Makeup Test Day

Today's class went by pretty fast. I took the test because I missed it yesterday. At first I was a little nervous. It was so easy. I flew threw all the questions in like ten minutes and got it back a few minutes later. I got 100 on it. I was pretty happy because I forgot to study last night. I had learned these thing back in seventh or eighth grade so it was mostly a review for me. After I took the test we did a worksheet. It was super confusing because we had to find definitions, but half of the weren't in the glossary and we had to go read through all the pages in the unit and interpret our own definitions. There was also a side where we had to fill in the blank. I attempted to do most of the definitions, but I didn't do any of the fill in the blank questions. Thankfully we went over it as a class with Mr. Schick at the end. I got all the answers and didn't have to struggle anymore.

Doctors Appointment

I was not in class today because I had a doctors appointment. Feeling good about this test though (will probably still fail).

Test Review

In class today, we reviews for our quiz tomorrow. It is a seventy five point quiz so it is a bigger one. I think it will be easy because when we were going over it I was getting most to all the answers right without looking in my notes. I went through and starred all the key important things we would need to know in order to be prepared.
Key Notes:
~city-state- a city that controls the surrounding area (self-governed)
~dynasty- a series of rulers from a single family
~Cultural diffusion-A process where one culture idea spreads to another
~irrigation- controlling water
~monarchy- kings rule (Hammurabi)
~silt- rich soil (from flooding)
~Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic age (old Stone Age)
~Neolithic age (new stone age) marked by:
  -Advanced tool making and beginnings of agriculture at first human part of migratory groups (hunted, fished, gathered plants for food)
~polytheism- belief in multiple gods
~modern day countries in fertile crescent: Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, & Turkey
~Gilgamesh was a powerful Mesopotamian king
~Oldest surviving big story "Epic of Gilgamesh" (about a great flood)
~ziggurat- Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth (used for city hall, religious ceremony, most important place in town)
~King of Hammurabi of Babylon created laws known as Hammurabi's Code of Laws (eye for eye)(tooth for tooth)

Hammurabi's Worksheets

Today class was super short because we had a two hour delay and it was last mod on top of that; that means it was the shortest mod of the day (thirty five minutes). We turned our homework in. Our homework was a worksheet and had about four or five questions on it. One question asked if we thought Hammurabi's code of laws was harsh or lenient. I said the laws were harsh because most of the time death was the only punishment, or the punishment consisted of killing or putting the person (who committed the crime) family in dangerous or kill them. Then we finished a worksheet we started last class. We had to go around the room and write the Hammurabi's code punishment that matched each of the crimes.

I Love Sleeping

Today's class went by fast. THANK GOD. We worked on Hammurabi's Code. We got a paper that had about six crimes on it and has to write out what our punishment would be on it. Then I am assuming we will look at that same crime next class and see what Hammurabi's Code punishment would be. It will most likely be severely worse than what my punishments were. An example of what crimes were on the paper were a man was building a house and the house collapsed, by accident, and the house ended up killing the whole family. My punishment would be to put him in jail for like with chance of parole. Hammurabi's punishment would be to kill the builder and their whole family. Crazy right. I also took a lovely nap. I love sleeping.

Sumerian and Mesopotamia Notes

More on Mesopotamia:

-Sumerian gods represented elements of nature

-oldest surviving big story- "Epic of Gilgamesh" (about a great flood)

-first divided one hour into sixty minutes then to a minute into sixty seconds 

-organized the calendar based on moon cycles

-a ziggurat is a Sumerian temple, built on top of a "mountain" of earth

-ziggurats can act as a city halls, religious ceremony place, and it technically most important place in the town/village

Civilization in Mesopotamia:

-wondering nomads (someone who wonders from place to place), drove herds (domesticated animals) in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia

-Sumer was conquered by Akkadians c (2350 BC)- their goods took the place of previous gods and were all forced to worship them

-king Hammurabi of Babylon created the laws known as "Hammurabi's Code of Laws"

-these laws were extremely harsh

for example: if you break someones tooth by accident yours has to get ripped out as well

First Day of Mr. Schick's Notes

Today we had a two hour delay because of snow so our classes were only forty minutes. We took notes fro the board today, and I am actually somewhat interested in them. The notes I got were:

From Prehistoric to Civilization
The Origins and "Ages" of Human Beings
-200,000 years ago a human species emerged in southwest Asia
-14,000 years ago, a worldwide human race existed
-Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic Age (old stone age)
-Neolithic Age (New Stone Age), marked by advance tool making &beginning of agriculture at first human part of migritory groups (hunted, fished, gathered plants for food)

The Agricultural Revolution
-Shift from hunting& gathering to permanent settlements (proper homes) - called Neolithic Revolution 
-population increases
-hierarchies appeared in village life (women were lower- domestic duties (stayed at home mostly))
-invention of wheel & plow- allowed to produce enough food for storage
-villages were polytheists, worshipped multiple nature, human, and animal gods

Modern day countries in fertile crescent:
Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran

Earliest Cities: Mesopotamia
-Sumer- between Tigris & Euphrates river
-invented irrigation (able to create cities/ towns)
-as many as 40,000 people
-better food storage- allowed diversity in professions: (priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, farmers)
-kings emerged, family dynasty, concept of "city-state"
-Sumerians invented earliest for of writing- "cuneiform"

Getting Our First Test Back

Today in Western Civilization class, we got our first test back. I already knew what I had gotten because I checked on Veracross. I got a ninety-six percent with the four extra credit points. I was happy I got an A because I am starting off the quarter strong and hopefully I keep that up. As he was passing out the tests he said my name and rung the bell. It felt good to go up and get it knowing I worked hard. He rungs the bell once if you got ninety percent or above, and he rung the bell two times if you get a hundred percent or above. We also continued taking notes from the textbook. I still haven't finished but I got some more good notes. Some of the notes I got were:
-The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood Mesopotamia at least once a year
-After rivers flood, they leave and create a soil kind of thing called silt
-result of farming in the rich flooded soil was a lot of wheat and barley production at harvest time
-people began farming before 4500 bc
-Sumerians came along in 3300 bc
-there were three disadvantages:
1. not knowing when the flood would occur; and having periods where there is little to no rain
2. Sumerian villages were nearly defenseless
3. natural resources were limited' building material and other necessary items were scarce

First Textbook Notes

Today in Western civ some people in our class needed to finish taking the test so we got assigned a certain amount of pages and had to take notes on them. I only got through the first page or two, but I got some good notes. The pages correlated to what we would be doing in the next chapter. Some notes I got were:
MY NOTES:
-Early river valley civilizations (3500 BC- 450 BC)
-Hammurabi's Code- first written laws that hold people responsible for their actions
-Fertile Crescent- the region (southwest Asia) curved shape and the richness of its land led scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent
-Mesopotamia- the lands facing the Mediterranean Sea and a plain (known as Mesopotamia)
-Mesopotamia also means "land between the rivers" in greek
-river framing Mesopotamia are the Tigris and Euphrates
-T&E flow southeastward to the Persian Gulf
NOTES ON MR SCHICK BOARD:
-the earliest civilizations formed on the fertile river planes, facing challenges such as seasonal flooding and a limited growing area
-projects such as irrigation systems required leadership and LAWS (organized government). They were controlled by priest, military leaders, and/or kings
-early civilizations developed bronze tools, the wheel, the sail, the plow, writing, and mathematics. These spread through trade, wars, and the movement of people
TIMELINE:
~(3000 BC) city-states form in Sumer Mesopotamia (bronze head of an Akkadian ruler)
~(2660 BC) Egypt's old kingdom develops (Egyptian scribe statue)
~(1792 BC) Hammurabi develops code of laws for Babylonian Empire
~(1750 BC) Indus Valley civilization declines (fragment of a Harappa pot)
~(1027 BC) Zhou Dynasty forms in China (Zhou bronze vessel)

Sick Day

I was sick today

Test Day

In class today we took the test. I thought it went really well, but who knows because every time I say that I get a bad grade. It felt like I knew most of the answers and got through it pretty fast. On the last page he told we would need to know seven of the domesticated animals but he had eight blanks. I was fine with that, but then if you knew four more and could spell them correctly you would get extra credit. I started with that page but needed one more to get the twelve banks for the test and extra credit. I couldn't remember the last one so I left it blank and finished the rest of my test. I came across a question about which animal is not a domesticated one and llama was one and that was one of the animals I wasn't thinking about to I got to fill in all the blanks. I was happy because now I know that if I get one or two wrong I still have the chance to get 100.

Test Review

Today's class was shortened because we had mass. So each class was 45 minutes, and we also got out three hours early because of snows. Today went by really fast. In class we finally finished watching that video and taking notes on it. We also reviewed for our upcoming test on it. Our test will be on Monday and will consist of 100 questions. I don't think it will be hard but you never know. It will be the first Wester Civilization test of this semester and quarter. I hope I do well because we don't have a lot of grade in yet this quarter so it can either bring my grade up or completely drop it. I'm learning how to ski this weekend so let's pray I don't break all my bones.