Blog Day Fifty- One: The In- Class Essay

Today in class I wrote an essay as part of the exam that we will finish on Wednesday. Thankfully I did finish writing my essay during in class. I was afraid that I was not going to because when I finished typing my essay last night I noticed it had over 1,100 words! I don't think I wrote that much today just because I cut a few parts unessential parts out to save time. Have fun grading my essay Mr. Schick! I did take up a lot of space to write my essay, using 1 and 3/4 of paper to write my essay. I was very proud of myself when I did finish. Half way through, I thought my hand was going to fall off because I was writing so quickly. Thankfully it didn't and I was able to finish my essay with a few minutes remaining. Though Mr. Schick did not let us write our entire essay out on our notecard, I used the strategy of writing cues for each sentence in each paragraph and therefore had very small handwriting to fit everything. I think that strategy worked really well because I was able to remember or come up with what to write for each sentence in each paragraph. Overall I think my essay writing went well and I hope I get a good grade on it.

Blog Day Fifty! In Class Essay Prep

Today in class I worked on the in class essay we have to write tomorrow. I choose the third prompt to write about demographic transition. In class yesterday and last night I wrote two out of the five paragraphs. In class today I wrote the third paragraph and during my free mod today I wrote the fourth paragraph. Later tonight I plan on finishing up the essay. I am very thankful that Mr. Schick is allowing us to use a notecard full of facts that will help us write the essay during the time we are given to write the actual essay. I am nervous that I won't be able to write the essay in the time given to me in class because I have typed a lot for the essay on my computer. That is also why I am thankful for the notecard that way I can spend as more time writing than thinking about what to write. I hope that pre-writing my essay will help with that as well. I think that I will be well prepared for tomorrow's essay. 

Blog Day Forty- Nine: Essay Preparation and Demographic Transition Quiz

Today in class I took my demographic transition quiz that I missed yesterday. The quiz was challenging and I hope I did well on it. Some of the questions were easy and others were hard and I had to sit and think about them before I could answer the question. I did all the things Mr. Schick told us to do in his blog to prepare for the quiz. I rewatched the three videos about demographic population, I looked at the graph I made about demographic transition, and finally I reread the first reading Mr. Schock gave us about demographic transition. The article was much easier to read after I'd learned more about demographic transition. I understood what the text was saying the second time around reading it and therefor it was easier for me to comprehend. After the quiz I started working on the essay I have to write for this class for the exam. We have to write the actual essay by hand on Friday. To make sure I do well I plan on typing my essay out for someone then to peer review during Thursday's class.

Blog Day Forty- Eight: Not in Class

Today I was not in class because I was sick.

Blog Day Forty- Seven: Review for Demographic Transition Quiz

Today in class we studied for our demographic transition quiz that we have on Monday. To study we watched the Khan Academy video about demographic transition. Although not everyone wanted to watch this video to study, the majority of the class, including me, want to watch this video. To study even more for this quiz I plan to reread the textbook passage we got about demographic transition and rewatch all the videos Mr. Schick gave us to make sure I know everything about demographic transition. During the video we talked about if John Carroll was worth all the money we will invest into it over the next four years. I think that it is worth the amount of money we put into the school. Eventually John Carroll will help me get into the college I want to be in and that is important to me. Anyway, I will have to remember to study over the weekend for the demographic population quiz as it will probably be the last grade put in before exams and Christmas break.

Blog Day Forty- Six: In-Class Assignment

Today in class we watched three videos and had to pick which one was our favorite. Here is my assignment.

Why Populations Grow

1.  In European countries, women are having fewer children than the replacement rate and the only thing keeping those countries population up is the high net migration rate. 
2.  A country's birth rate can decline because of the fact that families no longer live on farms, so parents dont need to have as many kids to use for labor work. 
3.  Most more economically developed countries are in stage four of the demographic transition model. 

Khan Academy Video

1.  The second stage of the demographic transition model is seen as a country reaches its developing stage. 
2.  In stage three of the demographic transition parents tend to have less children because of contraceptives and a bigger social trend towards smaller families. 
3.  The fifth stage of the demographic transition model is a speculation and some believe that the world population will forced to stabilized because of a potential resource shortage. 

Video From Kim Smith, Ph.D.

1.  The world's population now grow 67,000 people every 6-7 hours
2.  In stage three of the demographic transition, fertility rates drop because children are redefined as liabilities rather than assets. 
3.  The space between the fertility rates line and mortality rates line on a demographic transition model is called the demographic trap. 

My favorite video was the Khan Academy video. I choose this video because it was the right amount of talking and graphics. The video about why populations grow was hard to hear and understand. The video from Kim Smith was okay but it only showed occasional pictures and was mainly just a lecture. The Khan Academy video was nice because you could see how the population pyramids differ in each stage and got to visualize on screen what the lady was talking about. Out of the three videos the Khan Academy video was my favorite. 

Blog Day Forty- Five: Demographic Transition Videos

Today in class we read out loud the reading we read during class yesterday. While other people were reading the material I decided that it would help me if I wrote down the information about demographic transition in my notebook to make sure that I knew the information and that it would stick with me for the quiz we have next Monday. In class we also watched two videos about demographic transition. The first video was just a lady talking about demographic transition and what might happen in stage five and why. The second video we watched I liked better because it was a visual that the viewer could look at, not just a person lecturing through a video. I liked the format of the second video better and it also used population pyramids to show the stages of each countries population in each stage of the demographic transition. I can't wait to learn more about demographic transition and what happens after the different stages tomorrow.

Blog Day Forty- Four: Demographic Transition

Today in class we read from an excerpt from a textbook about demographic transition and reviewed our religion quiz. This is the first time in the class where we have read from a textbook to get our information. Usually we take notes of a PowerPoint, but this time we highlighted information from the text. We will have a quiz on this information next Monday. The demographic transition is defined as a process with four stages and every country is in one of them. In stage 1 the country has a very high CBR and CDR with a very low NIR. For most of human history all countries spent their time in the first stage, yet no countries remain there today. In stage 2 the countries have a high CBR, a rapidly declining CDR with a very High NIR. The Industrial Revolution and the medical revolution both many countries to go from stage 1 to stage 2. In stage 3 the county has a rapidly declining CBR, a moderately declining CDR, and a moderate NIR. In the final stage, stage 4, the country has a very low CBR, a low or slightly increasing CDR, with a zero or negative NIR. At the end of stage 4 one can say that the country has completed a cycle. This was a cool topic to learn and I can't wait to learn more about demographic transition.