In class mr. Boyle read the book "The Lorax" to us. While he read it it was our job to write down the positives and negatives of industrialization. Dr. Suess clearly believed industrialization was a bad thing, but he did mention some of the positives. Personally I can't decide if it was good or bad... I know we wouldn't be where we are today if not for it. Besides that it was weird too look back at and realize what it really meant.

April 12

Yesterday in history we talked about the anniversary of the first shots fired during the civil war. That night I was watching the news and they were talking about how much it meant to our country and how if not for the Civil War everything would be different. I started thinking about how weird it is that for me April 12th is just like any other day, but for the people living 150ish years ago it was the start of something huge that would last for years, in my mind, its just hard to grasp that concept.

April 6

Today we learned about the 14th Amendment, and how the South decided to purposefully misinterpret it. They made up things called "Black Codes" basically allowing them to make the lives of slaves just as bad as they had been before... It seems as if nothing has really changed in the South after the war,  besides the downfall of the economy. Which is kind of surprising, I expected a whole different backlash than that.

April 4

Today in class we talked about what life was like after Lincoln was assassinated. It wasn't to great, the government was kind of in a state of confusion due to the fact that a Southener became the president. Because of this nothing got done, and it seems as if the US was worse off  now that Lincoln was gone, even if the Southeners didn't think so. If they had really stepped to look back at the situation and how Lincoln wasn't totally against them, and had actually wanted to fix the issues the war had caused maybe things would've been different. Instead the Radical Republicans didn't get anything done with Andrew Johnson as president and impeached him.

April 1

Soooo our pranks for April fools day failed... Just wait Mr. Boyle, we'll trick you somehow. In class we learned about Lincolns assassination and how Booth was an idiot, cause he wore spurs and got caught and broke his ankle. I dont get how nobody stopped him from getting into the Presidents box, he needed more security obviously.

March 31

So I keep forgetting to blog, but I'm going to get better at it. Yesterday in class we were split up into groups and learned about what was happening in the government after the civil war... basically everybody was against lincoln. Which I think was kind of stupid on their behalfs. Today we are learning about Lincolns assasssination, its hard to believe somebody disliked him enough to kill him.

March 15

I used to be sooo good at memorization.. yup thats gone. Why couldn't the gettysburg adress have been as easy to memorize as song lyrics? That would make everything so much easier. I think I did well on the quiz though. Other than that we just took some notes, it seems as if we are getting closer to the end of the civil war.

march 3

Today we talked about the first battle about the Civil war, I could not believe that people came out with picnic baskets to watch the battle. That is seriously messed up... its war, obviously people were going to die.. I hope that battle was a real reality check for them. I can't believe they thought it was a picnic kind of event to start with...

Free Soil Party

Sources

Song:

• 3 Doors Down- Going Down In Flames

Information:

• http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=893
• http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h139.html
• http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Free_Soil_Party

Pictures:

1. http://www.bookapex.com/Free-Soil-Free-Labor-Free-Men-The-Ideology-of-the-Republican-Party-before-the-Civil-War-With-a-New-Introductory-Essay-reviews-0195094972_1.htm
2. http://www.nndb.com/people/821/000024749/
3. http://aphistory2010.yolasite.com/ch14.php
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JP-Hale.jpg
5. http://www.historycentral.com/PageMill_Images/image24.gif
6. http://www.stacks.com/Lot/ItemDetail/171385

February 16

THANK YOU FOR PUSHING THE DUE DATE OF THE PROJECT BACK! I was having a lot of trouble downloading the software, but now that I have more time it should be a lot easier to complete the project. I'm really starting to wonder what the end of the year project is going to be.. It sounds like its going to be really intense... That scares me. Also, today in class we watched VTV and then we had some study time. I got the study guide, so I'll be able to actually study for the test, yaay. I hope its not too hard.

February 14

Today was the first time I've had class in forever. Sorry for missing it the other day to get my braces off Mr. Boyle. Besides the small interuption to pass out the carnations, it was a pretty good class. We got a lot done and took a lot of notes. To be honest I never knew the southern states split from the union. I guess it makes sense though because of the civil war and everything. I really didn't know much about the Civil War. Its starting to make more and more sense now.

February 7

Today we talked about the presidential race between Licoln and Douglas. I was shocked Douglas won. Licoln made such valid points, and clearly should've won in my mind. I guess the country just wasn't ready for the drastic change that Licoln was aiming for. Oh well, Licoln does win eventually. On another note I'm learning so many more names of presidents that I never even knew existed... like Douglas. I'm almost shocked by my lack of knowledge.

February 3rd

Today in class we went over some presentations that we were supposed to watch last night. and for once it finally worked on my computer. Yay ! And Uncle Tom's Cabin seems like an interesting story. I just finished my project, except my pictures wouldn't work. So I was planning on asking you for help with it tomorrow morning. Yup, that's about it.

January 25

I'm sitting here watching the presidents state of the union. While watching it my Dad explained how for the first time in a long time the congress is mixed. They aren't sitting divided; republicans on one side, democrats on the other. For some reason I easily made a connection between this and slavery. A country divided, then over slavery, now over which party you are a part of. The issues may have changed, but have we? We will always disagree, there will always be those two definined groups. Compromise - I think that word needs to begin to describe our country more than it does now.

January 11

Today we talked about womens rights and the suffrage movement. It was somewhat interesting, and I was starting to wonder where it fell into American history. Ends up the person I had to do the voice thread on, Adin Ballou, agreed with a lot of ideas that the women suffrage movement focused on. I was kind of surprised by that.

Adin Ballou

January 4th

Today we talked about nature. My example was a song. Last night when I was looking for a song about nature, I realized there were a lot more options than I had originally thought. Todays discussion in class really made me believe that nature was a bigger part of our life than I thought.

January 3

Today in class we learned about transcendentalism. It actually is an interesting topic and I do want to learn more its still semi confusing ... well not really but I couldn't think of anything else to call it. I have to find a song about nature now.. I'm about to fall asleep because I just got home from field hockey .. so I can't find the energy to write much.