Daily Entry 01

I'm going to do an overview of (most everything) that has been covered / has happened this week...

Ms. Kroh's Pre-Calculus class: Now that we're beginning statistics we recieved new books, turned our old ones in and are now using the "stat plot" function on our calculators. We have covered box-and-whisker plots, percentiles, and bar graphs. Today (Wednesday) we learned about standard deviation and variance. Make sure that you understand the importance of "x bar" and sigma. In order to receive credit for any work you must work with and show a chart on paper. By using the calculator, however, (Stat > calc > 1 vars stats) you can easily get all of the information needed. Just make sure that you understand sum of squares, n, etc.

Ms. Nehrig's class: We will be given our argument plans back soon. We went over examples of a good world lit paper and bibliography, have gone over (and had practice sessions the past two Wednesdays) the AP English exam, and just recently reviewed an article written by Alfie Kohn (The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation).

Journalism: A new issue of The Growler will be sent out soon, and so stories were critiqued today (Wednesday) and are due tomorrow. Mine is on the BOINC- look it up or look for a future posting about it.

Spanish: This week we had a test on the past two sets of "palabras nuevas" and are currently working on a third set. I'll see about posting all of the "palabras" up on here. We have also organized ourselves into groups and selected a chapter in the Rumbos textbook that is in section B. We need to deliver a presentation that includes a PowerPoint, activity, and test. All subject material must be covered in the presentation. We did not do much today (Wednesday) besides work on organizing our groups (2 or 3 people). Note: Seniors are doing a similar, yet different, project.

History with Ms. Gherst: THIS WEEK: We have made sure to finish up the progressive era, going over Marcus Garvey, the suffragist movement, etc. and move into Wilson's term as president and the beginning of World War I.

Today (Wednesday) we began our coverage of World War I, asking ourselves these questions: -What caused the war? What was the course of the war?

We analyzed Woodrow Wilson's (American President at the time) 14 points- an international address related to the war. From the address we deduced the four MAIN causes of the war: imperialism/colonialism, militarism, nationalism, and the alliance system. Ms. Gherst made a point to bring up an activity from last year, in which we threw paper balls at each other. Try and remember what we did sophomore year in history- it'll help with understanding this year.
SIDE NOTE: the assassination of Ferdinand in 1914 was brought up, as well as the Zimmerman telegram and beginning of US involvement in the war in 1917.

Art with Mr. Carson: We worked on our gesture drawing / still life. The set-ups (pick one or the other) were a set of skulls and a bottle on a stool (still life 1) and a skeleton sitting on a chair on top of a table (still life 2). We are to make a complete and large drawing, covering all detail as perfectly as possible. This drawing will conclude our two week coverage of sight-drawing / gesture drawing.

Physics: Monday and Tuesday were tests days, on which we were tested on the history of light, geometrical optics, diffraction, the light spectrum, polarization, diffusion, etc.

We are now moving into electrical charges and most recently learned about the relationship between an electrical field, the distance between two charges, and the force exerted on the positive charge brought in. Homework was problems 16 and 18 on page 641.

Notes: Remember to add charges as vectors and read chapter 19. Don't forget the units for an electric field, either: Newtons over coulombs.

School Activities: Juniorettes is doing a Woman's Empowerment day, the Miss DHS competition will be on Thursday, April 24th (after school) and can be watched on Friday, there will be a Muckfest at the church next to the school, NHS elections are happening (Priya, Robbie Jones, and J. Michael are running for President), the student-directed one act play is coming up... and Spring is in the air. Prom, by the way, is right around the corner.

MY GARDEN: Most everything is sprouting now. I'm trying to work on pictures. Still need a memory card! Money is a bit tight around here lately so I'll see what I can do. And I'll give a better overview and explanation of my activites as a mad scientist [crossed with a] gardener.

Leonardo da Vinci

From Latin encyclopædia - Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία (enkyklios paideia) - ἐγκύκλιος (enkyklios) "circular, rounded, round" - κύκλος (kyklos) "circle" + παιδεία (paideia) "the rearing of a child", or "education", from παιδίον (paidion) "child".

Encyclopedia comes from our friends the Greeks, and can be taken to mean "rounded education." Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance man, was known for his rounded education. Da Vinci is, for the most part, my inspiration for this blog. He kept journals on most of his learning and on some of the subjects that he pursued. I hope to keep pictorial and literary evidence / information on this site of everything that I learn about so that:

1. You can learn about it too. Sharing information has always been an important part of our society. Just make sure to double check my information!
   
2. I won't forget everything that I learn. Sometimes it's difficult to store all of the day's learning and events into my neurons. These posts will serve as historical records.
3. I can help classmates with any information about homework or daily lessons.
   
   Da Vinci is a grand historical figure in the worlds of both art and science, having been a sculptor, painter, analyzer of anatomy, inventor, and general scientist. His well-roundedness marks him as a great man. I hope that, as the years go by, I can use this blog and other tools / sources to make myself well-rounded.
   
   
4. I will move towards being well-rounded.

If you're interested in or are knowledgeable in any sort of field then I offer that you email me (at my address found on this website) about any sort of information, daily discovery, or random tidbits that you would like to share. Credit will be given where credit is due, of course, and my own personal thanks will go to you.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Here's what will (hopefully and time-willing) be in this blog:

• Homework updates, assignment dates, due dates
• Information about daily lessons*
• General information **
• School events
• Community events

* I'll try and keep up (to the best of my ability) on anything learned in the classes that I am in. Junior year is almost over, unfortunately, but if anyone would like to help keep track of the teachers that I don't have it'd be great.

** This blog being (like) an encyclopedia, I'm going to post about anything and everything. I'll keep the writing as crisp as possible but I know that these kinds of posts will be of interest to info-nerds like me. It might bore some other people. :P