Note from our teacher, Karla Held

* This semester we've worked on journalistic writing. I have a background in journalism and enjoy seeing my students get published.
We covered a wrestling match one Saturday and EJ's article was good enough to get published in the Waynseville paper, the Mountaineer.

You can click on this link to see the article:

http://www.themountaineer.com/cms/display/Sports/pageDisplay.php?page2display=1233730800*4-The%20Den%20was%20full.php

Karla Held

SOAR Language Arts Teacher
2008-2009


You can read some of my published articles here:
http://www.karlaheld.com/portfolio.html

EJ's report on SPARTA for history class

SPARTA
By E.J Kornhauser

The ancient Greeks generally referred to Sparta as Lakedaimonia; these are the names commonly used in the works of Homer and the Athenian historians Herodotus and Thucydides.

During the Corinthian war Sparta faced a coalition of the leading Greek states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos. The alliance was initially backed by Persia, whose lands in Anatolia had been invaded by Sparta and which feared further Spartan expansion to Asia. The helots were originally free Greeks from the area of Messenia and Lakonia whom the Spartans had defeated in battle and enslaved. In other Greek city-states, free citizens were part-time soldiers who, when not at war, carried on other trades. Since Spartan men were full-time soldiers, they were not available to carry out manual labor. Helots were used as unskilled serfs, tilling Spartan land. Helot women were often used as wet nurses. Helots did not have any voting rights, although compared to non-Greek chattel slaves in other parts of Greece they were relatively privileged. Relations between helots and their Spartan masters were hostile. Each year when Euphors took office they routinely declared war on the helots, thereby allowing Spartans to kill them without the risk of ritual pollution. This seems to have been done by Kryptes, graduates of the Agoge who took part in the mysterious institution known as the Krypteria. Around 421 BC, the Spartans murdered 2,000 helots in a carefully staged event.
Spartan citizens were debarred by law from trade or manufacture, which consequently rested in the hands of the Perioki, and were forbidden to posses either gold or silver. Spartan currency consisted of iron bars, thus making thievery and foreign commerce very difficult and discouraging the accumulation of riches. Wealth was, in theory at least, derived entirely from landed property and ground allotted to the Spartan citizens. But this attempt to equalize property proved a failure. Full citizens, released from any economic activity, were given a piece of land that was cultivated and run by the helots. As time went on, greater portions of land were concentrated in the hands of large landholders, but the number of full citizens declined. Citizens had numbered by 10,000 at the beginning of the 5th century BC but had decreased by Aristotle’s day (384-322 BC) to less than 1,000 and had further decreased to 700 at the accession of Agis IV in 244 BC.

When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the Agoge system. The Agoge was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and were deliberately underfed, to encourage them to master the skill of stealing food. Besides physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, music and dating. Special punishments were imposed if boys failed to answer questions sufficiently. At the age of 12, the Agoge obliged Spartan boys to take on an older male mentor, usually an unmarried young man. The older man acted as a substitute father and role model to his junior partner; however, it is certain that they also had sexual relations. At the age of 18, Spartan boys became reserve members of the Spartan army. On leaving the Agoge they would be sorted into groups, where some were sent into the countryside with only a knife and forced to survive on their skills and cunning. This was called the Krypteria, and the immediate object of it was to seek out and kill any helots as part of their larger program of terrorizing and intimidating the helot population. Sparta is the only city-state in Greece to have given women any sort of formal education.
Many women played a significant role in the history of Sparta. Queen Gorgo, heiress to the throne and the wife of Leonidas I, was an influential and well-documented figure. Herodotus records as a small girl she advised her father Clemones to resist a bribe. She was later said to be responsible for decoding a warning that the Persian forces were about to invade Greece; after Spartan generals could not decode a wooden tablet covered in wax, she ordered them to clear the wax revealing the warning. Women, being more independent than in other Greek societies, were able to negotiate with their husbands and bring their lovers home. Men both allowed and encouraged their wives to bear the children of other men, because of the general communal ethos which made it more important to bear many progeny for the good of the city, than to be jealously concerned with one’s own family unit.

Native Americans in Big Bend

The Native Americans in the places we visited were very interesting mainly because the majority were warrior tribes. One of these tribes were the Apache. The Apache lived in Big Bend which is the national park in Texas we explored. We also visited Huecco Tanks that has housed many different tribes over the last few millennia.

Huecco Tanks is a unique place in the dessert because of its ‘hueccos’ or water pools in the rocks. I have learned a lot on this trip and hopefully I will continue to learn as I explore new areas. Next expedition we’re going to Utah and I’m looking forward to it.

By Spencer

Mitchell and AC

Essay on Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan was one of the best basketball players in his time. Here are some reasons: When Michael Jordan was in high school he did not play because of his height. He was five foot six freshmen year. But he never gave up - he practiced with his dad and brother every day.

When he hit a growth spurt in his junior year of high school he got to play. He practiced everyday and never gave up. He also grew eight inches in two years. When Michael graduated from high school he went to play at U.N.C. (University of North Carolina) where coach Dean Smith had an eye on Michael ever since his junior year of high school. Dean Smith was the head coach of the Tar Heels when Michael played and Roy Williams was the assistant coach.

In college Michael learned teamwork and that dedication could get you anywhere. In the late second season Michael was offered to go to the N.B.A. (National Basketball Association) but he did not go until he finished college. After he went pro Michael loved playing against Magic Johnson and others. But the main thing he knew was he was loved Chicago Stadium.

When he retired Michael said, “There is no more challenge for me in the N.B.A. I love spending time with the family and not waking up with ice packs on my knees and back.”In conclusion, I would like to say briefly what I thought of Michael Jordan. I feel that Michael was the best back then. Perhaps now there is a new generation of Michael like Kobe or Lebron. But Michael Jordan inspired me to become a basketball player. So I think he is and will be the best player ever because he took the game to heart.

He did not give up although he could not play in high school – he was persistent and he practiced and practiced. For that, I think he’s the best!

By Ashton Clayton Berry

_________________________
Getting Ready for A Career as a Video Game Designer

Book report by Mitchell



The book that I’m reading is called Getting Ready for A Career as a Video Game Designer. The book is important because it talks about how to be a video game designer and how you can create new games every year. It is cool to be a video game designer because you can make a lot of games and you can get paid a lot of money per year. My first job that I get is going to be a video game designer because they can make 5 billion dollars on video games and also because I like to play a lot of video games.

Some of my favorite games to play are:



1.Gear of war 2
2 halo 3
3 drivers 3

There are some things I've learned from the book that I didn't know before:

1. Who made the video game?
Steve Russell

2. When?
1962

3. What was he doing at the time? He was a college student

4.What percentage of families own video game systems? 45% of families.

5. What is a video game? A video game is an electronic or computerized game.

6. What do video game designers do? Video game designers think of new ideas plan new game.

7.How many people made Donkey Kong Country? Twenty- Eight people.

By Mitchell

Charlie's letter home

Each week we write letters home. Charlie wrote an outstanding letter home this week and wanted to publish it:


Dear Mom and Dad,
How are you doing?
I am having fun and seeing new places. The group is having problems. They are working on their problems.
We saw some deer, boar and a roadrunner. I’m learning new things. I found out what I want to do in my life: I want to travel around the world and be a photojournalist.
I want to go back and graduate from Breham and be able to get a job. I messed up and I admit that. I sometimes take what people say the wrong way.
I’ve learned that to be mature you must chose your own battles.. I’ve also learned that if you push your self and keep trying, you feel better about yourself. If you push yourself far enough you can do anything you want.
My father says that if you put yourself in other people’s shoes and you look at things from all different angles, you have a better perspective on what you did wrong, and how you can do better the next time.
If you imagine the world without any school, what would it be? I think no one would be as smart as they could be - no one would have computers and they wouldn’t know how to do math.
Learn and see how the world changes! See that to be successful in life you need to go to school. Yet, there are other ways to get an education. Know how the laws work and how to read. Math and reading are used every day. Look at history, science and health to see how life works. The number one thing in life is getting a great education. Doing your best in school is also important.
Show the world your best by getting an education in school and show that you can do anything you dream you can do. If you have a dream, do it!
Thank you for coming down for my birthday!

Love,
Charlie