Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

10/24/12

Today in History we learned about different paintings of the American Revolution; who painted them, how they painted them, different lighting, structure, technique, and emphasis. The most common technique for the paintings was triangular composition, which made whom/whatever was the tip of the triangle superior to everything else. I thought how strange it was that some of the artists weren't even at the battle, some miles away. But some paintings weren't very accurate at all, more detailed by symbolism rather than actual facts of what the scene looked like. Some had different parts of the scene painted at the same time. It was interesting to learn about the background of the artists, too. Some were very involved with the revolution, others from different countries, trying to make a point to their country what it was all about.

Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/3585624/

Friday, October 19, 2012

10/19/12

Today in class we discussed our essays about if we agreed or disagreed whether we were in times men's souls were tried or not. Although some people had good counterexamples, I still stay strong to my opinion. We also saw some of the tactics Washington used during the war, using Christmas to help him attack the British, since they all were "supposed" to take the holiday off from the war. He also took advantage of a storm to escape Long Island to Manhatten, where they were able to escape towards Pennsylvania. I think Washington was smart with how he worked his army, say how a solider who runs away is able to fight another day.

History class

Last history class we wrote an essay about whether or not we are still in times where men's souls are tried, directed from a quote by Thomas Paine. I disagreed; I think that we are not being tried whatsoever, especially compared to people who were fighting in the revolution back in the late 1700's. Our times are nothing like theirs. I do agree that some people have it harder than others, but if you have the newest TV, phone, laptop, etc., then either you need to work on your spending or you just are complaining because you're doing quite fine. Also, they were fighting to get freedom. Now, with the war we're in, we may not like to admit it, but the only reason we're fighting is to get oil from foreign countries.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en_GB&v=Fxsw-Y4Xg18

10/10/12

Today we learned about the Battle of Bunker hill. It was the British vs. the Colonists in Boston. The British fought in a very formal way where they all were in certain lines and were supposed to shoot a certain way at a certain pace. The colonists, however, were using guerilla warfare tactics, where they'd be hiding anywhere possible and shot/attacked from their hiding spots and then would run away. But when the battle of bunker hill came, the colonists had an advantage. They were on the higher ground, so it was much harder for the British to shoot at them; it would either be too short of a shot, or they bullet would go over their heads. Either way they weren't able to really attack them. When it came down to it, the colonists were forced to retreat bunker hill because the British took over Breed's hill. But if you count up the deaths, and who lost the most amount of people, the British lost over twice as many people as the colonists. So what does that mean? Well I'd have to say the colonists were the real winners. They were able to kill about 1000 British soldiers with no sort of military tactics/training other then to follow a bit of a plan, while the British, having the "best army" and military training, supposedly know what they're doing and think they'll easily take care of the colonists.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

10/3

Today in History we did an edcafe where we were given a sheet on a specific subject (mine being the Boston Tea Party). As a group we were to make a power point set up of it through drive on our gmail's. I like the concept but the drive was difficult to use; it was really slow and you had to constantly refresh it to get it to work... constantly as in there were times that if it took me too long to copy and paste my paragraph I had typed in word onto the slide I'd have to refresh it once or twice before it would work. Then I'd have to refresh it again to change the font size, etc. It was a bit too stressful but the idea I really liked. I think it would be easier if we had used a different powerpoint system and then everyone just e-mailed their paragraphs to one person instead and then that person could copy and paste it to the powerpoint. It'd be easier and faster to do.

Monday, October 1, 2012