11/28 - 11/29 Class Update

Yesterday, we learned about John Brown and Harper's Ferry. John Brown was a Kansas abolitionist who met with Frederick Douglass to discuss whether violence could be legitimately used to free the nation's slaves. John Brown asked Frederick Douglass to join a band of raiders who would seize a federal arsenal and spark a mass uprising of slaves. Douglass declined and knew Brown's plan would prove to be suicidal, which did happen. Brown and his men were captured inside the arsenal by Marines. He was put on trial the the Virginia government for treason against the state of Virginia and was hanged for his crimes.

Today, we continued on with the topic of John Brown. We read primary source documents for John Starry, Robert E. Lee, and John Brown and filled out an analysis worksheet for the documents. This took all class, so we'll most likely be discussing them tomorrow.

My practicing is going well. I don't think my sister likes my goal too much, though. Oh well. For the rest of the 30 days (which is only 7 more, including today), I'll have to be practicing on my marching band/backup clarinet, since my new (well, new to me) clarinet was sent out for repairs today. Booooooooooooo.

11/26 - 11/27 Class Update

Yesterday, we read a document about Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott was a black slave who was brought from Missouri to Fort Snelling, which is in present day Minnesota and a free area. He was then brought back to Missouri. He sued against his master, the Emersons and later, Sanford, for for false imprisonment and battery. He wasn't able to win his case, even though others before him were able to win with similar cases.

Today, we talked about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. We watched a video clip (and read along) from a movie made in the 1940s that had parts of the debates in the dialogue. After that, we read some passages from their speeches and filled out a chart about how Lincoln and Douglas's speeches contradicted each other.

My goal isn't going so well. Once I actually start practicing, I don't have an issue with doing 15 or more minutes. My mom gets mad when I practice before I finish my homework, which I've had a lot of lately, so practicing has been moved to the back burner for now.

11/19 - 11/20 Class Update

Yesterday in history class, we talked more about Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin. We also talked about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made helping slaves run away from their masters illegal. Those found guilty of helping slaves would be subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000 (approximately $30,000 in today's currency) and imprisonment not exceeding six months. This made it even harder for slaves to run away, even though slaves who ran away only made up about 4% of the total slave population.

Today, we talked about the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act divided the Nebraska territory into Kansas and Nebraska. The settlers living in each territory would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. Southerners supported the Act because they were sure that slave owners would move across the border into Kansas and vote for Kansas to become a slave state. Northerners opposed it because the Missouri Compromise already banned slavery in the territory in dispute. Proslavery groups gained control of Kansas by voting illegally and turned the whole dispute into a battle for power.

I've been managing to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes a day (usually more like 30). I'll finally be able to practice band music since my Districts audition is over. I only missed the cutoff by 5 points for that, which is a lot better than I thought I did. Side note- when the scale is going down, the notes are supposed to go down as well. Apparently my clarinet (my fingers were covering the correct holes for the notes!) didn't know that during my audition. Whoops.

11/15 - 11/16 Class Update

Yesterday, we talked about antebellum America and problems with making decisions about the Mexican territory. For each decision, we were given a handout with some background information and a list of options we could pick from. As far as deciding about slavery in the new territories, my class decided that "popular sovereignty" was the best option. For the Compromise of 1850, my class rewrote history and decided to vote for the Compromise.

Today, we talked about the Fugitive Slave Law. We also read a chapter from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

As far as practicing for 15 minutes every day, it's been working out well! Yesterday I practiced for a while before marching band (Alessandra yelled at me the whole time) since I didn't go home and I wouldn't have time once I actually got home. Today, I practiced during my study and even though I would practice more, my clarinet teacher told me I'm not allowed to touch my clarinet until my warm up time at my Senior Districts audition tomorrow morning.

11/13 - 11/14 Class Update

Yesterday, we went to the computer lab to look at this map and answer questions on two worksheets. There was a lot of math involved, so I was glad I had just come from math and had my calculator with me. It worked out that the South had more land but the North was more densely populated in 1820. The South (obviously) had the higher population of black people. In Louisiana and South Carolina, the black people even outnumbered the white people. We also answered a few questions about the Missouri Compromise, which we learned more about today.

Today, we took notes on a powerpoint about the Missouri Compromise. We also looked at excerpts from three textbooks (published in 1911, 1995, and 2005) about the Mexican War. We then filled in a chart about the similarities and differences from each of the three accounts. Very few things were the same in all three, most "facts" being found in only one or two of the textbooks. Again, this shows that not everything that is published is accurate. After that, we watched a short video on the Mexican War and took a short true/false quiz on it.

As far as my goal to practice my clarinet for 15 minutes a day, I (surprisingly) seem to be better at finding time during the week to practice than the weekends. I've practiced every day besides the long weekend, but I think that's probably because the weekends have less structure. For example, I planned to practice Saturday afternoon, but my parents told me we were going to be going shopping in New Hampshire, leaving in about half an hour. That didn't leave me any time to practice. Grrr. We'll see if that happens again in a couple of days.

1850s Personality VoiceThread Project: James K. Polk

11/7 - 11/8 Class Update

Yesterday in class, we took notes on a powerpoint about slavery in the early United States. We learned about the cotton gin and how it affected slavery. We also learned about the types of slavery- "gang" labor and "task" labor. It seems like while gang labor was more efficient, task labor would ultimately earn the slaves' masters more money (and help the slaves earn enough money to buy their freedom!), especially if the slaves went to work on another farm once they finished their work at home. We also filled out a worksheet on one of slavery's opponents or defenders. I had Abraham Lincoln's "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society."

Today, we took notes on a powerpoint about escaping slavery. We also looked at different textbook excerpts about the same topic. It was decided that Texas doesn't like that slaves escaped and therefore doesn't want to publish textbooks that imply that the Underground Railroad was good or that white men helped the slaves escape. The textbook published in Texas was also the only excerpt that said that the slaves killed white men. Hmmm...

As far as my goal to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes every day, so far, so good! I practiced for about an hour and a half last night and while I have yet to practice tonight, I needed to finish all of my homework first. I just have to finish up this blog post and read about 50 more pages of Frederick Douglass, which shouldn't take me too long.

11/5 - 11/6 Class Update and Month Long Commitment

Yesterday in class, we created Venn Diagram that showed the similarities and differences from the documents we read the day before. All three were about the daily lives of slaves and likely wouldn't have been shared or known if we only these slaves' masters' accounts. We also looked at slavery's opponents and defenders and looked for similarities and differences.

Today, we voted in THS's mock election and we'll find out the results tomorrow. We also looked at the Constitution to decide if the United States Constitution is a slave document or not based on Frederick Douglass changing his views on it. So far, I'm leaning towards pro-slavery, but we'll see once I'm done analyzing it.

For the next thirty days, I'm going to try to practice my clarinet for at least 15 minutes a day. It's something I should be doing anyways, especially since I have an audition next week, but often doesn't happen for one reason or another. Maybe if I try to commit to practicing, it'll actually happen.

11/1 - 11/2 Class Update

Yesterday, we went to the library and looked at the entire grade's integrated projects. Some very rude person stole the Casca game piece. Apparently they were desperate for a penny. Of all the places they could've found a penny, they had to take Casca's game piece. So rude.

Today, we looked at a couple of documents (1 group had 1 document and the other two groups had different parts of the same document). My group's was about a slave's journey on a boat and how he was treated during this time. Each group also created a storyboard for their document/section of document. Our storyboard had a slave jumping off the side of the boat in one of the pictures, not that you could tell that it was a slave. We also all got stuff for the new unit/quarter, which included the timeline, a new voice thread assignment, and a new integrated project.