December 22

Today we kind of had a free period. I used it to study for tomorrows test. I'm really hoping I do well on that, I feel like I know most of the information. I can't believe its almost vacation.

December 14

The corruption appears.. I always knew that there was corruption in the government, but it was with the election we learned about today that seemed to start it. Andrew Jackson should have one the election of John Quincy Adams.. That's pretty much undeniable. Yet it is how it is, and personally I think John Quincy Adams was better qualified for the office.

December 13

Today we learned about the Monroe Doctrine. Personally I would think we were going to help the newly developed countries. That way they would definitely not go back to the places they had just seperated themselves from. Yet whatever I seem to think the U.S. should do, doesn't seem to be the right idea, or what they end up doing. Oh well, I'll just figure out how the U.S. ends up handling the Monroe Doctrine tomorrow.

December 9

Today we started off class with watching VTV in Miss Scott's room. After returning to class we finished a worksheet having to do with the powers the government and states have. Then we discussed whether it was a good idea to have a national bank; if it was unconstitutional or not. I think its fine, we have them today. Granted they aren't that common, but that has a lot to do with how our economy has changed. Competiton in buisness' isn't a bad thing. If the state banks were strong enough before the other banks came, why'd they freak when the national banks showed up? They were only trying to help, they made the dollar worth more... Well I guess I have no idea how they felt because I wasn't there to experience it first hand. I'm just starting to realize that we made a lot of mistakes when we first started out, and we still are today. I guess our counrty can almost be compared to a person. They make mistakes and learn from them, and as it gets older it learns more from its mistakes than it did in the beginning.. maybe its a bit far-fetched idea, but to me it makes sense.

December 8

Today is the 69th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The weird thing is that seems like so long ago, but all of my grandparents were alive that day... I don't know just a weird thought in my opinion. We also talked about the underground railroad. Whenever I think about that, I flash back to being terrified at 6th grade camp when we did the slave trade activity. We were pretending to be slaves trying to escape. We had counselors and teachers chasing us, and we had to hide and sneak out of areas. Yet that was just a game, nothing big... I don't think I could've handled being a slave trying to escape. Trying to put it in perspective just makes me realize more and more, it was never a game for them, it was never a joke. It was life or death, if you make it to the north life potentially, still dangerous but better; if you get caught who knows.. maybe being beaten maybe death, its just known it wouldn't be a good thing. I'm so happy Harriet Tubman and others were there to help the slaves escape, and I feel like that good will is starting to die down when it comes to today. Not neccessarily in the slave trade, obviously thats over. I'm talking about in giving to others. A family friend's house burnt down, and they lost everything. I've mentioned it to a few friends, some have just said "Oh.. well that sucks." Others have responded with, "Can I help in anyway?" There is a large difference between helping somebody recover from that, and from helping a slave to safety. But the underlining tone is the same, the want to help. When I found out, even though I've met the family once, and they are more friends with my parents than me, all I wanted to do was help. I got clothes together for their little girl, and looked around for coats and toys - Christmas is coming up so I figured toys would be useful. I don't understand how people are like Harriet Tubman are able to risk their lives to help others, while other people aren't even willing to donate their old clothes to help somebody out. We have changed a lot as a country over the years, I think some of the values members of the underground railroad had then, of wanting to help others need to be taken more seriously now.

December 6

Today we got into groups and talked about the story of Frederick Douglass. I'm happy he was an educated slave, because he provides a lot of insight to an area a lot of people aren't well informed about. Certain parts of the book it seems like could have been... over-exaggerated. Yet who knows, I never personally knew him and I don't know his complete story so I really can't judge.

December 1

Today we went over some stuff about the mills. Trying to put it together and figure out how many machines we need to run a factory, was difficult. Partly because my group doesn't like to work together... at all. Instead we like to argue and hate on eachother. Kind of getting sick of that. Other than that today was just a normal day of history. I still have to do some reading.. I better catch up on that.

November 29

Todays class caused a flashback to fifth grade, back when my teacher read Lyddie to us. We talked about the industrial revolution today, and how factories began to form. Whenever I think of early factories in America, I always think of Lyddie. I'm not sure why, it just seemed to stick. We also talked about how the Northwest advanced in tools for agriculture, tools made by people like John Deere. The fact that the John Deere name is so old surprised me. Personally I thought it was a new thing, obviously I was wrong, very wrong. Other than that we have lots of homework, and some reading to do which I'm going to catch up on now.

Project

I did like the idea of the newsreport.. but I'm not sure if I liked this project overall. I feel like I learned a little bit about my subject.. but not everything. Which makes me wonder how would I do if I was tested on this material? Thats what scares me. I'm not sure what could make this project work better to teach me more... Maybe it was just that my group and I figured out what we were doing very last minute. I guess if we had been more organized it would've gone over better.

November 22nd

Mission accomplished, the project is finished. Well mostly, my group and I still have to record our voices tomorrow, but everything else is done... Finally. There was so much debate over what we were going to do and we really didn't decide until the last minute. The presentation we watched in class today was wicked good, I'm hoping my group will be able to measure up. Here's a heads up though... it may be a tad bit corny...

November 15

War of 1812, aka Mr. Madison's war. The newly established U.S. did seem to resemble a scrappy little kid on the play ground that somehow miraculously won every battle. We beat the British.. again.. in the war of 1812, but honestly we couldn't have if not for Napolean. He really did help us out a lot, between the Louisiana purchase and distracting the British, we should've sent him a thank you letter. The war of 1812 really did help us to make a name for ourselves, but I wonder did it really accomplish much? We had Washington D.C. burnt down and signed a treaty that made us leave everything the same as it was before the war.. Pointlessness? I believe so.
Now I'm going to go study for tomorrows quest.

November 9

Today in class my group and I began to figure out some of what we'll be doing for our history project, which has a fast approaching due date. We also discussed about Manbury.. (sp) and how he failed to get his commision due to basically corrupt leaders. Well thats a bad word for it, but the best I could think of right now. Honestly, day by day I'm learning more about the U.S. government from when it started to the way it is now. Day by day I'm learning that my elementary school out look on the government being perfect and not truly understanding, or caring how it worked, is being shattered.

November 3

Today in class we discussed if helping France would be a good or bad idea. I think its a good idea. The class "discussion" turned into more of a debate kind of thing.. sorry Mr. Boyle. Debates are what I'm known for, it not that I ignore everybody else and refuse to listen to their opinion on the situation. Its just that I tend to be very opinionated, and I want everybody to know why I feel the way I do on a situation. Personally I love debates, I find the interesting and enjoyable.
On the topic discussed today, I felt that we should help the French, so what if the power has changed hands from the king to revolutionaries? First off we owe them for supporting us and helping us to win our Revolution. Secondly if France became more like us then we'd have more support and we "wouldn't be the only ones on the island" as Mr. Boyle put it. We were a new country and had our own problems, I understand that, but we need to make a name for ourselves. We need to do something to eliminate the idea that we were going to fail and somebody could easily take us over. Obviously there was the chance that the French could lose their war, but it is worth the risk to try and help them. Maybe there are limitations to the type of help we give them, such as actual people versus supplies, that would be understandable. The United States just can't sit back and let the world pass them by in this situation, we need to help somehow.

November 2

Today in class we went over the documents we were given for homework, it was a timeline. We also got into groups and are planning on making a news report presentation. We are supposed to do a voicethread thing kind of thing, but my group and I decided to make a video instead. I think its going to be great.

October 26

This post is coming a little late, but we didn't have history today, so I think I'm good... hopefully. Sorry for not posting last night, there was so much going on, and that essay took forever. But I got it in on time, thats the first time I've ever had a deadline like that, it was different for me, so I'm happy I was able to accomplish it. In class yesterday we messed around with a game, and tomorrow is the quest that I need to start studying for intensly.

October 25

Today in class we went over our story boards along with some other things. I was really happy I didn't mess up my story board, and it looked a lot like everybody elses(like the set up). Also it seems a lot of people got Ben Franklin, ironically this is the second time I've gotten him for a project, the first one was the life size drawing... yah my drawing skills are not so great so this project went over a lot better. We also  took notes, I actually enjoy taking notes because its easy to study from them, and I learn by writing them. We have our quest coming up so I have to start studying for that, hopefully I can find time, my schedule this week is kind of insane.

October 21

Back in our Madison buddy partnerships. Today we went over the homework, had a bit of a political debate, not surprisng. We also got our voicethread projects and story board moved back, THANKYOU! Along with being assigned a paper due Tuesday, the paper is going to be interesting to write, but hopefully I'll do alright on it, I already know what I'm going to write about, I think.

October 20

Today we went over last nights homework. It was kinda difficult to figure out by ourselves, even though I usually can somewhat understand them. After we went over them I did understand everything, and tonights homework was a easier. We also went over the voicethread project thats coming up.

October 19

Gotta love school house rock, like honestly, its educational AND entertaining. Pretty great in my opinion. Today we looked over some more documents and had a discussion on the branches of government and what made up each branch. Also we had some french students in our class, I wonder how it feels to them to be learning about another country's history, they probably have never heard about any of it before, and they probably don't care all that much. Still, its cool to get a different country's perspective sometimes.

forever ago..

Dont you love when you though you posted something, but ends up you actually didn't? Well anyways I'm happy I checked. Last time we met, which was forever ago, we worked in groups of three on documents. The way the documents were written, and the writing style of that time, just seems over detailed and unecessary, maybe its just me though. Also, I have to work on that project starting tomorrow, because I totally forgot aobut it.

October 14

Our goverment was decided for us by people that had absolutely no idea what they were doing. I have to say designing a functional government that is still in use today, based off ideas and nothing solid is pretty amazing. They were able to structure a government based off nothing, nobody had gone before them to figure out if a democracy would work or not, but I'm happy they took the chance. If not for all of those men 230ish years ago, our lives today would be completely different.

Besides that realization, we also worked on documents and were assigned a project today.

October 13

We took some more notes today, and finished talking about the google docs. Now we have to memorize the preamble. So I'm going to use this post to practice.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and  our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.

p.s. I love school house rock, and greatly miss watching all those videos in elementary school.

October 12

Today we took notes about the government that the colonists formed as the Revolutionary War came to an end. It's pretty complicated, and makes me wonder how they finally smartend up to the extent of structuring the government we have today, because obviously their first attempts were epic fails. Also we started to go over all the information we put on google docs. I'm happy to have another project having to do with that, I love google docs.

October 8th

Soo we had the test in class today, it was different then what I had expected. Overall I feel like I did alright. I knew most of the stuff that the questions were on, and was only iffy about a couple things. I liked the way this test was set up, except I reall thought I wasn't going to be able to finish in time, but I did. It was nice to know afterwards that we could've had extra time if we had needed it. Hopefully I did alright on it.

October 5th

HUGE test coming up, and I feel like I haven't spent a day in class. I pay attention in class, I take a tonnn of notes, but when I saw that review sheet, my mind went blank. I'm going to do a ton of studying. I really want to do well on this test. Luckily its not boring material, so I should be able to memorize it fairly easily.

October 4th

Onto the south, almost done with the revolutionary war.. we know what that means, test time. I'm really hoping to do well on it, but there is so much to learn and the battles and who won what gets all mixed up in my head. We took notes in class today on the battles of the south, the same way we did for the battles of the north. I like the way we've been doing it, my notes are wicked organized, hopefully that helps to make it easy to study for the test.

September 30th

One of the things I love about history class, and it was a  big thing last year, is something that can seem so off topic, really isn't at all. In a history class you can learn life lessons, based off the past. So technically no matter what you are staying on topic. In class on Thursday we talked about being graded on our blogs, and that led into a discussion about the grading policy, and how Mr. Boyle felt about it and kind of how we felt about it. Overall it was an interesting class.

September 29

"We hold these truths to be self-evident" Six lines of the declaration beginning with that sentence, memorized in a few days, I'm pretty proud. I'm to the point where I could probably say it in my sleep, just kidding. But hopefully I didn't make any mistakes on my quiz today. Now I have to go add the documents into my timeline. So it will be ready for tomorrow.

Timeline

I couldn't figure out how to embed this. So the link is the best I could do, I'm sorry :\

http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/76588

September 24

Today we had the debate that we were supposed to have yesterday. It was okay, I just got confused at one point but it ended up working out in the end. Walking out of class was a weird experience though.. I never thought I'd be one of the kids to do that. It got even better once Ms. Daw walked by... It was cool having a flash back to what was really happening in America over 200 years ago. Now we worry about helping others get their independence, and fighting against people that have hurt out country, instead of debating over if we want independence from England. The world truly has changed so much in such a short time. In what 4ish generations, America has gone from being colonized by the English, to gaining their own independence, to becoming known as the United States, to ending slavery, and women having equal rights, to fighting in two world wars,  and so much more besides just that, the list goes on and on. Todays class really got me thinking about the past, present, and future.

September 23

Soo we got to class, Mr. Boyle had to go to a meeting, we left class and went to a boring study.. Yup that's what happened C period today, well at least I got to study for my math test.

September 22

Today we started off having a calm group discussion, where everybody was supposed to have a turn, not anything like a debate. Within ten minutes the class was debating. I wasn't  really surprised, especially since I was involved. I love the debates though, I personally think they're wicked fun. Plus my favorite person to debate with is in that class, so its all good. Tomorrow I get to say no to signing the Declaration and walk out of class.. that should be interesting.

September 21st

Todays class was just an average history class, we learned about the battle of Fort Ticonderoga.. whenever i hear that name I automatically picture the pencils.. The battles of Bunker and Breed hills. And how certain people felt about the relationship between England and the colonists. Tomorrow in class we get to have a discussion about the opinions of the people living in those times; we were assigned in groups to read their opinions today. Tomorrow should be interesting, I see a debate coming on.

September 20th

Lexington and Concord... Honestly you think I would've know we failed at one of those battles, but until today I had no clue. I feel like I relearned a lot of information today in class, about things I already should've known. I guess you start to forget things when you don't learn anything about American History for a few years. The google earth thing today was pretty cool. I like how the whole route was drawn out, it made it easier to picture exactly what happened that day. Todays lesson also gave some foreshadowing for a future one, I'm guessing the Battle of Bunkerhill is going to be incorporated into class sometime soon. But thats just a guess.

Poem Edit

It was three, not one that rode that night,
Dawes, Prescott, AND Revere,
Three men to carry the secret told by the church house light,
All somewhat filled with fear.

Dawes and Prescott were the successful ones,
Both completing their midnight runs.
Revere however met a different fate,
Luckily not delivering his message too late.

All three of the men played a part,
and yet its only Revere's story we know by heart.
The other two should be recognized,
If not the midnight ride is just a historical lie.

50 words

I think the Boston Massacre was the point at which the Revolutionary War became inevitable. It angered the colonists and ignited their hatred for being repressed by England. After this event took place everything became more and more tense until the tension exploded and the war began, it was unstoppable.

September 15th

• Royal Proclamation - The colonists wanted to move West, but the British banned them for doing this by enforcing the Royal Proclomation. The colonist ignored the rules, and decided to move West anyways, this produced tension between the colonists and British.  This also unsettled the French and the Indians.
• Stamp Act - The British needed more money to pay off taxes, they put a tax on stamps, among other things. The Colonists demanded to have a representative in Parliament, the Bristih refused. The Colonists responded by boycotting all English goods, eventually England had to lower the taxes on the Colonists.
•  Boston Massacre - There had been a lot going on between Boston and England, and tensions had been high. American sailors had thrown snowballs at the British and after one guard had fallen off of his horse he shot into the crowd, 11 people were killed. Tensions became even higher than before, and British officers left Boston.
• Boston Tea Party - American Colonists threw 15,000 pounds of tea was thrown into Boston Harbor. This showed the Americans were ready to stand up to the British. Resistance acts became more common.
• Intolerable Acts - This was Englands way of punishing the Colonists for acting up. They used the Quebec Acts, closed Boston Harbor, The Boston Port Bill, basically the Colonists were on restriction. The goal of the Intolerable acts was to seperate the colonies, instead it seemed to unite them more so then they had been before.
• First Continetal Congress - Was formed by the greatest men of that time to talk about the British Parliaments influence on the colonies and how they would respond to what was happening. They originally tried to be calm and collected about he situation but after Parliament continued to pay them no repsect the Americans began to prepare for war.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It was pretty cool and unlike any other I had ever done  before. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was I wish we had just been able to do the whole project in school instead of outside of school. Maybe split it into two class days in the computer lab, it really didn't take that long to finish it up. It was creative and entertaining, which is pretty awesome cause most projects aren't. Also getting to hear my classmates voices recorded was a whole new experience. I liked this project a lot, and would definitely be okay with doing more like it.

September 14th

Presentation day; not as bad as I expected. My Benjamin Franklin actually came out alright, and presenting was really easy to do. The only annoying thing was having to hold him up the whole time. I think it would've been easier to hang him off of something then read off of a notecard/paper. But maybe thats just me. Now that the projects are over it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes. Maybe we'll get another one assigned tomorrow, who knows.. Well actually, Mr. Boyle does, but the rest of us don't. Accomplishing these other projects has made me realize maybe this year won't be as difficult as I expected it to be. Hopefully I'm right.

September 13th

We spent another day in the computer lab area today. I actually like being able to do that, I never really got the chance to in any of my classes last year. Today was pretty cool though cause we got to record our voices. I don't know how my groups is going to come out, but hopefully well. I feel wicked bad about making a mistake and saying the wrong thing. Hopefully that won't be too noticable. I should probably record my voice using voice thread for my historical figure soon, I already have the script written for it. OH yeah, I hate to make that presentation tomorrow. I'm really hoping that goes smoothly.. I'll find out second period tomorrow, hopefully I'm completely awake by then.

September 9th

So everything started to make sense today. I'm pretty sure I know all the due dates/requirements for all the projects. At first I couldn't stop mixing them up. Class was good today, I need to remember to check nice net, I had totally forgotten about that. The worksheets we did today went pretty well, I finally felt like I knew something. It's a weird feeling to have had 10ish years of history class now, and not really know anything about American history. Hopefully that will all change soon. So yah, class was good today, everything was cleared up, and I felt like I knew a little bit about what we are going to be learning this year. That whole knowing something feeling may change tomorrow though... hopefully it wont. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Wednesday the 8th

Class was interesting today, I definitely didnt expect to be randomly put into groups right when we walked in. The google documents thing was pretty cool, and I know I'll definitely be using that in the future. I wish I had learned about it earlier, it would've made school related group projects so much easier to accomplish. Overall class went well, the notes my partners and I took were easy to understand, and hopefully they make it easy to talk about when putting together our presentation. Which reminds me I still have to draw Ben Franklin... well that should be interesting. Well I guess I'm out of things to say about todays class, I'm just going to have to wait and see whats instore for tomorrow.

Soo 3 goals..

We were assigned to post three goals and what we are willing/going to do to achieve them this year, not going to lie it took me a while to figure out what my goals should be. I think I've finally got some good ones though, so here we go..

1. Kill procrastination - I'm basically known for being a ridiculously bad procrastinator, so this year I want to kill that streak. I'm willing/going to do assignments (projects/homework) right away and not waiting until 10 or 11 at night to do my homework. And for projects that are assigned with a due date a week away or more, I won't wait until the day before they're due to finish them.

2. Honor Roll - This goal isn't just for this year, it's been a goal of mine since last year. Last year I accomplished it, so hopefully I'll be able to this year too. To accomplish this, I'm just going to have to study hard, ask for help when I need it (I tend to be bad about that...) and just try my best overall. I will do my best to achieve this goal, because it is important to me.

3. Balance is key - This goal kind of ties in with my first goal. I always seem to have a lot going on, between field hockey, tennis, school, friends, boyfriend, family... there is always something going on. I really don't plan things out, or organize anything, so I'm lacking a balance between all of these things, and it doesn't have the best effects on my life. To accomplish this goal I'm going to prioritize this year, I'm going to make sure I fit everything in, don't forget anything, and make sure everything gets done.

These are my goals, and I really hope I can accomplish them all. I will definitely be trying my hardest. And I guess that wraps up my first blog post.