Happy St Andrews Day

Hi

Did you know that St. Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew. It is celebrated today.

Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's official national day (hence why we are off school today). In 2006, the Scottish Parliament designated St. Andrew's Day as an official bank holiday.

Although most commonly associated with Scotland, Saint Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Romania, Russia and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In Germany, the feast day is celebrated as Andreasnacht ("St. Andrew's Night"), in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet ("St. Andrew's Prayer"), and in Poland as Andrzejki ("Andrews").

No matter what you believe its always nice to have a day off.

See you in class

Home again

Hello all

Well I am back safe and sound, I was pretty tried after a day travelling yesterday so I never had time to post anything.

I had a great time in the Spanish capital although I never got to see much of it. Still at least it gives me an excuse to go visit my friends again so I can see more of it next time.

One thing I did see was the Bernabéu when I passed it in the bus on Thursday night. According to FIFA, Real Madrid FC was the world's most successful football club in the 20th century. Their stadium is called Bernabéu, and it is located in Chamartín, in the North of Madrid. It has a capacity of 85,000 spectators. Tonight is el classico when they take on their Catalan rivals Barcelona. This rivalry is one of the fiercest in the world and some fans still use the Spanish Civil War to justify their hatred of one another. It's a shame that politics and football get mixed up so often but it goes to show that other countries have issues separating the two just as we do here in Scotland. No matter who you support tonight (I prefer Braca for the record) lets hope it is a good game and there is no trouble.

Have a good day off tomorrow.

See you in Class!

Ola

Well as some of you may have noticed I was not in class. This is because as I type this I am sitting in Madrid, Spain. I went to my friends wedding which was lovely and we are having a little break before going to celebrate some more this evening.

Madrileños (people from Madrid) are often called "Gatos" (cats) not because of their late sleeping habits similar to cats, but because of the historical legend where during the Arabic invasion, an adept soldier climbed the outer walls with the agility of a cat; after which, his family assumed the name of Gato.


Remember we have Monday off too, so have a great long weekend.

See you in Class!

Bravo!

Can I first start by saying how pleased I was with most of the plays I watched today with the first years. Even if I was the best actor.

Also lets see who we catch out next week after our agreement today.

Third year, not a bad performance from most of you and I have marked your surprise quiz and I was surprised to see so many of you do well. Maybe it has something to do with your teacher. Thanks to those of you that gave me homework some nice work there too.

Today's top fact is that one of my favourite groups 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience' made their London stage debut on this day in 1966. Check out the clothes and the hair, now that's what I call freedom of expression. Love it!

If you read the blog then why not come up and tell me, just stop me and say the secret code words 'Massive Afro'. Spread the word.

See you in class!

The Big Yin

Its the Big Yins birthday today, he is one of my favourites and despite the colourful language he is a national treasure. Happy Birthday Billy.
Found a website which will help all of you swat up for just about every topic we teach in school. If you find it hard to study there are some great interactive games which make learning/studying that little bit more fun.

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/

See you in class!

Scotland and the Slave Trade

Hi

Well thanks to the 3rd years for generally being well behaved during class whilst we had our visitor.

The school might be on BBC Scotland news tonight so check it out.

For those of you that missed it (1st year this is really aimed at you) then there was an episode of the history of Scotland over the weekend which outlined some of Scotlands involvement in the Slave Trade. If you hurry you will catch it on BBC iplayer. The episode was called 'The Price of Progress' and it will help with a forthcoming lesson on the topic.

Did you know that today in 1889 the first jukebox made its debut in SanFransico, at the Palais Royale saloon?

See you in class

R.I.P JFK

Another Kennedy post, this was a sad day for the USA in 1963 and the rumours surrounding his death still make the Presidents 'assassination' a hot topic for historians and conspiracy theorists alike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination

Its almost Monday again so enjoy the last of your weekend.

See you in class

A day at the museum

It's Friday!

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Had he still been alive my favourite Kennedy (Bobby) would have celebrated his 84th birthday today.

Triangular trade

Hi

Well todays link is aimed at the first years who are working through the slave trade at the moment. There is tons of great information out there on the web about this topic but here is a link about triangular trade.

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u3/index.html

With this in mind did you know that the greatest rock and roll band in the world have a song that is about slavery? Here are the lyrics below. See if you can find out the name of one of my all time favourite bands (there picture above is a clue) and I am sure there are places on the internet where you can hear the song. Anyway here are the lyrics:-

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields

Sold in a market down in New Orleans

Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright

Hear him whip the women just around midnight

See you in class

3rd year German Home Front

A rather up and down day today. First year class was good (if a little chatty) and there was a majority of 3rd year working hard. I did mark the letters that were handed in and a few will have to do it again. Sorry but you know I expect better of you.

With that in mind here is a nice link for the First World War (again):-

http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/germany.htm

On a lighter note did you know that today in 1928 Mickey Mouse made his debut in the animated short Steamboat Willie? Well he did, who would have thought that little mouse would have become a worldwide icon. Happy Birthday Mickey.

See you in class

Disclaimer

I would like to say that I have no control over the content of the pages that I post for you all to look at. The opinions expressed elsewhere are those held by other people somewhere in this wide and wonderful world. The Internet is a great resource but we must be careful when we use it and I have learnt this already.

I promise that from now on I will carefully check the links I post.

(This picture is taken from Flickr.com if you want to see more from this artist then go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/)

3rd Year

Hello

well I had fun today and all your work is on the walls. Here is a great interactive website to help you with all things WW1:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/

If you are reading this then you have become part of a special group of students, maybe we should do something to identify fellow Mr Meechan blog readers, like a secret sign. If you see me in the hall why not stop me and say 'I caught your blog'! Ok not cool but we can work on it.

See you in class

Welcome One & All

Hello,

This is my first ever post on my first ever blog. I'm so glad you dropped by to check it out.



The idea is to share any interesting information I come across on the Internet that might help you learn more about history and also to share other stuff that I find interesting (and hopefully you might too).

With that in mind I think I should start with a song:-



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzJ2NKp23WU



Haste ye back!