Pop Quizzes and PowerPoints

In the beginning of class we reviewed the pop quiz we took about the countries' leaders.  It was basic facts that we had learned about the leaders.  I got two wrong, and I felt really stupid after I found out I got the two that I did wrong.  When we were getting the tests back, if we didn't get an A, he made a fart noise with his mouth.  I got the fart noise.  While we were going over the test, Mr. Schick told us a story about helping with the voting a few years ago.  What has he not done? After we went over the tests, we continued to work on our United Kingdom Geography PowerPoint.  We got a little bit done, as always.  It's a very slow process.  We got all the pictures for the backgrounds.  We got a little bit of information about the government of the United Kingdom.  Alyssa left for a little bit, so I helped my friend with her homework.  It was kind of productive.

Messing Around

Today in class we continued our PowerPoint, but everyone was basically messing around.  At first we tried to stay on task, but then we started sing: "A potato flew around my room before you came.  Excuse the mess it made."  Then, we started to listen to our selected country's national anthem.  I played a little bit of 2048 before class.  Mr. Schick plays 2048.  He saw my high score.  He laughed at my score.  Then, later in the class, he took out his phone (which we yelled at him for pulling out because you obviously can't have your phone out) and he showed me his score.  He had 50,000 points!  Sorry Mr. Schick for not being good at 2048!  After that, I tried to get back on track, but I asked Mr. Schick a question and he never answered, so I basically gave up.  I just listened to Boyfriend by Justin Bieber, which Adam played and sang for the rest of the class period.  What else was there to do?  I'll work on it more tomorrow and get more done.

United Kingdom Government

Today in class we had to make a slideshow about a certain state of your choice.  I was paired with Alyssa and we chose the United Kingdom.  We had to do it on Google Presentations, so we could change things and type on the same document at the same time.  I changed a lot of stuff that she put, and she got mad.  We were basically laughing the whole class and I'm pretty sure we were annoying everyone around us.  She would put something, and I would change it or correct it.  You got to do what you got to do to get a good grade.  She put a picture of David Cameron with One Direction, and I deleted it.  Eventually, we came to an understanding and we worked pretty well together.  When she made a mistake, I fixed it.  When I made a mistake, she fixed it.  We are obviously a really great group.

Pop Quiz

Today we had a pop quiz about the leaders.  I got 2 wrong, making my grade an 87%.   The test was thirty points.  Hopefully, my grade doesn't go down.  I don't think it will.  The questions I got wrong was about the "Most Powerful Woman in the World" and the leader who used chemical weapons on his people.  For one of the questions, I put the right answer, and then I changed it.  Moral of the story, go with your first answer, and don't change your answer if you think it's wrong, because it might not be.  I thought the test was pretty easy.  I got an 87% because there were 15 questions and it was 30 points.  But now that I think about it, I probably would've gotten the same score if it were fifteen points.  After everyone finished the quizzes, Mr. Schick graded them in around 3 minutes, and that’s how I know what I got.  I’m proud of my 87%.

10-23 Class

This is late... sorry.  It was my mom's birthday yesterday, so I was celebrating with her and I completely forgot.  Anyway, yesterday in class we continued to talk about the world leaders.  We said more interesting facts that we had seen, and sometimes, we received a ding if it was good enough.  One fact that I thought was pretty interesting was Alyssa's fact.  She brought up that the prime minister of India (Narendra Modi) got married as a teenager, 17, and kept his marriage a secret for 50 years.  I brought up Angela Merkel's fear of dogs, apparently because she was bitten by one at a young age. In a much-publicized incident in 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin used his dog Koni to psychologically intimidate the chancellor during a meeting.  Speaking of Vladimir Putin, Mr. Schick pointed out that he served as an intelligence officer in the KGB.  Jessica pointed out that Dilma Rousseff had cancer a long time ago, which makes her a cancer survivor.  I think that definitely helped her to be a strong person and help her in the race, but some thought it would hurt her.  Sorry again that this was late.

More Leader Facts

Today was Costume Day.  I dressed up as Spider Woman.  We went over what we learned about the leaders from the project yesterday.  Here are some things that I learned, whether in class or on the internet:

• My fact about Francois Hollande was wrong.
• Vladimir Putin, which was talked about a lot today, lived in an apartment with three other families and remembers hunting rats.
• François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande was born on August 12, 1954, in Rouen, France to a right-wing physician father and a progressive social worker mother. The family moved to Paris when Hollande was 13.
• Putin has a black belt in karate.
• Enrique Pena Nieto fathered two children with two different women while he was married and he still became president.
• Xi Jinping's father, Xi Zhongxun, lost out in a power struggle in 1963 and was banished and later jailed.
• Narendra Modi sold tea in a railway station before becoming prime minister.

Leaders Interesting Facts

• President Enrique Pena Nieto: Fathered two children with two different women while he was married; one son died as an infant
• President Xi Jinping: In 1969-1975, he worked as an agricultural laborer in Liangjiahe, Shaanxi. Xi is among the millions of urban youths who were "sent down," forced to leave cities to work as laborers in the countryside under Mao's policies.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Modi was denied a visa to the United States in 2005, but has been granted one since being elected Prime Minister.
• President Vladimir Putin: His wife and he announce their divorce at the interval of a ballet. He has two daughters, both in their mid-twenties, who are unknown.  He remembers hunting rats when he was living in an apartment with three families.
• President Joachim Gauck: Gauck was narrowly defeated by Christian Wulff in the Presidential elections to replace Horst Köhler in 2010.
• Chancellor Angela Merkel: She has a doctorate in physical chemistry.
• Prime Minister David Cameron: He is the youngest premier since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
• President François Hollande:He gained French citizenship after being left behind on a school exchange trip to Rouen.   François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande was born on August 12, 1954, in Rouen, France to a right-wing physician father and a progressive social worker mother. The family moved to Paris when Hollande was 13.
• President Dilma Rousseff: She joined the resistance and was eventually captured and taken to jail, where she was allegedly tortured.
• President Bashar al-Assad: He became president of Syria in 2000 when his father died of a heart attack.
• Prime Minister Stephen Harper: In high school, Harper joined the Young Liberals Club. He went on to find the Reform Party.
• Prime Minister Shinzō Abe: He was Japan's first prime minister born after WWII.
• President Reuven Rivlin: He's Israel's 10th president.

Project

Mexico
Presidential system, Federal republic, Constitutional republic
President Enrique Peña Nieto










China
Communist state, Socialist state, Single-party state
President Xi Jinping 







India
Federal republic, Constitutional republic, Parliamentary system
Prime Minister Narendra Modi







Russia
Federal republic, Semi-presidential system, Constitutional republic
President Vladimir Putin











Germany
Federal republic, Constitutional republic, Representative democracy, 
Parliamentary republic
President Joachim Gauck; Chancellor Angela Merkel

United Kingdom
Unitary state, Constitutional monarchy, Parliamentary system
Prime Minister Dave Cameron













France
Unitary state, Semi-presidential system, Constitutional republic
President François Hollande




Brazil
Presidential system, Federal republic, Constitutional republic
President Dilma Rousseff











Syria
Unitary state, Semi-presidential system
President Bashar al-Assad










Canada
Federal monarchy, Constitutional monarchy, Parliamentary system
Prime Minister Stephen Harper





Japan
Unitary state, Constitutional monarchy, Parliamentary system
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe














Israel
Parliamentary system
President Reuven Rivlin

Political Geography

In class, we took notes about political geography.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Terms:

• Country: an identifiable land area
• Nation: a population (group of people) with a common culture
• State:
• a population under a single government
• synonymous with "country"
• Nation-State:
• a single culture under a single government
• a nation which has the same borders as a state

_________________________________________________________________________________

Nation:

• a group of people with a shared identity
• think of it as a culture group
• Nations are culturally homogeneous groups of people, larger than a single tribe or community, which share a common language, institutions, religions, and historical experiences

_________________________________________________________________________________

Independent State:

• Has space or territory which has internationally recognized boundaries. (boundary disputes are okay)
• Has people who lie there on an ongoing basis
• Has economic activity and an organized economy.  A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money.
• Has the power of social engineering, such as education.
• Has a transportation system for moving goods and people
• Has a government which provides public services and police power
• Has sovereignty.  No other state should have power over the country's territory
• Has eternal recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries.

Review for the test

Today we got our tests, which I didn't do that well on by the way.  I got a seventy one percent on it (oops).  I'll do better on the next one (I hope).
Anyway, we went over everything, which was very helpful for me because we will be seeing the information again on the exam in December.
Today was kind of an upsetting class though because Mr. Schick yelled at us.  A few people were talking while he was reviewing the test and he went off.  It was like a bomb had exploded.  Then he left the room for a few minutes and when he came back, we were all quiet and made sure not to talk or disturb Mr. Schick.
Despite everything that happened in class today, I did get a lot of information for the future tests and quizzes.  I hope I do better on other tests than I did on this test.

Makeup Tests

Today in class, people who were absent on Friday took the test.  I let Rosemary use my laptop for the first ten minutes because she didn't have hers.  (For the first ten minutes, you needed the CIA Factbook.)  For basically the rest of the class, I watched Gossip Girl on Netflix because I had nothing else to do.  It was a pretty good episode.  After it ended, I played 2048 and listened to music.  Obviously, the class was very productive for me.  It was probably one of my favorite Human Geo classes ever.  I'm sure it'll be more productive tomorrow, but today definitely wasn't.  Some people slept and Mr. Schick had to wake them up.  Other people listened to music, like I did for some of the class.  Other people did homework they forgot to do.  It was an amazing class.

Test

Today we had a test.  I don't know how good I actually did on it, but I hope I did well.  I had no idea what the bonus questions' answers were, so I didn't write anything.  What is the Rat of Natural Increase for the world?  Apparently, you just know what it is.  I also didn't finish the front.  We had ten minutes to do 12 problems.  I finished 10.  I think we should've done 12 questions in 12 minutes.  The test wasn't that hard, it was medium, in my opinion.  Others might say it was easy, and some may say it was harder.  I didn't use Quizlet this time, like I did with the last test.  I wish I had, but I didn't have any time to make it.   I'll make it for my next test.  I have a pretty good grade in Human Geography, so I hope this test doesn't bring it down a lot.

More Review

      In the beginning of class, someone played music.  I'm not exactly sure who though.  At the end of class, Adam played music that I didn't know.  We always have a lot of music in our Human Geography class.
     Today Alyssa had a shadow.  We basically just went over more stuff for the test.  We learned what the total fertility rate, even though I already knew.  We looked at Mr. Schick's blog, and he told us to look at all of his blogs and the videos on his blog.  Also, Mr. Schick told us to open the CIA Factbook right when we got into class.  We are going to have to do twelve problems in 10 minutes, and then we close our computers and use nothing but our brains.  We can't use our blog this class, so I have to study a little harder for this.
      The test is on Population and Settlement.  I have been studying the notes given and the PowerPoint made by Mr. Schick on his blog.  I hope I do well on this.

Preparation for Test

Today Mr. Schick walked into class with his doo-rag and his "Harley" (his cart).  After everyone discussed how cool Mr. Schick looked, we went over stuff for our test on Friday to study.  Here are the notes I put down:

Life expectancy: the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year

Crude birth rate (CBR): number of births per 1000 of the population

Crude death rate (CDR): number of deaths per 1000 of the population

Developing Nations: Don't have good infrastructure; still developing

Developed Nations: Good infrastructure and more; developed

Rate of Natural Increase (RNI): rate at which the population grows based on births and deaths only

• Produced by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate
• This gives us the annual natural growth rate - in percentage form - for a country or region

Net migration rate (NMR): the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a year

Immigration: an excess of persons entering the country

Emigration: an excess of persons leaving the country

Push Forces: things that make you want to move away fro where you live

• Civil war
• Environmental degradation
• Unemployment or underemployment
• Religious or ethnic persecution

Pull forces: things that make you want to move to a certain place

• Better economic opportunity
• Better health services
• Religious freedom
• Political freedom

Total Fertility Rate (TFR):  average number of children born per woman

I hope I do well on the test.

Why is the U.S. the Greatest/Not the Greatest Country in the World?

Today in class, we talked about why the United States is or is not the greatest country in the world.  We looked on the CIA Factbook to find out why.  One fact that Mr. Schick told us to write down is the fact that we are number two in production of oil and number one in import of oil.  That means that, even though we make oil, we buy it too.  I also found out some facts that I wrote down.  For example, the US is the world's largest consumer of cocaine, Columbian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana.   We are also a major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine.  Another fact is that the US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world.  Also, there're 1.2 million people living in HIV/AIDS.  We are number nine in the world.  There are only eight countries above us.  I personally don't think that America is the best country in the world, but I can't say what country is.

America Debate

     In class, we watched a video from a TV show called the Newsroom and talked about it.  The video talked about the fact that America is not the greatest country in the world.  It was an amazing video.
Our talk seemed like a debate to me.  Everyone was interrupting each other, but everyone had really good things to say.  Most of what they said was pretty smart.  There was talk about war, though, which wasn't as smart of an idea.  We talked about why we didn't use our oil in the ground, we used another countries.  We talked about the fact that we do scare easily and we need to be a little more brave.  For example, we need to defend ourselves against Isis.  We also talked a lot about our 17 trillion dollar debt to China.  It was a great class and I'd really like to have more classes like this.

Population Pyramids

Before class, we listened to music from Spotify again.  Some danced, and we all laughed and had fun.  Someone played screamo music though, and it was kind of depressing.  When class started, we went on the CIA Factbook and looked at population pyramids.  (Some of us listened to usic while doing so.)  From Nigeria to Chad, we looked at a lot.  Qatar had the weirdest looking population pyramid.

 We found out it was because of the oil jobs.  It's very dangerous for women to do oil jobs, and Qatar is known for oil.   Some had perfect population pyramids.  For instance, Nigeria's population pyramid was in a perfect line from a long line to a short line.  It was pretty cool looking at the different types of populate pyramids.  As I was looking at the population pyramid, I also looked at the populations, and some surprised me.  Some had 80 million, which I was not expecting from that population.  

Spotify

Today in class, we basically listened to music the whole time.  Mr. Schick gave us a code for a year free (which ended up being three months only).  He got our codes from this group he is in that is teaming up with Spotify to put more music into education.   It wasn't that successful though because it said I had to putt back in in an hour.  Mr. Schick said it was because they thought we were spamming them because we entered them at the same time from the same server.  We ended up not putting in the code, and just searching music.  I ad headphones, so I just listened to different music that I loved.  Other people didn't have headphones, so they just played their music aloud very loudly and sang and danced to it crazily.  It was a really fun and entertaining class.  Thank you, Mr. Schick, for our codes.