Socrates

We spent most of the class today learning about Socrates. As a young man he worked as a stonemason. He also fought in the Peloponnesian war. His working background and battlefield experiences may have shaped the way he viewed the world. He began meeting with young students outside the agora for workshops. Socrates had a specific method he used when he was teaching. He asked a series of questions to determine students underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. This led to the scientific method, in which you start out with a hypothesis, then set out to prove/disprove your theory through experimentation. Socrates was charged with 2 crimes, corruption of Athens youth, and impiety. He defended himself and even admitted that he did these things but said he was right in what he did. A jury of 500 male citizens found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death by poison (hemlock) He even had an opportunity to escape, but refused, proving his loyalty to Athenian democracy. We also talked about Athens and how it attracted many great thinkers to trade their knowledge. Visitors from all around came and shared their knowledge about science.

Ancient Greek

Today in class we continued to take notes about "A message to Garcia". We also discussed the tragedy's that occurred on September 11th in 2001. We talked about what happened and what everyone was thinking during this. Aside from that we began discussing ancient Greek. The Socratic method is, a pedagogical technique in which a teacher does not give information directly but instead asks a series of questions. A Polis is a Greek city-state. An agora is a meeting place in the middle of a Greek city-state. Socrates was a Greek philosopher in 469-399 B.C. He invented the teaching practice of pedagogy, where a teacher asks students questions in a manner that draws out the correct response. He also created the Socratic irony, and Socratic method. Socrates was sentenced to death by poison (hemlock) and his last words were "Crito we a cock to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." In 508 B.C Kleisthenes began reforming Athenian code of laws, and establishes a democratic constitution.

Furthering "Message to Garcia"

       "Message to Garcia" was written in 1899 as an inspirational essay, by Elbert Hubbard. After selling over 40 million copies it was made into a pamphlet, book, and translated into 37 languages. Then it was made into two different movies, one in 1916, and the second in 1936. "Take a message to Garcia"  became a popular slang term for taking initiative, which is still used in the military. The essay takes place during the Spanish-American war. Garcia was a revolutionary seeking Cuban independence from Spain. Rowan the man sent to give the note to Garcia, was an army officer and in the west point class of 1881. During this time our president was William McKinley. He was the 25th president, (1897-1901) and was assassinated six months into his second term by an anarchist. Mt. McKinley was originally called Denali. It is the tallest mountain in North America, and recently it was changed back to Mt. Denali.

5 things to improve my years at John Carroll

  Throughout my years at John Carroll I hope to accomplish many things. I want to enjoy my time here but also do well academically.
1. Have good grades.
    I hope to work hard and study to get and maintain good grades.
2. Participate in all of the theatre production.
    I hope to audition and get parts in most or all of the shows at JC. I enjoy doing theater and am      excited to work with others at JC.
3. Participate in a club.
    I am interested in joining the service learning club and helping out in our community.  It would
    help to earn service hours as well.       
4. Join an organization.
    I would to try to be apart of the national honor society and possibly the Spanish honor society.
    Both of these society's are a great opportunity and I want to be apart of one of them.
5. Go to football games and dances.
    I plan to go to events like these to support our school, and have fun with my friends. Through
    events like this you can even meet new people and make new friends.

Essay discussion

In Human Geography class today we discussed the essay we read yesterday "A Message to Garcia". We talked about the words we didn't recognize and we identified their definitions. We discussed our opinions on the essay and if the essay relates to our generation. We also discovered that no one in our class likes to raise their hand and talk. In my opinion we are all just getting used to everything and our participation will fully begin next week. We talked about our blogs again, and how we are going to need to participate for part of our grade.

Message to Garcia

   In class today we read an essay "A Message to Garcia". It was about how when your given a task you should complete it. You shouldn't have to ask questions or put it off no matter how strange or hard the task is. I don't agree that the message applies to today. The essay mainly talks about the fact that men do most of the hard work. Presently women and men can both do hard work. On the other hand I did agree with the essay. People in our generation are lazy sometimes and try to get out of doing things. While reading the essay I ran into some words I didn't recognize or understand. The word traversed means to travel across or through. Also the word Dowdy means unfashionable and without style of appearance. And Shipshod means characterized by a lack of care thought, or organization.

Bloging

Today in class we set up our blogs and fixed problems on our computer. It took most of the class time and we didn't get to do much else. We also talked about a few things we would be learning about in class tomorrow, Greek Philosophers.  We all brought in our notebooks that we will be using for class. Everyone in the class remembered to bring in their notebooks! Our teacher noticed an unattended lap top and posted a blog saying that it was the best day of his life from the students account!