Semester Academeic Goals: Mysics

1.) Goal:

Explore more applications of math and physics (mysics)



First Step:

Start doing challenge assignments



2.) Goal:

Continue to use previous work habits in order to keep my grades up



First Step:

Do all homework as soon as it assigned and don't procrastinate



3.) Goal:

Continue to ask questions in class when the material being convered confuses me.

First Step:

Ask my peers the questions I have as they arise.

Time Travellers Pillar Reflection

Project Description:

After writing the papers about our pillars in our civilizations, we had to create a painting on a portion of a pillar in our 9th grade commons of something having to do with our pillar. Because my pillar was government and society, I decided to paint an enlarged version of the Athenian Owl coin.

Process:

Before painting the Athenian Owl on the pillar, I drew it in pencil on a piece of paper about the same size as the space on the pillar. When I was satisfied with my drawing I showed it to Charlotte and once it was approved, began to sketch it lightly in pencil on the pillar. My initial design was too small so I had to re-sketch it on the pillar. Once both I, and my teachers were satisfied I began to paint the main details and background. Then I added the smaller details to it to make it more my own. I really like to personalize my art, so while it still looks like a traditional coin, I still wanted to add more details to show the depth of the coin. I did this using different shades of the color. I then created a box for the title in pencil using a ruler so the the letters would be about the same size and on a straight line before sketching out the letters and painting them onto the pillar.

Reflection:

I learned a lot about how important drafting is to art. If I had just started painting the owl instead of doing a rough draft on a separate piece of paper, and then sketching it in pencil on the pillar before painting I probably wouldn’t have been satisfied with my painting and would have made a lot of mistakes. The title would have also been more crooked and uneven in size if I hadn’t used a ruler to size it the right way. This drafting and revision, as well as small steps I took helped me to learn to create better art.

I had a bit of trouble when I added my name to the painting. I accidentally smudged it and had to go back over with gold paint and then re-do it. This left me a little stressed for time in the end.

Next time I paint I would do everything the same because I think my painting came out really good. If I apply the same careful thinking and precision to the rest of my work too I am sure all my projects will turn out better.

Time Travellers Reflection: Essay

Time Travellers Essay Reflection

Project Description:

In this project we had to write a 3-5 page essay about our pillar in our civilization. My civilization was Athens, and my pillar was Government and Society.

Process:

We had many drafts and revisions to go through in this project. I myself had several drafts, including the rough draft and final draft. Each and every time I wrote a new draft I put all my effort into it because I believe that you can only have good revisions if you have a good draft. However, we began with researching. I alone had over 20 pages of research which I read and highlighted using a color coding technique. This allowed my to find exact information easier than having to search through all 20 pages of information. After I had read and highlighted the information I began to write my rough draft.

My rough draft was about 10 pages long, which exceeded the maximum amount of pages. Because of this I had to work really hard to cut the paper down for the first draft. However, when we added in the foot notes to my third draft, it added more than a page to my essay. So, for the next draft I focused only on editing the actual writing, then edited it with Charlotte, re-wrote it again, and cut the fifth draft down to the maximum amount of five pages. By my seventh and final draft I had really solid writing and fit all the requirements for the paper.

Reflection:

I learned a lot about the role government played in the society of Ancient Athens through researching this paper. While I wasn’t surprised at the way the women of Athens were treated, I was still upset by the inequality and unfair treatment of females in their society. It was really sad to me how the only way to have a voice in the city was to become a prostitute. While these woman were the least respected, at least they had more freedom where as married woman were confined to a house all day doing nothing but chores.

When it came to writing the paper, I was really struggling with keeping my draft within the page requirements. However, after learning how to efficiently combine sentences and cut out un-needed information, I was able to turn my seven page draft into a 5 page final essay.

For the next essay I would really like to try to keep all my drafts within the maximum page requirements so that I can spend more time editing my writing than cutting the writing down. This will help me to break the habit of going over the page requirements.

Artifact:

Luna E. Rey

December 8th, 2009

Government and Society in Ancient Athens

“A living civilization creates; a dying builds museums.” -Martin H. Fisher

Over the course of history ancient civilizations have been the foundation for which every modern society has been built. These ancient societies had their own art, architecture, religions, and social classes. However, what really made a civilization was their efficient implementation of government. Without a working government that provides for all their people, civilizations lasted but a small period of time unless they learned to adopt the ideas of another civilization. Ancient Athens was, in particular, very key to the development of our civilizations today and though it had many flaws and failures, Athens' successes were immensely significant to the development of modern government and society.

Home to monuments such as the Acropolis and Parthenon, Athens was and still is a city bursting with great architecture, technology, and art. During the time often known as the "Golden Age" of Greece, Athens saw a huge development in philosophy and the arts due to such inspirations as Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, and Herodotus. The birthplace of democracy, Athens is greatly thought to be the most influential on western civilization due to its many developments within intellectual and artistic areas[1].

Democracy in Athens was a huge success. They had a two-part legislature, similar to our three-part legislature in the United States, composed of the Assembly, or Ecclesia, and the Boule, Or Council. The Council was made up of 500 men, fifty of which were chosen from each tribe by random drawing every year, whose job was to draft new laws and policies for the city/state. The Assembly, made up of nine administrators and ten military officials, would get together and discuss propositions before voting to reject or accept the legislation the Council had formulated. Every male citizen had the right to speak and vote at these gathering, similar to how we vote in America today, and at least 6,000 men had to show up in order for the Assembly to take place[2]. This was one of the many duties assigned to male citizens that allowed them to participate in the politics of their city. The assembly was a great tool that created a freedom of speech type of environment which encouraged the citizens to contribute to the process of law.

Male citizens were also summoned to serve as jurors for the city/states’ court, made up of 200 – 400 men. Such a large number ensured that the accused could not bribe the jury to dismiss their case. If the person was found guilty, they either paid fines and suffered temporary loss of their citizenship for smaller crimes, or were exiled or sentenced to death for serious offenses[3]. These punishments effectively kept the people of the city in check and rid Athens of a high crime rate. Even their government’s leaders had punishments for not doing their job correctly.

One specialized form of exile was ostrakons. If a leader received more than 6000 votes in compliance with his being power-hungry and or dishonest and unpopular than he was exiled for ten years. This efficaciously kept the exiled leader from knowing of the hoi polloi's opinions and goings on within the municipality because the people of Athens relied heavily on communication for news to get around[4]. Overall Athenian leaders were very successful in keeping their people happy and letting them have a say in the politics of their city, but women and non-citizens needs were neglected.

While Athens' democratic government was highly effective for an ancient civilization and greatly impacted the world around it, their society was filled with many flaws. In Athens male citizens ruled the city. The highest in the male social class was Aristocrats, followed by small farmers and Thetes (urban craftsmen, artists, and trireme rowers). As citizens they could participate in the poli's or politics of the city-state while women could not. A man’s job in Athens included heading the household, providing food and shelter for his wife and children, and participating in the politics of the city[5]. However it was greatly thought in Athens that only Aristocrats should have a say in the politics of the city[6]. This popular opinion produced a strong distinction between poor men and Aristocrats, who heavily believed that poor men should have the same rights as Metics (immigrants and were only allowed to own land in the city and could never gain citizenship). While Athens failed in the way Metics rights were limited, and the idea of poorer men being denied the right to have a say in the politics was embraced, they could have improved their government and society even more significantly by giving women and slaves a voice in their community.

Women in Athens were viewed as highly sexual beings with uncontrollable sexual urges that had to be contained for their own benefit. For this reason, they were controlled by the men in their life from birth to death. Married women in ancient Athens social standing was the same as her husband's. While they were the most respected in society, they were also the least free. They were almost never allowed to leave the house, except for a few convivial religious festivals, weddings, and funerals[7]. They were confined to the house most days and given little more rights than a slave and were looked to only to bear suitable children; however; married women were extremely more respected by men and other married women than un-married women.

Women who were not married were separated into two classes. The Hetaerae class was more educated than either wives or concubines. They were sexual and intellectual companions to men and were paid an expensive price for their company[8]. They were allowed into parties with men and were able to freely speak their mind about the goings on within the city. While the wives did work at home, looking after children and attending to the house, these women were allowed outside and had more freedom as they were not controlled by their husbands and/or fathers, giving them more rights than slaves. Then there were the Concubines, poor women who tended to be widows, girls that were left to die as babies and slaves who were prostitutes[9]. While most un-married women were not treated very well, they were often treated with slightly more respect and acceptance than the slaves in Athens.

Even though the city eventually rid itself of slavery, it was still a huge fault within the civilization because it allowed the unacceptable and un-fair treatment of human beings. Male and female slaves within the city were treated very brutally. Female slaves mainly worked in brothels and houses, which was much more humane than male slaves’ jobs[10]. Male slaves attended to the duties their masters had given them, as did females. However, unruly and disobedient male slaves were often sent to work in the Athenian silver mine, an assignment looked upon as a death sentence, where they were shackled in chains, brutally treated by their masters, and had no hope of gaining freedom[11]. This punishment was extremely inhumane and was a major fault in ancient Athenian society. The mistreatment of woman, use of slaves, and unfair deployment of non-citizens were major faults that plagued the city. So, while the democratic government was mainly successful, not including the exclusion of woman from politics, their society was a huge detriment in their civilization. However, the mix of both a faulty government and bad social class and standards could have led to the downfall of the Athenian civilization.

Without the development of democracy, Athens would have been filled with even more faults, just like the Mayans whose civilization was killed off by Spanish invaders. While the Mayan empire was much younger than ancient Athens, it was also much less developed. The Mayans were a monarchy ruled by priests, where as Athens was ruled by the citizens. Both civilizations where heavily religious based, but the Mayan government was focused even more solely around religion. They, like Athenians, had sacrifices, but they sacrificed their own people instead of animals and used it as part of their government verses a religious ceremony. This led to a decrease in population which, when the Spanish invaders came, was not very helpful to the survival of their civilization[12]. The Mayans had a great military, but failed to survive because of their faulty and un-fair government which, as a monarchy, didn’t provide an opportunity for their citizens have a say in their government, just like the city/state of Sparta.

While the Spartan’s military was extremely successful, its government, which Aristotle called a mixture of a Monarchy, Oligarchy, and Democracy, was seemingly unsuccessful because their race eventually died out, and their war practices often led to the deaths of their own people. So even though the Spartans and Mayans ranked high in many areas where the Athenians did not, such as their military and fairer treatment of women, they also lacked in areas where Athens excelled, such as government.

Athens was greatly significant to the development of modern day democracy, but failed to have the voices of all the citizen’s heard. Because of this it was very hard for the government to do what was best for all of their people. Because over half the people living in Athens could not voice their opinions, such as slaves, Metics, and women, their needs were often forgotten amongst the voices of the male citizens. So, in society Athens lacked in creating equality. However, overall their government was immensely successful in getting most opinions heard which is more than can be said for most civilizations of their time and after. Though their society lacked in fairness and equality, without Athens and their immense developments in government, modern day administration would cease to exist as it does today.

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[1] “Travel and Geography – Athens.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Nov. 11^th, 2009.

[2] Nardo, Don. Life in Ancient Greece. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1996. Page 22

[3] Nardo, Don. Page 22-23

[4] Nardo, Don. Page 23.

[5] Konstam, Argos. Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece. New York, NY: Thalamus Publishing, 2003. Pg. 92

[6] Nardo, Don. Page 20.

[7] Nardo, Don. Page 98.

[8] Nardo, Don. Page 92.

[9] Graham, Casey. “Angel Fire.” Casey’s Website for Ancient Athenian Women. 11^th Nov., 2009.

[10] Graham, Casey.

[11] Nardo, Don. Chapter 8 and Page 20.

[12] Coe, Michael D. The Maya: Sixth Edition. Bt Bound, 1999.

Project Reflection: A Hero in My Eyes

1. To me, a hero becomes a hero when they have been defined that way by another. This is because a hero is different to each person. For instance, some people consider Soldiers heroes, others do not. It really is defined to each person as that way. And every hero, regardless of by who or what they have done, have been defined by someone as a hero. To me, that is all that matters.
2. Project Description: In the A Hero in My Eyes project we had to create a character sketch of a person that had created a personal impact (meaning we knew them personally) on us. The pieces were accompanied by two black and white photos, one portrait and one full body, that we had taken ourselves of our heroes.
3. Process: I first interviewed my hero, Ms. Lopaz, the Director for High Tech Middle Media Arts. I then typed up that manuscript and wrote the first draft of my character sketch. After a peer review I edited my rough draft and re-wrote it. This was then edited by Charlotte, our teacher, and edited again by myself. I then added in word of the days and made it more picturesque. I also then took the photos of Ms. Lopaz that I needed. After I had my final drafts of everything I put it into the class template along with a blurb about my hero that I had written.
4. Reflection: In this project I didn't really run into any problems while writing my piece. However, I did have to cut it down from 2.5 pages to 2 pages which was really hard to do without missing content or getting rid of some great sensory details and figurative language. In the end I was able to do it though and learned to cut my paper down while keeping the important content. I also encountered a problem when I was trying to put my photos into Adobe InDesign. The photos became very pixelated in the template, but after much trial and error I was able to convert the files into high quality using Adobe Illustrator. This solved the pixelation and taught me to not be afraid of technology. Overall I learned a lot in this project. I learned how to write a character sketch, conduct an interview, and use InDesign as well us cut down my papers efficiently.
5. Habits of Mind: I really think I used the habits of mind ownership in this project a lot. I constantly asked myself the question, "Is this my best work?" and "How can I make it better?". Because of this I was able to produce better writing than I initially thought I could do.
   
6. Artifact: http://lunaeve.blogspot.com/2009/11/redefine-impossible.html
7. Picture: The picture above shows how people really define others as heroes. Some say the only heroes are those in capes. Some say that's ridiculous. But I'm sure if you were to ask the child in this photo they would say superman was a hero, and we really wouldn't be able to persuade him otherwise.

Redefine the Impossible

"A monumental part of me being here was the Costa Rica trip," I smile as Ms. Lopaz, or Lopaz as I call her, states this with alacrity, "All these people told me it was too expensive, that we didn’t have enough time to fundraise money for all the kids, and that I was in over my head, and I just kept thinking 'I can do it.' No one had used the word impossible.”

"Talking about Costa Rica, what made you want to do the trip?" I ask as she clicks around on her sleek silver computer, her brown bangs falling in her eyes, which she brushed away in an attempt to titivate herself. The small cluttered office around us is full of the same warmth and love as any person's home.

"I love traveling and I wanted to do it with students because it hadn’t really been done,” I smiled as one word, determination, came into mind, “I'm competitive so as people were saying I couldn’t do it, I was all 'well yeah, I think I can do it.' It just felt like such a unique opportunity and authentic place for learning. The students could learn about nature, the environment and currency without having to sit in a classroom all day." Not only could I hear the determination in her voice now, I could also see it on her face. It was the same face she bore at the first meeting for the trip. Both of us were extremely competitive and loved the look on peoples’ faces when we completely blew them away, when we accomplished something they defined as “impossible”.

"How did you feel when you realized we were actually going to Costa Rica?" I say, trying not to be loquacious when I asked the question as my mind came up with more.

"I felt that feeling of 'I can’t believe this'. We spent so much time figuring out all the ways to fundraise so we could go that I didn’t take enough time to realize what a great experience we were going to have there,” I nodded in agreement. It's strange how when we were fundraising for Costa Rica I never once said to myself 'what if this doesn't happen?' There was no 'what if'. There was no 'isn't going to happen'. There were only the words “Costa Rica” implanted in my mind. But sitting here with Lopaz I realized how many things I had overlooked. But maybe, that was for the better. Maybe without all the 'what ifs' and 'isn't going to happens' I wouldn't have worked nearly as hard. It was because of her and Ms. Weisberg’s blatant display of faith in us that we got to go. Suddenly Lopaz passes me a sheet of paper, the movement of her arms moving towards me dragging me out of my thoughts and into reality.

"It's about a moment in Costa Rica," she states as the passes into my hands, still warm, a chocolate chip cookie hot out of the oven that I couldn’t wait to have fill me up.

"In over our heads," the title blares out. Silently I read, laughing to myself as I remember the crazy bus driver who drove through the river when the bridge was shut down and the noisy discussion of the latest scuttlebutt being overruled by piercing screams as we wobbled in the white water, our faces as white as a group of ghosts, but the memories became fugacious when my eyes reached the last paragraph:

As I think back to the interview on that bus, and the number of times Amy used the word “overwhelmed.” Looking back, I think that perhaps Amy and I were in over our heads. But then I remember the giant smiles plastered across our students’ faces as they finished their last zip line, and I wonder if we would have had it any other way.

Overwhelmed, I mouth as I finish. The single word made me realize how much she and "Amy" (Ms. Weisberg) had done for us students. Ms. Lopaz once told me that her goal as a Director was to ensure that students love school, and she had really made that true for me. She truly had redefined the impossible and started my initial drive.

The Meaning of Zero

I thought the articles were very interesting when they were talking about the number zero's origin. They both talked about the cultures creations of placeholders such as zero, but detailed that the exact origin of zero has not been pinpointed.

To me zero was not necessarily discovered by any one person. This is because the exact origin of zero cannot be pin pointed, and if a civilization was developed enough to have quantities larger than 99 or even occasionally 10, they would in fact need a number or place holder such as zero. Regardless, a person came up with the concept of zero, but we do not know who or where the original founder came from. For instance, the Chinese would use a symbol similar to the modern day 0 (zero) and the Romans had roman numerals such as X and C which represent the numbers 10 and 100. So, even though the Romans or Chinese were not necessarily using zero how we use it today, as a number, they were using a placeholder of sorts to represent it, and so were many other civilizations and cultures around the world.

Because of things like the Silk Roads, a major point of evolution in history, not only were things such as languages developed and dialects brought to other places as well as religious ideas and mechanisms, so was the idea of Zero.

While we may, as people of the world, have different ways for communication, different languages, and different government ideals, math cannot change per country. Math is the same everywhere, regardless of which symbols we use in place of numbers. Because of this, the world had to eventually come up with a common number for zero, or at least a way to define it. No matter where you go, formulas, operations, and expressions will be the same. Zero is the same way, even if it is represented differently the meaning is the same around the world, and without it things could not be computed which is why all cultures have had to accept it as a number.

Literary Devices

Beneath the Willow Tree

Catching the signal from one of her friends, Angela brushed her skirt, took a deep breath and walked towards where he was sitting. Her feet dragged along the pavement, her mouth practicing the words she was going to say to him over and over again.

“Hey Will, How’re you doing? I was just wondering if you would like to……” the words trailed off midsentence as she watched him close his book, stuff it casually into his bag, and walk away from her. She watched him walk away, standing still on the sidewalk, her mouth agape, before she turned around and walked back to where her best friend was sitting next to the old tree.

“I can’t believe I was that close to asking him,” she murmured, sliding down the old willow tree trunk and collapsing into its shadow.

“Maybe you’ll get another chance tomorrow, it’s not like he’s moving away tonight anyways. No one ever leaves Spokane. Plus you’ve waited for two years already. You can wait a little bit longer,” her best friend, Lily, said, thinking this would help bring her mood up when really all it did was bring back the fear of rejection into Angela’s mind.

“Thanks,” Angela states sarcastically.

“No problem. Hey, I’m gonna hit the music store after school, heard they got the new Kills album in. You wanna go? We can go rent movies afterwards, order pizza, and have a major calorie fest at my place. The rents are out of town so the house is pretty lonely, but they love you and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you sleeping over.”

“Okay. I could really use a good slice of pizza right now.”

“Good. Pizza is like a gift from God that we can’t refuse. I’m Jesus, I would know.”

“Uh huh,” Angela nods, looking up at the tree. She had always loved the old willow tree in front of the mall. It’s drooping branches and old rippled trunk was like an old mans saggy skin. It showed wisdom in life. She pressed her forehead to the tree, trying to get some of the old trees wisdom to pass into her. It was a psychologist to her in her times of need. Slowly she slid up the trunk, waiting for Lily to realize she was ready to leave. However, Lily being Lily, it took several notifications. A slap on the shoulder, a whistle from her mouth, and a few calls of “Lily” later her friend had risen from the brown earth and was ready to leave. They began to walk away, and before turning at the corner, Angela looked back upon the tree which was dancing to the beat of the wind.