Blog 2: "The Great War"

What were the causes, both regional as well as political for the beginning of The Great War?  Explain your answer using factual evidence from the text.

Some main causes of the beginning of The Great War include economic competition, rivalries between nations, and aggressive nationalism between great powers. Some countries were beginning to feel threatened by a nation's power. For example, Britain felt threatened by Germany's rapid economic growth and military strength. International rivalry continued to grow as countries competed for colonies, superiority, and power (Germany and France almost broke out into war over control of Morocco). Aggressive nationalism threatened central authority in Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. "Austria-Hungary worried that nationalism might foster rebellion among the many minority populations within the empire." After their archduke and archduchess were assassinated, Austria-Hungary seized this opportunity to blame and attack Serbia. The Great War began and more and more countries got involved.

Blog 1: Movie like Me

March 17, 2014

My name is Angela. I'm  fourteen (almost fifteen) and was born and raised in L.A. I play the piano, I swim, and I play basketball.

One movie that is related to an aspect of my life is Hoosiers. In the movie, a poor, small-town Indiana high school basketball team (which doesn't even have enough players) gets a new coach. The coach helps guide the team into multiple victories, shocking the townspeople who had low expectations for the team.Their team beat the odds and won state finals.

This movie relates to my experience as a part of the JV girls' basketball team this past year. In the beginning, I wasn't even planning on playing basketball this year. I'd played for the past four years on my old school's team and didn't want to commit to the time and effort that this would take up. My friends, who played with me last year, told me there weren't enough players on the JV team this year. We decided to try another year of basketball. We started off as a small team with only six players; we also had a new coach who was pushy and ambitious about our team's victory. We began to recruit some friends of ours onto the team. After (literally) putting our blood, sweat, and tears into practices and games, our team surprised many who didn't think our season would be as successful as it was. We ended the season winning 10 of 14 games.