February 25, 2014

As we walked into class today, we saw that the parts for the play had been assigned. For the play, Mario and myself will be speaking in the foreign languages that correspond to our parts. Everyone else is asked to attempt accents for their respective parts.
At 1:50, Mr. P. finally got to do his demonstration for the "The Black Hand[s]" organization. In fact, Mario donated a black glove to Mr. P.!
At 1:53, we went over the dominoes worksheet. It's on Mr. P.'s website for the people who have yet to complete it.
At 1:57, we talked about how "Serbia turns to Mother Russia." (Tailer Shintani) This has to do with language, of course. In case you don't remember, Serbia and Russia both speak Slavic languages. Naturally, they side together. To help out the Austria-Hungary Empire, "Germany declares war on Russia." (Mariam Parks) However, since the Russians mobilize very slowly from lack of technology and advancements in transportation. While Russia is mobilizing, Germany decides to attack France by being a "big bully to Belgium" (Moira Camacho) and crossing the border between Belgium and France to sneak into France and attempt to take Paris. Thankfully for France, two soldiers "stole Germany's plans." (Jordan Wilder) This allowed France to defend themselves against Germany's "surprise" attack.
Have you read the book All Quiet on the Western Front? It's about World War 1, specifically a group of German soldiers on the Western Front. If you haven't already, try reading the book and relating it to what we're learning, it gives a lot of insight.
At 2:15, we learned about the use of airplanes. They were mainly used for spying back then. The planes would fly out after an artillery shell would be shot up to see if it landed in the right area. They would then return to their launching area and would drop a note over the area to alert the launchers whether they went to far, or not far enough. The people in the enemy area would attempt to shoot down the planes before they could send the note back. It was a very dangerous job.
At 2:24, we learned that "submarines were invented by Germans." (Yousef B.) Submarines were used to destroy the cargo ships. Eventually, when America started sneaking weapons and other items on cruise ships, German issued unrestricted submarine warfare and started shooting down cruise ships as well.
At 2:27, we learned that it was Germany who invented poison gas. Fortunately, poisonous gas only caused 4% of the deaths during World War 1. It forced people to wear masks and check for wind direction. Out of all the fighters, "Russia lost most people with poison gas." (Amanda Laurenco)
At 2:31, we learned that the "British invented the tank." (Breanna Arnold)
At 2:33, we moved on to talking about the after effects of the war. "People get screwed up in war" (Brittany Kernodle) and end up with shell shock, now known as PTSD. We talked about a surgeon who reconstructed faces back in the time and learned that "you can't help everyone." (Ivan Dextre)
Did you know people on both sides believed God was on their side? That was why "people got confused on who's side God was on." (Dania A.)
A subject that very few people in America know about is the Armenian genocide, which was more or less Hitler's "playbook." America has 9 bases in Turkey, so they do not want to recognize the Armenian genocide for fear that Turkey will refuse to cooperate with America in the future.

-I