Human Geography Blog 8-29-17

I was not in class today due to recovering from surgery.

            In today's Honor's Human Geography class we have a sub! Her name is Mrs. Ferry and she just happens to be my Spanish teacher. Today I had to read an article about how geographers use site and situation to describe where a place is and what it looks like. Site is physical attributes of an area that help a geographer describe what this place looks like. When different places have a variety of different sites it gives them a character that only they have. As Mr. Schick said before,"no two places in the world are the same". We can see in history that many starting off civilizations really took the different sites of an area into play because they wanted to use those sites to their advantage. One good example of this is Havre De Grace. America built naval bases in Havre De Grace during the Revolutionary War because it was easy to defend the Chesapeake Bay. So, they used the sites of Havre De Grace to their advantage. As we can see, sites are very important when

              In today's wonderful  Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we went over our blogs with Mr. Schick and checked our maps that we filled out about a week ago. We started the class with Mr. Schick calling us up one by one to check on our blogs and see if we are doing the titles right and just including what needs to be included in them. Mr. Schick called about five people up before he said, "Frankie." When I walked up he told me that I needed to fix my title because I was just making the titles the dates that I did the blogs. Which is why I have very "creative" title today. After going over my blog with Mr. Schick we went over the map we filled out a while ago. I happened to lose my map so I shared with my friend Ashley. After going over the map the bell rang and put a wrap on Monday's Honor's Human Geography class.

                In today's wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we went over how every point of the Earth is different and similar. We learned that the differences and similarities between regions start with where they are geographically. Geography has a big play in a region's culture. This is what ultimately makes regions different and similar to each other. After this, Mr. Schick checked our mental world maps to see how we did on them. After looking at a map I realized just how much I don't know geographical regions. I tried drawing the shape of the Scandinavian Islands and Mr. Schick thought that it was a literal piece of garbage and that I was trying to make a statement about littering. After the checking was over we finally got our tests back. Mr. Schick has a tradition that whenever someone gets an A on the test he rings a bell. If you score a 100% or more, you get two rings. If you get a B or less on the test, you are rewarded with silence. Aft

               Today in the wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we got a new air conditioner! Just kidding, that's not the only thing that happened today. We drew maps without even looking at anything to help us. Mr. Schick called it a mental map. We had to draw a map of the world without looking at the map in the back of the room. Mine was extremely bad. I drew all of the continents way out of proportion and the same went for the oceans. We also had to draw a map of our route to school. I got out my notebook and made all of my lines and all of the places I pass and then realize I did it to the school I went to for the last nine years of my life. So, I threw that one out and made my new one. I drew the lines and the bridge I cross all the way until I got to John Carroll. The whole activity really gave you a fell for where you are in the world.

             Today was a very short, yet sweet, Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick. I walked into class and put my phone in the Apple Bin like every other day. When, Faith walked in and said it was stuffy in the room. So, Mr. Schick walked over to the phone and dialed a number and said," Oh yes, hi, I wanted to tell you that Faith would like an air conditioner to be delivered to the class room." Mr. Schick then said that he was swamped with all the tests that he has to grade and asked us if it would be okay if he spent the period grading the tests and giving us a study period. We all said that was fine and everybody left the room to go get books while Michael and I stayed in the room. I stayed in the room because I was leaving to see an orthopedic in ten minutes. When everyone was gone Mr. Schick told me and Michael that someone actually was delivering an air conditioner which I though was pretty funny. After that, it was time for me to go.

              In today's Honor's Human Geography Class with Mr. Schick we learned had a very interesting lesson on two world maps. We learned about the difference in the Mercator Projection Map and the Peter Projection Map. Through most of our entire lives we have been believing the world looks like what the Mercator Map projects to be. However, the Mercator Map has many flaws. It projects Greenland to be the same size, if not bigger, as the United States. However, The United States is much larger than Greenland. The Mercator Map also projects Alaska to be much bigger than Mexico. But, Mexico is actually 0.1 times bigger than Alaska. The Mercator Map also projects Africa to be much smaller than it actually is. As we can see their are many things that are wrong with the Mercator Map. A lot of people wonder why it is so wrong. It is because of the man named Mercator, that made the map, wanted the latitude and longitude lines to be nice and straight and be able to connect countrie

          Today in Mr. Schick's Honor's Human Geography class we started a new unit called "Thinking Geographically". The key questions of the unit consist of: How do geographers describe where things are? Why is each point on the Earth unique? Why are different places similar? And why are some actions unsustainable? We talked about how geographers use regions to characterize places so that we can better group them. We also learned what formal regions are. Formal regions are regions that show a high consistency in a cultural or physical attribute. For example, if a region coal mines a lot and there's coal mines all over the region it is considered a coal mining, formal region. Formal regions are used to categorize regions that share things in politics, economics, geography. We then were handed a work sheet with two maps on it and two word banks on it. We had to identify the regions on the map and write them down on the lines under the word bank. After I finished t

           In today's Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we had a test on Socrates, Excellence, Ancient Greece, and "A message to Garcia". Before the test was even handed out I couldn't stop laughing because of Mr. Schick making these rhyming sayings and said it was rapping and then dropped "the paperclip". I think the test went pretty well. I studied a lot and was happy with myself because I knew a lot of the multiple choice and short answers, if not all of them. I think the essays went pretty well. I was only confused on one and I'm not sure if I did it right or not, but we'll find out soon. I took the test right down to the last 30 seconds of class. I took so long not because I was still working, but because I like to double, triple, and even quadruple check that I did everything correct and actually answered the question. After I got finished I handed my test to Mr. Schick and enjoyed my 15 seconds of freedom until the bell rang.

           Today in Mr. Schick's Honor's Human Geography class Mr. Schick told us his story of what happened to him on 9-11 and then went over a review for the test tomorrow. Mr. Schick told us that on September 11, 2001, he was at John Carroll just getting ready for the back to school mass. He said that there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was as blue as it could get. Mr. Schick and another teacher were walking down the hallway when she told him about a plane colliding with one of the World Trade Centers. When Mr. Schick heard this he assumed it was one of those tiny one person planes that went way off track. After the mass was over the principal at the time made an announcement saying that another a plane has collided with the other World Trade Center and it appears America is under attack. He then told the teachers that they would be going on with their normal schedule and if they want to continue their lesson they can or if they just want to watch the news that is fin

          Today was a very short, yet sweet, Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick. We talked about how the excellence in being a John Carroll Student, the excellence in which Elbert Hubbard describes in his famous essay "a message to Garcia", and the excellence the Ancient Greeks have all relate to each other. We also got into more depth about who Socrates really was. When Socrates was a young man he worked as a stonemason where he shaped pieces of stone into geometric shapes. He also fought in the Peloponnesian War. Socrates would teach young students, right around my age, right outside of the agora. Socrates believed that if he asked many questions to these students he could figure out their beliefs and how knowledgeable they are. This method that Socrates made ultimately led to the creation of the scientific method which is very similar. After those 10 minutes it was time for me to go to my football game (where we lost).

              Today in the notorious Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we went over some important things that involve Ancient Greece which consisted of agora, polis, the importance of the year 508 BC to the Ancient Greeks, Socrates, the death of Socrates, the Socratic Method, and what the Ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot. We learned that Agora was a public open space often used for artistic, athletic, or spiritual purposes. A polis is a political entity owned by their bodies of citizens. It is also the origin of the word politics, metropolitan, and poll. The year 508 BC was a very important year for Ancient Greece. 508 BC is the year Cleisthenes revolted against Greeks government and instated Democracy into Greece. We also learned about a man named Socrates. Socrates was a Greek Philosopher who is believed to have discovered western philosophy. We also learned about the interesting death of Socrates. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth and not

           In today's Honors Human Geography class with Mr Schick, we went over the excellence in which Elbert Hubbard describes in his notorious essay "a message to Garcia". We learned not only about the excellence, but we also learned about the general history of the essay. The official publication date for the essay was sometime in March, 1899. It was published as an inspirational message. When the essay was printed it became very popular and many people bought it in pamphlet form and book form to put in their homes, schools, or offices. The essay became so popular that over 40 million copies were sold and the phrase 'send a letter to Garcia' became a reference to get something done. People even went to the extreme of making the essay into a movie. The whole background of the essay came from President William McKinley needing to reach someone by the name of Garcia (during the Spanish-American War) who was unreachable by telegraph or mail. McKinley asked a man n