Andrew Jackson: People's President?

          In class we learned about Andrew Jackson and the rise of democracy. Andrew was known as the people's president. But was he really all about the people. In class we learned about three specific events during Andrew Jackson's life that will prove if he is or is not a people's president. The first event was the Spoil System. During his run for election Jackson promised government jobs to anyone who supported him. To fulfill his promise Jackson had to fire 919 people from his job. Also one of the people he hired was Samuel Swartwout who was known to steal. Samuel eventually stole over 1.2 million dollars from the country and Jackson was to blame for hiring him. The next event was the bank war. Jackson, as president, vetoed the second bank of the United States because he believed the bank would only help the rich, and not the poor. People who heard about this thought by saying this that Jackson was starting an internal war in the United States between the social classes. Finally, was the Trail of Tears. Jackson wanted to expand his country west, but Native Americans lived on that land and they would not move west because they wanted to live on the land of their fathers and the tribes west spoke different languages and they would not fit in. Jackson said that since they lived in the same country they had to abide by the same laws so they forced them to leave. On there hike to a new home many Native Americans died. Jackson was not a people's president because he fired 919 people of their jobs, he created a war inside America's social system, and her force many Native Americans from their homeland. Below is a script my group did about the Trail of Tears.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1T7EqJKrlXTpRaM7gVZiUNsjSh-CvlriQTo3DyJkc8/edit?usp=sharing 

Democracy in the United States in the Early 1800's

          In class we learned about the rise of democracy and the voting system of the United States in the early 1800's. To accomplish this we split into three groups and analyzed multiple sources. There were voting charts quotes and a painting of an election. After analyzing the sources we had a choice to either make a prezi or a poster. Our group decided to do a poster. On it we have pictures of the voting charts and the painting and we described what is going on. We also added how these sources help us answer the essential question for the lesson. The question is, how should we define democracy, and how democratic was the United States in the early 1800's? My groups poster is below.

Who is Toussaint Louverture and How Should We Remember Him?

People in history are always remembered in some way. Sometimes what they’re remembered for is bad, sometimes it’s good deeds people are remembered for. On January 1, 1804 the French colony Saint Domingue, present day Haiti, on the island of Hispaniola declared independence from France. The 500,000 slaves, who worked on sugar and coffee plantations ,were led by Toussaint Louverture and his 4,000 troops in freeing themselves from slavery. Toussaint was an ex slave who was granted freedom by his owner and was always a believer in getting rid of slavery. Toussaint and the rebellious slaves heard word of the revolution that was occurring in their homeland France and that is how the battle for independence on Saint Domingue began. After accomplishing the abolishment of slavery, Toussaint was appointed the commander-in-chief of the army in Saint Domingue and pledged allegiance to France and the government that he was just fighting against. Then, when Napoleon came in power in France word spread that he would reinstate slavery and Toussaint prepared to fight to the death for his islands freedom. In 1802 Napoleon launched an army of 21,000 troops to Saint Domingue and in the battle Toussaint was captured and taken to France. While in jail Toussaint was dying from pneumonia and was never able to see his nation gain its independence. But how should we remember Toussaint Louverture? Was he a good person or an evil person? What traits about Toussaint are worth knowing? Toussaint should be remembered as a liberator of slaves, a military commander, and a ruler of Saint Domingue. Toussaint was a good military commander and ruler of Saint Domingue, but the most important thing to remember about him was how great of a liberator of slaves he was because no matter what to the situation that he was faced, it seemed that the abolishment of slaves was his first priority.

First and most importantly, Toussaint was a liberator of slaves. One of, if not the most influential reason why Toussaint joined the rebellion against slavery in Saint Domingue is because he was such a strong believer in everyone having freedom. No matter what side he fought for during his time as a leader in Saint Domingue, it was always the side that wanted to abolish freedom; that’s the reason he pledged allegiance to France. The new government that was put in place after the revolution is the government that abolished slavery and Toussaint, knowing what the new government did for the people of Saint Domingue, decided to pledge allegiance to his homeland. In 1797 the government that abolished slavery was replaced by the French Directory and ruled France between 1795 and 1799. Fearing that the French Directory was going to reinstate slavery, Toussaint wrote a letter to the Directory. In it he states, “Could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look calmly while it is taken from them!” he also says, “We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know ow to confront death to preserve it”. Toussaint is saying that he and all the freed slaves on Saint Domingue will not stand by and watch their freedom be taken away from them, and that they are willing to die to make sure their freedom is kept. In a timeline made about the abolition in Saint Domingue it shows how he always supported the side that was against slavery because in 1794 when the French government under Robespierre abolished slavery Toussaint and his troops supported France and stopped fighting. But in 1802 when Napoleon sent troops with the purpose to reinstate slavery, Toussaint gathered an army to fight against the French troops. Also in 1796 the British were afraid that the ideas of freeing slaves would spread to their colony in the island of Jamaica so Toussaint gathered an army to fight the British and in 1798 he defeated them. Another document that shows how he was a liberator of slaves was the Saint Domingue Constitution, that Toussaint himself signed in July, 1801. In it it states that slaves no longer exist and that all men are born, live, and die equally. It also says that each plantation and all of its workers will act as a family underneath a father (plantation owner) and that everyone on the plantation will share the earnings made by that plantations equally. This shows that the white plantation owners will no longer have more money or power than the no longer slaves who work on the plantations. Slavery was happening all over the world during the early 1800’s and Toussaint was one of them many people who were fighting against it.

Second, Toussaint was a strong military commander. Multiple times Toussaint and his army was tested by their adversaries and Toussaint almost always had a way of beating his opponents. In the book Toussaint Louverture: A Biography written by Madison Smartt Bell in 2007 there is a portion that shows just how well of a commander he was. In the fall of 1801 ex slaves on Saint Domingue were starting to become frustrated by Toussaint and believed that they were not being treated by like actual free men. So on October 29, 1801 Toussaint’s, adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Moyse, leading an army that was given to him by Toussaint, attacked plantations and murdered white men. Toussaint was so upset by this that he ordered men who were led by Moyse to shoot themselves so that they blew their own brains out and he had Moyse arrested and put to death by a firing squad where Moyse himself gave the order to fire. This showed that Toussaint was willing to kill his own nephew to make sure than nothing got to out of hand and that his role as a military commander would not be questioned by anyone. Also from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and his Achievements in the section “A Description of Toussaint Louverture” by William Wells Brown in 1863 it describes the preparation of the fight against Napoleon’s troops. He first was able to persuade his troops to fight for him with his “superior knowledge of character of race, his humanity, generosity, and courage”. Then after he was able convince his men to fight they set the port city ablaze and retreated into the Alps and waited for the French. When the French arrived all they say was a great port city in ruins. Also in the timeline it states several facts about Toussaint. One was that he trained his troops in both guerrilla and in European style battle tactics. Also before being captured by the French, Toussaint was able to conquer the Spanish side of Hispaniola. These events show how strong of a leader Toussaint was.

Finally, Toussaint should be remembered as the ruler of Saint Domingue. After the rebellions in Saint Domingue and slavery was abolished the people of Saint Domingue were looking for someone to step up and Toussaint, who was already known for his works as a military commander, was the man who became ruler. In the Constitution that Toussaint signed laws that should be followed by all people in Saint Domingue. Some of the laws are “all men are born, live, and die free and French”, the colony depends on its agriculture so there cannot be a disturbance, and Toussaint Louverture is the Chief-General of Saint Domingue for as long as he lives. The last law shows just how much the people of Saint Domingue trusted Toussaint. Four months later Toussaint himself makes a proclamation to the people of Saint Domingue. In the proclamation, Toussaint says that children should be employed as soon as they can walk, anyone who speaks or acts against the authority of the nation will have to appear for a military court, workers who run away from their designated plantations will be sent to the local police, if a plantation father(owner) has a vagabond worker on his plantation and does not report it within 24 hours, they will be sent to prison for a week, and all citizens must have a security card. These laws and consequences show how strict Toussaint was to maintain power on Saint Domingue. What would have Saint Domingue been like if it wasn’t for Toussaint taking charge after slavery was abolished.

All in all, Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves, military commander, and the ruler of Saint Domingue. Being a liberator of slaves has to be the most important thing to remember about him. If it wasn’t for his burning passion to stop slavery, he never would have had to become the military leader for Saint Domingue’s army or the ruler of Saint Domingue because he never would have emerged as a powerful leader during the rebellions . Also during that time slavery was such a common way of making money so him being an advocate to stop it overshadows all other qualities about him. Toussaint may not have always been liked or admired, but he did try to do the best for his land and that is what every person should do.  

Revolutions Changing Europe Slowly but Surely

          In class this time we learned about revolutions that were occurring around Europe and how the leaders of the countries and empires who had to face the revolutions reacted to and how they solved, if they solved the issues. The class was broken up into groups and each group was given a certain revolution. Each group then read and analyzed multiple sources about their revolution and then using the sources we decided whether the revolution was a failure or success based on a scale of one to five (five being a success). Also each group made a survey on survey monkey and all of the other groups took the surveys once all groups were done. The question we were all trying to answer was, were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?

          The revolution my group was given was the Hungarian Revolution. It began when Hungarian people wanted independence from the Austrian empire and become their own country. The revolutions became so serious that the ruler of the Austrian empire at that time, Metternich, was so afraid that he fled Austria and the Hungarian revolutionist, led by Louis Kossuth controlled Austrian cities like Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Hungarians were winning the revolution and they created a national anthem and in it they stated "We truly swear, the tyrant's yoke no more to bear". This meant they were done with the Austrian empire. Sadly in the end the Russian army came in and finally repressed the Hungarian revolts. In a piece of manifesto you see the Russian Czar and the Austrian emperor defeating the revolutionists.

From: Eva March Tappan, ed., The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art, (Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 1914), Vol. VI: Russia, Austria-Hungary, The Balkan States, and Turkey, pp. 408-410.

Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.

The Revolution was a mostly a failure because they were  unable to get independence from Austria but they were able to get rid of the emperor that they disliked greatly.At the bottom are results from the survey we made about the revolution. The pictures show that our other students learned about the Hungarian Revolution and they understood the sources. Also below will be a link to the survey so you can take it as well. Now we will look at other revolutions.

          The other revolutions happening in Europe were all somehow successful. The one that wasn't successful was the Decembrist Revolution. in this revolution Russians believed their Tzar Alexander would create and constitutional monarchy, but instead he did almost the complete opposite of that which enraged the Russians. Also on top of that instead if giving Russia a constitution he gave a country under Russia's control, Poland one. A revolution that was somewhat successful was the French Revolution of 1830 because the French people were able to get rid of their king, Charles X, but they did get Louis Philippe as their new king and they would have issues with him in 18 years. Those issues led to the French Revolution of 1848. In this revolution there was failure and success because they were able to get rid of King Philippe, but a republic of radicals, liberals, and socialists took over. So for the question,  were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded, the answer would be no because all but one revolution had some success.

Congress of Vienna Fixing Europe?

          After Napoleon was defeated for the second time the leaders of Europe gathered at the city of Vienna and discussed about what to do to fix the Europe that remained. In class we watched a video about Metternich, the emperor of Austria, try to discuss an agreement with Napoleon, who just wanted peace, for him to stop his conquest. Napoleon declined and then he was eventually defeated. We then talked about and took notes about three major problems. All problems had to do with one major one, what should people do when their power is threatened?

Congress of Vienna
http://www.emersonkent.com/historic_documents/congress_of_vienna_1815.htm

          One problem they had to solve was, what changes should be made to the European map. They decided to give some more land to Russia, Prussia other great powers and they put two new countries that had a solid government and leader bordering France. With these expansions they also created a Balance of Power in Europe. This gave Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France the most power in Europe. They gave France the power because the emperors of the other three empires thought Napoleon was the real threat not France as a whole. France did have to return all of the stolen artwork they had and they had to pay for the repairs caused by Napoleon across Europe. This was one of the solutions that the congress came to, to try and fix Europe.

Map of the new Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna

            I think this solution that they used would only be good as a temporary solution. Its a good temporary solution because it gave the strongest empires of that time control while Europe is fixed and the two countries that made sure France didn't try to conquer Europe again was a good idea. However, it's not a permanent solution. The main reason is because the territory that all the major empires gained are not necessarily a good thing. For example Poland was a country by itself, but because of the congress they had to obey the Russian leader. Also the map did not allow the unification of Italy or Germany,  both wanted national unification and no more foreign rulers. For those reasons I do not think this was the best possible solution.

Napoleon: the Most Controversial Leader Ever

          In class we started a new unit on revolutions that were happening around the world beginning in the mid 1800's. The first  revolutionary leader we're talking about is Napoleon Bonaparte.We reviewed his life and all significant events he was involved with. We also looked at two perspectives of how the people of France saw Napoleon. Finally, we looked at a couple of ways he changed France and ways he changed the world. At the end of the day we were asked, did Napoleon have positive  or negative affects on the economic, social, and political systems in Europe?

Napoleon Bonaparte
http://www.medindia.net/news/britain-appeals-to-keep-napoleon-bonapartes-death-mask-127759-1.htm

          I believe Napoleon had both positive and negative affects on the social, economic, and political systems in Europe. First, I think Napoleon had a positive impact on the social system in Europe. One thing he did was he allowed more opportunities for everyone to buy property and everyone had a right to education. Another thing he did was he established meritocracy in France. This made it so people were rewarded based off of their skills and not their social class. This allowed everyone to be successful. Another thing he had a positive impact on was his new political systems. Again it was meritocracy that was a revolutionary idea. The base of meritocracy which was being rewarded based off skill not class improved the political system in France. This allowed qualified people to help the government instead of having people who are only there because they were born into such a high class. One of Napoleon's closer marshals, Marshal Michel Ney, said that Napoleon allowed a government that did not suppress people's rights. Finally, Napoleon had a positive and negative impact on the economic systems. He had a positive impact on the economic system because he controlled pricing and encouraged new industry. Also he built new canals and roads which made trading easier. He was a negative impact on other countries in Europe because after conquering places, Napoleon would steal artwork from countries which would hurt that countries economy. Overall, Napoleon helped out with all systems pretty well.

          In my opinion Napoleon had a positive impact on Europe and the world. Although he did take over most of Europe and was not liked by many, he created ideas that would change how people around the world looked at things.  I think his best idea was meritocracy. Just the number of doors it opened for the lower class people and the way it changed the economy and government of France. It also created a base for other countries to create a new government on and slowly the world started to forget about monarchies.

Another source used for this lesson is below:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_historians.html

Karl Marx and Adam Smith with world changing theories

          In class our teacher did an activity to teach us about the new types of economy.  being introduced after the industrial revolution. She gave out hershey kisses, most of the students got three hershey kisses (representing the majority poor people living back then), but two or three students got ten (the minority wealthy owners). Then, we were told to play rock paper scissor and if you lost you had to give one hershey kiss to the person who beat you. If you ran out of hershey kisses you couldn't get any back and you had to sit down. I thought the game was fun because I won a lot and ended with more hershey kisses than I started with. However, for the people who lost all their candy especially if they are one of the people who started with ten I could see that being very frustrating. At the end our teacher took everyone's hershey kisses and distributed them evenly. This gave us an idea of what happened during tat time of transition and it was led by two mens' theories.

Karl Marx
http://spartacus-educational.com/TUmarx.htm

          Karl Marx and Adam Smith both had theories that were revolutionary in the creation of new economies. Marx had a theory that since the number of poor vastly outnumbered the population of the wealthy, the poor would revolt against the wealthy because of unfair prices and and struggles of social classes. Resulting in stealing and other things along those lines. That would result in a economy where the money was disrupted evenly among everyone and they all started out with the same money (Socialism). That would change into communism where violence was very common and they were no social classes. On the other hand, Adam Smith was a strong believer in a true capitalist economy. His theory was called "The Invisible Hand", which gave companies the freedom to compete against each other. This mean companies would lower prices so customers would go to their companies instead of their rivals. This did not allow companies to cheat customers because if they had extreme prices their rivals would just have lower ones and no one would go to that company. The invisible hand also allowed the poor to trade and sell items freely making it possible to get out of poverty. Both theories were good, but still a lot of people need up poor in their ideas.

          For me I think the best theory was Smith's. I think there was a better chance of no certain company becoming too wealthy. Also I think it gives the poor a better chance of getting out of poverty compared to Marx's theory. However, i don't believe this is the best possible type of economy. I think the best economy would be one with the invisible hand incorporated with a way that the government could help with the poor. Maybe the poor could get a loan from the government; that way both the poor and the government could profit. But it could also not work because the loan could be wasted by the person and would then ask for another loan. A way to fix this was if people were limited to a certain number of loans, that way if someone was still poor it would be hard to blame others because he would have been given multiple chances to get out of poverty. Today we are still looking for the right economy and it may take us awhile to find it.

Adam Smith
http://www.herodote.net/Adam_Smith_1723_1790_-synthese-250.php

Lowell Mills in the 1800's a Hot Spot for Young Girls to Work

          During the 1800's cotton mils were being built everywhere and young girls would come in and work for years and leave with permanent physical and mental injuries. In England it was easy for factory owners to get girls to come work for them because there was a population growth in England and there was not enough space in the country for families to live or enough jobs that were open for young people to work. The factories offered both, they had places for the girls to live and get food and they would get paid for their services at the mills. In the United States it was a different situation. There was population growth  happening too, but there was enough land in the west to move into so families weren't very worried about not having enough space. Also people in America heard about the poor conditions at the factories in England and did not wan to send their girls to work in such awful places. So the the factory owners decided to do an experiment, the Lowell experiment. They made better conditions factories and boarding houses. They had increased wages and offered education and church on Sunday for the girls. Most importantly they created family atmosphere for the girls which enticed the fathers of the girls to let them work. The overseers acted as fathers who would protect the girls and the boarding house keeper acted as the mom who prepared meals for the girls and made sure the girls stayed out of trouble when not working. There were multiple things that the girls liked about working in Lowell. One was getting their own money, just like teenage girls today they like to buy things. Getting a job allowed the girls to buy things of their own like dresses. Also many girls would send some or most of their money to their families so they could pay for their land. A lot of girls left their families intrigued and excited about working in Lowell, but after a couple of weeks they realized that everything was not what they hoped for.

Below is a website with a video that follows a girls as she leaves her family and works in Lowell and her life experiences.

http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/daughters-of-free-men/

MOSI chat with experts from Manchester!

          In class we did MOSI live chat with an expert who worked at a museum in Manchester. But, before we did the chat we had to do some preparation. First, we did some investigating on a website about their museum. During the investigation we took three or more notes on things we learned or found interesting. The one fact that caught my attention was 7 of the machines were made by Platt Bros. of Oldham, once the leading textile company in Manchester. I'll leave a link to the website below. Next we watched an intro video that the expert sent our class. In the video he showed us the machines in the museum and how they worked. Also he told us about some vocab that was used with cotton mills. We used our Google key word searching skills that we gained from using Google a day to find the definitions of these words. Finally, in groups or alone we came up with questions that we could ask our expert during the chat the next day. After doing the investigation, video, and coming up with questions I was very excited for the chat the next class.

           The video chat was amazing! It was so cool how we were talking to two guys from Manchester and they taught us things just over video chat. The first thing he showed us were the looms and machines that single families used before the factories. I found it interesting that the heir loom got the name because it was passed down from one generation to the next. Another thing that he taught us that was gruesome were the injuries that happened in the factory. The work that girls had to do was so dangerous and they had to be so precise at such a young age and the consequences were awful. I liked how he showed us how they cleaned the machines while they ran and how easy it could be to get hurt. Individually I learned that as the textile industry revolutionized it got less safe and much louder. However, it was much more productive. Which brings me to the negatives and positives. The faster and more production of quality cotton was a positive. But there were so many more negatives. People's lives were more at risk and the workers had to live with so many injuries for the rest of their lives from the factory. Overall the video was great and it would be appreciated if we did more things like this.

          I loved this chat and way of learning about the factories. I learned a lot and I think I learned more from doing this than I would have if we just read websites and took notes on it. I liked how it was taught to us by an expert and I like how we got to see the actual machines and how they worked. If we were able to do things like this again in my class it would be amazing. I feel that it was a lot more interactive than just reading would have been. This chat was a great idea that our teacher came up with.

http://www.mosi.org.uk/explore-mosi/explore-galleries/textiles-gallery.aspx

Trip to the "Museum"

          In class we got into groups. Each group was given a specific part of the industrial revolution. The groups were given pictures, quotes, diagrams,or papers about their topic and they had to curate all there sources. With your sources and knowledge you made a poster about your topic. This activity was done in multiple classes and all groups from all classes hung up their posters in a hallway to create a "museum".

          Above is my group's poster. Our topic was about steam engines an how they made transporting goods easier. The analyzing part of the poster was one of the most important parts. In the analyzing part  Without analyzing you know nothing about your exhibit, so you won't be able to put any information for people who will observe your poster. In our exhibit we had a diagram (farthest left) about the history of the steam engine and the advancements it made through the years. The map in the pink border shows a  map of England and the railroad tracks and navigation routes. The picture in the top right is a diagram of the steam engine and how it works. Below the diagram are two QR readers. They are about a letter Robert Fulton, the man who invented the first steam engine-powered boat, that advertised the steam engine and about how great of an invention it was. Below that is a picture of a railroad. This was supposed to advertise the efficiency of the steam engine and railroads. Finally, the single QR reader is a debate that talks about the positives and negatives of the steam engine. Our title is "American and Great Britain Run On Steam Engine", we came up with this because once the steam engine was invented trains and boats powered by the steam engine were the main way of transporting goods used in everyday life from one place to another. Our poster should teach the people who see it that the steam engine was a revolutionary invention for transportation of people and goods.

          Now I'll talk about the other exhibits. The first one I saw was titled "Prosperity at Cost of People". It talked about how the building of textile mills in the United States led to the demand of workers. To meet the demands slaves were brought in to help in the cotton industry. The second exhibit was named "Broken Children". This is about how young girls under the age of 18 were hired to work in the factories, which were very poorly conditioned places. These events led to the Factory Act would prohibited the hire of children under the age of 18. The third poster was called "Not So Great Britain". This talked about how the construction of factories in England led to the pollution of the air and water. It also led to people having to live in slums. The last exhibit was called "Spinning into the Future". This talked about how the spinning wheel made the making of cotton clothes easier and a good jobs for house wives because they could get quality spinning wheels for home. All exhibits were very interesting and knowledgeable.

The Most Important Revolution Ever?

          This week we started learning about the industrial revolution. We broke up into groups and took notes on certain aspects of the revolution. the question we were trying to answer was: What was 'revolutionary' about the industrial revolution? I'll talk about the two aspects that effected the world the most during this revolution.

          First, the advancements in technology were helpful in all sorts of areas. One of the most influential pieces of technology was the steam engine. The steam engine was invented in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen to pump water out of mines so miners could get resources that were lower. It was later used in locomotives and boats which made transporting goods easier across land and sea. Next, was the new found uses for iron. Coal was an important part in the improvements of iron. The coal separated the iron from the ore better which led to the production of higher quality iron. Iron was used all over the world, but especially in the building of railroads and building textile machines. Finally, there was the innovation of Textiles. The flying shuttle made by John Kay allowed weaving to be faster than spinning. In 1764, James Hargreaves created the spinning Jenny allowed many threads to spin at the same time. Later, machines used steam engines which made them even faster. Soon single buildings were producing as much as an entire industry district used to produce. The improvements in technology made goods more accessible and allowed us to get many more raw materials.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~belghist/Flanders/Pages/textiles.htm

          Second, the improvements actual people had were revolutionary. First, there advancements in agriculture. Roy Charles Townsend proposed the idea of growing turnips which restored the exhausted soil. Jethro Tull invented the seed drill which helped farmers. Another thing that helped was enclosure. Rich landowners started to use enclosure and force peasants off their land which forced the peasants to work n factories. This allowed the factories to produce goods faster. Finally, the life expectancy for humans increased. The improvements of agriculture led to less famines. Also it kept women well fed which made them healthier which led to healthier babies. With better food production and people living longer life became a lot easier and not many people had to work on farms and work more in the factories. Healthier humans means a better world and during the industrial revolution, humans were getting a lot healthier.

Helpful Activities for Learning Responsible Searching and Website use

          In my history class we did two activities. One was Google a Day where and the other was an activity on Accuracy, Authenticity, and Reliability. Both activities were supposed to teach how we can use search engines responsibly and how to use websites for research responsibly. Now I'll inform you about the two activities a little bit more.

          First, we did the Google a Day activity. Google a Day is an activity on the internet where it gives you three questions. The three questions get progressively harder and you can use google to help find your answers. The catch is you can't just search the question and have the answer show up. You have to search certain parts of the question and then progressively get closer to answer until you get the answer. What made this activity fun was being able to work in groups and being able to have multiple separate brains try to think of a good phrase to search. I also liked it because it was a fun way to learn interesting facts. Some things that I didn't like were the score and timer because it was a little distracting. Also sometimes when I went to back out of a website that I got or tried to get information from it sometimes backed me out of the whole activity. This activity helped me learn that just because google can't find nothing for one certain phrase doesn't mean there isn't an alternative phrase or phrases that will get me the answer. Google a Day is a great activity and I highly recommend it for everyone.

          Second, we did an activity on the accuracy, authenticity and reliability of websites. The website we did was a website about the rare Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The website is supposed to raise awareness of the endangered octopus species and explains how you can help support the octopus. However, this is not a good website for students to use because it is not authentic. The author is not authentic and there are no other websites about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus besides websites that call the original website a hoax. Also the pictures just look very fake. It looks like a stuffed octopus thrown in a tree. The website about the "rare" octopus was very helpful in being able to identify a fake website                

Google a Day: http://www.agoogleaday.com/#game=started

Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html

The Importance of Our Education

          Welcome to my blog. My name is Kevin and I am a sophomore at Reading Memorial High School. The purpose of this blog is to show what we have learned throughout this year. In this blog I will be talking about what makes a teacher great and what the purpose of public education. I hope you enjoy this blog.

          First, what makes a teacher great? I think what makes a teacher great is if he/she gets involved with their class. Not just during the lesson, but before and after class. I like it when the teacher just has  regular conversation with their students (to a certain limit of course).  When i remember my past favorite teachers I would go after school, not for extra help all the time, but to just talk with them because I enjoyed how they interacted with the class. My history teacher, or any teacher of mine in general, can support me by just being themselves around the class I'm in and if I need their help I would appreciate them always being available. I rarely dislike a teacher and I'm looking forward to having all new teachers this year.

          Second, what is the purpose of education? In class we watched a video based on this question and it really got me thinking about my education. If you want to watch the video I will have a link at the bottom. In the video the man speaking is a you tuber named John Green. He said it is the duty of us students to use our education to do great things and I agree with him. We are getting privileged to have a free education and we shouldn't waste it. I want to use my education to positively affect the world as much as I can. For this year, academically, I want to do the best I can and receive the highest grades I deserve. Athletically, Im hoping to stay healthy all year because for the last couple of years I have gotten hurt and I  want that to stop. Im going to reach these goals by studying and paying attention in class. For the sports I will train and take care of myself making sure I don't get hurt again. I can't wait for this year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x78PnPd-V-A&feature=youtu.be