Read this carefully.

It's Friday.  In class we finished our discussions on excellence.  By analyzing Elbert Hubbard's essay A Message to Garcia, and examining Socrates and the ancient Greeks, we complete our introductory unit.

Now comes the assessment (the graded part).

Your five blogs - one for last Thursday, August 23, and one for each class we held this week - are due before midnight, September 2. (That's 12:00 AM, as Saturday changes to Sunday.)

The first blog is worth 10 points, the next four are worth two points each.

In the next part of your assessment, you will write three essays, worth 25 points each, to be posted to your blog before midnight, Tuesday, September 4.

Essay #1:  Give your original definition of arete, and describe how Socrates and the ancient Greeks demonstrated this quality.

Essay #2:  Imagine that Elbert Hubbard and Socrates have time-travelled to the present.  Describe what they would think or say about life in America in the year 2012.

Essay #3:  Assuming that you think that excellence is a good thing, write out a five-point action plan that describes how you are going to approach your career at the John Carroll School over the next four years.

Since you have a long weekend to work on these essays, I expect them to be thoughtful and well-written, containing a minimum of spelling and grammatical errors.  You may post the three essays all at once or separately.  Late postings will be subject to a late penalty.

If anything about these assignments is unclear to you, please stop by to see me after school today in Room 121, or email me at rschick@johncarroll.org with your questions. 

I am looking forward to reading these, as I expect you will all do excellent work!

Hubbard, Socrates, and excellence

While Section 1 had the day off today, Section 2 heard A Message to Garcia and Section 3 plunged headlong into ancient Greece.

We will all get back on track tomorrow, then be rewarded with a three-day weekend.  Make sure you are caught up on your blogs, define the Greek terms if you haven't already done so, and get ready for one more day of Human Geo tomorrow.

a slight diversion

I had planned to continue our discussion of A Message to Garcia, ancient Greece, and the concept of excellence.  But circumstances dictated that we use class time to get everyone up to speed regarding JC email, blogs, and other technological concerns. 

To prepare for the rest of the week, the following homework assignment for tonight still stands.

Research the following, as they relate to ancient Greece:  In addition to your blog about today's class, include definitions or descriptions of these terms.

• arête
• polis
• Socrates
• the death of Socrates
• the Socratic method
• the date 508 BC
• agora
• what the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot

Also, please note that I have provided a link to A Message to Garcia in my link list.

A Message to Garcia

Section 1 had a very good class, relating A Message to Garcia to our situation - preparing for the world of college and beyond.

(If you want to get a jump on tomorrow, we'll be tying Hubbard's essay together with the world of ancient Greece.  Important concepts:  arête, the polis, Socrates, his death, and the Socratic Method, the date 508 BC, the agora, and what the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot.  Feel free to include your thoughts on this in tonight's blog.)

Progress on your blogs

Take a look at the link lists to the right.  If you see your name listed, you have successfully set up your blog and sent the URL to me.  If you don't see your name listed, you still have work to do.

Once you see your name listed, you do not need to email me every time you post a blog.  I will see them when I grade the blogs on Sundays.

Thanks for your kind attention during class today as we covered the "nuts and bolts" of late policies, the syllabus, and other arcane details.  Tomorrow we begin class in earnest - with Elbert Hubbard.

Welcome!

In today's very brief class, we met for the first time.  You learned about the existence of this blog, as well as its importance.  As short as the class was, there was still time to give you a homework assignment.  Please do the following by next Monday:

• Add this blog to your Favorites.
• Create a Gmail account, and use it to set up your class blog through blogger.com .
• After you have created your blog, send the URL to rschick@johncarroll.org .
• Write your first blog post.  In at least 150-200 words, describe the experience of your first day at John Carroll.   Take your time; write well; proofread; rewrite as necessary.  Impress me with this first (graded) example of your writing talent.
• Buy a Compostion book.  They are available at Target for 50 cents.  
• Carefully read the class syllabus, which can be found under "Links that don't stink" just to the right of this post.
• I recommend you set up Google Chrome as your default browser.

Day One.

In teaching Human Geography to the brilliant students of The John Carroll School, one has to begin somewhere.  I choose to begin with the creation of this blog.  

This blog is available to students, parents, and fans and followers worldwide.  It will serve as a diary of what we learn from each other, and what we discover together.  It will cover what we did in class on a particular day, what homework might be assigned, and anything else pertaining to our class.  It will be a resource for research, a collection of cultures, a treasure trove of trivia, perhaps even an entry to enlightenment.

We can only hope.