Class Missed

On Tuesday, I wasn't able to make it to class because I was at a close family member's viewing. I don't feel like writing this whole thing on the viewing so I will write it about my Thanksgiving and what probably happened in class. Our last few classes consisted of us watching the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" and of course I had to miss the day when things were really getting interesting. I'm not sure if my class finished the movie yet but I really want to know what happened that I missed. Mr Schick hasn't said anything on his blog about it so far but I will keep checking. I'm writing this blog  little late because I had to go to family dinners, viewings, and funerals throughout the week. I thought I could make it up by just writing something now. I'm also very excited to discuss with my class about what's been happening in Ferguson lately. I actually witnessed a protest in action at the mall today. It wasn't a full on brawl with destroying things but there were people yelling and running through the mall until the mall cops got to them which made them even more upset. I really want to see what Mr Schick has to say about the whole situation and everyone's views on it. My family has been talking a lot about it and I'm still not sure what I think about it. I really hope we talk about it Tuesday, especially since we are learning about culture.

Movie Day

Today we watched the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" again for the whole class. I didn't quite understand some of it but I'll try to summarize. So in yesterday's showing of the movie Jamal and Salim's mother was killed by a different religion group who didn't like Muslims. They were left on their own to take care of themselves. They had to provide a shelter and protection for themselves which was pretty hard considering how young they were. The boys picked up a young girl in their group along the way named Latika. They were picked up by a bad orphanage who wasn't really interested in taking care of kids they just wanted to "take care of them". they escaped but left Latika behind and Jamal nearly killed Salim for leaving without her. They came up with pretty clever ways to make their money and got some moo la. Then Jamal was thinking of what ever happened to Latika. Salim could have cared less until he had seen her. Latika had turned out to be a prostitute for the orphanage people. Salim killed the leader of the program as they ran for their life with Latika with them. All this is happening in flash backs when Jamal is on the television showt hat he was accused of cheating on. He is knowing all of the answers from his wild life as a child and it's pretty crazy how much he remembers from it. Mr Schick told us that we would finish the movie on Tuesday because we don't have him Monday and we have a whole hour with him Tuesday. I'm excited to see how Jamal got to where he was in the movie in the present time.

Slumdog Millionaire

Today we watched a movie called "Slumdog Millionaire" in Human Geo Class. It was based in the slums of India which were quiet awful. Trash was everywhere and they had to wash their clothes in toxic water. My bedroom would be the size of a whole house for an entire family in India. It made me feel really privileged to be going to the school I am. I'm currently writhing this is a nice warm library on my thousand dollar laptop when in the movie they couldn't even afford a classroom large enough. Makes me think about a lot of things that I think are a big deal when I am actually so privileged to be where I am today. In the movie a man wins a lot of money on a big TV show and a lot of people think he cheated to win it. The police system there is so different from here, they torture people instead of just asking questions or ticketing them. Quite harshly I might add considering they use shock methods almost every interrogation. I watched them torture this innocent guy because they thought they cheated the show out of their money. How could someone of his class get so far in a game show and win that much money? Doctors and lawyers couldn't even get as far as the man did. He can thank his crazy childhood in the slums for this. His experiences in his neighborhood taught him little lessons that doctors and lawyers could never know. I can't wait to finish this movie and know how everything unfolds for this man.

Spotify Projects

Today, Mr. Schick was not there so we had a substitute in a second floor classroom. I was already in our original classroom downstairs when someone came to tell us that we had a sub. I usually like on Wednesdays when I can stay in the same seat and not have to move around a lot. Anyways, I was only there for a small part of the class because I had to leave for a doctors appointment. Everyone was pretty confused about the Spotify projects which made me confused. One project I already finished but I thought the other one was just extra credit. I thought the smart thing to do was email Mr. Schick and ask what he wanted. I haven't checked my email yet but I'm pretty sure I will have a response soon. I didn't do my blog as early as I should have but I was wondering if I should write one or not considering we did nothing in class. I just wanted to do it just in case I needed to so I didn't drop my grade considering mid-quarter is Tuesday. I did well on the last test but the blogs are worth a lot believe it or not so I will find out today if I even needed to do it or not. It's better safe then sorry right?

Cultural Geography

What do you call that bubbly carbonated drink? Pop? Soda? This could be apart of your cultural geography which is taught to you by wherever you live or how you grew up. This is what we will begin studying in human geo for the next couple of weeks. We talked a lot about our Baltimore slang with "zink" and "hon" as many other states and countries have. We pick up this language from our surrounding from the day we were born. We learn our first words from our family and for me I was baptized as a baby. I was introduced to the catholic religion at a very young age. I continue to follow that faith as I now participate in a confirmation class at my church. At my age, it is my decision to chose what I believe in and the people around me and many other sources are starting to affect that. All of these different ethic groups teach me different things about their culture and they learn things from mine. Baltimore is my home and I have brought in so much from the culture that when I once visited the south someone guessed that I was from Baltimore. I never realized I had that much of an accent I have and it kind of surprised. I'm actually so excited to start learning about this subject because I love learning about other cultures. It's so fascinating to me how different so many cultures can be and how much we all can learn from each other. Going deep into this subject will help me understand more about many other cultures and how they learn from me.

Russia's National Anthem

Russia National Anthem
Take a listen to Russia's proclaiming National Anthem! My first listen I was surprised to have it be sung the way it was. I listened to a couple different groups singing the anthem and it changed it's tone a lot. The first one I listened to was a group of what sounded like women which sounded very regal and kind of like the UK's. Then I listened to a male army group sing it which made it sound like a marching song. Give it a listen and decide which you think it is. I liked the UK sounding one more than the army because the second one was very intimidating. That was what Russia was probably going for considering their culture. I tried to compare it to the United States and I thought it sounded nothing like this. Our national anthem is very different from others in my opinion and hard for me to describe. But it sure has a different sound than this one and I think Russia's anthem is very intimidating in some sense.

The Test of Leaders

I just finished taking the test on the worldwide leaders and I think I did pretty well on it. I knew almost all of the multiple choice question by heart and only had to think about a couple. They were pretty easy for me and mostly about which leaders which and their countries. The only ones I got a little mixed up on were the ones about the government and the leaders back stories. I thought the test was well laid out and I really like scantron test. Scantron test are graded really fast and I like multiple choice because it gives a lot of options. I have to say I studied really hard last night and it really paid off. The only thing that I was worried about was the essay which turned out just fine. It was about the changing of the position of the president. I won't say too much because another class still has to take the test tomorrow because they don't have Mr. Schick on Thursdays. I'm so glad it's over with because that was a lot of information and I was so worried I wouldn't keep up. This was a great lesson because I feel more informed about my surroundings and know more about the government. This will be so helpful to me in the future when I myself am more involved in the government.

Test Preparation

It was announced yesterday that there was going to be a test today on the world leaders. Our way of studying would be to study our class' power point projects Mr. Schick had put together into one huge power point. Turns out everyone had a heart attack because you needed permission to get into the different projects. Mr. Schick saw our distress and pushed the test back to tomorrow. I was glad because I had a lot of homework last night and I had to study for my Earth Science test as well. As of right now I'm taking notes in class about the test we are having tomorrow. I asked Mr. Schick what the layout was of the test and he said that it was 30 multiple choice question with an essay. We are supposed to study the power point he made for us since it is available to the public now. Cody and I's power point is one of the featured ones in this big power point. This is apparently a compliment because it means our project is a great study guide for Russia. We are using other people's projects to study and Mr. Schick put up his own notes to help us. Right now we are going over the power point he made and it seems really well thought out and a great study guide for us. The notes are laid out very well and explained very well and I love how Mr. Schick always goes over stuff with us. He always answers all our questions so fluently and makes me feel really confident before the test. I usually do pretty well on his tests and I like the way he has them set up. I will study the big power point tonight along with my Earth Science. I have learned so much about the surrounding nations within these few weeks so easily and feel confident about this test

Veteran's Day and Prsentation

Today on Veteran's Day, David and Alex taught us about the country of Syria. The government in Syria is under an Authoritarian Regime which is where the president kind of controls everything. The country has been in a Civil War since 2011 and it has gotten a lot worse. The president that runs everything is Bashar al-Assad and has been since July 17,200. He won by a landslide with 88.7% of the vote and he has the right to appoint the Vice President. He has over stayed his welcome and is in his third term and is not expected to leave anytime soon. Bashar didn't even want to be president but had to because his older brother Bassel died in a car accident. Next Steven and Trish taught us about the country of Israel. Irsael has a government of a Parliamentary Democracy and it has been that way since 1948. The last president in power was President Shimon Peres and the Prime Minister is Binyamin Netanyahu also known as Bibi. The President has a limit of one term of seven years and the Prime Minister has an unlimited amount of time in office. The only way these terms would be changed is if the leaders got impeached, killed, or just die of natural death.  There is a special system called the Knesset that picks the president for the country. Some interesting things about Israel are that they are a very smart nation with many intelligent people. Then Jess and Rosemary taught us about the country of Mexico. The country is run by a Federal Government and the leader is President Enrique Pena Nieto. He was the governor of Mexico before he became president and also fathered two different children from two different woman while being married and somehow still was elected. He got 38% of the vote and his six year term will go to 2018 but I wouldn't be surprised if he stepped down now. His main focus is to stop the major drug cartels and crime records in his country but teachers are making it a little hard to focus on that. He is changing the education system and the teachers are starting big protests against this change because of how bad it will be for children. Another problem is that Mexicans turn to selling drugs for easy money because Mexico does not have good job offers. These drug cartels are becoming extremely dangerous and multiplying day by day. The teacher protests and drug cartels went head to head this week and cartels won. Some college students were going to protest about the education changes at an important speech. The mayor has been accused of hiring a drug cartel to kill these college students and quite harshly I might add. Then Elle presented Brazil which has a Federal government and is run by Dilma Rousseff who is the first female president of Brazil. The terms of presidency is four years and they can become president many different times but just not all together. Dilma is a tough cookie because she was arrested for being in protest and was tortured AWFULLY in jail. Just like many other countries, the people have the ability to impeach the president. I will use this to study for the test coming up and I will also use Mr. Schick's power point he showed us today.

Day of the Presentation

Cody and I presented our slides on Russia today in front of the class while they took notes. I started off by saying the first slide which wasn't all that hard considering it just had Russia on it with our names. Then Cody read his slides that he had typed up about the government and Putin's reign. Mr. Schick stopped us here and there to discuss a few things about their government and how it worked. He was impressed by our slides at that point which made us pretty happy. Then I read my slides on Putin's dark secrets and bad habits which got most of the class' attention. The facts that grabbed their attention the most were Putin's laws for homosexuals and his involvement with the Malaysian airline crash. People really got into the conversation when I put up the slides asking their opinion on Putin. Most of the fight was actually over the homosexual laws Putin had made. Megan made a very good point saying that he is a good leader military wise but not communication wise. I loved the class participation and so did Mr. Schick. He said that Cody and I's slide shows was excellent and that we did a great job presenting. Cody and I high-rived and took our seats with our heads held high with a pat on the back.

Class Presentation Slides 2.0

The first group to present their project slides today was Jon and Parker and they taught us about Germany. Mr. Schick told us in the beginning of class that he liked how the presentations went yesterday which is good news to the two groups who already presented. Jon and Parker told us about the government and how it's run with its leaders and systems. They also told us about all the stuff that happened after World War 2. Germany basically lost the war to the United States and had to recover from the whole ordeal. The awful dictator who everyone knows him name, Hitler, killed himself at the end of the war. The group had very nice slides with a lot of information and good descriptions of the words. Then the next group to present was Kendall and Adam who taught about the country of Japan. Their slides were amazing in my opinion because of how well thought out they were and great information. They must've researched really deep ingot he subject to get just what they were looking for. All that hard work really paid off for them and I would've given them a 100. I don't really want to present tomorrow but Cody will probably want to. I will try to take some pointers from Kendall and Adam's presentation because it was so helpful.

Day One of Power Points

Mr. Schick chose a few groups to go up to the front of the class and present their slide show presentation. The first group to go was Zach and Rory's presentation of the country of France and its government They told us about President Hollande and the Prime Minister Manuel Valls who are the main leaders of the country. The Prime Minister takes control of the press work such as public speakings on current event opinions.  Zach and Rory also gave a glimpse into both of the leader's past before they came into office. Hollande had pretty successful parents and was born into a catholic family, but later became atheist. Manuel was actually born and raised in Spain before going to France for work. He was the mayor of Evry before later becoming the Prime Minister. He also speaks four different languages quite fluently! Manuel was caught suggesting more white people would make a better image for a country which made many start to dislike him. Then Alyssa and Veronica presented their slides about the United Kingdom to us. The United Kingdom's government is a monarchy with a commonwealth realm to assist governmental affairs. Queen Elizabeth is the Chief of State and has been for sixty three years and she will be there until she is unable to carry out the position. David Cameron is the Prime Minister and was appointed in May of 2010 for the position. The Prime Minister also does not have a limit on his term and can stay there until he can no longer carry out the position. Cody was not in class today so I didn't get to volunteer to go but I think I wanna go soon just to get it all over with. I think we will be hearing from Kendall and Adam tomorrow on their country. Stay tuned with more presentation information.

Finishing Touches

The class was devoted to finishing the power point projects for most of today. Cody and I just browsed through the changes I had made over the weekend because he hadn't visited the site in a while. I put things about Putin's overthrow which is kind of a mystery to everyone. Actually I feel like Putin himself is a big mystery. Whenever I try to look up facts about him they are never bad reviews unless I dig deep. It seems like he tries to hide a lot about himself, at least from what I've seen. When I research other leaders it is easier to find faults and tragedies in their lives than it was for Putin. I eventually found some pretty good dirt on Putin to put into my presentation for tomorrow. My dad works for a big prosthetic company that has many big company parties. At his last dinner for work on Wednesday he ran into a big CNN reporter and decided to sit and talk to him. When I mentioned I was doing a presentation on Russia to my father he said he had something that would help. While talking to the CNN reporter they got into the subject of the missing Malaysian airline event. The reporter said that Putin might have been involved in shooting down one of the flights missing for had an inside jobs. My dad got this information straight from a big reporter that had been put on this case to investigate. I was so happy my dad told me this because it was a big plus on the project and isn't very well known yet. I'm putting the last touches on the slides now and will be fully ready to present tomorrow.

Wrap It Up

For today and tomorrow, I am focussing on wrapping up Cody and I's slide show for Russia. I had been searching and searching for things about impeaching Putin while Cody did other slides. So I have decided to finish the project considering the dead end impeachment search took up most of my time. I might write an outlined script for our presentation we have to give Tuesday in class. Not like a full out script but just who reads which slide so we aren't all over the place. I'm thinking about adding maybe two to three slides more onto what we already have. I might talk about Putin's big accomplishments since he was put into office or maybe even some of his downfalls. I am going to research some more information about the people's opinion of him from all views. Even though it seems like everyone LOVES Putin, I think I can dig up some dirt on him to put in my project. Considering the amount of homework I have today, I think I'll split up my work into the two days that I have to work on it. I am so excited to see how the project turns out and can't wait to be finally finished with it.