finished maps

I finished my three maps today and it was pretty easy. In class there were three shadows which is a lot for one class. one of them was Lily's shadow and her name was Miranda. She is one of my best friends and it was fun having a class with her. I liked that you called us up one by one to just check up on us with blogs and you gave me a good suggestion for remembering to do my blogs. You told me to set an alarm for a certain time every night and it will just remind me to do my blogs so I can bring up my grade in this class.

more maps

Today we got three different maps, the Peters map, the Mercator map, and the Robinson map. I had to label the maps with the Equator, Prime Meridian, nation of my origin, the seven continents, the five oceans, the International Date Line, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, and The John Carroll School. Doing this on all three maps was eye opening because they are all different which shows how many different perspectives on the world there are. I didn't finish but its okay.

maps

In class today we looked at the different types of maps and how some are more accurate than others. I learned that the Mercator map that we usually use is very wrong and the sizes of the continents are distorted. The peters map was more accurate but no flat map is going to be as accurate as a globe. The maps we have today are much better than in the past though because the older maps are by people who have never been to the Americas so it is only of Europe and Asia. These maps are very wrong and don't show the land in the right way.

first test prep ish

Today we talked about the test we are having on Tuesday about excellence. It will be 100 points and it will have multiple choice questions, short answers, and an essay about Socrates quote, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I have wrote some very good notes, thanks to you for teaching us how to take notes, two pages of notes, that's a lot for me.I agree with Lily Labanowski's blog about not moving our seats. So far we have had good grades and that is with us sitting next to each other. So you don't know how our grades will be effected if we are moved. This class is great by the way and you are an amazing teacher. I have to study all my notes so I can do my absolute best on the test. I need to feel prepared for this so I can ace the test on Tuesday.

class stuff

We finished talking about excellence today and then started talking about what happens when we die. I didn't understand it at first but was still participating and then we started to talk about Socrates and his teaching method. His teaching method is to ask questions to get people thinking. we were asked what happens when we die and we agreed that our souls go to heaven then he asked what do they do then and what is heaven or is it real, until finally someone said it cant be proven. It is all just our beliefs and what we have faith in. Then he asked us what Jesus looked like and he looked up Jesus and a photo of what we all assume is Jesus. Then he looks up historical Jesus and all i said was, "ew." It was a computer animated version of what Jesus actually most likely looked like. Class was fun today, i liked it.

class talk

Today in class we talked about excellence and how it related to Elbert Hubbard's essay. We also had a long discussion about what we think people would do if there were no laws in the country. We all thought that most people would probably not follow the rules and/or laws because you would have no consequences. I liked that we got into this discussion because it got us all thinking and most of us participated or said our thoughts on what we were talking about. We learned the definition of some of the words that were in A Message to Garcia which were considered slang back in the day, before we were born. One of the words was slipshod, which ,means lackadaisical or lazily. The word comes from horses and their shoes. When someone does a bad job or it falls of they were considered a slipshod.

Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard's "A Message to Garcia" was an essay about doing what you are told without asking questions or procrastinating. In his essay he told a story about a man named Rowan who was given a letter to give to Garcia and no one knew where he was. Rowan landed off the coast of Cuba in four days and went into the jungle. It took him three weeks to come out on the other side and having delivered the letter to Garcia. He did all of this without asking where Garcia was or any other idiotic questions. Elbert Hubbard was saying that moat people are lazy and probably wouldn't do what Rowan did, which a lot of people still say and can relate to today. I am sure my parents can relate to his essay too because i sometimes don't want to do my homework or do my chores and just want to stay in bed. Elbert Hubbard wrote his essay about people like me who don't want to go the extra mile and earn extra credit or wait until the last minute to do something and in some ways i think he is right in what he is saying.

My First Day

My first days at John Carroll I was nervous but excited at the same time. I was not completely sure why I was nervous but once I got through a few classes, I learned there was nothing to worry about. My first class of the day on my first day was math, which contributed to why I was nervous because I was afraid i would be asked a question and I wouldn't know the answer. My math class was not bad at all and it went by pretty fast. My next class was spanish with Mr.Canter, which was very fun and upbeat and we didn't have to sit and listen to him talk about the rules for the class the whole time. Since I haven't spoke spoken spanish the whole summer I was a bit rusty but it all came back to me and it was a very fun class. Next up was advisory. This I was excited for because it was just a little break that I needed to keep going on with my day stress free. The rest of my day went by so fast and next thing I know I'm in my last class of the day. This I was a little worried about because I had a volleyball game that day and had to leave class at 2:00. I emailed my teacher and talked to him earlier in the day when I saw him. I was in the class for about 10 minuets before I left and I was worried I would miss work or anything important he was saying but Mr. Kimble made it very easy for me and gave me my papers and everything I needed to know. Overall I would say my first day went very good and I love John Carroll so far.