Race for the Cure

This weekend I will be joining thousands of people participating in the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure.  If your family would like to support us in our efforts to find a cure for breast cancer, please visit my donations page (found here).

There's no extra credit being offered - just the satisfaction of helping with a great cause. 

Thank you for your support!

population studies: defining our terms

Define these terms, AND place a link to each term in your blog.  Wikipedia is actually a great source for this.  Then look up (in the CIA Factbook) each of the countries listed, and list the rank and actual figure.

• life expectancy (Japan, France, Kenya, Cuba, United States, Afghanistan) 
• crude birthrate  (Japan, Kenya, Ethiopia, United States,Germany)
• crude death rate  (Afghanistan, Kenya, United States, Japan, Mexico)
• RNI (rate of natural increase)
• TFR (total fertility rate)  (Niger, Afghanistan, Japan, United States, Germany)
• net migration rate  (Mexico, United States, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Uganda) 
• population pyramid

If you don't finish it in class, finish it for homework.  When you're done, post it to your blog.  (After yesterday's test, I'm sure you see the value of having this on your blog!)

test today

"Lord, today we have a test,
Help us, please, to do our best..."

Don't forget to blog tonight, if only to tell me how you thought you did on the test.

If you weren't in class today for sports, sickness, or whatever, you have to contact me to arrange your makeup test.

it's true - test tomorrow

The mighty 01 section reviewed for tomorrow's test - you know, the 100-point test that covers our discussions of 9/11, the Middle East, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, plus our definitions.


Tomorrow.


Be ready.

test Wednesday

Reminder:  100-point test on Wednesday, covering our discussions of 9/11, the Middle East, and the three religions, plus our definitions.

help me grade your 9/11 paper

Some of you did not give me permission to read your paper when you published your GoogleDoc.  Here's what you need to do to correct this.

• Open your 9/11 paper
• click Share
• click Change under Permissions
• choose Public on the web  
• click Save

It would help me out if you sent me a quick email at rschick@johncarroll.org telling me you made the change.  Thank you very much!

Prezi presentations help us prep for the test

Nice job on your Prezis Friday.  Prezis, like anything else, take some getting used to, but many of you did fantastic work with yours.  You'll get even better at it as you do more of them.

We will have our first test of the quarter on Wednesday, September 29.  The format will be short answer, multiple choice, and fill in the blank.  This test will not be entered before the mid-quarter report.  You're responsible for what we have covered in class:

• the events and effects of the September 11 attacks
• the definitions you were assigned to look up
• the five nations in the Middle East we featured
• the three religions we covered

We will review this material in class next week.  You can prepare by reviewing your notes and going over my earlier blog entries.

finishing the Prezis

Brilliant work today, as you completed work on your Prezis.

Reminder: Make sure everybody in your group has the web address for your Prezi.  Each person should then copy the address into their own blog.  Better yet: embed it into your blog.

Also, if you want to add more to your Prezi, or if you just want to proofread, you can still edit.  The web address won't change.  You can even invite the others in your group to edit.  Go to Edit Prezi, click Meeting, and choose Invite to Edit.

Tomorrow - we present.

update on today's classwork

I think we got a lot done in class today.  Tonight, you should make it a point to communicate with the other people in your group.  Email, text, phone, Skype, whatever it takes.  Make sure your Prezi person is getting good at Prezi.  Make sure everyone else is researching - finding good sites with reliable information about Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.  Make sure you reach out to the people that weren't in class today, and get them up to speed.  Everyone should walk into class tomorrow ready to go.

using Prezi

Today in class we are going to use Prezi to study and compare three major religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

Prezi can be found here.

You have a machine in front of you that gives you access to the collected knowledge of recorded human history.

Now get busy.

(I did a simple Google search of "religions of the world."  I found a LOT of sites.  Here is an example of a source that might not be reliable.  This is more like it.)

2009 - terrorist incidents worldwide

We (especially the amazing 05 section) have been discussing the use of terrorism in class.  This is certainly an important topic, as well as an emotional one.  Here is some information to put into perspective how often these attacks occur in America and around the world.

Number of terrorist incidents, 2009

The above map tracks the number of attacks just last year (2009).

This Wikipedia entry list of terrorist attacks
 can be organized by country, city, date,
and estimated number of fatalities.  

more on the Middle East

Interesting discussions and controversial proposals in class today, as we continue studying Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Earth & Chrome

I believe you guys have Google Earth already loaded on your computers.  If not, take a couple minutes this weekend and download it, and keep the icon handy so you can get to it easily.  It is a valuable resource, and a fun site to play with.  Find your house!  Then fly to the pyramids!  Navigate over to the Eiffel Tower!  Check out the terrain in Afghanistan!

Also, I highly recommend using Google Chrome as your browser, especially if your computer has been locking up on you.  Just as easy to use as Firefox (but with cooler features), more virus-resistant than (yuk) Explorer.  Download it here.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Identifying countries

When we discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or rainforests in Brazil, or oil coming from Saudi Arabia or Russia or Venezuela, or nuclear weapons in Pakistan or India, it's important to know where these countries are.  Today's exercise is simple: locate some major countries on the world map, and identify the continent where they can be found.

This class exercise can be found by clicking Identifying Countries: classwork, found under Hot Links.  Follow the directions you see there.  This is a graded assignment which must be completed in class.