Wednesday

Today in class, we worked on our project for ancient Rome.   Before we could work on our project, we had a fire drill.  Everyone walked outside on the turf field until we could go back inside.  When we went back inside, Alayna and I worked on our project.  We are doing a mosaic.  We had to pick out what we are going to put on the mosaic and how we are going to describe it.

Baltimore Riot Discussion

Today in class we had a very interesting about the Baltimore Riots and Protests.  Mr. Schick told the whole class his opinion about what was happening and encouraged us to share our opinion.  Mostly everyone shared what they thought about it and what they saw happening.  We talked about how something could happen and Bel Air but also tat is not very likely to happen.  I personally did not enjoy the discussion because I don't really think the rioting involves me in any way.

Rome Notes

Coliseum:

• originally called the Flavian Amphitheater 
• covers area of 6 acres
• iconic symbol for Rome 
• capacity - 50,000-80,000 people
• in the center or Rome 
• construction started in 70 A.D. 
• height - 127 ft 
• perimeter - 1788 ft 
• largest amphitheater in Rome 
• underneath - rooms and tunnels
• covered in 15cm of sand 
• 287 ft long 
• 180 ft wide 
• estimated 700,000 people died in arena 

Circus Maximus 

• could hold 250,000 spectators 
• was built around 530 B.C. 
• first built by Tarquinus Riscus 
• 621m in length 
• 118m in width 
• located in valley between Palatine and Aventine hills in Rome 
• middle of it - spina - has statues and monuments on it 
• circumference was a mile
• arena was surrounded by canal - 10ft wide and 10ft deep 
• races - circle spina seven times - 4 miles
• races were ran clockwise 

Roman Forum 

• forum - latin word meaning open space or market place 
• public space in middle of Roman city 
• included Senate building 
• crossed by Via Sacra - Scared Way 
• place of business - justice was administered 
• also used for festivals and funerals 
• later became place of amusement 
• were many forums in Rome 
• housed many Temples 
• designed by Vitrueius 

Aqueducts 

• first aqueduct built in 312 B.C. 
• conveyed water from springs and streams to Rome 
• Multi-tiered viaducts - developed to cross low areas 
• Process: traveled to catch-basins --> sediment, mud, and dirt cleaned out of water --> free-flowing canals --> storage reservoirs --> people 
• built from stone and volcanic sediment 
• approximately 260 miles long 
• payed laborers and slaves to build the aqueducts 
• separate aqueducts supplied city of Rome 
• built over span of 500 years 
• capable of supplying 1 cubic meter of water to each person in the city (approximately 1,000,000 people) 

Tuesday

Today in class, we watched a very short video.  Before we watched the video we talked about Mr. Schick's production career.  Mr. Schick told us how he worked on a lot of movies before he became a teacher.  He met a lot of famous people and traveled all over the country.  At the end of class we watched the little movie.  We did not finish it so we will most likely finish it tomorrow.

Monday

Today in class, we reviewed the test.  Mr. Schick told us all the answers so that we would have them to study for the exam.  It was very helpful.  I think that if I studied for the test more, I would have gotten a better grade. I knew most of the answers today, which was a good thing.  I thought ancient Greece was a very interesting topic.

Test Day

Today in class we took a test.  We finally took the ancient Greece test, after learning about it for a long time.  We turned in our papers also which means we are completely done with Ancient Greece.  I thought the test was reasonable, not to hard and not to easy.  I think it covered everything we learned about Greece.