Was Andrew Jackson's Reputation Deserved?

The Essential Question of the Andrew Jackson lesson is, "Is Andrew Jackson's long-standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved? Why? Why not?" For this lesson, the class divided into 6 groups and 2 groups research one of the three topics. The topics were the Bank War, Indian Removal, and Spoils System. Four out of the six groups said that Jackson does not deserve the reputation as "the people's president". The other 2 groups said he did deserve it. During the Bank war, Jackson thought that the Bank of United States had too much power and could potentially control the whole economy. Jackson wanted to break the banks into smaller banks, so that the rich would not have all of the power. Jackson wanted to veto the charter, but the people were petrified that it would led to the economy to collapse. In this situation, he deserved the reputation as "the people's president". One of the situations where he does not deserve it is with the spoils system. The spoil system was when a political party gives government jobs to voters/supporters after an election victory. People were being given jobs based on their loyalty rather then their skill. He does not deserve the reputation in the case because he was a selfish man who only cared for the people who supported him and not the rest of the people. 
My group researched the Indian Removal. Here is our presentation:  

Rise of Democracy

The essential questions for the Rise of Democracy lesson is “How should we define democracy? How democratic was the United States in the early 1800s?” For this lesson, we stayed within the groups we were already sitting in and analyzed the documents together. We examined a painting, an article explaining the painting, voting charts 1 and 2, primary source quotes, and another primary source about the Dorr War. Finally, to show what we learned we created a poster. Here is our poster:                                 

How Should We Remember Toussaint Louverture?

A good leader possesses many important qualities and is a person whom others look up to and rely on. Toussaint Louverture was a good leader and he was someone whom the slaves looked up to and relied on. Louverture spent a large part of his life dedicated to helping the slaves gain their freedom. The French took control of the western half of the large Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1697 and named it Saint Domingue. In 1804, Saint Domingue was renamed Haiti and is still called that today. Saint Domingue was producing more than half of the world’s coffee and 40 percent of the world’s sugar by the 1780’s. Saint Domingue had 8,000 plantations producing these products and the work was done by 500,000 slaves owned by several thousand rich white planters. Sometime in the 1740’s, Toussaint Louverture was born into slavery. Louverture served as a slave in a couple of different positions. He was eventually granted freedom by his owner and went on to gain a small coffee plantation and attained a dozen slaves of his own. Louverture first emerged as a leader after the whites refused to end slavery. Thousands of plantations were burned and hundreds of white and mixed-raced people were killed as a response. Louverture encouraged slaves to fight for their freedom behind the scenes. Louverture commanded a rebel army against the French forces on the island in 1793, which lead to the abolishment of slavery in the French colonies in 1794. Louverture became the most powerful person on the island after he pledged loyalty to France and became commander-in-chief of the army in Saint Domingue. Napoleon, unexpectedly, had gained power in France and was planning to reinstate slavery. In 1802, Napoleon sent an invasion of 21,000 French troops and successfully captured Louverture. He was taken back to France and Napoleon then pulled out his troops giving up the fight. Louverture was put in a French jail and while he was dying from pneumonia Saint Domingue was celebrating victory because on January 1, 1804 Haiti became an independent nation. As a leader, Louverture had many great qualities and he should be remembered. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered for being a liberator of slaves, military commander, and ruler of Saint Domingue. His role as a liberator of slaves was the most important because everything he did was to fight for the freedom of slaves.

First off, Louverture should be most remembered as a liberator of slaves. Every decision he made was to benefit the slaves and help them gain their freedom. The start of the French Revolution in 1789 triggered the slave revolution of Saint Domingue. In 1791, the slave revolt began and Louverture served as a doctor to the troops and also commanded a small detachment of slave soldiers (Document A). He gained a reputation as a military commander for running a well-ordered camp and for training his men well. When the revolutionary government in France abolished slavery in 1794, Louverture and his troops stopped the revolt. Once slavery was abolished he pulled out his troops and ended the revolt. This shows how Louverture did whatever to benefit the slaves and changed sides based on who was trying to abolish slavery. Toussaint Louverture wrote a letter to the French Directory to discourage them from reinstating slavery. He was letting them know that if they tried to reinstate slavery the slaves would fight back. Louverture claimed in the letter that since the slaves knew what it was like to be free that they were willing to fight to the death. He said in the letter, “We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know how to confront death to preserve it” (Document B). This is him saying that they are threatening to fight back and not stop till death. Louverture was willing to work hard to help the slaves maintain their freedom. Additionally, Louverture lead the commission that created Saint Domingue’s Constitution of 1801. Article 3 promised all inhabitants of Saint Domingue that slavery be forever abolished and all men were born free, lived free, and died free (Document C). Also, Article 28 stated The Constitution nominate citizen Toussaint-Louverture, Chief General of the army of Saint Domingue (Document C). As long as Louverture is Governor he would never reinstate slavery. These are some of the many reasons why Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves.

Second, Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a military commander. The Saint Domingue’s constitution of 1801 included that everyone must work on the plantation, but got to earn money. Basically, he was having the slaves do the same labor and work as before except this time they were to be paid and treated like “family”. Former slaves objected to this because they were being forced to work with poor conditions just like when they were enslaved. “The more [Toussaint’s] military had to [force] the former plantations slaves to do plantation labor, the more unpopular the army became,” (Document E). Louverture’s army was forcing the slaves to do the work they had been doing as slaves and they were not happy about that. Toussaint Louverture made his nephew, Hyacinthe Moyse, commander of all the Northern Department. Moyse preferred small holdings rather than large plantations. He would let the plantation workers be their own boss on a small piece of land. Moyse and the former slaves began to distrust Toussaint. They thought he was getting too close to the whites and it wasn’t fair to them to be forced into working again. A revolt broke out on October 29, 1801 and Louverture did not respond well to this. He stepped in and ordered many rebels to step out of line and kill themselves. During the revolt rebels cried, “General Moyse is with us-death to all the whites,” (Document E). Louverture then ordered Moyse to be arrested and executed. Louverture’s decision to arrest and execute his nephew was a decision made to maintain order. He was a military commander and he had to make pretty tough decisions. Between December 1801 and February of 1802 several ships left France and with help 31,131 troops landed on Saint Domingue. Toussaint had gained his soldiers respect with three important characteristics. He possessed humanity, generosity, and courage. A lot of what he did astonished people. The ships were going to the port city of Samana and according to Louverture it was to reinstate slavery. Toussaint Louverture ordered his generals to burn down the port city as the French were arriving. He did this so that when the French arrived they would be at a disadvantage because they were arriving to nothing. There were no resources for them to use as an advantage. When the French arrived, Louverture had his men retreat to the mountains. Within the mountains they could use guerrilla warfare. Louverture was a great military commander because he was both inspirational and did everything very strategically. Before fleeing to the mountains, Louverture gave a pep talk to his soldiers. In the speech he said, “That soul, when once the soul of a man, and no longer that of a slave, can overthrow the pyramids and the Alps themselves, sooner than again be crushed down into slavery,” (Document F).  He was preparing his men for war and letting them know that they should fight to death because they knew what it was like to be a free man. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a military commander.

Lastly, Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a ruler of Saint Domingue. As Ruler of Saint Domingue, Toussaint Louverture created a Proclamation. The proclamation established more laws with regards to who is supposed to work and where they were to work. Also, it was to try and control the population that was refusing to work. He stated within this proclamation the consequences for the people who broke the rules he made. Since slavery had been abolished none of the former slaves wanted to go back and work just like when they were slaves. So, Louverture had to put in rules. The proclamation stated, “Vagabond cultivators arrested...shall be taken to the commander of the quarter, who will have them sent to the gendarmerie [local police] on their plantation,” (Document D). The people who did not want to work had to be arrested by the plantation police and forced to work again. The former slaves felt a lot like slavery was back even though that was not Louverture’s intention. He was putting in rules about agriculture because it was the island's main source of income and everyone depended on it. Louverture was a good ruler of Saint Domingue and should be remembered for it.

Toussaint should be remembered for being a liberator of slaves, a military leader, and a ruler of Saint Domingue. But, he should be most remembered for being a liberator of slaves. He did everything to help the slaves gain freedom and keep it. He would switch sides depending on who was fighting to abolish slavery. Louverture did a number of memorable things in his life and he should be remembered for all of them.

Were the Revolts Successful or Failures?

The essential question of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 lesson was, were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded. We started off this lesson by discussing a comment made by Alexis de Tocqueville, a liberal French political thinker and historian, and how the map of Revolutions in Europe, 1830 and 1848 shows this.

He said, “We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the earth trembles anew? A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.” The wind of revolution is very powerful and revolutions are still occurring. By trying to oppress the revolutions, more revolutions are happening. After the activator, we created a scale of success and failure.

Following the analyzing of quotes we then split up into small groups. Each group was assigned one of the five revolts we were studying during this unit.  There was the 1825 Decembrist Revolt, 1830 France Revolt, the 1848 France Revolt, the 1848 Frankfurt Assembly, and the 1848 Hungary Revolt. My group was assigned the 1830 France Revolt. As a group we read the introduction summary and skimmed the primary sources on our Revolt and used the information we collected and completed a chart. Within the chart, we had to record the basics. We had to record the country, date, goal, opponent, outcome, and the reason for success/failure. The second part of the assignment was to go through all of the primary sources and choose what category it belonged to (goal, opponent, or outcome), we had to pull a quote that expresses the point being made, and include sourcing information. Next, we had to scale the revolt on the scale we created earlier and then create a survey monkey. We took the knowledge and evidence we acquired and produced a survey that our classmates had to take. Finally, we took the other groups surveys to learn about their revolts.

As I mentioned before my group’s revolt was assigned the 1830 France Revolt. This event took place in France, July of 1830. The opponent of the revolt was Charles X and the goal was to get rid of him and his ideas of absolutism. According to the introduction document, “When Louis XVIII died in 1824, his younger brother, Charles X, inherited the throne. Charles, a strong believer in absolutism, rejected the very idea of the charter. In July 1830, he suspended the legislature, limited the right to vote, and restricted the press.” This upset the people and they barricaded the streets of Paris while attacking the soldiers. The rebels took control of Paris within days. The control of Paris forced Charles X to abdicate and flee to England. According to the primary source Theirs, Adolphe.2 “Orleanist Manifesto.” July 30, 1830. In Laurisse and Rambaud, Histoire Genrale, 287-288, “The Duke of Orleans [Louis Philippe] is a prince devoted to the cause of the Revolution… The Duke of Orleans is a citizen king.” The outcome of this revolt included Charles X’s cousin, Louis Philippe, being chosen as king by the Chambers of deputies. He was called “citizen king”. As a group, we used information from the other primary sources and this information to create our survey monkey.

I think the historians were wrong when they concluded that the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were failures. Although none of the revolts were completely successful for the most part the revolts helped to change the way things were. The only real failure was the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. It ended with many rebels being put in jail or killed. On top of the fact that many were either killed or imprisoned, the rebels did not reach their goal of not being under the power of Nicholas. A primary source given for the Decembrist Revolt (Nicholas I, Speaking about the Decembrists to the French Ambassador, c. 1825) said, “The leaders and the instigators of the conspiracy will be dealt with without pity, without mercy. The law demands retribution and, in their cases, I will not use my power to grant mercy.” Clearly, Nicholas was still in power and not treating his people right, so it shows that the rebels didn't make progress in trying to get what they wanted.  With the exception of this revolt being a failure, the other revolts were either neutral or partial success. My group put the 1830 France Revolt as a partial success on the scale. The rebels wanted Charles X out of power and they accomplished that by forcing him to flee, but this wasn't a total success because Louis Philippe favored the wealthier over everyone. He granted the wealthier people the right to vote and did not grant the middle and low classes the right to. An example of a neutral revolt was the Hungary Revolt of 1848. The overwhelmed Austrian government temporarily agreed to an independent government, end to serfdom, and a written constitution to protect their basic rights. According to the Hungary intro document, “Austrian troops soon regained control of Vienna and Prague. With Russian help, Austrian forces also smashed the rebels in Budapest. Many were imprisoned, executed, or forced into exile.” This Revolt was both a success and a fail. Overall, I disagree with the historians and I think the revolutions of 1380 and 1848 were not all failures.

                

Say Goodbye to Napoleon and Hello to Powerful Europeans

The essential question of the Congress of Vienna was what should people in power do when their power is threatened? We started off this lesson with the activator. Our activator was to read the background essay about the Congress of Vienna. We had to examine the essay and read about the attendees from the five different countries, the questions being addressed by the Congress of Vienna, and figure out the mood and nature of the Congress of Vienna. The attendees were all very wealthy andwere used to getting what they wanted and when they wanted it. The representatives that attend were from Austria, France, Prussia, Great Britain, and Russia. The attendee from Austria was Prince Metternich. He was elegant, sophisticated, vain, and excelled in the arts of seduction. The attendee from France was Prince Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. Almost all accusations made against him were true and according to Madame de la Tour du Pin he was the most enchanting man she had ever known. Representing Prussia was the most volatile and hot-tempered of the attendees. Frederick William III, their king, brought one of the largest most educated and hardworking delegations. Representing Great Britain was Viscount Castlereagh. He was an unfriendly and strange gentleman who had recently caused a scandal in London.  Lastly, Tsar Alexander represented Russia. He was a man of sudden impulse and excess. According to the article, “his sexual appetites were insatiable.” These five delegates achieved what they had hoped to and the treaty was signed on June 9^th, 1815.

                                             

Scene from the Congress of Vienna.   

http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/vienna-history/congress-of-vienna/

With Napoleon defeated, the map of Europe had to be adjusted and Metternich and the other powerful people at the Congress of Vienna had to come up with a new map that everyone agreed on. Their final decision include Balance of Power. They would bring French territory back to its boundaries as existed prior to the expansion. Prussian territory would be expanded to surround France with a stronger neighbor. Also, they would border France with the Netherlands and Austria and Russia would gain additional territory. The land redistribution between the countries will ensure Balance of power among the allies in the face of any later French expansion attempts.

I think the people at the Congress of Vienna made the right choice of ensuring a Balance of power among the five countries. I don’t think that there was a better way to react that would have served more people. They all agreed on the changes to the map and all of the changes will help protect against any future attempts at French expansion.

Ideologies of the 19th Century

The three major political ideologies of the 19th century were liberalism, nationalism, and conservatism. All three of the ideologies influenced social and political actions in some way. To start off our lesson we had to come up with our own definitions for what a liberal is, what a conservative is, and what nationalism is. After defining the terms, we were told the ideologies and took a few notes on them. Next, we were divided into 6 groups and given one of the three ideologies. That meant that two groups had nationalism, two groups had liberalism, and two groups had conservatism. We then read a passage that was describing the ideology we were assigned and had to figure out its social and political impact. After analyzing the passage we had to create a one minute project that explained our ideology. Finally, we presented our projects to the class and took notes on the two other ideologies. 

Link to my educreations:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/nationalism/25528935/?s=uUoXCB

My partners and I had to create a project about nationalism. We created a 60 seconds Educreation. We included within our presentation the social impact it had, the political impact it had, and examples from the passage for both. The social impact that nationalism had was it brought nations together through shared languages, history, and customs.

This is a slide from our  project showing the people being united between shared languages, customs, and history.
 The political impact that nationalism had was that people were brought together under one government to fulfill their historical role as a nation and progress as humanity. The social impact example that we included was the book Addresses to German Nation written by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. It urged people to unite in hopes that the nation would become stronger as a whole. The example we included for the political impact was that under Napoleon’s rule the Germans and Italians both learned that their disunity was a weakness and then united.

 From watching the other presentations I learned a lot about both liberalism and conservatism. Liberals wanted a meritocracy, which was a system where things were based off of skill and not social class, because they believed that everyone was born with god given rights and nothing should be based off of social class. On the other hand, Conservatives wanted to keep the church in power and wanted to keep a monarchy. They wanted to reuse ideas from the past and wanted to keep it traditional. They did not like change or they didn’t want change because the system worked for them and they liked it. Also, they feared a revolution would break out and it would be chaotic if they changed anything.

Reflection on Napoleon

Napoleon had a big impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe. In class, we watched a video and read through a couple of excerpts to gain more information on Napoleon and his effect on the world. We first watched a video that listed all of the places that Napoleon had successfully conquered. The list just kept going and going. Some of the many places that he took over on his voyage were Italy, Austria, Belgium, Prussia, and a lot more. Although he successfully conquered many places he could not gain power of Britain. People either admired him or were guarded against him. There are many reasons why someone would admire him, but there are also many reasons why someone would be guarded against him. Many admired him because he led a lot of successful victories and he was concise red a military genius. He could be guarded against because in most cases when he took control of a place he ruined their culture.

Napoleon's impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe was very significant. The impact that Napoleon had on the social system of Europe is that more people had rights to education and property access. Also, he established a meritocracy in which people got money and jobs based on their skills and not their social classes. His impact on the economic system was that he built roads and canals which helped modernize economies. This was positive for France because they were able to control trade agreements with other places throughout Europe. Napoleon had a big impact on the political system of Europe.  He overthrew the directory, which ran things for the benefits of themselves. His political ways and laws allowed people more rights. As I said earlier many were fans of Napoleon and many were not. Madame de Stael was not a fan of Napoleon at all. She was upset because she was born into her social class and when Napoleon took control and rewarded people based on skill her and her family lost power and money. According to the excerpt Two Views of Napoleon she said, “By alternating between cunning and force he has subjugated [conquered] Europe.” She thinks that he only gained control because of force and his cunning ways and that it affected France in a negative. Her opinion on Napoleon could be based off of the fact that what he did caused her family to lose power making him a family enemy. On the other hand, Napoleon had many fans. One of his officers, Marshal Michel Ney, admired him greatly. This is because as an officer and Napoleon being on his side he gained power. Also according to the same source Marshal said, “To the emperor Napoleon, our sovereign, belongs alone the right to rule over our beautiful country.” Clearly Marshal Michel Ney was a big fan of Napoleon because he seems to look at him as a very good guy. In the article The Lost Voices, it says “while we recognize these defects and faults, let us be equally frank in acknowledging his great qualities.” Even though Napoleon had some faults I think overall he was an excellent military leader and should be seen in a good way.

Madame de Stael: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_de_Sta%C3%ABl

Marshal Michel Ney: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism

In class, an activity showing what communism, socialism, and capitalism are was conducted.  Everyone was given 3 Hershey kisses besides two other people who were given 10 Hershey kisses. The two people with 10 pieces of chocolate were supposed to represent the wealthy and the other people represented the poor. Then, the students were instructed to go around the room and play rock-paper-scissors with other people. If you won you would receive a piece of chocolate from the losing person, and if you lost you would give up a Hershey kiss. When you lost all of your pieces you sat down.  At the end of the game some people had a lot of kisses and some people had none.  Mrs. Gallagher then collected the candy and gave everyone 3 pieces so everyone got an equal amount of chocolate. The second round of the activity the students had the choice to play or not to play. At first the students said the game was fun, but then the game became extremely frustrating because you got what you had earned taken away and then everyone got the same amount. The purpose of the lesson was to show capitalism, socialism, and communism in a way that the students could understand them more. It was showing capitalism when you started out with your own candy and you got to choose who you were going to play against. Also, it shows capitalism when some people were winning while other people were losing. It shows socialism when Mrs. Gallagher collected the candy at the end of the game and redistributed 3 to everyone. The goal of socialism was to bring economic equality and aim for classless society. Lastly, the game shows communism because the students could refuse to play and would just agree to share candy without the need for teacher supervision.

Although Marx and Smith had very different approaches, they both seemed to want to help the poor. Marx approach was capitalism, socialism, and communism. He thought that the poor would benefit the most from a classless society. He thought this because the poor would be given equal opportunities as everyone else. Smith, on the other hand, created a theory called “the Invisible Hand”. The invisible hand theory is the theory that the government would not control the economy and the market naturally would take care of itself.  He thought this would help the poor because it gave them a chance to purchase higher quality goods for a cheaper price. They would be able to buy things they couldn't before.

Out of the two theories I think Smith’s is the best because it gives poor people new opportunities to buy goods they could not afford before.  Also, it gives people the opportunity to work for their own wealth and not have it taken away. 

Here is a link to a video further explaining the "Invisible Hand" theory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyVXa-u4wE&feature=youtu.be

Risks Of Going to The Mills

Girls at the time of the Lowell Mills were to work at home under the guidance of their father and mother while they grew up.  So many of these teenage girls wanted nothing more than to branch off and become independent. The girls found the chance to gain their own independence if they went off to the Mills. They wanted to get out of the farm life and see the world outside of what they were used too. Most of the girls were motivated to make a life for themselves on their own. There were many benefits that came from the girls deciding to go to the Mills. Some benefits were that they would be able to send money back to the family, they would get some money for themselves, they would get more freedom and independence, and they had the chance to create opportunities for their futures. On the other hand, there were also many costs. One cost is that they would have been working in poor conditions and with extremely dangerous machines.  Also, there would have been low pay, and the health risks from working in the factories were extremely high. If the girls were to go to the factories they were not allowed to socialize with men when working which is also a cost and the girls were not treated fairly by the overseers. Many of the Mill girls would go on to be outspoken abolitionists and women’s right activists. The girls were the first women to protest so openly which led to more women to speak out about their rights.    

Thoughts about the Live Chat with Jamie

In order to prepare for the chat, in class we did a number of things to get us ready.  First, we did a website investigation. We explored the website reading all of the information that was provided for us and examined the pictures that were offered to us. The second thing we did to prepare ourselves is watch a video which was created by Jamie. Within the video, he talked about the different machines and what they did and how they worked. After watching his video we then had to define some of the words he used in the video. We had to define the words using our google keyword search skills. Some of the words we had to define were slubbing, power loom, sliver, and drawing frame. Finally, we drafted questions to ask Jamie the day of the chat.

I learned a lot of interesting things from the video chat with Jamie. One thing that I learned that I did not know before was that the workers got paid depending on how much they made. So if the cotton you made got ruined then you would not get paid. I also learned that the job of most children was to brush the fiber into a straight line and then give it to the mother of the household to be turned into thread. At the time, the loom was the most valuable thing a family owned and it was passed down from father to son. The chance of injury was so high in the factories because of how dangerous the machines were.  People and children were pulled into machines and their bodies were mangled. People lost limbs daily. They had the children clean because they could reach all the small places. Orphans would be bought and brought to the mills to do this hard job. Throughout the chat I learned many things from Jamie.

Overall I learned a lot from the discussion with Jamie. I thought it was really cool how we got to video chat with someone in England. I liked how we got to ask him questions and interact with him. I would definitely like to do another video chat with experts on other topics throughout the school year. 

Museum Curator

To create our exhibit we went through a curating process. First, we researched on our topic. We found out background information on it and we took notes on it. We then analyzed the sources we were given. Next, we decided as a group what information we thought visitors to our exhibits should learn from it. After that, we figured out the order of which the information was going to be viewed on the exhibit. We made sure we included all of the dates, authors, and titles of the source information within the exhibit. Lastly, we created place cards that would guide the viewer with essential information.  We then mounted it all on a poster board that would be easy to see and read.

After visiting all of the other exhibits I learned multiple things. The first exhibit that I visited was called Living in Filth. I learned that as the number of factories increased so did the smoke which polluted the air and waterways making cities extremely dirty. Poverty became a widespread problem and housing areas where in poor conditions and over populated.

I then visited Broken Children. Since kids were the ideal size to work in mines they did. They were small and it made it easy for them to get around in the mines. They had leather belts around them to pull loads. The mills were also a spot of child labor. The conditions of the mills were extremely bad and dangerous for young girls.

Next, I visited Thomas Takes Great Britain and learned about transportation. I learned that canals were created and used to bring goods to communities enabling people to obtain goods from other communities. Also, I learned about the invention and purpose of the steam engine.

Lastly, I visited From Spinning Wheels to Power Looms. At this exhibit I learned that the population of London grew rapidly after the industrial revolution. Also, I learned and found extremely interesting that every family owned a loom and kept it in their house. 

Industrialization Ingredients

           The Industrial Revolution improved living in many ways. In class this week, we had to answer one specific question. The question was what was ‘revolutionary’ about industrialization. The Industrial Revolution was an increase in production brought about by the use of machines and characterized by the use of new energy sources. The Industrial Revolution was revolutionary in four major areas- people, technology, resources, and transportation. In class, we had to define terms that related to these four aspects.

Transportation contributed to the Industrial Revolution. The Steam Locomotive was invented. It was a steam powered train that pulled carriages along tracks moving goods across lands. Factory owners could then send goods to places water travel could not get to. Also, more railroads were created throughout Europe and North America. The steam boat was another big invention at the time. It was a steam powered boat that traveled at an above average pace which enabled faster shipping. It could carry 10 to 20 times the amount carried by wooden ship. These to creations resulted in faster shipping, allowed more people to have access to other goods, and provided more jobs for people.

People also played a large role in the Industrial Revolution. People improved farming. The Dutch built earthen walls also known as dikes to reclaim land from sea. Also, ways to make farming less labor intense were developed. Death rates decreased big time because agricultural revolution reduced the risk of famine, there was better hygiene, and better medical care. Because of the increase in health the women were healthier and could produce stronger babies.                                                     
In class we watched one of John Green's videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhL5DCizj5c&feature=youtu.be

Using Technology to Teach Us about Technology

We started off the year learning more about the technology that we use almost every day. Recently in class we did a couple activities that were meant to teach us how to search and use online resources responsibly.

The first activity we did was a Google a Day. A Google a Day is a website that asks you some questions and you use the website to search to find the answers. The one thing that I really liked about this websites is the tips and tricks tab in the top right hand corner. When you click on it, it brings you to a list of advice that will help you find what you need faster and more efficient. It was a little bit frustrating because our iPad was working a little slow so we unable to finish during the class period. I am not sure if that was a website problem or a poor Wi-Fi connection. From this site, I learned to not type in a long sentence to search for something but rather to use keywords.                      Link to a Google a Day :http://www.agoogleaday.com/

The second activity we did to educate ourselves more was define a couple of terms. Then, we used the terms to evaluate a website. The terms we had to define were accuracy, authenticity, and reliability. Accuracy is having correct information. Authenticity is the quality of being real and genuine and reliability is a trustworthy source. Once we figured out the definitions we had to then use them to check to see if the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus was a good source to use for school. The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, we later found out, is a fake website about an endangered octopus. There were pictures and videos on the site that looked really fake. In the end we figured out that this would not be a valid site to use for school.                                                                                                Link to Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

What Makes a Teacher Good or Bad?

My name is Emma Collins and as a sophomore in high school I have had a variety of different teachers. Some of the teachers I have had over the course of the years have been really good while others have not been. The main thing that really distinguishes a good teacher from a bad one is their ability to listen to the students. What I mean by this is that the teachers that asks for student’s opinions and does activities that engage the students, in my opinion, are considered the good teachers. When I think back to teachers I have had in the past only the ones who I enjoyed learning from are the ones I remember most. Those are the teachers that listen to student feedback, thoroughly explain things, and are overall someone who makes learning fun. Like last year’s history class, I think I will do very well in Honors History because I really enjoy how technology is incorporated into all of our projects.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/03/response_teachers_must_connect_learning_to_students_lives.html 

I completely agree with John Green that it is our duty to use our education to do great things. I feel like I’m obligated to do something with all of the information I have absorbed over the years. My academic goals this year is to maintain good grades and to stay organized. I need to stay more on top of thing and actually put forth my best effort. Also, I am taking two Honors classes this year and I really hope I can keep up with the work. Sports-wise, I achieved my goal of making the JV soccer team. I am playing hockey this fall and I may or may not try out for the high school team. To achieve all of my goals both academic and athletic I must push myself to try my absolute hardest and to show up to every class or practice with a positive attitude! 

John Green Video:

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