Western Civ Blog 36

Today on our online western civ class we had to write a thoughtful, personal essay that analyzes, interprets, and synthesizes the material that Mr. Schick posted on ​yesterday's blog. Due to this word crisis there have been many things that have been modified in everyones daily lives. One of these modifications being cyber school. There are many things that can interrupt you from doing your work. When being at home you have full access to electronic and internet which can stop you from doing your work. This is not the only hard part of cyber school, it is also much harder to ask teachers questions about an assignment which often leads to students making mistakes on their classwork. Another issue being the amount of work. It seems that the workload has doubled since switching to online school. All of these things can lead kids to copy other students work and sometimes can lead kids to not do their work at all. These are all examples of cons during cyber school, and even through the ration of pros and cons are not even, there are still some good things coming from this. We are very lucky to be able to continue out education during this time, some schools are not fortunate enough to be able to do so. Students can learn and do their work at their own pace because we do not have a time limit to class. During this rough time everyone needs to stay positive and motivated so that we can get through it as quick as possible. 

Western Civ Blog 35

Today on our online western civ class we had to compare the plague that hit Athens during the Peloponnesian War with COVID-19. The plague was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens. It occurred in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War. The plague was called Typhus. It raged for 4 years and it resulted in the defeat of Athens. It was an infectious diseases most often cited as causes of the plague include influenza, epidemic typhus, typhoid fever, bubonic plague, smallpox, and measles. Some symptoms for the corona virus are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Typhus and Coronavirus both have a fever as one of the symptoms. They are both deadly epidemics. Both coronavirus and typhus can go away without medicines over time. Both of the epidemics were started due to some sort of animal/bug. 

Western Civ Blog 34

Today in western Civ cyber class we wrote brief biographies on Phillip II, Alexander the Great, and Darius III. First we're going to talk about Phillip II. Phillip II was the king of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. Phillip II was also the Duke of Milan, and from 1555, lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. He was born on May 21, 1527, in Palacio de Pimentel, Valladolid, Spain. He died on September 13, 1598, in El Escorial, Spain. He died of assassination. He ruled one of the world's largest empires. His reign as Spain's king began the Golden Age, a period of great cultural growth in literature, music and the visual arts. Alexander the Great was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born on July 356 BC, in Pella, Greece. He died on June 323 BC, in Babylon. He brought to the Greeks a new way of fighting. He brought to the Persians the Greek way of life. Alexander's success lay in his tactics, particularly the phalanx, which allowed its enemies little openings for attack. Lastly,  we have Darius III. He was originally named Artashata and called Codomannus by the Greeks. He was born in 381 BC. He died on July 330 BC, in Bactria. He was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, from 336 BC to 330 BC. 

Western Civ Blog 33

Today in western Civ cyber class we researched the relationship between Alexander and Bucephalus. Bucephalus was Alexanders horse. He is one of the most famous horses of antiquity. Alexander was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. They had a very strong relationship and they were inseparable. Only Alexander could ride Bucephalus. He rode him into every battle. He rode him from the conquest of the Greek city-states and Thebes through Gaugamela and into India. After the final defeat of Darius, Bucephalus was kidnapped while Alexander was away on excursion. When Alexander found out about his horse being kidnapped, he was very mad and made lots of threats. Not too long after, Bucephalus returned. Some people say Bucephalus died from battle wounds but some say he died of old age. Alexander founded a city in his beloved horse’s memory and named it Bucephala. 

Western Civ Blog 32

Today marks our first week of cyber school!! To me cyber school is not too bad, I've been able to maintain my grades and get all my work done before 2 so I have the rest of the day to relax. Some of my classes have been easy but some have been extremely hard and some of the directs don't make sense to me. One class that is extremely hard is math. It's hard to learn completely new material everyday and have to turn in your work when you've only watched a video on how to do it. English has also been hard but for a different reason. My teacher is giving us lots of work each day which is understandable, but its hard to concentrate and get it all done. I like the way we have been doing the work for your class because we are all used to blogs because on a normal school day we would do them as well. My thoughts on cyber school over all are mostly positive but I do think that eventually I will get tired of it and start having more trouble in different classes. I hope we get to finish this school year out in normal school, especially for the seniors!

Western Civ Blog 31

Today in western Civ cyber class we read page 138 and watched the Crucible of Civilization: Empire of the mind video. We had to think about why we think the Socrates, and Sophists like Protagoras, would start questioning traditional beliefs at this particular point in history.  I think that Socrates didn't let others push him around or tell him what to do. Socrates thought for himself, unlike everyone else in Athens. He also kept to his truths about questioning Athens.  Socrates was the only one who thought that way and he was not able to change the majority of peoples opinions. All of Socrates thoughts were shot down by all Athenians who were in charge of the voting in Athens. Since most of Athens did not agree with Socrates' opinions, he was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock,. a very gross and terrible way to die.

Western Civ Blog 30

Today we watched three videos about ancient Geek history. All of the Athenians were behind the Athens walls and the plague was introduced to Athens. All of the citizens were in one tight space and the disease "spread like a wildfire". The symptoms were beyond human suffering and the city was in horrible shape. There was so much terror going around Athens because the citizens were worried about being attacked and about getting the disease. With the crisis erupting, the people began breaking all laws and religious customs. The Athenian society broke down because people stopped being good because the good and the evil were being affected by the disease. The plague killed over a third of Athen's population. Pericles got the plague and lost all strength, he began relying on magic potions to help him survive. After 6 months of struggling, Pericles died in 429 BC. Pericles planned to make Athens the best in the Mediterranean sea but his plan of close quarters brought death and disease. Pericles underestimated the power of the uncontrollable factors. Pericles was the strongest leader so after his death many other leaders tried to take his position. The other leaders did anything and everything to gain power. Direct democracy began "sliding into mob rule".Because of mob rule they had no power to fight a war. Pericles plan to glorify Athens and make it the strongest only brought death and disease which led to them not being able to fight a war.