Claire's Western Civ Blog

I think we can all agree that cyber school is taking a lot out of us and we are being challenged I na way that none of us are used to. It hard to go from sitting at a desk in a class room with 20 other kids, asking questions, talking to a teacher about problems, to being at home having to learn online and without the face to face help. I agree that the workload right now is a lot more than expected and even for teachers, this workload of providing ALL of the information to students has increased swell. And on top of that, teachers still have to figure out ways to answer questions throughs screens and give quizzes and tests. While we are doing this online learning, I do think that it seems 'easier' to maybe cheat on a quiz or plagiarize, and some students have definitely been using that to their advantage. Being in a situation like this does seem to be affecting and changing the ways of some people. I have been slacking off a little at some points throughs the past few weeks, bu...

The Plague of Athens happened during the second year of the Peloponnesian War, in 430 BC. This plague was said to have come into Athens from Piraeus, which was The main city's port and source of food and supplies. So many people died because of this plague, and so many people have died and are still dying from this new virus today, COVID-19, or the Corona Virus. About 75,000 to 100,000 people were killed form the plague of Athens, and so far about 22,165 people, worldwide, have died from the COVID-19 virus. While these numbers aren't the same, the numbers are still rapidly rising and is said to peak very soon. When the plague in Athens became started raising alarm, Athens society was forced to enforce stricter laws and regulations for the people, since the people were starting to adhere to the rules. The way Athens responded to its peoples lack of adherence for the laws, is very similar to the way the government officials are responding to the COVID-19 virus. In the US, our gov...

Today we had to do some research Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus. The horse was given to King Philip, Alexander's father, for 13 talents, which translates to about $182,000 now. Bucephalus was Alexander's favorite horse and served him in many battles. Bucephalus was said to be untamable, which is why King Philip gave him away In the first place. It was only until Alexander came along that he was able to tam the horse and have him eventually be one of the most famous horses. The bond that Alexander and Bucephalus had was inseparable and only Alexander could ride him into battles conquering all of these different places. At the end of Bucephalus' life, Alexander named one of his conquered city's after him. This great relationship with Alexander's horse lead him through so many victories and got him through so many journeys.

Today is Friday, March 20th, our 5th day of cyber school. When we first found about cyber school, I had no idea what to expect of it, and most teachers didn't either. On Monday, we had our first day of online school. it wasn't as bad I had thought, but further into the week, it got a little harder. The first 2 days, it wasn't really anything new, more just picking up where we left off the previous week. By Wednesday, gears shifted and we had to learn new things. It is harder to do online school when it comes to learning new things in classes like Math or a language. I have started to figure out ways that I learn best in these times as well. Doing cyber school has pros and cons. A pro that I have seen throughout the week is that I can do my work at my own pace and make sure that I understand what I am doing, without worrying about the teacher maybe teaching it too fast. One con to this is that there is no face to face conversations or questions. Yes you can chat with a teach...

Explain why you think Socrates, and Sophists like Protagoras, would start questioning traditional beliefs at this particular point in history? In Athens a this time, many bad and negative things were happening through the cities like sickness and Pericles being being killed. Since it seemed like so many bad things were going to keep happening, it gave people more chances to question or just really examine their own beliefs. All of the chaos makes people feel out of control, using them really wonder about how they have been living their lives. Its kind of what is happening. In our world today, with government conflict all of the time and now with the corona virus. It all caused chaos and with people keeping to  themselves I these times, it allows them to almost overthink and question their beliefs just like in these Athenian times.

  Pericles was a wise man who led Athens through most of the golden age. Pericles was a popular leader, a skillful politician, an inspiring speaker, and was very well respected by his people. from 461 to 429 B.C. Pericles dominated over Athens with three goals. His first goal was to strengthen the Athenian democracy. The second was to hold and strengthen the empire, and the third was to glorify Athens. The Athenian government was soon introduced to direct democracy. A direct democracy is a form of government where citizens rule directly instead of through voting for representatives. The Delian League, which is also called the Athenian League was basically a partnership or alliance of the Greek city-states freeing them from the Persian Rule while also defending them from possible attacks from Persia.

Today we talked about the corona virus for all of class. As of now, all Maryland public schools are shut down until March 27th, and we are out until then as well. Mr. Schick had a LOT of information to tell us in class today just educating us about the virus and what he has been keeping up with from scientists and specialists. Apparently, the virus spread will probably go down towards the summer months, since it won't be able to survive in the heat. I am hoping that is correct because I am really looking forward to the summer and getting to go to the beach and the pool and places like that. We are starting cyber school soon and I down know what to think of it. All of this just doesn't seem real and now that everything is finally happening, it is hard to believe that it is actually happening.

We took a pop quiz today. I am very angry because I was not at all prepared and ended up getting like a 70 which isn't terrible because that's only 3 wrong, but whatever. Right now mr. Schick is playing some video and it is very loud, (I thought I would share). But anyway, I am very tired today so the pop quiz did NOT go my way. We also reviewed what we went over yesterday about gods and goddesses and the Persian wars. We will probably have another test on the next part of Greece soon, so based on the pop quiz, I will definitely be studying a little more.

We talked about Socrates and Plato today, but we focused more on Socrates. In the beginning of the year, we learned about Socrates and how he was this great philosopher who created the Socrates method. His method was centered around people thinking for them selves and asking/ answering questions that support these thoughts that they created. He was put to death by poison hemlock after being found guilty of 2 different crimes involving his teaching methods. even though he was found guilty, and even after he confessed to the crimes, he still had people who voted him innocent, showing how they were loyal to him and agreed and liked his teaching methods. Socrates was this great figure in greek history and I do agree with his teaching methods and they definitely relate to some of our world today.

Today we got our quizzes back that was on part 1 of Ancient Greece. The quiz wasn't that hard, I got a 78 which isn't very good but I am going to try and get a way better grade on our next test so my grade won't fall all the ay down to a c. We had to wait for someone to take the quiz before we got ours back and it was taking so long and I was very bored because we were supposed to be gong over rate powerpoint but I finished that. It was also the last class of the day so I was just eager to leave. We went over the tests and I corrected the ones that I got wrong and I was so mad because I got all of the seas mixed up even that is what I studied ALOT. Getting those right wouldve made my quiz grade a B so i'm very mad that I got them wrong.