The Eightfold Path

If I were to insert one of the eightfold path in my life it would be number 8, right concentration. I could incorporate this in my life by being more concentrated with what I'm doing, mostly relating to homework. If I concentrate on tasks it would be a lot easier to get the job done faster. Sometimes I let my mind wonder or do a million things at once, and it turns out I get nothing accomplished. I think that if I could concentrate more on homework, it would take me a lot less time and give me more time to do other things and have more free time. Off course, to do this Buddhists meditate, and I might have trouble with that, but I think that it'd be very useful to me to have the right concentration.

Taj Mahal

In 1592 a prince called Khurram was born in the Indian Empire. He became a handsome, eager and quickminded young man, but still he did not feel love. When he went to the Meena Bazar however, things changed, and he fell in love with Arjumand, a girl selling confections and silk. After consulting his father, Arjumand and Prince Khurram decided to wed. They married, and were as happy as can be. At the wedding ceremony, prince Khurram decided to honor his wife with a new name - Mumtaz Mahal, the jewel of the palace. The couple lived happily, and Mumtaz was adored by the people. They had many children, which the devoted parents spent time instructing. When the prince travelled, Mumtaz would come too, since they couldn't stay away from each other. They conquered many kingdoms and expanded the borders of the empire. After the king's death, Khuram became king, and was a very wise leader. One day, Mumtaz announced that she was with child. At this time Khurram had to go on a long journey. However, since they could not stand to be parted from one another Mumtaz decided to come. However, the night she gave she gave birth, she was too weak, and she passed away. Her last words were "I have a wish that all the world will know of our love." Prince Khurram spent days and nights mourning, and didn't eat or sleep. However, one day he thought about that wish, and made it come true. He built a great tomb and garden for his beloved empress. He traded jewels from other countries, hired many architects. "They tomb must be perfect, as if heaven and earth were joined," he said. One day, the tomb was finished, and it was beautiful. Khurram's words were, "It is almost as perfect as our love." He named the tomb Taj Mahal.

Khurram was finally feeling like he had made his debt to Mumtaz. However, one day he grew sick, and his son, eager for power, locked him up. For eight years he was captured in side the red fort of Agra, and that is where he died. However, Taj Mahal still stands today to show their love.

Ganesha - Hindu God

Ganesha is a Hindu god with a human form, but with an elephant head. He represents the power of the Supreme Being that removes obstacles and creates success. Ganesha is the biggest god in India. His mix of animal and human parts symbolizes perfection, and has deep spiritual meaning. The elephant head symbolizes wisdom, understanding, and intellect. His wide mouth symbolizes desire to enjoy life, and his large ears symbolize that to achieve something in life you have to listen to others. Ganesha has two tusks, the left one broken. His right tusk symbolizes wisdom. His left is for emotion, and shows that one has to conquer emotions with wisdom to reach perfection. The human body with a big belly symbolizes a human heart, for compassion and kindness. The big belly portrays that an individual has to have a large capacity to perform all their duties in the world. The mouse sitting next to Ganesha shows that the ego can nibble everything that is good and noble in a person. A perfect person is one who has their ego under control.

Mapping Project Blog Post

Compare all three of your maps.
a) How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other?

Physical features such as deserts are located on lower ground, and therefore their climate is warmer. Mountains are higher elevated, and they have a cold, icy climate. Depending on how elevated the land is the climate is going to change. The lower the land, the warmer the climate. Physical features such as deserts and valleys have a much warmer climate than mountains and plateaus.




b) What conclusions can you draw?
(Think about natural resources, climate/weather, and human settlement.)

Early humans would live in places where they had fertile land, easy food supply, a warm climate, and resources they needed. Such a place in India were the rivers, and the Ganges and Indus rivers were great fertilizers. They come out of the Himalayas into the Northern highlands, making the northern highlands one of the most fertile places on earth. Humans settled in places in which a good civilization could then grow, developing into India's cities today.

Mohenjo Daro

In 1921, the Indus valley civilization was discovered in present day Pakistan, and the ancient city of Mohenjo Daro was found. This city was located in the fertile lands by the Indus River floodplain, 4,500 years ago. Mohenjo Daro was a pretty advanced civilization. They had a drainage system, canals and knew how to control water. They had pottery and tools of copper, and they used seals as weights hinting to a advanced and fair trade. They also had ivory, lapis, carnelian and gold beads. Wells were throughout the city, and there was a bathing area in every house. However, the city lacks palaces, temples, or monuments, and archaeologists aren’t sure whether there was a government or a king or queen. We suspect that it was governed as a city- state, with a ruler of each mound.

The city was at it’s highest point from 250 to 1900 BC, when it spread out to about 250 acres on a series of mounds, the great bath on the tallest mound.

A small statuete of a female now known as the dancing girl was found in 1926, in Monenjo Daro. There were a series of sculptures found, all of them broken. Also, the decline of the city id a mystery. We have some theories, although we don’t know for sure. The Indus River may have changed course, which would have altered the city’s trade system, or flooding mighy have destroyed the city. However, no evidence has been found.

Roach, John. ""Faceless" Indus Valley City Puzzles Archaeologists." National Geographic. Web. 23 May 2011. .

Reflection Ancient Egypt Unit

1. During this unit, which skills and attributes do you demonstrate?
- Reflect on the Learner Profile

· Inquirer: I was an inquirer during this unit for the last presentation when I taught the class about Egyptian make- up, jewelry, wigs, and hygiene. I started with only jewelry as my topic, but after some convincing from Mrs. Moore I ended up changing it to jewelry, make- up and wigs. Then while I was researching I found out a lot of facts about ancient Egyptian women’s hygiene, so I researched more on the topic. I ended up adding it to my presentation, and having four main ideas instead of three.

· Knowledgeable: At the end of the ancient Egypt unit I really did feel knowledgeable. The area that I learned the most about was ancient women’s adornment, since I did a presentation on it, and I also learned the important ideas and main points from everyone else’s presentations. From doing the Egyptian mapping project I learned about Egypt’s physical features and climate. From the art project I learned about some Egyptian rituals about the afterlife and about the god Anubis, and also about hieroglyphics. I also feel like I have learned a lot from just being in class, listening and taking notes, and even watching fun horrible history videos.

· Communicators: I think that I showed my communicating skills well during the presentation about women’s adornment, mostly through my powerpoint. I didn’t have a lot of text like I usually have, and most of my information was either verbal or off of cue cards. Another part of this unit where I showed communication was in my Egyptian art, where I drew a picture of Anubis weighing a man’s heart. If the man’s heart wasn’t lighter than a feather, he would die and a monster would kill him. Otherwise he would go to the afterlife. I showed communication using hieroglyphics, spelling out the word “Death.”

· Thinkers: I showed my thinking creativity when doing the ancient Egyptian mapping project. We had to somehow fit a partially too big and partially too small piece of paper with countries onto a poster, and make it into a map of ancient Egypt. Sophie and I did this by tracing the countries on and although they weren’t 100% right. Then we also had to decide on a legend to our map, and think of reasonable landmarks. We also had too add all the importantphysical features and cities of ancient and present day Egypt.

· Risk- takers: I think that I was a risk- taker because I’m sort of nervous when I do presentations, and this time I gave a full-time detailed presentation about women adornment, including make- up, jewelry, wigs and hygiene. I was also a risk- taker choosing four main ideas instead of three, since I included hygiene later.

- Reflect on the ATL's

· Organizational: One way I showed organization was while preparing my ancient Egyptain’s adornment presentation, when I was transferring my information from the note sheets to typing it up. It was random facts, nonsense and important information mixed together, so I think I did a good job separating it into different categories and making a power point presentation out of it.

· Collaborative: I think I was collaborative while working on the Egyptian map projects. It was kind of hard to work together on one map, but I think that Sophie and I managed quite well. When we didn’t finish in class we took it home, and we met up on the weekend to make the finishing touches and to put everything together.

· Information Literacy: I also think that I displayed this while researching. It was kind of challenging finding only good websites, and to do this I had to scan and skim through the text. When I found a good one with valid information, it was even harder to put it in my own words, and I think that I did a pretty good job at it.

2. In your own words using examples from any unit studied this year, how did
the physical environment affect the development of civilizations?

One example of how the physical environment changed the ancient Egyptian civilizations was the Nile river. Because it was so rich and fertile, many people settled around it, benefitting of the Nile. This brought people together, and created large civilizations along the Nile rather than many small ones scattered around. However, the mountainous areas of Egypt kept people apart. Civilizations that might have been joined on either side of a mountain wouldn’t be able to, because of the physical barrier, and where there could’ve been one big civilizations there would be two small ones instead. Also, civilizations with fertile land or near resources would grow larger than ones without, and they would develop faster.