Day 32

Today in class, we worked on our country project and found a lot of information about Russia. I added a slide about how Vladimir had a KGB career. KGB is the primary intelligence organization in the Soviet Union from 1954-1991. The KGB was a committee for State Security, and Vladimir joined in 1975. We added more slides about his career and some extra facts about himself. Today was a successful day.

Day 31

Today in class, we worked more on our country projects. I added a few more slides about how the Russians feel about Putin. We researched the whole mod, and were having trouble finding some of the information. We read more facts about Vladimir and the election. We learned that he cannot get elected again, and has been president since 2012. He previously served as president in 2000-2008. We were very shocked to see that he has been president twice. He seems to be a strong and tough leader for Russia.

Day 30

Today in class, we talked about the countries and Mr. Schick assigned us a new project. We are supposed to create a power point about the country we decide. He called on different people to pick their partner, and choose their country. We put the names with the country on the board. Megan picked me to be her partner, and we picked the country, Russia. On the Human Geo blog, it told us what our power points should be about. I did a blog about the federal government of Russia and what it means. I added another slide with some facts about Vladimir Putin. I think this project is difficult, but it will be worth it in the end.

Day 29

Today in class, we had a pop quiz. I was very surprised and really nervous, about the quiz. When I got the quiz, I knew I wasn't going to get a good grade. If I studied for this quiz, I would've gotten a better grade. I got an 80%, and was happy with my grade. The questions were about the leaders of the different countries we learned about. Hopefully, on the next pop quiz I get a better grade!

Day 28

Today in class, we talked about more interesting facts about the different leaders. Everyone took the class period to look up more facts and share them. We learned that Enrique Pena Nieto is the second most power and wealthiest man in Mexico. We know that the first is probably a drug lord. When the presidents and citizens try to catch and arrest the drug lord, they would be assassinated. This is a big problem in Mexico. Mexico has had a larger income, from selling some much heroin. We ended class questioning if Mexico will ever change this, for their country.

Day 27

Today in class, we talked more about the presidents/leaders of the countries we looked at. We found some interesting facts about some of the leaders. For example, Enrique Pena Nieto, the president of Mexico, cheated on his wife. Some say he only got voted for president, because of his good looks. President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, had parents that were in the Nazi. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, has a black belt in Judo, and comes across as a tough president. This makes no country want to come after Russia. Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, went to jail for political crimes in 1972, and is a cancer survivor. We added some facts to our blogs, and left for the powder puff game.

Countries

Mexico
Federal republic
President- Enrique Pena Nieto

-first wife died
-cheated on second wife
-some say he was voted for looks

China
Federal Republic
President-  Xi Jinping

-son of founding fathers of communist members of China

India
Democratic republic
President-  Pranab Mukherjee

Russia
Federal republic
President- Vladimir Putin

-earned a black belt in Judo
-manly image to people

Germany
Federal republic
President- Joachim Gauck

-both parents were in nazi
Angelina Murkel- chanceler; was a chemist before

United Kingdom
self-government
Prime Minister- David William Donald Cameron

France
semi-presidential government
President- Francois Hollande

Brazil
Federal republic
President- Dilma Rousseff

-in jail for political crimes 1972
-cancer survivor

Syria

Republic under an authoritarian reign

President- Bashar al-Assad

Canada

Federal republic

Prime Minister- Stephen Harper

-enrolled in university of toronto, then dropped out

Japan

Democratic republic

Prime Minister- Naikaku-sōri-daijin

Israel 

parliamentary democracy

Former President- Shimon Perez

Day 25

Today in class, we didn't do much. I was hoping we would get our test back, but three people in our class didn't take it yet. We had to be quiet for the test takers, while they were taking the test. They had 10 minutes to do the front of the test. Everyone would ring the bell in the front of the class, to tell the test takers how much time they had left. When they were done the front, they moved onto the vocabulary and population pyramids. Some of the test takers didn't do the bonus questions, and had to go back and answer them. During this time, I got done some of my homework. We do not have class tomorrow because of the PSAT testing. I am a little nervous, but I am glad it is just a practice.

Day 24

Today in class, we took a test about population. On the front of the first page, we had to go to the CIA world fact book and find the answers to questions. We had 10 minutes to complete the front, and I thought that was a short amount of time. The second part of the test, was complete the sentence with vocabulary. We had a word bank and I knew what the vocab words meant, from studying them. The third part of the test had bonus questions, which I guessed and did not know. The final part of the test had to do with population pyramids. Mr. Schick gave us different population pyramids, and we answered questions about each one. Overall, I thought this test was challenging.

Day 23

Today in class, we reviewed for the test on Friday. We talked about population and these terms and facts:

life expectancy- the average period that a person may expect to live
crude birth rate- amount of births per 1,000
crude death rate- amount of deaths per 1,000
rate of natural increase- crude birth rate minus the crude death rate of a population
net migration rate- difference of immigrants of an area in a period of time, divided per 1,000 in inhabitants emigration minus immigration
immigration- the action to leave one country to another
emigration- act of leaving one's country or region with the intent to settle permanently in another
developing nations- lower living standard
developed nations- countries with high gross domestic product
Infrastructure- what a country needs to be connected to the rest of the world to buy things, trade, and more.
total fertility rate- average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime
push force- something causes you to leave the country
-war
-bad health care
-political or religious
pull force- something that causes more people to come to that country

Places where people are dying rather than being born
-Japan
-Africa
-Germany
 Population growth in Japan- negative

Day 22

I was not in class today, because I had a field hockey game against Glenelg. We won 2-0!!

Day 21

In class today, we learned more about the CIA world fact book and how to get around the website. We talked about the video we watched of how America is not the greatest country in the world. Some students agreed with this statement and disagreed. We also talked a lot about transportation in different countries. We talked about the United States and how we have 13,513 airports. This gives us an advantage to travel places around the world. Places like Chad, they only have 59 airports, and this gives them a lower advantage to go places. We talked a little about Egypt, and how we are lucky to be living in the United States, rather than somewhere not nice.

Day 20

In class, we watched a video called newsroom first scene and discussed it. This video showed us that American is not perfect. My thoughts are, that American is not the greatest country and needs improvement in certain places. These placed are things like the economy and world hunger and poverty. Mr. Schick told us a story at the end of class about a time when he met a homeless man and asked him to get food with him and talked to him about his life. Mr. Schick tried to give him advice but the homeless man to go and talk to his sister but he was to embarrassed for her to see her like this.  The very last thing we did in class was when students in our class shared their homeless people stories and told that some are actually lazy and do not want to be successful because people will offer them money and they will just go spend it on drugs and alcohol. Another thing that people would do is offer them a job and they would decline and just say that they would rather sit out on the street. I think this is sad and do not understand why homeless people would not want to get back on their feet someday and be successful in life.

Day Nineteen

Today in class, we talked more about the population pyramids in different countries. We talked a lot about China and their population/government. The government in China only let the Chinese women have one baby, because of how bad the government was with food, education, etc. This all started in the late 40s and the early 50s, and still continues today. We also talked about Cuba's government and how all Cubans wanted to leave. The Cubans would build boats, and sail to Florida, to try to live in the United States. They were not aloud to bring their boats on shore, so they had to swim. They would let the Cubans stay if they swam onto shore, but many did not make it.