Today in west civ we took our test on rome. I got a 90 on it. that grade will really help my semester grade. Im glad i got a good grade on the test. Tomorrow we do our essays, I hope I do well on the essays too as well as the exam.

Today in west civ. we reviewed the powerpoint and went over what is going to be on the exam. We also learned a lot more about Julius caesar. Julius caesar was stabbed 23 times by the senate. Because he defined their orders and crossed the rubicon.

Today in west civ. we presented our project. I thought that we did pretty good and we should get a pretty good grade on it as well. I think Mr. Schick enjoyed our project and the class did too. I hope we get a good grade.

Today in west civ. we did nothing in the beginning then Mr. Schick pulled out of pop quiz. I think  I did ok on the quiz. hope all goes well with our project and that we get a good grade.

Today in west civ. Mr schick finally got his sound on his computer to work. We started to watch the movie and so far it is kind of weird. Seeing the way they would encase the deceased king's face in wax and make masks out of it. It was really nasty. We also learned about the destruction of Carthage in Africa. Rome completely looted and burned carthage to the ground. The enslaved the remaining people in the city. Tiberius Gracchus was the main individual who contributed to the victory over carthage.

Today in west civ we talked for a little bit in the beginning of class because Mr. Schick couldn't get his computer to play the video. So we had to watch the video on our own laptops. I watched about 15 minutes of the video and its an hour so I have a long way to go but so far the video looks very interesting and I am eager to watch more.

Today in west civ. we learned about the Punic wars and how they were fought and who fought them. The punic wars were fought between the romans and the carthaginians. The first war was fought on sea as both of them tried to gain control of the islands surrounding the peninsula. Roman came out on top, when they burned the city of carthage to ruins and enslaved the living people there.

Today in west civ I couldn't stay for long because i had to leave within ten minutes due to lacrosse.

Today in west civ we went upstairs to learn about important figures from the 1920's. I learned about some interesting people that helped shape the course of history. My sister was one of the people that had to dress up. Some of the peoples outfits were very funny and some were very good. My favorite person that was dressed up was milton hershey and how he changed the face of the chocolate industry.

Today in west civ we learned about Rome and how it came to be. We learned about the first people who colonized rome. The Etruscans, the greeks, and the Latins, were the first humans to settle there. The Latins were the first one of three to settle there. The Greeks were second and the Etruscans cam last. The Etruscans had a language that nobody could translate to this day.    

Today in west civ we started to work on our projects. My group is luke, sam, and callie. For our project we are going to build a scale model of the pantheon. Luke and I are going to build the model and callie and sam are going to do a tri-fold poster explaining the pantheon and its uses. We all will work equally on this project.

Facts about circus maximus, colosseum, aqueducts, and the roman forum.

The Circus Maximus - www.ancient.eu/Circus_Maximus/

• The Circus Maximus was a massive arena accommodate 250,000 spectators at one sitting which was about 5 times the number that could be accommodated in the Colosseum.
• The Circus Maximus was first built by Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth Etruscan ruler of Rome c530BC. Various improvements were made to the design of the massive arena which was magnificently adorned. 
• The Circus Maximus was located in a valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills in Rome. The design was oblong in shape, with a long barrier (spina) that ran down the middle of the track containing statues and monuments. 
• The Circus Maximus measured 621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width. Its circumference was a mile.
•  The arena of the Circus Maximus was surrounded with a ditch or canal, called Euripus which was ten feet wide and ten feet deep.

The colosseum www.localnomad.com/.../10-interesting-facts-about-the-colosseum-in-ro...

• Built in 72 A.D, the colosseum has remained the largest amphitheater in the world and is considered to be Rome´s most popular tourist attraction.
• The Coliseum in Rome has over 80 entrances and can accommodate about 50,000 spectators.
• It is thought that over 500,000 people lost their lives and over a million wild animals were killed throughout the duration of the Colosseum hosted people vs. beast games.
• The last gladiatorial fights took place in 435 AD
• Many natural disasters devastated the structure of the Colosseum, but it was the earthquakes of 847 AD and 1231 AD that caused most of the damage you see today.

Aqueductswww.unrv.com/culture/roman-aqueducts.php

• The aqueducts were built from a combination of stone, brick and the special volcanic cement pozzuolana. While their visible remains leave a definite impression, the great bulk of the Roman waterway system ran below ground.
• When water reached Rome it flowed into enormous cisterns (castella) maintained on the highest ground. These large reservoirs held the water supply for the city and were connected to a vast network of lead pipes.
• The bulk of the Roman water system ran below the city, burrowed through 260 miles of rock, and about 30 miles of above ground bridges and crossways (the arches). 
• There are eleven such aqueducts that supplied the ancient city of Rome, dating as early as 140 B.C. and spanning five hundred years. Some emperors were especially interested in the engineering of these structures and their ability to bring water to the city and growing provinces of the empire.

The Roman Forumhttp   ://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/roman-forum.htm

• Forum is a Latin word meaning open space or market place. A Forum was the public space in the middle of a Roman city. Typical Ancient Roman forums might be surrounded by temples, shops, and basilicas.
• The Roman Forum was crossed by the Via Sacra, the Sacred Way, which led to Capitol Hill and the Temple of Jupiter. 
• The forum was initially a market-place in Rome and the site was also used for festivals and funerals. Justice was also administered here and it naturally became a place business, then for politics and popular assemblies, and later on for amusement. The Roman forum consisted of public buildings that were three times as long as they were broad. The Roman Forum was built by Romulus, and adorned with porticos on all sides, by Tarquinius Priscus.
• The original curia (senate house) consisted of a hall 25.20 metres by 17.61 metres, of brick-faced concrete, with a huge buttress at each angle; the lower part of the front wall was decorated with slabs of marble, while the upper part was covered with stucco in imitation of white marble blocks. 

Today in west civ we discussed our projects and decided what we are going to do. My group is callie, luke, and sammi. We are going to build a colleseum and then a poster board about the building itself.

Today in west civ mr schick had a power point ready for us. The information that was in it was from the rap that he mad about rome the day before. It was quite interesting but funny and educational at the same time.

Today in class, we worked on our Google document. We need about 300 more word. i hope the paper gets a good grade because i believe that we worked hard on this paper. I hope MR shick gets home safe and all of our class's papers do well and that its a good week overall. 

Today in west civ. we had our last class with Mr. Schick before he goes on his trip. I hope he travels safely, from now on we have subs which i'm happy about. In class we continued the powerpoint and here are some notes.

• Zeus- ruler of heaven and earth; father of Athena; god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice.
• Had a temper and was known to hurl thunderbolts.
• Athena
• Goddess of wisdom, skill, warfare (and peace), intelligence battle strategy, and handicrafts.
• She was born from Zeus' head fully formed and armored.
• Greeks were certainly a warlike people- especially the Spartans.
• Spartans were known for their tough ruthless infanrry who were soldiers who fought on land. 
• Spartan boys trained from the time they were 7 years of age
• Athens had a great infantry, too, but nothing could come compare with their navy.
• Their most effective weapon was the trireme.
• The Phalanx

Today in Western Civ, we listened to Mr. Schick teach us how to write a good essay. In class, with the same groups that we had for the powerpoint, we have to write a 1000 word essay. This doesn't seem to be that hard, but I'm sure it will be difficult considering my group. 

Yesterday in class, we presented our Google slides presentation. I think we did okay on it. We explained the slides well and moved at a understandable pace. I thought some of the groups did well also. Basically Luke and I did most of the work. Immanuel came late because he had basketball right as we were doing our slides so idk whats going to happen. 

Today in west civ we had our party. It was good but not too many people brought in things which was disappointing I guess but who cares. We started going over the powerpoint again and I learned some very interesting things.

• greece would ostracize people from the land and that was worst then being killed.
• Igoras came to power and then fell when athens trapped him in the acropolis for 3 days before he gave up and fled and was ostracized from athens
• Then Cleisthenes came into power and had a very successful rule. 

Today in west civ we started reviewing the powerpoint again since our slides are due friday. I hope I get a good grade on this project because it could really boost my grade up a lot. On our powerpoint slides I feel that the work was evenly divided. Tomorrow we have a class party and I'm looking forward to that. I hope the presentation goes well and I don't screw it up somehow.

Today in western civ we finished our project. Luke and I finally finished it. Quickely came back today from his basketball tournament. The rest of the class we talked and didnt do much because we finished our powerpoint of the project.

Today in western civ Mr. Schick sadly gave us a project today. My partners are luke and immanuel, i feel some what confident in my group. We have the topic of Pericles and the golden age of greece. This topic has a lot of information available on this topic. I hope this project goes well.

Pericles and the Golden Age of Greece is the topic the my group picked which was #5
Immanuel 
Luke

Aristotle-  Philosopher (c. 384 BCE–c. 322 BCE)

• Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, together with Socrates and Plato, laid much of the groundwork for western philosophy.
• Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C. in Stagira, Greece. When he turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander the Great. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and writing. Aristotle died in 322 B.C., after he left Athens and fled to Chalcis.

Olympia- Olympia was on of the most important sanctuaries in Greece. This place was also the birthplace of the first Olympic Games. An important temple in Olympia is the temple of Zeus. In the middle there is a 12 meter high statue of Zeus. 

Temple of Apollo at Didyma- It was built in 300 BC. 

It was made to have two sets of columns surrounding 

the inside called a dipteral. Only 3 columns are left there were thought to be 126. 

The temple of Athena Nike -  they built this around 300 B.C   The design of the temple was known as dipteral. Dipteral is two sets of columns surrounding the interior section. In the inner section there was a chamber that had a statue of Apollo. 

Today was a cyber day due to the tons of ice that we got. Mr. Schick assigned us homework to do and it was to start the powerpoint and answer the questions. I took some notes as well.

• The worlds greatest civilizations are located on rivers.
• Mesopotamia began on the Tigris and Euphrates River
• Egypt began on the Nile river
• India began on the Indus River
• China started on the Huang He River
• Greece is surrounded by water 
• Greece is mostly mountains including the islands
• the most important is the Pindus 

• The Ionian Sea is between Italy and Greece.
• The Aegean Sea is between Turkey and Greece.
• The Adriatic sea is located Northwest of Greece.
• The island of Crete is located to the south on Greece.
• This would all affect the culture of Greece because they would probably be a successful place because they could trade with many other civilizations by sea and land. Also they could import materials to build great big statues.

1. The egyptians build_____ to honor their pharaohs. (pyramids)
2. The ____ _____  __ ____ is a large cat body with a human head. ( Great Sphinx of Giza)
3. There was over 2000 ___ and _____. (Gods and Goddesses) 
4. The nile flooded in the month of ____. (July)
5. ____ was the most important person/god in their civilization. (The Pharaoh)  

West civ. was kind of crazy today, Mr.Schick made us play some absolutely annoying game that was one by luck and random choices. I got very frustrated playing this game because you get so close then randomly it says you have to restart, everybody in the class was getting very angry and started to give. By the time me and my partner finished it we were in the C+ range because he was grading by who finished first. But instead he just gave me a B+ which is better than a C+. Over all, today we pretty much did nothing and wasted a class in my opinion. I would have rather actually learned something.   

Mummification-

• developed by the ancient egyptians 
• used to preserve the body for the after life
• all internal organs are removed
• some times they only keep the heart.
• the body is laid in salt fro 40 days
• which takes out all the moisture
• then they put oil and plants on the body
• the pretty much glue linen cloth to them and wrap them in that
• he is put in an wooden coffin
• The pyramids 
• They believe they have all of th3ese great thing inside of them 
• They were covered in shine plates 
• There is a stone that could lift that would make an opining
• There are hundreds of passages ways to fork the tomb of the pharaoh 
• There are other major rooms in there pyramids such as the queens room and the gallery

• One technological development that ancient Egyptians used were spells. If there was an ill person that had no reason for an illnesses they would use these spells to help cure them. Doctors and priests believed that unknown illnesses were caused by spiritual beings. So when somebody could not tell the person why they a had a disease, a magical potion or spells were used
• The second most important invention is hieroglyphics. I think this because that is one of the first forms of writing. They firs started using hieroglyphics to write down the stories of great battles or even just a great accomplishment some one had. That is why people hired scribes because most of the Egyptian people did not know how to write.
• Another great invention by the egyptians was the pyramids. The egyptians made these to show there power and to honor their pharaohs. Structures are built today with the same meaning to either honor or to show their power as a great nation.

In class today we continued to talk about ancient Egypt. 
Soldiers used to use wooden weapons, and bows &arrow. For the swords and the spears they used they only had a steal tip on them. They also used to ride chariots in war. Personally I would like to be on the chariot because you have the higher ground . we also got a little bit into the gods and goddess. 
There were over 2000 gods and goddess. They controlled the lives of humans.

Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry,described anatomy and medical treatments.

They wrote in hieroglyphics in hierarchic.

Soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots.

Upper class known as the "White Kilt Class"- priests, physicians, engineers.

Gods and goddesses

Over 2,000 Gods and goddesses.

They "controlled" the lives of humans.

Pharaohs

The political and religious leader of the Egyptian people holding the titles, 'Lord of the Two Lands' and high priest of every temple.

As 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of upper and lower Egypt. he owned all land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners.

Hatsheput was a woman who served as pharaoh.

Cleopatra VII also served as pharaoh, but much later (51-30 BC) more on her when we study Greece.

• Geography
• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River.
• It flows South to North.
• The water was used for drinking, irrigating, bathing, and transportation.
• Every July the river floods; snow melts.
• Every October, it leaves behind rich soil.
• The delta is a broad, marshy, triangular area of fertile silt.
• managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation. 
• Daily Life
• Pharaoh, government officials (nobles, priests, etc..), soldiers, scribes, merchants, artisans, farmers, and slaves and servants.
• Slaves/servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties.
• Farmers raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions- benefited from irrigation of the Nile.
• Artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife.
• Merchants used the money/barter system was used- merchants might accept bags of grain for payment- later, coinage came about.
• Pyramids
• the Great Sphinx of Giza.
• built from 2555-2532 BC.
• A recumbent lion with a humans head.
• The oldest monumental statue in the world.

Today we had a test today. I felt pretty confident with all of my answers and i thunk i might of got one wrong. The video was pretty interesting, and i learned a lot from it. Its crazy how some people still live like the paleo/neolithic eras. Its crazy because we are so advanced and they don't even know how much technology is out there. They are just very unlucky and are not geographic lucky. Overall, this was a good day and im excited about my results.

Western civ today was just as normal as any other class. We continued and actually finished the video today. We had to use my computer because Mr. Schick computer was still not working, I didn't mind though. In the video we learned that the answer to the man's question was geography. Papa New Guinea was geographically unlucky. We also learned about how the Fertile crescent over thousands of years of farming grew dry and barren. Then we finished the video. I hope we get our test back tomorrow.

Western civ. today went way better than last. Mr. Schick could get his volume to work on Guns, Germs, and Steel, so luke had to give him his laptop and he got it working. We are currently watching the domesticated animals part of the movie. There are 2 million wild species in the world. He narrowed down the list of animals that were over 100 pounds and I was shocked. It was only 148 but the number of those that were domesticated is ; the cow, the llama, the horse, sheep, two species of camels, yak, mathon, donkey, goats, pigs, water buffalo, reindeer, and cattle. It took humans 10,000 years to domesticate these animals.

Today in western civ. we did no do much because I think Mr. Schick had some technical issues and could not get the video running. So for the beginning of class we did nothing then he got the video running and we started taking notes. Today we learned that the key to a good civilization is good crops. In papa new guinea they don't have very good crops so if takes more people and time to collect and store the crops they do have.

Today in west civ. we took our first test of the second semester. I thought i did pretty decent considering the fact that my previous blogs were little to no help at all. This is my fault because I didn't put enough important information in my blogs. Overall the test was pretty straight forward and really not that hard. The only section that I had trouble with was the part where you had to fill in the answers and the question was what two inventions really kickstarted the neolithic age and I got one of them but I could not figure out the second one. Hopefully I did well on the test and got a good grade.

Today in western civ class we continued to go over the power point and we actually ended up finishing the chapter and moving on. After we finished copying down all the important notes. We talked about Hammurabi's code again. We shared what we thought was to us, the weirdest and most unusual codes were. So basically it was a chill and laid back day in western civ. because it was second mod and a lot of people were tired.

Today in western civ class we started our first lesson of the class. I like my new class. Today's class was very short because we had a two hour delay this morning. The class was like 35 minutes so it was very fun to not sit there for long. We started with the slide show and it was about where and when the first humans began.

Today was our first western civ class and I enjoyed seeing new faces in my class. I think overall we have a good class and that it will be a fun semester class. I Mr. Schick last semester too so I am familiar with his teaching techniques and his blogs. I hope I have as much fun in this class as I did in the other class I took. Today we set up our new blogs for western civ. A lot of people were having trouble, as was I. But I eventually got through and made my new blog. I hope to have fun and learn a lot in his class.