Printing Press vs. Gunpowder round 1

VS.

Today in Socratic Seminar we were questioned which was more influential on society, the printing press or gunpowder? The fact of the matter is they have both been vital in shaping our world as we know it today. They are both the fuel behind revoulutions, we wouldn't be a country today with out both of these items. Without gunpowder we would have surely lost the war to the British's much better fighting style. Without the printing press the war would probably have never been started, texts and papers were used to communicate between the colonies and helped print much propaganda and other texts that fueled our nations anger toward the British. Which was more influential to todays society is a true toss up, and I cannot decide between the two. I want to know your opinion, however I do believe that the printing press will be more influential to our future.

Maeser Basketball

Maeser basketball team has our first AAU tournament this upcoming weekend and I'm stoked. I can't wait. I didn't attend any basketball camps or play in any tournaments with my previous high school's team because we knew we were moving, so it has been several months since I've played competitive ball. I'm excited and I think we will dominate our division this year. Lets go Lions.

New grading terms

What's everyone's opinion on these new grading terms. Rather than having two grades that go on our transcript, we have four. I personally don't like this. It's not so much the idea that I disagree with, but the sudden decision to do it. There are teachers that had no idea this was coming and have courses designed to not have much in the gradebook this first term. I think that it's fine that they do the four but I think they should start it next year. There were good intentions behind the idea I'm sure, but we can't start this when the first term is half over. Please tell me your feedback. Let me know if you agree with me.

Ramadan

How do they do this for a month long? That's some serious dedication I've been doing it for few days now and it's tough work. I have to admit that I did cheat and drink water during basketball friday and saturday but thats so I didn't collapse of dehydration. I wonder if Muslim kids sneak food while their parents aren't looking. I had a Muslim friend in Idaho who would be fasting for Ramadan during football. Then, I didn't know what Ramadan fasting involved. I called him up and told him I was amazed at his dedication. This has been a great project and I have gained more respect for the Muslim culture.

The story behind the name

I'm curious (and I think this will get some comments on my blog finally) what the origin behind everyones' names are. I'm named after my uncle who died in a car accident. I just found out a couple of months ago that I've now lived longer than he did. I feel obligated carry on his name with honor. What are you named after? Do you like your name? If you could change it, what would you change it to?

Twisted Fairytale

I really haven't liked the twisted fairytale assignment. I think it should have stopped at a bell write. I know some people went off with it and had a really good time, but in my opinion it wasn't what I would have liked to be our first major writing assignment of the year. It doesn't really tie in to anything we've been doing in class and for an assignment involving creative writing I think there could have been some funner things we could have done. Oh well, what's done is done. (I'm mostly writing this because I need more posts.)

Reading the Quran

I was interested as I read the Quran to compare it to scripture I typically read. I was amazed when I realized there aren't that many differences. I would like to read more of the Quran and read straight through instead of skipping to certain verses. I think its cool that we get to read it and as for the debate of whether we should study it in class... I think we absolutely should, 25% of the world is Muslim and the Quran is their holy book. I think the Quran has played such a large role in the worlds history we should absolutely read it.

Guest Speaker

I loved hearing from Maysa the guest speaker. I learned a lot and I thought it was way cool that we were able to have a Muslim come speak to us. I feel it shattered a lot of the stereotypes I've heard and was great for us to beable to hear from her. I learned more about Islam in that 1 hour than I think I could have learned in a couple weeks out of the text book. I'm looking forward to studying more on Islam.

Socratic reflection

Socratic Seminar has been a productive class so far. I learned a lot from Beowulf and enjoyed the story, as well as the history that accompanies it. I like the Socratic format of the class from a history point of view, but a regular English class. Overall, I've enjoyed the class. Tell me what you guys think.

How was the Fire?

I unfortunately was not able to make it to the bonfire this weekend. If someone wants to leave a comment and tell me all about, that would be great.

How was the Fire?

HOMOPHONES

So today in Socratic our Bell write involved homophones, it was one of my favorite bell writes thus far this year. As I'm sure everybody knows homophones are two words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. I think it would be cool to have people come up with as many homophones as they can and leave them in a comment.
Good Luck