Black History Month

1) Bell Wells-Barnett
1. She was was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, six months before the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves.
2. Her father, James Wells was on the board of trustees of Rust College, a freedmen's school, where Ida got a basic education.
3.Wells obtained a teaching position by convincing officials she 18 years old when she was 16.
4. In 1884 she was thrown from a first- class train car because she refused to ride in the "blacks only" car.
5. She sued the railroad and won and worked towards black rights.

2) Booker T. Washington
1. He was born into slavery as Booker Taliaferro on April 5, 1856.
2. His father was a white man, but didn't claim him.
3. His stepfather put him to work in the salt mines in Malden, West Virginia.
4. Booker wanted an education but his stepfather only let him when he agreed to work a double shift in the mines every day to make up for what he lost in school.
5. He became Booker T. Washington when he realized he didn't know his last name in school and quickly added a famous one.

3) George Washington Carver
1. He invented peanut butter.
2. He was born near diamond grove, Missouri.
3. He went to school in Neosho, Missouri.
4. He completed high school in Minneapolis, Kansas.
5. He applied to Sampson College, tuition was $12 a year.

4) Sojourner Truth
1. She was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York.
2. She was known to her fellow slaves only as Isabella.
3. In 1827 she fled Dumont's Farm and became a runaway.
4. She sued her former owner for illegally selling her son to a slaver in Alabama after New York emancipated its slaves.
5. She continued to aid slaves even after the Emancipation Proclamation.

5) Marcus Garvey
1. He was from the West Indies.
2. He was the first to forcefully articulate the concept of African nationalism.
3. He traveled to several places around the world in 1910.
4. He returned home from England in 1914.
5. In 1916 he went to the United States to fund raise for work in Jamaica.


6) Langston Hughes
1. He was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1st 1902.
2. He graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio in 1920.
3. He won an athletic letter in track and held offices in student council.
4. Hughes spent the next year in Mexico with his father.
5. His first popular poem was "A Negro Speaks of River," was published n 1921.

7) Maya Angelou
1. She was a writer, poet andf director.
2. She was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri.
3. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend at the age of 7.
4. Her rapist was later found beaten to death in an alley.
5. Angelou stopped speaking after the incident.

8) Thurgood Marshall
1. He was a jurist, lawyer and assistant justice.
2. He was born July 2, 1908 in Baltimore.
3. He won 29 of his 32 civil rights cases throughout his career.

9) Clarence Thomas
1. He was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
2. He was born on June 23, 1948 in Pin Point Georgia.
3. He enrolled at Holy Cross for college.

10) Lena Horne
1. She was a singer and actress.
2. She was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York.
3. Her father was Edwin "Teddy" Horne.

11) Muhammad Ali
1. He was a famous boxer.
2. He was born on January 17, 1942.
3. He developed Parkinson's Sydrome later in life.

12) Jesse L. Jackson
1. One of America's foremost political leaders.
2. After Dr. King he was the primary leader for civil rights.
3. He is the founder of The National Rainbow Coalition.

13) Lebron James
1. He is an incredible basketball player in the NBA.
2. He has never won a Championship Ring.
3. He plays for the Miami Heat.

14) Michael Jordan
1. He played in the NBA in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
2. He is one of the greatest players to ever live.
3. He has 6 Championship Rings.
4. He scored 32,292 points in his career.

15) Sarah S. Good
1. She invented the folding cabinet bed.
2. She was a business woman and inventor.
3. She owned a furniture store.

16) Rosa Parks
1. She won the congressional gold medal.
2. She helped keep the civil rights movement going.
3. She refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was kicked off the bus.

17) Earvin "Magic" Johnson
1. He played point guard for the Los Angelas Laker.
2. He was a great player in the NBA.
3. He was a member of "the Dream Team".

Technology Day video notes

Digital advertising is growing rapidly
250,000,000 different visitors to Facebook, Myspace and Youtube
The average teen send 2,242 texts a day
Barack Obama leveraged 65 million dollars from social sites
90% of the emails sent every day are spam
China is predicted to be the number 1 english speaking country in 10 years
An average 21 year old has watched 20,000 hours of tv
The first text was sent in 1992
There were more than 2.7 billion google searches this month
Newspaper circulation is down by 7 million
10,000 laptops were supplied to CPS schools
less than 1% of students are allowed to use cell phones in school
India has more honors kids than America has kids
The US Department of Labor estimates a graduate will have 10-14 jobs by age 38
The number of texts sent and recieved everyday exceeds the world population
694,000 songs were downloaded illegally during this presentation

Crusades Notes

The Crusades began when the Seljug Turks took control of Palestine, known among Christians as "the Holy Land." They then attacked Asia Minor in the Byzantine Empire and threatened to take the capital of Constantinople, so the emporer requested help from the Pope,Urban II, in Rome. The Pope called together all the bishops and feudal lords and told them they would help retake the "Holy Land." This began the crusades, a series of military expeditions to retake the Holy Land. About 10,000 Europeans took up the cause and sewed a cross of cloth on their clothes.

The Frist Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099. French and Italian lords led several armies of crusaders to Constantinople.The emperor was nervous about letting the crusaders into Constantinople for fear of them capturing the city. The crusaders lacked enough food oand water but after the captured Antioch the French fleets brought supplies.

The Second Crusade began in 1147 when Louis VII of France and German king Conrad III led seperate armies and met in Damascus, even with the combined forces, the crusade failed.

The third crusade began in 1189 after the Muslim lead Saladin recaptured Jerusalem. Three leaders, Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick Barbossa, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England led seperate armies but the Romans turned back when Emperor Barbossa drowned and King Philip turned back due to quarreling between himself and King Richard. King Richard attempted to take Jerusalem but failed and settled for a peace treaty which granted him some land and Christians access to Jerusalem.

The fourth crusade never really got started because the first crusaders attacked Zadar, a Christian city, and were excommunicated by Pope Innocent III. The second attempt resulted in the capturing of Constantinople, another Christian city, the city remained under European control for about 60 years. The Byzantine EMpire recaptured it but lost it to the Turks and the empire crumbled shortly after.

The Childrens Crusade was extremely unsucceful and resulted in the loss of thousands of children from Germany and France. The Crusades finally ended in 1291 when the Muslims captured the last Christian stronghold, Acre.

One of the main weapons was the crossbow.

Vow of Silence

     The vow of silence wasn't really that hard. It was slightly difficult to communicate quickly in groups, but we made it work. Any work we did on our own was easy to accomplish without talking. The hardest thing to do was to get someone's attention if they were out of arm's reach. The riddles about the booths were a little challenging without being able to talk about it but it wasn't impossible.
     A whole day without talking might be difficult. It would be hard to work in other classes without being able to talk, particularly Spanish. Communicating with my family at night would also be very difficult even though we all know some sign language. The worst part about it would be not being able to talk to my friends at all and having to right notes to communicate anything.
     I learned from the vow of silence that while it isn't impossible to get things done without talking, it is a lot more difficult. Communication is a focal point in working together and it takes a lot longer to write everything down and show it to everyone you're working with as opposed to just saying it to everyone at once.
     The best skill to have when you couldn't talk would probably be to know sign language, or maybe to be able to read lips. Writing quickly and legibly would be another important skill to possess, for at least one person in your group anyway.

notes

People bathed once a month
They wore the same clothes for several days
They used lavender flowers and mint in the water to wash clothes, this kept away fleas
The term chairman comes from there only being one chair in the house
The whole family all piled onto one bed of hay, including the friendlier animals, to sleep at night
Troubadours traveled around around "singing for their supper"
His songs were often about love or the glory of kings

Notes

Anglo-Saxan came about when the Anglos and the Saxans combined to from Angoland, now England. Shires were like sheriffs now, they collected taxes. Alfred the Great was the first king, the last Anglo-Saxan king was Edward the Confessor. When Edward died a war started because he had no heir, 2 people fought for the throne, Herald Godwinson he was the brother-in-law and the other person was the Duke of Normandy, William, he was Edward's cousin. This lead to one of the top 100 most important battles in history, the Battle of the Hastings, it was over quickly, William beat Herald terribly and was named William the Conqueror. He wanted to get things done quickly, he the first to take a census since Roman Times, the census tracked everything in your household and was used to tax you, the imformation was put into a book called the Domesday book, they nicknamed it the Doomsday book, when he dies he is succeeded Henry I. He was replaced by his grandson Henry II.
     Henry II decides he wants to make the church clergy accountable and together with the government. His friend, the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket disagrees with Thomas and goes to meet with him and the argument gets very heated. Thomas leaves and Henry says "I wish he was dead" Not meaning for it to happen. Four knights eavesdropping on the conversation and decide to carry out his wish. They follow Thomas and stab him in the church, on Christmas Eve. This effectively ended Henry II's rule. Thomas Becket was canonized 150 years later.
     Henry was replaced by his son John, he went to war and had to tax heavily, as much as 87%, the people meet in the town of Runny Mean and create the Magna Carta. John is forced to sign it. The Magna Carta is the basis of our constitution.
     The Magna Carta is a cornerstone in many modern governments including the US Constitution. It was designed to limit the king's power. It also gave a group of barons the right to fight him if he violated it.

United Kingdom

I believe a trip to the United Kingdom would be a very interesting trip. One of my favorite time periods in history is the Medieval period. I would really like to see the various castles and other remnants from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. Scotland would probably be my first stop due to it having the majority of the castles in the UK.