Where The H*** Is Matt Now?

         The past few days of class have been fun, but Monday was especially fun because we watched a few videos called Where The BEEP Is Matt? When he (Matt) was in college he traveled the world, each place he went, he did his own dance. Ever since then he has been sponsored by Stride Gum to go around and video tape himself doing that dance. We believe that the places he danced were gorgeous, and deserved to be shared on our blog, he had been to places such as Bolivia, Germany, Yemen, Japan, Argentina, different places in the US, The UK, Taiwan, Egypt, Madagascar, India, France, and would even dance on the frozen Tundra. As "many" places we have mentioned he has been to so many more. We believe that his videos may be comical, and "different", but that something can be learned, such as that there are so many beautiful places out there, that need to be shared and experienced. If you don't believe us click on the link below to see more of Matt.
www.wherethehellismatt.com

More about Alice Paul

       Our class being truly awesome, has gotten yet another visitor!  Okay it's no one like Sandra Day O'Connor, but it was still a really cool experience.  On October 20th, 2010 the four of us as well as the rest of the Alice Paul class was visited by Ms. Crum, an expert on all things suffragist, especially Alice Paul.  She came to our class to tell us about just how cool of a person Alice Paul was and then she took us on a little field trip.  While yes, we had already known some about Alice Paul (thank you Ms. T and google), but she told us so much more! After the presentation in which she gave us about a million facts we took a little trip to the Sewall - Belmont house, which is a suffragist house and Alice Paul's headquarters that is only about five blocks away!
      With this visit we learned so much about Alice Paul!  One thing that we learned about Alice Paul is that she had near a million degrees!  Well maybe that's a bit of a hyperbole, but she definitely had more than the average person, some of the degrees that she received were: a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ba in biology, a law degree, a masters degree while living in London, and many more. She also was great friends with the famous suffragist Lucy Burns, who she met while in London.  We also found it interesting that Alice Paul had begun going to suffragist meetings at a very early age, since her mother had attended them.
      Thank god we were born when we were, because if we had been born in the time period in which women hadn't been able to vote, our lives wouldn't of been so great.  Rich or well off women had to take care of their children and homes, while poor women often had to work in factories under awful conditions. The women in the social work field helped poor people, by providing food and clothing for them.  Alice Paul furthered women's lives in many ways.  She proved that women could speak there minds as openly as men and that they were not weak and quiet.  One way that she proved this was by partaking in the first picketing at the white house!  Obviously one of her largest accomplishments was that she had helped create the nineteenth amendment which was ratified on August 26th, 1920.
       Alice Paul is a great fit for our class name, because she never gave up.  Her legacy encourages us, as well as all people to strive and work for what you believe in, no matter what the cost.  We found that the Sewall - Belmont house was a gorgeous piece of architecture with a fascinating history.  We found that having the steps from the prison in which the night of terror took place was an amazing idea that made the house even more fascinating.  It was also interesting how close it was to all of the Washington, D.C landmarks in which laws are created, we are reasonably sure that they chose this location for a reason.

25 Word Summary of how Geography Affects the Tlingit Life

Geography affects the Tlingit life in the NorthWest region. It's seasonal and rainy there, so the Tlingits needed to make their houses very weather proof.

Powhatan Tribe

            Geography affected the Powhatans by influencing what foods they ate, what clothes they wore, and what type of dwellings they lived in.

Taylor's Slide

We walk in the hardworking footsteps of Native Americans. When I read about the Cheyenne tribe I hoped to work as hard as they did.

WE MET SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR!!!!!!!!!!!

Today October 13th, 2010 we the Capitol Hill Characters met Sandra Day O'Connor.  We presume that you know who she is, but..... if you don't we'll be nice and tell you.  Sandra Day O'Connor grew up on a ranch and in her words was "a cowgirl" somehow this cowgirl who had a standard education as a child ended up becoming the first woman admitted into the Supreme Court.  Previously she had participated in all three branches of her state's government.  Not only did she become one of the nine Justices in the Supreme Court, but she also became the Chief Justice!  Today she came to our school and as much as the four of us would like to say that she came because she wanted to meet four girls with sparkling, even if quirky, personalities it was actually just that we were lucky with what time our history class was.  Still it was absolutely amazing.  You'd think that a woman in her eighth decade would be fragile, but you are WRONG!  As soon as Sandra Day O'Connor entered the classroom it was obvious that she was a spirited woman.  We spent the class time playing on iCivics (check it out people it is awesome) a program that she sponsors and we then got to ask her questions.  It was remarkable to meet a woman who has inspired so many people, especially since she was so nice and funny!  According to her she is happy to have retired because "I think twenty five years was enough!" and that one reason she was chosen to be a justice was because "President Reagan knew I was a cowgirl at heart and he liked that."  She clearly believes that all of us can do what she has done and do amazing things as long as we work really hard.  From this experience we have learned that no matter what your upbringing or where you come from you can accomplish anything!

Love,
Mariah F., Taylor S., Grace M., and Evelyn M.

P.S Check out iCivics at www.icivics.org

The Tlingit

The Hopi Tribe

       The Hopi Tribe was from the South West Region of the US and met many problems due to the heat.  Still they solved them all.

Capitol Hill Characters

Hi everyone, I’m Evelyn M. and I am one of the Capitol Hill Character!  I love to swim, write, read, draw, and I like long walks on the beach (just kidding about that last one)!  I really enjoy history class; both my parents were history majors, so I guess it runs in the blood.  My role model is… my grandfather.  I know most of you probably believe that I’m saying this because I love him (which I do), but that isn’t the reason.  My grandfather is a civil engineer, and I swear half the time you talk to him he is speaking in math lingo.  However, he is probably one of the smartest people I know and I want to be a civil engineer just like him one day!  I’m not really positive if I’ve had a highlight of my life yet; I feel as though people tend to be able to say what the highlight of their life was when they’ve had kids, started their career, or are really old and can think back on their whole life.  With that said I still have had some moments when I was really proud of myself.  I think my proudest moment was probably after I got first place in City Wide history day.  I knew just how hard I had worked and was really proud of the product I had made.  In the future I want to go to a great university, become a civil engineer, and I know that this will sound somewhat stereotypical, but when I grow up what I really want to be is a mom.  So far I’ve really loved my life and what I’ve done and I’m excited to see what the future has in store for me!

Hi! My name is Taylor S. and I am also one of the Capitol Hill Characters. I like to babysit, swim, run, draw, spend time with my family and smile. I love history class, our teacher is very loud and fun to be around. My role model is also my great-grandfather. He is a Colonel Lieutenant for the marines, he was in the Vietnam war and is still alive to this day. He has taught my family many great values, and as he grows older and wiser, I love him more and more. We don't know what we would do without him. I'm don't think that I have had the highlight of my life left, and I hope that when it comes, that it had been worth what I was waiting for. I hope that my future holds happiness, success, and love.

Hello, my name is Grace M. and I like to cook and bake, do art, hang out with friends, read, play with technology, and live life. I love learning about history and find it intriguing, so Ms. Trenkle's history class is great fun for me. I have many people that I look up to and aspire to be like, but I don't know if I could choose just one person as a role model. As the old saying goes "It takes a village to raise a child." Although, if I did have to choose one person to be my role model it would be my grandma. She really knows how to get all she can out of life and seems to travel everywhere. I don't know if I've had the one grand highlight of my life yet; I don't think I've lived long enough to experience everything and then pick and choose. I do know that, so far, I have had many small highlights in my life and they make me want see what comes next. In the future, I hope to do a lot, but I'm not exactly sure what that is right now. I'm still dreaming...   

BOVINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, I said it, MOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi. You can probably guess that I'm Mariah, the craziest of them all. I am the wierdest, bizzarezt person on the planet, or in the Universe, for that matter. My role model is Tony Shalhoub,  the guy who plays Monk, and if you don't know who that is, I am going to come and stab you, an even number of times of course, disinfect the knife, and clean everything up so it's germ free. Then, to free my mind from the crime, I'll go out for ice cream, with out milk of course.  Okay maybe I won't stab you.... or will I???  The highlight of my life is (drum roll please) ------- EVERY STINKING DAY!!!  Just ask one of the more sane people in this group and they will tell you that I do a lot of crazy things (like bungee jumping down Victoria Falls) so it's a miracle that I'm still alive!!!  I want the future to hold a lot of fun for me. I want to go to an arts college or a circus college, or something "me-ish." I hope to do many fun things in life and always be happy; and remember to floss 16 times a day.

Who the heck is Alice Paul?

      Since we're a group of all girls, we should really appreciate this amazing woman... and for all you ladies and lady-ish people her accomplishments changed our lives as we know it.  Alice Paul was a suffragist, feminist, and political activist who believed in equal rights for all no matter what there gender, race, or ethnicity was.  Alice Paul believed in what she was doing more than most of us today, and was willing to fight for what she believed in at any cost.  Thinking about Alice Paul makes you really realize just how much you can accomplish.  When it came to picking our class name in history class our teacher Ms. T, told us about  a bunch of so called "famous" people who the majority of us hadn't heard of.  As we (assisted by Ms. T) told the stories of these important people one stood out, and that was the story of Alice Paul.  Her fight for women's right to vote was amazing, and we promise you that almost every girl and the majority of the boys voted for Alice Paul to be our classes name.  What spoke out to most of us was how she suffered for her cause.  Alice Paul and her colleagues (upper right hand photo) even starved themselves to get their point across and had to be force fed!  We look up to her now and forever.