US History Final Project: 2/15

What does it mean to be an American?

daily blog 6/7

the first history class we've had in a long time! we discussed the morals and ethics of the business world as well as honest and dishonest graft. People had their opinions (as always) and we spent most of the class debating about what was right and wrong when it comes to how businesses are run. I think there is a fine line between honest and dishonest graft so you have to be careful when accusing someone of being a crook when really their methods are completely fair. 

daily blog 5/31

The Statue of Liberty is a symbol for immigrants that they have they reached the new land and as they arrived at Ellis Island. It certainly meant a lot back then but we talked about if it has a purpose now. At this point it's just there as a symbol I think and a memory of the days when ships came in to the "new land"!

daily blog 5/26

I am pretty sure that everyone knows what I'm trying to say when I attempt to get a point across in a discussion but it seems that no matter what anyone says, someone else has to shut it down. I admit, I am guilty of doing this to people but it's actually really obnoxious when you're trying to make sense but people won't take you seriously. Like today in our discussion about how worker's rights should be dealt with. It was kind of difficult to understand at first what would really be the best way but soon enough, as usual, people formulated opinions and the class turned into one big argument. Like always. Don't get me wrong, I like to debate but it really does get tiring after a while.

daily blog 5/25

Westing was all we talked about today. Like, if that is a a good enough way to judge someone's character for accepting people in to certain things (like police academy or something). And also the difference between knowing and understanding which actually don't mean the same thing (which people sometimes confuse). Ultimately, understanding encompasses both meanings because if you understand something, you typically know it.

daily blog 5/24

Today's class was full of confusing hypothetical situations that got everyone in a fluster and that some people seemed to take to literally. It seems the topic of wages in society and how that system works was a little bit too much for us to grasp. By the end I think most everyone understood what Mr. Boyle was trying to say but it sure took a long time to get there.

daily blog 5/23

In class we talked about Rockefeller and how he made his success to a monoply with the oil business. One of his major steps was selligh stocks which is a good business tactic. We then landed on the topic of the stock market and how it works. It was good to learn that because I feel like I always here about the stock market but I never really knew what it was and the point of it until now.

daily blog 5/19

We learned the definitions of monoply and oligopoly (besides that the first one is a game). They have to do with their being only one (mono) company in a certain field or multiple (oligo). Some examples of oligopoly are the cereal business; kellogs, general mills, post, etc. As for monopoly, Andrew Carnegie was a good example of that with his steel industry! Throughout the course of his life he improved his business by buying out other companies and incorporating materials to make a cheaper product which in the end, resulted in a monoply.  

daily blog 5/16

Again we talked about Andrew Carnegie but rather than focusing on the way the world sees him, we focused more on his opinions. For instance, his views on the wealthy of this day and age (such as Paris Hilton), some of his business tactics, his thoughts on how the rich should use their money, and other opinions of his. All in all it gave me a better idea of who Andrew Carnegie was himself and also I learned some good life lessons like, always let your lawyer take care of it!

daily blog 5/10

We learned about the positives and negatives of industrialization through a popular children's book, The Lorax. I always got the gist that that story was about all the negatives of factories and major companies and how they ruin nature but I never thought of it showing the positives. Even though that book is for little kids, it really does apply to real life in many ways.

daily blog 5/9

We talked about Thomas Edison and his supposed genius and how it affected society. We did so by reading either Calvin Coolidge's speech or a letter by a 1920's housewife. I had the wife's letter and I found it interesting how much they depended on electricity and how much we do too in this generation. As for thanking Edison for this, I don't think that is completely necessary. He may have sparked a good deal of technology revolution but he didn't invent most of the things that she was thanking him for in her letter. I think he's just a little overrated and I wouldn't necessarily call him a genius.

daily blog 5/3

This is my 100th blog post! And it is also the 3rd day that Osama bin Laden has been dead. It's a weird thing to see people celebrate over someone's death. As much as he was an evil person, I still don't think its something to throw a party about. When I see people in the streets celebrating his death, I just think that this makes us like Al Qeada when 9/11 happened. The discussion we had in class about the situation was very interesting and I learned a lot more about the whole situation and also what we have to be afraid for. I'm just afraid Osama supporters are going to want revenge and lash out against the US. With all that aside I do feel a lot safer now

daily blog 4/27

We talked about western expansion and used two different documents to show all the sides of the situation. We looked at Walt Whitman's poem "O Pioneers!"and an excerpt from a book with the same title. They were similar in some ways and different in others. It seems both seemed to think that the positives outweighed the negatives and that Western expansion was a good idea.  

daily blog 4/12

The South is just way too proud and probably just jealous that they didn't win the war so they have to take it out in the blacks. Someone should explain to them what a war is and that there are no rules so the confederates can stop being such sore losers and maybe make a positive contribution to the country. That's all I have to say.

daily blog 4/11

The newly freed slaves, at this point in history, are running into more discrimination despite the fact that they are free. The sharecropping basically demotes them back to the level of slaves and because of the lack of education most of them had it was hard for them to notice when they were being cheated. Many people were angry because African Americans had the ability to vote and so groups like the Klu Klux Klan were formed. A new era of segregation began from there on out.

daily blog 4/6

We learned about the fourteenth amendment in class. It basically gave citizenship to African Americans and it increasingly punished the south. I find it completely unfair that Congress is acting this way and treating the south so poorly. Admittedly, they probably do deserve some kind of punishment for their acts of "secession" but they are losing their freedom and liberty with this amendment. Liberty is something the civil war was fought over so why is it being eliminated in the south? And even with this newfound citizenship for African Americans there is still a lack of equality and with that, segregation policies. Although African Americans are no longer considered property at this point, they are still being treated like animals.

daily blog 4/4

Today we talked about what happened after Lincoln died. The anything-but-productive vice president, Andrew Johnson (from TN0 became president. This was not necessarily a good thing because Johnson was not exactly capable of this position especially considering what had been happening lately and he was only chosen as VP because of his loyalty to the government during the civil war. He was eventually impeached

daily blog 4/1

Today we learned an extensive amount of minor and major details about Lincoln's assassination. The story of how John Wilkes Booth made a fool out of himself by jumping down onto the stage followed by a massive curtain-like cloth as he breaks his ankle. An interesting story nonetheless. Meanwhile, the class failed at April fool's day jokes, however, this will not be the end of the pranks.

daily blog 3/30

We split into groups to read and answer questions about certain people during the reconstruction period and  what they thought about. It seemed most people in the South during that time all  have a positive opinion of the idea. However, most had doubt that the project would end as well as expected. 

daily blog 3/29

Today we had a sub but we still managed to get some work done. We read Lincoln's second inaugural address and compared that to the things we did yesterday. It was a little difficult but I got it done!

daily blog 3/21

What we talked about in class made me think about how the things we learn in class and at school are obviously very important but at the same time there are so many other skill sets that we have to know to be able to make it in the "real world". I remember a while back in the year when Mr. Boyle talked about how each of us will probably have a variety of careers in our life times. This makes me want to explore new things before I settle on what I really want to do. You never know until you try it out.

daily blog 3/17

Happy St. Patrick's day! and also FINALLY the civil war is over with and the confederates surrendered. General Robert E. Lee and General U.S Grant agree that the war is over with and the confederates are back in the Union. We had a little argument about whether it was rude that Grant didn't wear his nicest suit to the meeting. Some people were saying that he should look presentable but honestly, that's just ridiculous. It's a war not a fashion show. 

daily blog 3/15

Today we learned about Sherman's attack on the confederacy in the south. His action were incredibly destructive in a way that wasn't even warlike. It was basically like he got personal with the Confederates by attack their homes, livestock, their families, and using "scorched earth policy" on complete towns at a time. I know the point of war is to utterly obliterate the enemy but at this point Sherman's attacks were such low blows. It's one think to fight a soldier, but to go up to innocent civilians like that and ruin there lives is just plain cruel and unnecesary. Especially when the war is to get the south back into the union. Even though the union won the war and the confederates were forced to come back in, they still lost the repect of many southerners even to this day.

daily blog 3/14

Happy Pi(e) day! The beginning of class we did one of those analyzations of art papers. This one was of the Robert Shaw Memorial but you may be wondering... who is Robert Shaw? Well, we learned all about how he was the (white) leader of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Which was the first African American unit for the Union in the civil war. It was a turning point in the war that these men got to fight yet there wages were less, they weren't really promoted, they were segregated from the whites, and they weren't able to be leaders of their own units! It is kind of sad that even though the Union and the abolitionists wanted African Americans to be free, they didn't exactly treat them fairly as a free person would be treated. If you think about it, they aren't really staying true to their word.

daily blog 3/9

In class, Mr. Boyle showed us the routes taken in the Battle at Gettysburg via googlemaps. It's interesting to see that with all the new development, the areas that were used for battle remained the same. That's kind of how it is here in Massachusetts as well. All the historic landmarks are preserved for people to enjoy. The clip we watched from the movie Gettysburg was kind of hard to watch due to all the violence but it did show the tactics that were used and how location really is everything when fighting in battle!

daily blog 3/2

Talk about course decisions  for next year continued today starting with history class where we went out and talked individually with Mr. Boyle about our thoughts for next year. While this was going on, in class we talked and wrote more about Lincoln's idea of liberty to all. We talked about things like where it derived from? (the Declaration of Independence) and the importance of this principle. It probably seems repetitive but I feel like I do learn something every day about how the principle plays into the country as a whole even to this day.

daily blog 3/1

The discussion of Lincoln's belief that the principle of "Liberty to all" being the basis of the Declaration of Independence continued today. We wrote a few paragraphs on how we thought this connected to how it he thought it is what will help achieve the ultimate goals. We passed them around and commented on whether or not we thought the person understood the concept. This is kind of flawed, however, because if someone really doesn't understand concept then how are they in the right position to tell another person they don't understand it. It just seemed a little confusing to me.

daily blog 2/28

On the first day back from vacation I surprisingly stayed more awake in class than I thought I would. We read and talked about Abraham Lincoln whose changes to America influence everything, in my opinion. His dedication and appreciation for the Declaration of Independence is something he strongly believed in. He expressed is belief in the principle of 'Liberty to all' as being what the Constitution is made for by using an analogy saying that the Constitution is a "silver painting" to the principle being a "golden apple". 

Desktop Documentary: The Dred Scott Case

WORK CITED:

INFORMATION:

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/dred.htm

IMAGES:

http://www.africawithin.com/bios/dred_scott.htm

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS1kRk-18pKdJjRmO7KmUdlL6VcErFQHg4CSYZRpiIZRvsmJWI1

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_map/illinois.gif

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTczY50IYkit3VD8jO0CEq6fIu1oX2nPsnjilvbnIANVqHO9Zdd

http://www.beyondbooks.org/slavery/images/supremecourt.jpg

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRdedSdkxgU4rJ1uVXEs18rc6N54i7OkAI46W3LiyWxBVGBP_Hc

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSVEmdUvAmOnXLLU8t9JifpYuzfcSp7rb53CipHlwSukuW7vbj6Sg

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTCltx4UdP7VZX5Kc4ISLdO3-jZ-t2xtKvx93llRHU8QHToyGJ7Pg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS7-RFQkUdhz9WwlKZsdmQuyMpzJJ6G4sfKCaAPedmMmyX8kxwjVw

http://americancivilwar.com/colored/dred_scott.jpg

MUSIC:

Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen

daily blog 2/16

Tomorrow is test day for me because I have a field trip on friday. I feel pretty prepared for it but seeing as I don't have a lot of time today, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. Going to study now and hopefully get an 100 tommorrow!

daily blog 1/15

Happy reverse day! Despite the abnormality of the seating situation today, the lesson went as usual. The talk of secessionism continued and Abe Lincoln asked the class whether he should: 
a) make changes to satisfy the south or 
b) refuse their requests.
 Appeasement never works so Pres Lincoln did as he should and  stood firm on his thoughts of slavery. It would be ill advised for him to change his opinions at this point in time. He would lose most of his followers and it would just make him look like a pushover. The secessionists problems are all their own so if they want to breakaway, I say let them!

daily blog 2/14

Todays valentines day history class was filled with talk of secession! South Carolina couldn't take the heat so they had to get out of the kitchen. Planning to breakaway from the country is kind of ridiculous and selfish in my eyes. When the other states joined in too I just thought of how immature they're being basically. Honestly, just because you don't like the new president you decide to form your own group. That's something a three year old would do and I found it to be completely unnecessary.

daily blog 2/9

John Brown. Kind of a nut but he devoted his life to helping slaves be free in anyway he knew how and that's what made him an amazing person. It was kind of insane, and in my eyes, unnecessary for him to lash out and kill those people but he stood up for what he believed in. He stated that he would end slavery or die trying. Unfortunately, John never reached his goal because he died in the process but he did provide a substantial push of the abolitionist movement. Because of this, I said he was a hero who didn't achieve his goals and died trying.

daily blog 1/7

Our weekend homework was to take notes on the Lincoln-Douglas debate so that's what we discussed in class. The two were very different in there views on slavery, the delaration of independence, and the African American community as a whole. As it just so happens, Lincoln was one of my favorite people when I was younger. I used to read so many books on him! I'm glad he was sucha  firm believer in equal rights. Looks like I chose a good role model!

daily blog 2/4

In class we discussed the issue of slavery yet again and took notes on whether or not slaves were free. It was pretty much determined that they weren't seen as free despite the efforts of many abolitionists. It is kind of a foggy class for me because it was second period yesterday and so it's hard for me to remember the details.

daily blog 2/3

I was happy to have already taken notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Kansas Nebraska act because I didn't have to take any today and that's all we talked about. I think it is so crazy that one person's book could change a country. Sure, some books do take over sometimes like in the case of Harry Potter or Twilight but they aren't serious books that could cause a war. Knowing that one day a book could separate the country is kind of intimidating. You might think it could never happen but it happened once so who's to say it won't happen again?

daily blog 1/28

We talked about the fights over land between the US and Mexico and obviously the US won all the land because we are the alpha dogs in this world. Just kidding but all this new land you would think would unify the country but it ripped it apart resulting in the civil war!

daily blog 1/26

A dispute like that brought on by the Tariff of 1828 is something that absolutely could occur today. The country is called a "melting pot" because of all the different cultures and the differences in the states. The North and South are completely different and with that comes different resources and cultures. Fortunately, the US is very diverse but unfortunately this means that people don't exactly agree on everything. The north and south disagreed about the tariff because of the differences in their culture and the resources they have. This is not something that is outdated, a situation like the Tariff of 1828 has occurred and could occur anytime in the future.

daily blog 1/24

Today was a short class but we fit a lot in. Basically we talked about how we are going to start a new project based on an event and a person on dipity.com. Besides that, we were in the computer lab so we did a worksheet on different questions regarding the north and the south in 1820

daily blog 1/11/11

It's 1/11/11!! I thought that was kind of cool. We talked a lot about woman's rights and how they were beginning to be fought at this time in the US which is kind of a big deal because no one really thought a bout it because no one had lived in a world where women had a lot of rights. It's interesting to see the kind of things they couldn't do back then that seem so regular nowadays. I think it was good for people to hear about the importance of women's rights because it was, and still is, a big situation.

daily blog 1/10

It was nice to talk about civil disobedience in class today. By using more relatable situations, I found it easier to understand. It was also interesting to see how it played out with current events. But if there is some sort of power plant problem anytime soon... I know who to blame.

Take 2: Thomas Gallaudet

Nevermind I figured it out! I just had to go to edit mode.

Thomas Gallaudet Voicethread

Thomas Gallaudet Voicethread

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed it because it just made me create a new voicethread again.

daily blog 1/5

Today we had another class about transcendentalism which turned into a discussion as usual. We talked about how society affects individuality and how we watch shows like Jersey Shore to feel better about ourselves by making fun of others. I agreed with most of the things we talked about but not everything. Mostly though, I  came to realize a lot and left the class mind boggled because we talked about things I haven't really thought about before. I feel like I learn so much in classes like this because it forces me to think about what's what and brought me to some realizations about the pretty much everything. 

daily blog 1/4

So we reviewed the transcendentalism posters and talked about the passages we read last night with a partner. Basically it all said the same things that nature is more important than a corporate world and that nature is in our lives every day and it affects everyone in every way. Which was Thoreau and Emerson's idea in a nutshell.

daily blog 1/3

It's 2011! To start off the new year I had history first. We spent the class talking about transcendentalism and how it changed religion in America. Dictionary.com defines it as "Also called transcendental philosophy. any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to bediscovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above theempirical: in the U.S., associated with Emerson." So from that we talked in groups about religion and the spirituality of individuals. We also made a poster which reflected are answers to certain questions on the subject.