WCCP1: New Testament Excerpts Online

Click here for the handouts.

Please note: handout 1 questions are due on Wednesday, and handout 2 questions are due on Thursday.

No homework exemptions, and please bring your handouts to class!

All Shulmaniacs: UPDATES

For the current events connection blog, go to http://ljcdscurrentevents.blogspot.com.

And more:

• All syllabi have been updated for all courses, and GSQ schedules have been updated for AP World and WCCP.
• US History: the Take Home Test is online on the Unit 2 page.
• AP World: all PowerPoints are now online.

WCCP1: Homework Exemptions!

All students who, at the end of the first quarter, have...

1. an A range grade in the class AND maintain it...
2. a B or B+ in the class AND an A range grade on homework AND maintain it...

...are now exempt from reading check and geography skills questions in the textbook!

If you raise your course average and/or your homework average, you can email me and request an exemption. I will email you back if your exemption is accepted.

AP World: Quest (Chaps. 6-8) Review

1. Know all the key dates from the beginning of the common era (32 C.E.--beginnings of Christianity) to 732 (Battle of Tours). As for 632 (Rise of Islam), it is a very good idea to look in the book not only to make sure you have the chronology of Mohammed's birth through hijra through his death through the empire's expansion and the Sunni-Shi'a split, but also that you should have an approximate sense of dates of these events. (i.e. born 570ish, first revelations 610ish, and so on...)
2. PERSIA! PERSIA! PERSIA! To be fully prepared, make sure to PERSIA the pre-Muslim Arab society, the Umayyads, the Abbasids, Islam in South Asia, Islam in Southeast Asia, and pre-Muslim African societies (North Africa, grasslands, Swahili coast, forest & plains) and how/to what degree Islam impacted the PERSIA of each one.
3. Don't forget to review the role of women in these societies. After all, they do happen to make up half of the population of every culture.

US History: TEST REVIEW

Chapter 7

• Know the chronology of the events that led to war. You should know how one event caused the next, which caused the next, and so on.
• What are the deep roots of revolution? What is mercantilism?
• What advantages did the British have at the start of the war? What about the colonists?

Chapter 8

• Pages 140-146 are VERY important.
• Don't forget to study the Declaration of Independence.
• Thomas Jefferson and George Washington's roles are important. The actual fighting of the war itself is covered only tangentially on the test.

Chapter 9

• Know the Articles of Confederation: what powers did the national government have or not have? Be prepared to give specific examples. Differences with the U.S. Constitution?
• Know the Constitution. How did the role of the national government change? Look especially close at issues such as representation, taxation, regulation of commerce, and the slave trade. Consider the difference between direct democracy in which ALL the people rule and how the Constitution ended up. Again, specific examples!
• James Madison and Alexander Hamilton are important.
• Know the Northwest Ordinance.

IMPORTANT: New Shulmaniac Policy

My apologies to those of you who find this as ridiculous as do I, but let's just make this clear:

Whereas you are all upper school students,
whereas responsibility for being prepared for each class by having your own appropriate writing implement and several pieces of notebook paper is a given in the upper school,
whereas La Jolla Country Day is a college preparatory school,
whereas in college you are expected to come to class prepared,

BE IT HEREBY ENACTED that any student, who upon entering the classroom asks another student for a pen, pencil or piece of paper because he/she entered the classroom unprepared, will receive an automatic 10 percent deduction on whatever activity for which he/she was unprepared.

AP World: Links from Today's Class

Click here or here for a religions of the world map. The first link is not as pretty to look at, but it is more accurate. The second link is much more aesthetically pleasing, but wide swathes of indigenous religions are ignored, and most significantly, the Sunni Muslim presence in modern Bangladesh is missing. Not sure what's up with that.

AP World: Reminder for Comparison Essay

For those of you who came in late today to class following your Spanish test:

By Monday, please grade your returned Greece/Rome political culture comparison essay on the 9-point scale, and then email your result to me. Great job going in blindly, and our range of scores (by my evaluation) went from zero to 9.

AP World: Links from Today's Class

Click here to find the Armed Forces Journal article on a redrawn Middle East.

These links will take you to recent NPR stories on Iraq and the Sunni-Shi'a conflict:

• Iraqi Lawmakers Endorse Peace Plan
• Kurdish Rebels Stir Up Iraq-Turkey Trouble
• New Plan Announced to Quell Baghdad Violence
• U.S. Terrorism Strategy Troubles Muslim World
• Sen. Biden: Divide Iraq into Three Regions