Blog Day Thirty-Seven: Accountability

Today in (cyber) class we were told to write about the accountability it takes to be online schooled. I think school is all about making connections, friendships, and relationships. Be online schooled, it is hard to keep making more and continue to grow in the connections we had already. As Mr. Schick said, online school is new to us. Sadly, I think it our new normal. It is scary to say that, but this virus is only going to get worse, leaving us to do the only thing we can do, stay at home. I am so thankful to be going to a school that continues to teach us during this time. It takes both the teacher and student to make this work. If the teacher gets lazy and stops putting up work for us to do, the students will be equally as lazy when doing the work. This system takes effort from both sides. Although giving students tests in this type of schooling is difficult, the students need to be putting effort into learning the material and the teacher needs to trust that the students are following the honor system. Yes, I realize that student sharing work is a violation of this honor system, but teachers need to understand that we are just trying to help each other. I don't know about other people, but I try my best not to share my work. If one of my peers has a question or needs help with an assignment, I will do my best to help them, but only help, not give them any of my work word for word. All the things we are learning now are new to us, we all need help from each other and our teachers to make sure we understand and are actually learning something. I think online school is challenging and will change us for better or for worse. I know many of my peers would not mind going the easy way out to get answers to turn in the assignment. I try to hold myself up to a standard and make sure I am learning everything I can, since my parents are paying for me to go to this school. As Mr. Schick said, I want to get my money's worth. Online school also prepares us for college, just as JCS is supposed to do anyways. Online school is getting us used to taking notes and holding ourselves responsible for getting our work turned in on time, like college will eventually ask of us. Overall, accountability requires trust from both sides and is something that we all will learn more of in the next few weeks. 

Blog Day Thirty-Six: Thank You

Today we didn't have to write a blog post. I just wanted to say thank you to all my teachers who continue to teach me well, even over a screen! Have a great weekend.

Blog Day Thirty-Five: Athenian Plague vs. Coronavirus

Today for our classwork we were asked to write about the coronavirus compared to the Athenian plague. There are many differences between these two illnesses, especially since they are more then 2 centuries apart from each other, and medicine has advanced a lot since the Athenian plague spread. I did research about the Athenian plague. I already knew, from a past assignment, that the disease got to Athens from their shipping ports, just like the US got COVID-19 from our airports. The plague came from sub-saharan Africa, south of Ethiopia. COVID-19 came from China. The symptoms of these two illnesses are also different. the plague's symptoms are a very high fever, then "violent ulceration" and diarrhea. If someone survived the plague, the experienced finger and toe loss, blindness, and memory loss (sometimes about others and/or about themselves). Coronavirus symptoms are a fever, and coughing/sneezing. The virus is a respiratory disease. Based off the plague's symptoms, the plague was not a respiratory disease like the coronavirus is. The plague killed 1/3 of the Athenian population, whereas the fatality rate for the virus is only growing. Although the plague had horrible symptoms, I think the effects of the coronavirus will be worse than the plagues.

Source

https://www.ancient.eu/article/939/the-plague-at-athens-430-427-bce/

Blog Day Thirty-Four: Phillip, Alex, and Darius

Today in (cyber) class I did research on Philip II, Alexander the Great, and Darius III.
Philip II was the king of Macedon. He assumed role of king in 359 BCE at age 23. At the time, his kingdom was unruly and he used bribery and warfare to secure his kingdom under his power. He was able to increase the size of his army, by more than doubling the original size. His army was now filled with professional soldiers instead of citizen-soldiers. He rebuilt his capital city, Pella, and invited people of the arts. Including poets, writers, adn philosophers (including Aristotle). During one of Macedonia's conquest of Greece, Philip took time away from his army to marry. He married and had a child with Olympias. That child would eventually grow up to be Alexander the Great. One of Philips old friends, Pausanias, had a personal conflict with Philip. That anger eventually led to Philip being stabbed to death by Pausanias.
Alexander the Great was son of Philip II. After Philip died, Alexander assume role of King of Macedon. Before that, during his youth, Alex was taught by Aristotle. Philip hired Aristotle to tutor Alex from age 14 to 17. Then at age 18, Alex's first military excursion was the Battle of Chaeronea. Macedonia won against the allied Greek city-states. Alex went on to conquer much of the world, at least the world as he knew it. Alex never pushed his beliefs onto his conquered people. Instead, he wanted them to support and not disagree with his rule. Those who did oppose him, he was ruthless to. Alex met Darius III on the battlefield at Gaugamela. Macedonia won against Durus, who fled the field after the battle. After conquering much of Peris, Alex adopted many Persian customs. many of his men did not like this. Alex ended up dying at age 32. It was due to a fever he had, probably from contaminated water he drank.
Darius III was King of Persia. He can constant unstable rule of Persia. When battling Alex, Darius underestimated the power of Alex and his army. Darius used bad battle tactics when facing Alex. This led to a Persian defeat. Darius was eventually murdered and that led Persia to being overcome by Macedonia. This conquering of Persia, by Alexander, led to Persia's downfall. Darius's unstable control of Persia could have never saved Persia against Alexander the Great's army. Overall, Alex and his army were more susantible than Darius and his empire could have ever been.
It was interesting learning about these three men and their connection to each other.

Sources

https://www.ancient.eu/Philip_II_of_Macedon/

https://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/

https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/history/ancient-middle-east/darius-iii

Blog Day Thirty-Three: Alexander and Bucephalus

Today I did research about Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus. Their relationship started when Alexander was around 11 or 12 years old. Bucephalus was given to King Philip, Alexander's father, for the price of 13 talents. Philip and his men declared that Bucephalus was to uneasy and hard to tame. Alexander challenged that and said that they were too afraid to tame the massive horse. Alexander told his father that if he couldn't tame the horse we would pay back his father the money Bucephalus costed. As Alex approached the horse, he realized that Bucephalus was afraid of his own shadow. Alex turned Bucephalus towards the light and mounted the horse. Philip realizes that Alex will go on to do great things in his life, after taming the  hard to manage horse. Alex, obviously, keeps and rides the horse for the rest of Bucephalus' life. Many historians think that this was a turning point in Alexander's life. During an excursion, Bucephalus was kidnapped from Alex. Alex threaten to kill in order to get Bucephalus back. Eventually, the horse was returned to Alex with a plea for mercy. This event shows how Alex would do anything to save his horse, that he loves so much. Throughout almost all of his battles, Alexander rode Bucephalus. At the end of Bucephalus' life, Alex named a city, Bucephala, in memory of his horse. Alexander loved Bucephalus, and wouldn't have been as successful in his battles, if it wasn't for his amazing relationship with his horse.

Sources

https://www.ancient.eu/Bucephalus/

https://www.colorado.edu/classics/2018/06/19/alexander-and-bucephalus

https://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/

Blog Day Thirty-Two: My Thoughts on Cyber School

Today in (cyber) class we were told to write about cyber school. I choose to wait to do this assignment until I finished all my work today, in order to get a feel for what a full week of work would feel like. Cyber school, just like most things, has its pros and cons. Let us start with the positives. You have a sense of freedom with your schedule. I don't know about other people but, none of my classes require me to be doing my work during the time of the class. Obviously I need to turn in my work before the day ends, but I can choose what classes work I want to do in the order that suits me. Personally, I have been waking up at around 7:30-8 to start working by 8-8:30. I am trying to keep my schedule as normal as possible, with all that is going on. I try to get three classes work done before lunch. Usually I will do them by order of the letter day it is. But not always. For example, I didn't do my gym work this morning because I didn't want to exercise first thing in the morning. After about three classes, I will go out to my kitchen to make myself lunch, usually around 11- 12ish. After lunch I work till about 3-3:30. Like Mr. Schick said, I would rather get all my work done at the start of the day so I could have that night to relax. After I'm done all my book work I would go do my dance or gym assignment. Then I have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever I want to do. A negative about cyber school, is that you have to try and teach yourself something you don't know. For most classes it is easy, but trying to learn a new component of a language is hard to do by yourself. Another con is that you don't get the opportunity to talk or go into discussion about something. We get an email each day about what we need to do and we are supposed to complete that assignment and email the teacher if we have questions. At the beginning of the week I was excited to do cyber school, now I think that by the end of this I will be praying to go back to school. Other than that, I am thankful to be going to a school that is keeping me distracted by learning through this stressful time. And those are my thoughts on cyber school.

Blog Day Thirty-One: Why Did The Philosopher Emerge Now?

After the war, many philosophers and their beliefs emerged in Athens. They appeared to settle and challenge the minds of Athenians. After the war, there was a stormed that caused the generals and their ships not to be able to save all the men that were tossed overboard during the battle. The Athenian people were not happy about this at all, when the generals got home. They were so upset that the tossed all the generals in prison to charge them for their lives. Socrates was one of the people who didn't think that the men should be punished for what they did. Sadly, Socrates was only one person and the generals ended up drinking poison hemlock to die. Philosophers emerged now to have people question their life and the decisions they make. Philosopher, like Protagoras, wanted people to question their ideas about justice and other moral and traditional values they had. Protagoras did not believe there was any universal standard of truth. Quite the opposite of him, was Socrates. Socrates did believe in truth and justice. He once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Some people adored these men's ideas, and others were just puzzled by them. Philosophers emerged at this time in history because people needed some type of answer to the questions they had about life and war.

Blog Day Thirty: Pericles, Death and Disease in Athens

Athens was at war with Sparta at the time of Pericles final rule. Pericles overall plan for Athens was to make it into the greatest power in the Mediterranean world. Pericles planned on doing this by keep the entire population of Athens behind the walls, where Sparta could no get to them. For the first year of the war, Pericles method of getting food from fleet shipments, worked. Towards the end of year one, these shipments brought something other than food. They brought a plague to Athens. People back then could have never guessed that a plague would be so easily received and spread. Since every Athenian citizen was crammed behind the city walls, it makes sense that the plague spread so fast. After getting infected, many citizens would crawl to the city's well systems to die. During the quick spread of the plague, many citizens became violent and started not caring about anything in Athens. Eventually, Pericles caught the plague. Six months after he had been infected, Pericles died in 429 B.C. His death showed many Athenian citizens that Pericles was the only person keeping Athens together. Even the people who didn't like Pericles realized that he was keeping Athen from evil and violence. Those who were in line after Pericles fought to get rule over Athens. These single figures were willing to do anything that the Athenian citizens wanted, in order to rule. Pericles could have never guessed that his plan would only lead to death and disease. It would, after his death, also lead to mob rule. This is the last thing Athens needed to win the battle against Sparta, since mod rule would only lead to a broken democracy.

Blog Day Twenty-Nine: Cyber Class Assignment 1

Pericles was a popular statesman in Athens from 461-429 B.C. Pericles was a politician, speaker, as well as a general for Athens. He held the popular support in Athens for around 32 years. In that time, he had three goals for Athens. One was to strengthen Athens democracy, two was to hold and strengthen Athens empire, and three was to glorify Athens. Pericles strengthen Athens democracy by adding more paying positions for public officials. Before, only wealthier men could hold unpaid positions. Now, Pericles made it so that lower class citizens could rule if chosen for office. By doing this, Pericles strengthen Athens direct democracy. A direct democracy is run by citizens directly, not through representatives. Pericles was able to strengthen Athens empire by ruling the Delian League. The Delian League was ruled by Athens who; therefore, rule all the city-states who were in the League. Pericles use money from the Delian League to make Athens navy the best in the Mediterranean. A strong navy meant a safer and stronger Athens. Pericles also used money from the Delian League to beautify Athens. He convinced the assembly to vote for Athens to buy gold, silver, and marble and to pay the artists that were making Athens beautiful. Pericles did great things for Athens.

Blog Day Twenty-Eight: COVID-19

Today in class we got new seats. I sit on the side of the room near the windows, a place a have never sat before. I really like my seat because I can see out of the window. After we changed our seats, we had a long talk about the infamous COVID-19. It was a very informational talk and Mr. Schick kind of scared me into caring about the pandemic. At the beginning of this week, I guessed that we would be online schooled by the end of the week. Although we are not being taught online this week, starting next week we will be for the next two weeks. I am very interested in seeing how online schooling plays out. Obviously there will be positives and negatives, but I'm glad that I will be continuing to 'learn' even though I'm at home. I really did learn a lot during our talk today. The most important thing was probably that we can contain this virus. But it will have to take everyone staying home for the virus to stop spreading so fast. There is always going to be people who will want to break the rules, so I am trying to have faith that people will indeed stay home. Overall, I am glad the school is taking the right precautions to this pandemic. This might have been the last class we will have for a while, at least in person, but I will be excited to see what we do in this class for online schooling.

Blog Day Twenty-Seven: The Battle of Marathon and Salamis

Today in class we had a sub again. Our classwork was to watch Episode Two of Crucible of Civilization. I took notes again because we might be tested on this information. Athens was now a democracy and their biggest rival was the Persian Empire. In the Battle of Marathon, Athens was outnumbered 2:1 versus the Persian Empire. Athens won the battle, and saved democracy for the first time. Themistocles realized that this is not going to be the last battle with the Persians. He suggested for Athens to buy and support and navy, especially a weapon called a Trireme. A Trireme was a large boat that could ram into opposing ship and destroy them, and it was highly expensive. Themistocles knew that Athens would need the Trireme for a battle against Persia, but since the people in Athens didn't want to be reminded of Persia, he said they would use it for battle against an opposing city-state. When it came time to battle Persia for the second time, their army was filled with almost 2 million soldiers. Arabian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Persian men made up this army. The Battle of Salamis was fought on the sea in between the coast of Salamis and the ridges of Athens. The Persian army traveled to this location in the night, only to realize in the morning that the Greeks had trapped them in this narrow sea. Athens eventually won this battle and was able to save democracy once again.

Blog Day Twenty-Six: Sub and Video

Today in class we had a sub. For our classwork we had to watch a video about Greece and take notes I wrote down that Themistocles was one of the greatest military generals. Then the video gave a lot of information about Cleisthenes. Cleisthenes was born into one of the richest families in Athens, an aristocratic family. He was born in 570 BC. He was born into the lifestyle that would most likely never want the people to rule themselves, but Cleisthenes thought it wouldn't be a bad idea. I also found it surprising that the life expectancy at birth was less than 15 years. This was most likely because there was no waste collection or sewage in Athens, so disease could spread fast. Another thing I learned was that the capes of the soldiers were red to hide the blood that would be splattered onto it during battle. The last thing was that the first Olympic Games started in 776 BC. Around 40,000 people would come and watch the games, which is a crazy amount of people coming to Greece. Today was a good class, even though Mr. Schick was not here.

Blog Day Twenty- Five: A Pop Quiz

Today in class we did a review for a pop quiz that we had during class. I think I got two wrong, which is an 80 and I hope that that doesn't take my grade down to a B. If it does I will be upset, but oh well. I got a question wrong about who was Artemis' brother wrong. I said that her brother was Archimedes, but really her brother was Apollo. I guess at least I know that for the next test. The other one I thought I got wrong was about what did not happen during Persian war. I think that I actually got this one right because I was deciding between two different answers and I can't remember which one I put as the correct one. Other than that I really don't like pop quizzes, but I guess it will help me in the future when the questions count for even more points on the test.

Blog Day Twenty- Four: Three Great Philosophers

Today in class we took notes on three great Greek philosophers. The first was Socrates. We talked about him at the beginning of the year, so I didn't take many notes. I did write down that at his trail he described himself as a stinging gadfly tand Athens as a lazy horse. Also, at his trail, he did not deny what he did, instead he asked for "free dinners" because what he was doing was so great, and it was. Socrates was eventually killed by drinking poison hemlock. Now onto the second philosopher, Plato. Plato was a student and follower of Socrates. he wrote out Socrates teachings and described his trial in Apology. Plato also wrote the Republic, which discussed Socrates idea of the ideal state and justice. It was one of the most influential books in philosophy ever written. The next, and final, philosopher was Aristotle. Aristotle was a student of Plato's, in the school Plato made, called the Academy. He fostered the idea that Athens was an intellectual destination for people to meet up and discuss what they know. Aristotle's school, the Lyceum, was focused on cooperation research and building knowledge off of one another. Aristotle also tutored Alexander the Great. That was all we learned about today, I can't wait to learn more about Greece tomorrow.

Blog Day Twenty- Three: Absent

Today I was not in class, because I had a dentist appointment. I will take notes tonight to catch up with the class for tomorrow.

Blog Day Twenty- Two: Greek Gods and Goddesses

Today in class we took notes and went over our Ancient Greece part 1 test. I did well on this test and it brought my grade average up, which made me very happy. Someone had to make up the test during class today, so the rest of us took notes on the four slides about Greek Gods and Goddesses. I learned that Zeus is the ruler of heaven and earth. He is the god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice. He is also the father of Athena. Athena is the goddess of wisdom, skill, warfare, intelligence, battle strategy, and handicrafts. She is the Patron of heros, like Odysseus, and the city Athens was named after her. Apollo is the god of music, arts, knowledge, and healing. He is the son of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis. Apollo is usually associated with the sun, whereas Artemis is usually associated with the moon. Poseidon is the god of the sea, rivers, floods, and earthquakes. He is the brother of Zeus and the king of the waters and sea. Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, desire, and sexuality. Her lovers include; Ares (god of war), Adonis (demi-god of desire), and Anchises (a mortal who fathered her baby). I am excited to learn more about Greece and their gods and goddesses.