Roman Slavery?

Hello citizens,
Leave me a comment here saying whether you support slavery or think it should be stopped in the Empire. Let me know why you feel this way.

Welcome to Rome!

So....Now you have done a little exploring on my portaportal. Hopefully you have found some new info and gotten a taste of how cool these people that we call Romans were. I wonder if you know who this guy is.



Or what went on in places like this.

What I want from you guys is your input, your questions, but most importantly, your honest opinion. I want this blog to be a place where you can tell me exactly what you think and a place where you feel comfortable expressing yourself. If you don't want your comment published just write that at the end and I will be the only one reading it. Tell me what you learned and what you thought was interesting. If you really didn't think anything was cool then let me know, but please tell me what would catch your interest and how I could make this Rome unit more fun. Now its up to you...let me have it!

Please leave your comments on this posts comment space (not the earlier ones). That way it will be easier to keep track of everyone's thoughts.
See you kids later!

Greek Gods

Hey guys,
Thanks for all of your comments about yourselves. After reading your surveys and looking at this blog I feel like I have a better picture of who you all are. Sorry I haven't been posting a lot on here, that is something that I am going to try to work on....starting right now!

Lets talk about the Greeks and more specifically, the Greek gods. As we learned in class these gods and myths were a way for the Greeks to try to explain things that they didn't understand. They didn't know what lightning was or where it came from, just that it was powerful. So they made up a story about Zeus (king of the gods) throwing lightning bolts down from Mt. Olympus.

Traveling by sea was a huge part of Greek culture. As you can imagine, Greek sailors often ran into bad weather while out exploring or trading for exotic goods. Out of fear and respect for the power of the sea the Greeks created a god of water, Poseidon. Many fisherman and sailors prayed that they would have safe passage on their journeys.



The Greeks also created gods based on qualities that they found important or desirable. They often looked up to these gods and tried to please them by building monuments in their honor. An example of this is the Parthenon, a temple built to please Athena the goddess of war.



So... If the gods of Mt Olympus were the heros of the Greek culture, who do you think would be the heros of our culture today? Try to think about the people that everyone knows and loves. Why are they famous and do they deserve to be? What does this say about what we value in people.
Write me a comment about our idols and if you think they deserve all of the attention that they are getting.

Hello Mrs. Joyce's class!
I just thought that I would leave you all a little message on my blog and tell you a bit more about myself. This is a picture of my girlfriend Vanessa and I when we first moved to Portland. Before this we were living in Montana which does not border the ocean; so as you can see we were excited to be near the water. They may not have the ocean where we were living out west but they do have beautiful mountains and rock formations like these.

Before we moved back to Maine we really wanted to see the country. So we packed up our truck and drove all around the different states visiting national parks. The two of us saw everything from Redwood and Sequoia trees, to the ancient Native American dwellings at Mesa Verde.

Now that the two of us have settled in Maine we can start working in the careers that we love. Vanessa is an esthetician working in a day spa, and I spend my days in the classroom with you amazing kids!