Your Winter Break Assignment

Happy Solstice!

The Winter Soltice (Sunset December 21) marks the day of the year with the least amount of daylight hours. The daylight hours increase untill they reach their maximum with the Summer Solstice, at which point the days will begin to get shorter. Pretty handy information for agrarian communities, don't you think?

Welcome back to the blog and thank you for checking in. The first semester is history and I think everyone learned a lot. We have quite a ways to go, but at this point we can say that we accomplished something.

By the way, the DBQ assignment on The Winter Break Assignment Sheet had the wrong pages. It should read:
DBQ #5 pages A19-A23

Leave a message to prove you were here. Some suggestions are; thoughts on the first semester, predictions/ questions for the second semester, compliments, criticisms, whatever. Please be mindful that this is a public forum, if you have messages of a more personal/ individual nature, drop me a line at sparker@nmcusd.org.

Enjoy your break- See you next year!
Peace,
Mr. Parker

Who is the most important person in the Post-Classical period?

Choose one of these important people. You are going to make an argument that this person is the most important historical figure on this list by virtue of his or her positive or negative impact.

Abu Bakr
Charlemagne
Genghis Kahn
Saladin
Mansa Musa
Elaenor of Aquitaine
Sui Wen Ti
Li Shimin

Take into account:
Amazing innovations, diabolical intent, number of people effected, fame and any other thing that you can think of that would support your thesis. Have fun. Convince us!

Bonus points awarded for posting intelligent ideas pertaining to this assignment.

Julius Caesar Humanities Assignment

ACT ONE
reaction assignment

Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar during the Elizabethan age. People in that time did not regard democracy the same way you would. How might a modern audience's reaction to the events in Act One differ from the reaction to the events of a 16th century audience?

First response gets 5 Extra Credit points. Best response gets 5 Extra Credit points.

Hint: Discuss fear.

The Thumb Trials of The Centuries --the results are in** See the last blog entries for the results. Thank you to everyone the trials went very well

Next Week we will have trials for five famous figures from History and Literature. Each trial will take about 20 minutes and participation in the trial will be worth 50 points. The trial will be on
Thursday the 9th of September.

Your role in the trial will be determined on a first come/ first served basis. Sign up below stating the figure and the role you desire.

The Roles:

Each trial will have:

4 defense attorneys and 4 prosecution attorneys who will:

• Prepare the case (defense or prosecution)
• Present witnesses (act them out)
• Question witnesses

The Defendant

A Reporter who will interview and write a short summary of the trial to be published on this blog.

The Figures:

Gilgamesh- charged with murder, assault and dereliction of royal duties

Enkidu - charged with murder, and assault on a Royal Person, slander

Socrates- charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and treason

Alexander the Great- charged with conducting an unjust war, murder and incompetence

Okonkwo- charged with distubing the peace, violation of parole, assault on a British officer

Up to 15 points Extra Credit for dressing appropriately (in costume). (Additional 10 points for wearing costume all day.)

Welcome Class of 2013!

You are gonna love this class!- Here's your first assignment.

You made it here so that shows you are serious about World History. Explore the site, then click on "OLDER POST". Read the messages that this year's AP World History students left for you. Lastly come back to this page and leave a message in response to what you read. (This will prove that you have been here.)

Got it?... Well, you have until the beginning of school to figure it out.

Have a great summer and I look forward to working with you.

Peace,
Mr. Parker

One Month To Go!!!

It is hard to believe that all the hard work asked of you is nearly over.

Your assignment is to post a communication on the blog which will be useful to next year's in-coming.AP World History. For 15 points please post an entry which includes:
1) What is your favorite unit of the course and why?
(The units are : 5000 BCE-600, 600-1450, 1450-1750, 1750-1914, 1914-2011)
2) What do you think the most important theme of AP World History is? Why?
(The themes are written on the white board in room 104.)
3) What information do you think would be helpful to next year's AP students?
(I promise that nothing you say will adversely affect your grade. Also please do not brown nose.)

Peace,
Mr. Parker

A trial of Thumbs

Hey gang;

Fantastic work on the last blog. I was blown away. So much so that I have decided to give 20 points to everyone who contributed. Good show!

My newest idea is to adapt our trials. Although they are quite entertaining, the time consumption and general research inconsistency has led me down a new path. We will have several mini-trials, each of which will be delivered to a jury (the rest of the class) who will decide by a show of thumbs. Below is a list of controversial characters we shall explore in our 4th unit; 1750-1914. In order for a trial to be scheduled, at least one person on defense and one person on prosecution must sign up. No more than two students per team and as always, first come first served.

Sign up for either prosecution or defense.

Napoleon Bonaparte war crimes, irresponsible troop deployment, tyranny

Catherine the Great of Russia murder, genocide, promiscuity not becoming of a lady

Mustafa Kemel war crimes, mistreatment of minorities, corruption

Shaka Zulu war crimes, irresponsible troop deployment, tyranny

Simon Bolivar treason, war crimes, corruption

Queen Victoria of England policy of racism, drug trafficking, corruption

James Polk policy of racism, war crimes, land theft

Maximilian Robespierre terrorism, tyranny, corruption

Tousaint L'Ouverture treason, war crimes, corruption

King Leopold II of Belgium policy of racism, war crimes, land theft

Matthew Perry making war on a peaceful country, terrorism, racism

Karl Marx treason, sedition, inciting violent overthrow

Otto von Bismark corruption, tyranny, war crimes

Particulars of the trials will follow. The assignment is worth 50 points, you can earn up to 25 extra credit by participating in a second trial. (Priority goes to those signing up for their first.)

Peace.

Unit 3 review assignment

Welcome back!
It's time to get to work getting ready for our test on the period from 1450-1750. Check out the review activities on the blog and review your red lines and chapter notes.

Lab Assignment-
I am starting a contest. I'll be the judge, here's the prompt: What was the most significant event in the world between the years of 1450 and 1750? Why?

The assignment will be worth 5 points. The best response will receive 20 bonus points. Due by the end of the block. Go!