like is how everyone doesn’t think for themselves.  They only use computers or other people as resources.  Elbert Hubbard would be so disappointed in some people.  This is because when someone is asked to do something, they either come up with an excuse to not have to do it or they tell someone else to do it.

Essay #1

My original definition of arête is a thin, knife-like rock that separates two valleys.  Honestly, I don’t even know how this relates to Socrates and the ancient Greeks at all.  Obviously, I wasn’t even close to the real meaning.  The actual meaning is excellence and knowledge.  This definition does relate to the ancient Greeks and Socrates.  This is because Socrates was a very knowledgeable man and always got people to think.  The ancient Greeks always tried to do their best.

What's Going On?

Yesterday’s class started normally.  Damien, with the help of Kishan, finally got his blog set up correctly.  After that was taken care of, we started talking about the football game that was after school.  Mr. Schick was asking all the players what position they played.  In the middle of our conversation, the phone rang.  Mr. Schick told me and Damien to go to the office but he wouldn’t tell us why.  At first, I thought he was just messing with us but then, we got up and went to the office.  On the way upstairs, I got scared because I thought that I had already gotten into trouble.  It turns out that we just had to get our student id cards.  When we got back, Mr. Schick scared me again!  He acted like the class went over stuff for a quiz while we were gone.  Then I found out that the quiz is the three essays that we have to write this weekend.  This is going to be a very long weekend for me!