Ancient History Textbooks

Please send your child's copy of The Ancient Near Eastern World with him/her to school tomorrow.  I am collecting these.  Students who do not turn their copy in will have the cost deducted from their book deposit.

A Thought on Liberal Education from Eva Brann

"The very distinction between learning free of interested motive and training for practical ends implies a recognition of high and low, a hierarchy of worth in matters intellectual.  I do believe that to an educated person all things, grand or pitiful, and all studies, pure and applied, are eventually interesting.  But I also think that the young especially ought to learn how to live with the array of conditions associated with excellence: that is what is finest often denies itself to easy access; that to live admiringly with things above oneself is a source of dignity; that genuine hierarchies confer respect on all their members; that even what is greatest, or especially what is greatest, offers itself for critical judgment.  The familiarity with greatness I have in mind is only remotely connected to Arnoldian "culture," familiarity with "the best that has been thought and known in the world"; it is a much more concentrated, particular, and laborious immersion.  Its real point is not even to induce disciplined self-respect in the way just laid out but to stock the mind with exemplars of the highest quality, based on the hypothesis that in order to battle the bad you have to know some good.  But even that aim is too purposeful.  The real point is just that if learning is to be liberal, that is, for its own sake, its objects have to be ipso facto authentically attractive.  The unfashionable assumption here is that differential greatness exists and is discernible, and that the teachers should in common acquire the experience to discern it." -Eva Brann, "The Place for Liberal Learning"

Top Ten Reasons to Come to Tutoring

1. It is the best place to get individualized attention; I can help you make a study plan!
2. It is the best way for me to help you with reading, or discussion skills, or vocab. retention, or anything else.
3. It is a good place to come for quiet study time.
4. It is a good place to come when you need something from me that will take longer than the one or two minutes we have at the end of class.
5. It is a good place to come when you have been absent and you want to know what you missed.
6. It is the easiest way to show me that you care about your education; there is one student in sixth grade and one student in seventh grade with 100%.  Everyone else should be attempting to improve/deepen their understanding of these critical concepts.
7. It is the best place to find out what's coming the rest of the week.
8. It is the easiest way to get help understanding something from earlier in the semester--all of those concepts are going to keep coming up and are going to be on the final.
9. I can explain Lit/Comp concepts to you as well, and sometimes that can help you do well in Miss Smith's class.
10. My tutoring is 1/6 of the tutoring sessions you need to attend in order to earn points for the golden challenge!

Remember, I can only give individualized attention to students who come to tutoring.  Let me help you help yourselves!

The SPELLING BEE!

North Phoenix Prep is officially eligible to send a student to the state, then national spelling bee.  We will be holding our school bee in either late December or early January.  Anyone interested in materials should feel free to request them from me after class.  Also, if anyone would like a consistent time for extra spelling studying, I would be happy to host that as well.

Yours, not yors,
Miss Fischer

St. John's College

The students have been asking me a lot lately about what I learned in college.  Here is a course description.

midterm grades

I have all students' midterm exam grades.  If anyone would like theirs, feel free to e-mail me at lfischer@northphoenixprep.org

I hope everyone's break is going well.

6th grade possible test topics

-First paragraph of declaration of natural rights

-The 13 colonies

-Anything from those multiple-choice, end of chapter reviews (chs. 1-5)

-Anything from previous tests and quizzes (even reading quizzes)

-All vocabulary from chapters 1-5

-Anything from your notes (look particularly at the 3 Firebrands)

Extra credit: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

7th Grade Chapter Summaries

Here are the chapter summaries for 7th grade.  Several students did not finish copying this from the board today, and chose not to come in during lunch, so I thought I'd post it so that everyone could study tonight.  Remember, the test will also include vocabulary from chapter 1-17, notes from your notebook and worksheets, and some test questions from previous tests.  Also note that chapter 13-17 are not included in these summaries but will still be on the test; I thought those chapters would remain fresher in students' minds.  Thanks to Lily for e-mailing these to me!

Chapter 1
-objects from tombs were commonly stolen by grave-robbers.
Chapter 2
-The Euphrates River used to flow by the village of Eridu but changed courses and left them stranded.
-People used reeds to make baskets, mats, and roofs. 

-Had tiny villages; no big cities yet.
Chapter 3

-The potter's wheel and plow invented.
-Uruk had 1000+ people.
-the quantity of land you owned was a sign of wealth
Chapter 4

timeline:
-First tablet was sent.
-People started using pictures for nouns.
-More pictures for adjectives and verbs.
-Pictures changed to symbols
-Cuneiform language invented.
-It only had 26 symbols, but was efficient.
Chapter 5
-Gods and Goddesses were like humans with emotions.
Chapter 6

-Puabi was very rich.
-Buried with lots of gold and riches.
-Sumerian King List is not entirely factual because it states that first few generations of kings ruled 1000+ years.

Chapter 7

-World's first super-hero is Gilgamesh
-He was king of Uruk; built walls around the city
-Best friends with Enkidu.
-He wanted to live forever.
Chapter 8

-Sargon built first empire from Mediterranean to Persian Gulf.
Chapter 9

-Sargon sends his daughter Enheduanna (the first known author) to be priestess of the moon god.
-Mesopotamians believed the the gods had half of their life in spirit, and half in statue.
-The rich worshipped in advanced ways. They worshipped in home and in temples. But the poor could only worship in home. But both come together in the streets on holy days or days of feasting.
Chapter 10

-Shulgi made first laws.
-He wrote poems and hymns about himself.
-Hammurabi is mistaken to have written them because his were on stone but Shulgi's were on clay.
-Hammurabi's laws were very eye for an eye and not general, but very specific.
Chapter 11

-7 judges in court.
-No lawyers.
-Needed witness and contract
-You would have to swear to the gods, to show you aren't lying.
Chapter 12

-Barbers were a king's closest advisors

tutoring this morning

I was sadly unable to attend tutoring this morning.  Please accept my apologies if you changed your schedule in order to get your child here early.

To make up for it, I will be having tutoring Thursday before school and Friday before school and during lunch.  Students are welcome to come just for quiet study time or if they have any questions, comments, or concerns.