Movie: Alexander the Great

In class we started watching the Indian invasion of Alexander the Great. This part of the movie we watched was what my partner and I had to present. We saw the battles he went through and although it was bloody and violent we got to see what it might have been like when it actually happened. The movie helped me better understand what we taught each other and overall I thought it was a good movie. We ended the class when seeing Alexander the Great being carried back on a shield.

Alexander the Great

Today we continued on with out presentations of Alexander the Great's life. We started off with my group, section six. My partner Max wasn't there so I had to present all by myself. I talked about the invasion of India and the revolt of the Macedonian army. Once I finished my power point we moved onto section 7, Alexander's Death. There are multiple theories of how he died such as, his wine being poisoned, alcohol poisoning, and malaria. He was only 32 when he died. Once we finished their presentation we moved on to Alexander's battle strategy. After finishing the power points we started watching the video. We watched Alexander break his horse at the age of 12. We finished watching that in time for the bell to ring.

Teaching Each Other

Wednesday we all had to create power points that were due today. The point of them were to teach each other what we read from websites Mr.Schick recommended for our topic. There were seven groups that had to present on all about Alexander the Great. The first group was about Alexander's parents and we got all the way to his battles against Persia. The last group to go was group 5, I'm number 6 so I will be starting next week. I will post the notes on a different blog tonight.

Partner Presentations

FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!! We got assigned  numbers and were matched up with whoever had the same number. Then we were privileged enough to get a topic on Alexander's life, my partner, Max, and I got India, the invasion and revolution. We got right to work once we were told our partners and topic. Mr.Schick pulled up his blogger account to show us the Google docs paper he created for the project, he graciously gave us a list of website and pointed us in the right direction and so we were off!

Hellenistic Era

Today we got a lot done, we went to page 79 and Mr.Schick called on me to read the first two paragraphs of the introduction. We discussed why the Athens lost the war against the Spartans. I said that they were too hubris which means cocky and also they didn't have good leadership and strategies for war. Then we talked about Alexander the great and the Hellenistic Era which was the time between when the Macedonian king died and Alexander the great. We kinda got off topic a few times but overall we have a very informative class.

Test Taking

Today we had the great privilege of taking the Chapter 4 Test! Thankfully we were honored by being allowed to use our personal blogs during the test. I thought we might be able to do that so I put my notes from the movie up along with the important dates from the chapter review. All in all I thought the test was fairly easy but it did have a few challenging questions. I feel confident that I passed and hopefully I will get a good grade for the work I did. 

The Greater Greece: The Hellenistic Era, 400-30 B.C

• Hellenistic: refers to the "international" period of Greek history, when much of the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia was under Greek rule 
• time between the death of the Macedonian king and Alexander the Great
• 359 B.C King Philip II of Macedonia comes to power; moves to control Greece 

The Athenians lost the war against Sparta because after they won the battle against Persia they insisted that the Athenians’ allies pay to build more triremes, state of the art war ships, even though they were not at war with anyone and did not see themselves going to war. The allies of Athens did not want to pay any longer for ships they were not using so they asked Sparta for help to put an end to it. This lead to war and even though Athens lost to Sparta; Sparta lost a lot of resources and soldiers in the fight. All in all Athens lost because they were too cocky after they won the war against the best and strongest empire. They thought they could defeat anyone they came up against. They also should not have been forcing people to pay for war ships that were not needed. If the Athens stayed humble and continued on with their lives they would not have caused a war and been defeated. 

Chapter 4 Review

Important Dates

1600 – 1100 BC: Mycenaean civilization

1200s BC- The Trojan War and Destruction of Troy

1150 – 750 BC: Dark Ages

776 BC: First Olympic Games

750 – 700 BC: Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey

621 BC: Draco’s law were written

508 BC: Isagoras was in charge and the citizens over threw,

490 BC: Battle of Marathon, first invasion of Greece

480 BC: Persians destroyed Athens and the Battle of Salamis where Athens won the battle 

461 – 429 BC: the age of Pericles

447 – 438 BC: time it took to build the Parthenon in Athens

431 – 404 BC: Peloponnnian war

399 BC: Socrates is executed for his opposition to the Thirty Tyrants

Governments 

Monarchy: A sovereign head of state, esp. a king, queen, or emperor

Democracy:  A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives            

Oligarchy: A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution                     

Aristocracy: The highest class in certain societies, esp. those holding hereditary titles or offices

Notes from the Video

• 508 B.C: Athens, citizens overthrew their rulers and demanded freedom
• Cleisthenes: thought ordinary people should have rights and power 
• Born 570 B.C
• He was taught he was an aristocrat
• 600 B.C aristocrats controlled Athens
• Reading and writing was slim 
• Age expectancy was 15 years old 
• Impossible for one ruler for Greece 
• It was made of city-states
• Sparta: lives around war
• Cleisthenes time, they controlled the surrounding area 
• Pisistratus shows up with a tall girl
• Says she is a goddess: Athena
• Demands power because he brought a goddess
• Was a tyrant
• He needed to find allies to control the power
• Turned to Athenians
• Taxes reduced and free loans were given
• This encouraged people to work on their own
• Greek land produced good olives
• Vase
• Potters worked at the "Red Light District" : sketchy part of town, prostitutes worked there
• Potters were low ranked in society
• Used everywhere- transportation or kitchen
• Painting became detailed
• Potters wanted to out do each other
• Ordinary Athens were shown power 
• 527 B.C Pisistratus died
• Son took over, Hippias
• 514 Hippias's brother was killed
• This made him not trust the Athenians which caused them to lose their power and freedom
• Cleisthenes wanted to over rule Hippias
• Hippias was banished 510 B.C
• Cleisthenes was the most heroic man
• 776 B.C : Olympics
• Competed every 4 years
• Any Greeks could compete
• Arete mean greatness 
• All Greeks would come together and watch
• Fight for power no matter what
• Isagoras
• Went against Cleisthenes
• Turned to outside from Athens to Spartans 
• Spartans vs Athens
• Cleisthenes was thrown out
• 508 B.C: Revolution 
• 3rd day on Acropolis, Isagoras gave up
• 1st time people turned on government and seized power
• Turned to Cleisthenes
• Ostracized means thrown out of town/ banished
• Cleisthenes is back
• There was an area to discuss the future: everyone on social rank could speak it was called the agora 
• Came together every 9 days
• Democracy: used pebbles to vote
• 490 B.C 
•  Phidippides ran to warm Athens the Spartans wouldn't help
• ran 140 miles in 2 days 
• Persian Empire had the greatest power- tyranny
• They saw Athens gaining power and needed to destroy them
• Darius, the tyrant of Persian Empire
• Hoplites were depended on to defend Athens 
• Greeks won the fight against the Persians 
• Themistocles 
• learned his leadership in Athens
• Savior of the city
• He knew the Persian Empire would come back to fight
• Created the most useful weapons
• Trireme: state of the art war ship, very expensive
• 483 B.C: found silver
• Athenians wanted to divide it among themselves
• Themistocles wanted to use it to build the triremes ships 
• Greatest navy with 200 triremes 
• 486 B.C Darius died and his son took over, Xerxes 
• 480 B.C Athenians heard of war
• Panic ruled the city
• Sent a messenger to the oracle to determine their fate 
• Athenians abandoned Athens; Persia came and burned it down
• Themistocles plan was to fight in a narrow strip of water in between Greece and Salamis 
• In the end Athens won, Persia lost 200 ships
• It was a good time to build a new empire
• Delos (Delian League)
• Athens empire, organization to defend 
• Trading-everywhere
• "Big Apple" of Mediterranean was Athens
• Diverse goods from around the Mediterranean 
• Ostracized 
• Name on shard of pot, the most frequent name is ostracized
• Themistocles was ostracized even though he lead them to power   
• He died in Persia after wandering from state to state 
• Pericles: the new leader of Athens   
• Proposed a new Acropolis, a temple to Athena
• Made in 15 years
• Parthenon, mark of wealth and power
• Divorced his wife and lived with an "escort" 
• Theater
• First entertainment
• Tragedies
• Built in every major Greek city 
• Oedipus 
• Play in which a man is told from an oracle that he will kill his father, marry his mother, and won't be able to rule
• Fatal flaws
• Hubris: people in power who are too arrogant and believe they can't get into trouble  
• Socrates 
• Used understanding to see the world
• "The unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates 
• Pericles wanted war with Sparta because of his hubris 
• Closed Spartan's port for food and good (isolated them)
• Plague in Athens during attack on Sparta
• Killed 1/3 of Athens
• Pericles got infected and died after 6 months
• 416 B.C an island in Sicily wanted protection
• Socrates
• Arrested for undermining the state religion and corrupting youth's minds
• Could defend himself but was timed by a water clock
• He demanded free dinner for life for all the work he did
• Was found guilty and had a death sentence
• Could have ran away with his friends but denied 
• He died for his principles 

Friday's class

In Friday's class we got our tests back and went over the material and got to keep the tests. We highlighted all the right answer and went over the short answer question and the essay questions. I have been keeping them that way when the final comes up I can use them to study. He also reminded us that we have a chapter 4 test on Monday. We then went over the chapter 4 review to make sure we knew everything but we didn't get through all of it because of the bell.

Socrates, a great thinker

Today we got right to work, we watched some of the movie but stopped after we watched about Socrates to discuss him even further. We talked about how the movie portrayed the decision of a death sentence where everyone was for him dying when really it was half and half and there were only a few more people who voted for his death than to let him free. We also discussed his way of teaching, how he would interrogate his students when they answered a question to make sure they fully understood and had reason for the answer. Mr. Schick then decided to try the same and the topic was on gay marriage. We all got to voice our opinion and at the end of class I was trying to decide what I thought about it, whether I supported it or not. I was walking out of class really thinking and couldn't decide whether I do or not.  

Review

Today we started class off by reviewing our notes that we took while we watched the movie on Friday. Since Mr.Schick wasn't there Friday he wanted to make sure we understood what he watched. We got off topic a few times but over all cleared up information that was a little confusing. He declared that we would be getting our tests back tomorrow! We went over the Persian War, The Parthenon, and other topics. Once we finish the movie I will upload my notes that I took and so far I have about six pages but I write fairly large. We finished right on time when the bell rung.

Greeks and more

Today Mr. Schick wasn't in class I think because he was with the seniors for their class trip. Instead of having Mr.Schick we had a sub named Mr. Shupe, I think that is what his name is, he was really funny and even questioned us on what we knew about the Greeks after we watched the movie. I really enjoyed that since most subs just sit there and tell us to be quiet. He seemed knowledgeable on what we were learning which was cool because most subs don't teach the subject they are subbing for. He made some jokes and no one got into trouble since the class was small and no one talked. A lot of people were at the English field trip so our class size was cut in half. Overall I learned a lot and enjoyed our sub and hope that I will have him one day during my years at John Carroll.

The Amazing Greeks

Today we got to class and first watched a video on youtube about a man juggling two hacky sacks and one Rubik cube, while he was juggling them he solved the Rubik cube. It only took him 3-5 minutes, it was very surprising defiantly since I can't even solve them. Once we were entertained for a few minutes we got the movie started. I found out that the movie is really long like we have an hour left! We started the movie and watched it while taking notes for the rest of the class. We had a few debates in between pausing the movie but over all it was an eventful day.

Movie Continued

Today I got to class and saw that my friend Rachel was sadly not there.We talked a little bit and then Mr.Schick put the DVD in and played the movie on the Greeks. We didn't get to finish it but we were watching new stuff that we haven't learned yet. When we first watched it, it was just review on what we learned. Once we finish the movie I will post all the notes I took while I watched it. The movie was about the first Democracy that the Athens created once they overthrew the Spartans.