After the first day of competition:
Period 1
Charlemagne defeated Deng Xiaoping 332-107
Queen Victoria defeated Marcus Aurelius 194-168
Ronald Reagan defeated Cincinnatus 153-146
Catherine the Great defeated Peter the Great 189-185
Toussant defeated King Pedro of Brazil by default
Period 2
Sundiata defeated Juan Manuel de Rosas 167-145
Queen Elizabeth defeated Emperor Meiji 132-86
Akbar defeated Robespierre 130-112
Hong Xiuquan defeated Suleyman by default
Period 4
Kwame defeated Mao 225-105
Genghis defeated Mehmed II 230-100
Churchill defeated Stalin 216-185
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
In class on Monday
Sorry to miss class today, but the flight home didn't pan out as I'd hoped, so I'll rejoin you all on Tuesday.
Today in class you'll begin the May Madness project, which is how we will finish up the year. It is an interactive game that will feature your assuming the role of a leader from world history and completing tasks to decide who the greatest leader of all time was/is.
To get things started, each class should come up with a list of the world leaders we've encountered. Work in groups od no more than 4, Start a google document, share it with each other and with me, and go through all of history and come up with a list of names of leaders you think are significant. I will compile them into one list and divide them up among all of the classes. You will not be allowed to choose your leaders; you will be drawing names at random, so don't get attached to any one person! Please note that for reasons I will describe later, Adolph Hitler is not included in the game, and you should include no more than three leaders from US history.
The second task for you to complete is to come up with a description of the ultimate leadership qualities that you believe the greatest leader should possess. Is it all about conquest? Creation of new structures? Patron of the arts? Kindness? Ruthlessness? Argue it out amongst your group and write down your conclusions in the aforementioned google doc.
Finally, brainstorm a list of ways you think we can determine the leader and his or her dominance over other leaders. How can we know Tokugawa is greater than Bolivar? What do you want to do that will help us to determine greatness? No violence is allowed, and you must be in character as the leader are my requirements, but write down what you think would be fun to do as well in the document.
That's it. No homework for tonight...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Friday, May 17, Post Exam
Congratulations on finishing the test! Sorry to not be with you in class on Friday; I have some family business to take care of today. (And when I say "family business" I don't mean the running of landfills in New Jersey-type of family business, if you follow me...)
So for today, I have two things I'd like you to do while you are in class.
1) Write me a blog post about the exam. How did it go? hard, easy, moderate? Were you surprised by anything? Did you feel prepared? Unprepared? What needs to be different/stay the same about the review? We will do a course review at the end, so I'm mostly interested in knowing your response to the exam at this point while it is fresh in your memory so I can think about next year's preparation and make it better... (cricket and politics??? Columbian Exchange with Americas and Europe??? un-freakin-believable...I'm feeling a nasty letter to the College Board coming on...). This will be a homework grade, and must be done by the end of the period on Friday. (and if you are dismissed for the prom, you still need to have it done, just do it for homework.)
2) Create a final Posterous post in your class' space. Your task is to find an image that you think sums up world history as we've talked about it and explain why you chose it. (Let's see what you do with that, you Harry Potter fans...) You may work on this in class and get it out of the way, or finish it over the weekend. This will be a project grade. I won't be looking at anything until I get back, so relax and take your time....
I know the question on all of your minds: Where do we go from here?
I'll tell you more about it next week, but we will begin a game called May Madness that will involve determining who the greatest leader of all time is based on role play, debate, lackeys/minions, costumes, props, and a bracket system of head-to-head challenges...
The best news, though, is that you are done with essays, done with tests, done with quizzes, done with note-taking (except as you want to do opposition research...) Enjoy your weekend, and for those of you going to the prom have a safe and fun time!
So for today, I have two things I'd like you to do while you are in class.
1) Write me a blog post about the exam. How did it go? hard, easy, moderate? Were you surprised by anything? Did you feel prepared? Unprepared? What needs to be different/stay the same about the review? We will do a course review at the end, so I'm mostly interested in knowing your response to the exam at this point while it is fresh in your memory so I can think about next year's preparation and make it better... (cricket and politics??? Columbian Exchange with Americas and Europe??? un-freakin-believable...I'm feeling a nasty letter to the College Board coming on...). This will be a homework grade, and must be done by the end of the period on Friday. (and if you are dismissed for the prom, you still need to have it done, just do it for homework.)
2) Create a final Posterous post in your class' space. Your task is to find an image that you think sums up world history as we've talked about it and explain why you chose it. (Let's see what you do with that, you Harry Potter fans...) You may work on this in class and get it out of the way, or finish it over the weekend. This will be a project grade. I won't be looking at anything until I get back, so relax and take your time....
I know the question on all of your minds: Where do we go from here?
I'll tell you more about it next week, but we will begin a game called May Madness that will involve determining who the greatest leader of all time is based on role play, debate, lackeys/minions, costumes, props, and a bracket system of head-to-head challenges...
The best news, though, is that you are done with essays, done with tests, done with quizzes, done with note-taking (except as you want to do opposition research...) Enjoy your weekend, and for those of you going to the prom have a safe and fun time!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Final thoughts, Pre-Exam
Tonight you should do the following things:
1) Don't Panic
2) make sure you have a couple of pencils and a couple of pens (blue or black ink only)
3) Make sure you have some way to time yourself on the essays that doesn't involve a cell phone, iPad/iPod, or beeping watch.
4) Bring water! (you are only allowed to have water, nothing else!)
5) Read over your blog from the year (ah, nostalgia...) You can also look at your peer's blogs as well. You can go to the Protopage, linked up here to see everyone's blogs.
6) Visit your class space in Posterous. You have images and content there to refresh your memories of each society in nearly every time frame!
7) Get a good night's sleep
8) Eat breakfast! You will have time for snacks during the break, but you can't eat during the exam, so fuel up before hand.
If you don't remember what room you are assigned to, or you can't find the email I sent, send me an email ASAP and I will let you know where to go!
Good luck!
1) Don't Panic
2) make sure you have a couple of pencils and a couple of pens (blue or black ink only)
3) Make sure you have some way to time yourself on the essays that doesn't involve a cell phone, iPad/iPod, or beeping watch.
4) Bring water! (you are only allowed to have water, nothing else!)
5) Read over your blog from the year (ah, nostalgia...) You can also look at your peer's blogs as well. You can go to the Protopage, linked up here to see everyone's blogs.
6) Visit your class space in Posterous. You have images and content there to refresh your memories of each society in nearly every time frame!
7) Get a good night's sleep
8) Eat breakfast! You will have time for snacks during the break, but you can't eat during the exam, so fuel up before hand.
If you don't remember what room you are assigned to, or you can't find the email I sent, send me an email ASAP and I will let you know where to go!
Good luck!
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Review--practice test
OK, so I'm gonna see if Dropbox is showing me any love after the whole Mao/Stalin movie sharing experiment. Click on this link here to see a practice test I've scanned. You can take the test on your own however you like. If this is sharable, then I'll put up an answer key for you all to check your work from...
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Reviewpalooza on Edmodo.com
To help us in our review, we are going to merge the 3 classes into one large discussion forum STARTING TOMORROW IN CLASS. To do that we're gonna use www.edmodo.com, which you may remember from such past hits as the summer reading assignment. ah, fond memories...
In any event, head to www.edmodo.com. The code for joining the fun is y105h6. There you will find discussion prompts for each of the themes of the course. Pick and choose what you want to respond to and start posting! You must make at least 5 posts (each one counts as a homework grade!), but don't limit yourself...dabble in as many conversations as you want. In order to get the homework grade, your post must include a factually correct and relevant historical reference from one of our time periods! Feel free to add visuals to support your points!
I'll go over all this in class, so don't jump the gun! and don't panic. We'll be working on this over several days...
In any event, head to www.edmodo.com. The code for joining the fun is y105h6. There you will find discussion prompts for each of the themes of the course. Pick and choose what you want to respond to and start posting! You must make at least 5 posts (each one counts as a homework grade!), but don't limit yourself...dabble in as many conversations as you want. In order to get the homework grade, your post must include a factually correct and relevant historical reference from one of our time periods! Feel free to add visuals to support your points!
I'll go over all this in class, so don't jump the gun! and don't panic. We'll be working on this over several days...
Foundational Era 8000-600 BCE
This one is simple to sum up. For a long, long, long time, humanity took many forms. Then, we weeded out traits we don't like, kept traits we do like, and viola! Homo Sapiens Sapiens (HSS).
HSS was pretty bright, but spent his early days running after his protein (animals--slower moving ones at that...) and scratching the ground to get his carbs and veggies. This kept the number of HSS's in one group at one place in one time low. (Competition for scarce resources, dontcha know)
Then, one HSS, let's call him Herman, noticed that food bearing plants grew over and over again in the same place. (like I said, HSS...not so bright...but a quick learner!) Herman talked his wife and family into settling down to wait for the plants to grow. They learned about cultivating, weeding, irrigating, fertilizing (all things that can be done using the human body...think about it...there it is!) and then about storing, preserving, and ultimately, trading.
Herman and the fam needed protein and protection. Cows/goats/sheep not too fast, can't get out of a fenced area provided protein. Dogs fed on scraps of the protein provided the protection, and animals get domesticated. Suddenly more HSS's are making like Herman, and bingo! a village forms. Other HSS's pass through on their hunting and gathering, take note of what's happening, tell other HSS's and soon enough, we have many villages forming. Different crops are grown. Different animals are domesticated, different things are made (clothing, weapons, carts, plows...think necessities to survive...).
Waiting for crops to grow is as boring as...well, waiting for crops to grow. Food is plentiful, time is free, and people are pretty healthy and relaxed. So babies are made. Lots of babies....
Somone (probably not Herman) started to keep track of how much she grew, and the concept of writing comes about.
Someone else decides that work is hard, and perhaps there is a god who could be convinced to help out, and so he sacrifices and prays, and religion is born.
Someone decides to steal from his neighbor rather than grow his own stuff, and when he doesn't get caught does it more and more until he is caught. Thus laws are created.
Once enough people are living and farming in one area, they all need access to water, and so they team up to dig a big ditch to bring the water to the fields. Someone refines the design, organizes the workers, oversees the process and regulates both the work and the water, and government is enacted.
The agricultural revolution transforms the way HSS live, work. connect, relate and communicate. It is a complete revolution in all parts of human beings lives.
This all happens first in Mesopotamia (Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), and then in river valley areas of China (Yangzi and Yellow Rivers), India (Indus River) and Egypt (Nile River). There are plenty of HSS's around the world though, so these aren't the only place people get organized, but they are the biggest and do it the best.
And thus we have civilizations. And we're off...
HSS was pretty bright, but spent his early days running after his protein (animals--slower moving ones at that...) and scratching the ground to get his carbs and veggies. This kept the number of HSS's in one group at one place in one time low. (Competition for scarce resources, dontcha know)
Then, one HSS, let's call him Herman, noticed that food bearing plants grew over and over again in the same place. (like I said, HSS...not so bright...but a quick learner!) Herman talked his wife and family into settling down to wait for the plants to grow. They learned about cultivating, weeding, irrigating, fertilizing (all things that can be done using the human body...think about it...there it is!) and then about storing, preserving, and ultimately, trading.
Herman and the fam needed protein and protection. Cows/goats/sheep not too fast, can't get out of a fenced area provided protein. Dogs fed on scraps of the protein provided the protection, and animals get domesticated. Suddenly more HSS's are making like Herman, and bingo! a village forms. Other HSS's pass through on their hunting and gathering, take note of what's happening, tell other HSS's and soon enough, we have many villages forming. Different crops are grown. Different animals are domesticated, different things are made (clothing, weapons, carts, plows...think necessities to survive...).
Waiting for crops to grow is as boring as...well, waiting for crops to grow. Food is plentiful, time is free, and people are pretty healthy and relaxed. So babies are made. Lots of babies....
Somone (probably not Herman) started to keep track of how much she grew, and the concept of writing comes about.
Someone else decides that work is hard, and perhaps there is a god who could be convinced to help out, and so he sacrifices and prays, and religion is born.
Someone decides to steal from his neighbor rather than grow his own stuff, and when he doesn't get caught does it more and more until he is caught. Thus laws are created.
Once enough people are living and farming in one area, they all need access to water, and so they team up to dig a big ditch to bring the water to the fields. Someone refines the design, organizes the workers, oversees the process and regulates both the work and the water, and government is enacted.
The agricultural revolution transforms the way HSS live, work. connect, relate and communicate. It is a complete revolution in all parts of human beings lives.
This all happens first in Mesopotamia (Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), and then in river valley areas of China (Yangzi and Yellow Rivers), India (Indus River) and Egypt (Nile River). There are plenty of HSS's around the world though, so these aren't the only place people get organized, but they are the biggest and do it the best.
And thus we have civilizations. And we're off...
DBQ and Review
ah, rhymes.
the score guide for a DBQ is linked up here.
Don't forget to read pages 1142-1164 at the end of Chapter 40. And congratulate yourself for finishing your first textbook.
We will be reviewing all week right up until the AP Exam happens on Thursday, May 17th. So bring your questions. Remember that I don't need to review, so the quality of our time spent on this matters very little to me, but should matter quite a bit for you, so focus, and come prepared with questions!
and breathe. In the end, all will be well...
the score guide for a DBQ is linked up here.
Don't forget to read pages 1142-1164 at the end of Chapter 40. And congratulate yourself for finishing your first textbook.
We will be reviewing all week right up until the AP Exam happens on Thursday, May 17th. So bring your questions. Remember that I don't need to review, so the quality of our time spent on this matters very little to me, but should matter quite a bit for you, so focus, and come prepared with questions!
and breathe. In the end, all will be well...
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Homework for May 1
16 days to the AP!
Homework tonight is to read pages 1038-1047, that will take you through the battles of WWII. You want to concentrate on Japan and the Soviet Union as you read.
I'll can't post either video from class here (too big) but Youtube has Stalin: Man of Steel. There are multiple parts to the video, so you have to scroll a bit to get the later sections (I've got them in order). But he's such a psycho it is worth it...
Homework tonight is to read pages 1038-1047, that will take you through the battles of WWII. You want to concentrate on Japan and the Soviet Union as you read.
I'll can't post either video from class here (too big) but Youtube has Stalin: Man of Steel. There are multiple parts to the video, so you have to scroll a bit to get the later sections (I've got them in order). But he's such a psycho it is worth it...
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