The Last Post - Thanks, S2!

I just wanted to write one last post to let you know how much I have enjoyed being your teacher.

I’ve had a great year and have thoroughly enjoyed working with all of you. I can only hope that I have as nice, as bright, and as funny a class again at my next school – although of course there’ll never be another 2B2!

I hope I’ve managed to teach you a thing or two, and I feel I have to thank you for teaching me rather a lot as well.

I wish you all the best of luck in the future (although of course you don’t need it) and I know you’ll all go on to do fantastic things.

I’ll miss you all, very much.

Miss Galbraith x

'The Blackbird of Glanmore'

Mid-Term Break wasn't the only poem that Seamus Heaney wrote about his brother's death.

The Blackbird of Glanmore

On the grass when I arrive,
Filling the stillness with life,
But ready to scare off
At the very first wrong move,
In the ivy when I leave,

It's you, blackbird, I love.

I park, pause, take heed.
Breathe. Just breathe and sit
And lines I once translated
Come back: 'I want away
To the house of death, to my father

Under the low clay roof.'

And I think of one gone to him,
A little stillness dancer -
Haunter-son, lost brother -
Cavorting through the yard,
So glad to see me home,

My homesick first term over.

And think of a neighbour's words
Long after the accident;
'Yon bird on the shed roof,
Up on the ridge for weeks -
I said nothing at the time

But I never liked yon bird'

The automatic lock
Clunks shut, the blackbird's panic
Is shortlived, for a second
I've a bird's eye view of myself,
A shadow on raked gravel

In front of my house of life.

Hedge-hop, I am absolute
For you, your ready talkback,
Your each stand-offish comeback,
Your picky, nervy goldbeak -
On the grass when I arrive,

In the ivy when I leave.

The F. conspiracy - Thanks Nico! (and Connor)

Since he was born Jim had always hated fish. He hated the way they looked, smelled and tasted. He thought fish shouldn’t be here, he thought that the fish were up to something. Everyone thought he was just being silly, but he had thought how fish could take over the world.

THE PLAN
First he thought the fish were silly being caught by fisherman, but then he thought that the fish that got caught were fake they were just testing the humans to see how strong they were.

They wouldn’t be able to breath on the surface. AND then it came to him! Aquariums. The fish would break the glass in every aquarium in the world. This would flood a lot but not enough. So the fish would put tsunami generators and explosives near the coasts all over the world. When the signal was sent, the glass would break and the bombs would go off with the tsunamis to help them cover more distance. The majority of humans would drown and a lot of the land would be water thus allowing the fish to breath on land so to speak.

While the fish were plotting, the humans would be none the wiser except for Jim. He’d tried to warn the authorities, but his parents would tell them he was just making up rubbish.

Today Jim decided to check his local aquarium for glass cutters or pieces of equipment that could be used to shatter glass. When he arrived everything was normal. He had been here so many times and not found anything. So he just decided to give it up, it wasn’t going to happen. He turned round and headed for the door.

Then the glass cracked.



THE END

National Assessments: Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney woodcut

Here are a few links to resources for 'Mid-Term Break' on the web. These are all good quality and will help those of you who are revising for your Level F test.


Teachit

mtsn.org

Seamus Heaney on Wikipedia

I also found quite a good video on YouTube to accompany the poem. I find it can be really helpful have visuals as well as the text, and this is a nicely made little video.

Book Review - 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell. -Thanks Andrew!

A book I have just been reading called 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell is written as a fairy book but deals with politics. This means the book could be enjoyed by children as well as adults too.


The book is timeless and is set in the countryside of England. In 'Manor Farm', an elderly pig, Major, has a dream about the future where the world is an equal place. He tells this to his fellow 'comrades' just before he passes away. Major is meant to represent Karl Marx who had a dream about a world of communism; this idea then failed the same as Major's will.

The farmer - Mr Jones - then is brutally forced out of his home and onto the streets by the farm animals. The animals all do this because they think it is unfair the way he had been treating them, like making them work hard or killing them for meat. Once he has gone the animals look forward to a life of equality.

Two pigs - Napoleon and Snowball - lead the group of animals because they are the most intelligent animals. The two leaders and the rest of the pigs teach the other animals how to read and write. napoleon soon overthrows Snowball and becomes the main leader. After this things become much worse: animals are slaughtered, some die from hunger and some from exhaustion, including Boxer the powerful workhorse who doesn't stop at anything to get work done.

In the end, the pigs betray what's left of the other comrades and treat themselves like humans: the pigs stuff themselves with food while they starve the others, they sleep in proper beds, drink alcohol, wear clothes, gamble, and even associate with humans who are meant to be the animals' enemies! Finally, the pigs start walking about on their hind legs and the others can't tell the different between human and pig.

I found this novel really good and could not put it down. It shows that you can talk about the most serious topic and have it written as a fairy story!

Reminder

I hope you all behaved yourselves while I was away today!

Had a wee keek at your personal writing pieces and they are shaping up to be really, really good! Keep it up everybody :)

I should have just about everyone's critical essays by now, and remember: first drafts of Lucrezia's Story are due in on Friday.

I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of the late Sam, voted world's ugliest dog. I can't understand why...

Flash Fiction - Thanks Euan!

Here I am standing in front of the racetrack waiting to break the world record for driving the fastest speed in a car.

I have been waiting for this moment for many years now. I know this task might sound a bit easy, or that all you need to do is drive a really phenomenal car, but there is much more to it. Of course you will need a fast car but to break this record it is all down to the driver's skills.

I have to be really fit so I don't weigh down the car. I also have to be a better driver than Michael Schumacher. I have to know when to change gears and control the car when it reaches over 100mph.

As I stand next to the track waiting to get in my car I start to think: what if I fail? Or what if I crash? And if I succeed will I be admired? Will I be a role model for children?

As my car approaches my heart starts pumping faster than the car can go.

Vrmmmmm Vrmmmmm!!!!!!!

Here I go!!!!!

As I reach 100mph I can feel the power of the car. I'm saying to myself, come on, just a few more.

140, 142, 143, 144. Now I'm so close to beating it.

148, 149, 150, 151, YES!!!

I've done it! I have just become a world record holder. As I come out of the car the crowd go bonkers.

This is an amazing feeling. I cannot believe this has happened. I am speechless as I step up onto the podium and get congratulated by my trainer and the chief of Ferrari.

This is my story.

More about Flash Fiction

Book Review: 'Snakehead' by Anthony Horowitz. - Thanks Jack!

A book I have read and enjoyed recently is 'Snakehead' by Anthony Horowitz. the book is the seventh in the Alex Rider series, and follows Alex as he is recruited by the Australian Secret Service to track down the leader of the criminal underworld of South-East Asia: the Snakehead. The book also sees him trying to find out the truth about his parents' death by finding his father's best friend, Ash. I enjoyed this book because it has an excellent plot, interesting characters, and also because I like the author, Anthony Horowitz.

The book deals with a few different themes, including family, crime and terrorism. In particular, the theme of family is explored really well because all through the series Alex has been looking for the truth about his family and in this book he finally gets it from his father's best friend. Crime and terrorism are also dealt with well because the schemes of the Snakehead are very well thought out and elaborate, and are made more realistic and believable because, in theory, they could actually be carried out and happen, which makes the book much better, in my opinion, because when you're reading it you don't have to imagine a far-fetched scheme that could never happen.

The book has many interesting characters, especially the main character, Alex. Despite the normal image of a spy, tough, smart and fearless, Alex is shy, vulnerable and hates the fact that he's a spy and just wants to go home and have a normal life. Also, because he is a fourteen-year-old boy, I found it quite easy to realte to Alex because he's not that much older than me. Alex is different from the stereotypical image associated with spies because he's only fourteen, which, in my opinion, makes him a more interesting character.

The book begins with Alex being sent to Australia to work with the Australian secret Service to help catch criminals in South-East Asia. Alex is partnered with ash, an old friend of his father's, a secret agent with the key to unlock the mystery of Alex's past. Alex travels with Ash to Bangkok, where they are discovered as spies and captured. Alex learns of the head of the Snakehead's plot to create a tsunami using an underwater bomb, which would wipe out the entire north of Australiaand the surrounding islands. Alex escapes the Snakehead leader's grasp and informs MI6 of his plot. The SAS are called in and the terrorist plot is foiled in a cliched way, just in the nick of time. The book ends with Alex ending his relationship with MI6 and settling for the first time into the life of a normal teenager.

In conclusion, the book 'Snakehead' is a thoroughly enjoyable read and is a good book in almost every way. I would fully recommend this book to anyone, as I had a good time reading it and I'm sure lots of other people would too.

Alex Rider online

The Story Behind Nursery Rhymes - thanks Jordan!

Day to day children sing nursery rhymes and learn nursery rhymes but never think of the story behind them. We don’t know how long ago nursery rhymes began but believe it was a way of people speaking out towards leaders when they didn’t have freedom of speech, this led to children and adults passing them on to friends and family even the simplest of nursery rhymes have meaning behind them lessons in a play of words, the rhymes cover every subject a child is interested in chasing games, counting games, bridges they have crossed and the activities that go around them and these are just some examples of day to day nursery rhymes that have a lot of meaning behind them.

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty Maids all in a row.

This poem refers to Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic; “Mary Mary quite contrary” is adverting towards bloody Mary being quite crazy. The garden referred to in the story is an allusion to the graveyards where all who dared to continue with the protestant faith were buried. “With silver bells and cockle shells” is referring to the instruments of tortures, silver bells were two bits of metal where the suspected protestant placed his fingers between and watched them get crushed on by one, and the cockle shells were believed to be for the genitals!

“And pretty maids all in a row” The 'maids' were a device to behead people called the Maiden. Beheading a victim was fraught with problems. It could take up to 11 blows to actually sever the head; the victim often resisted and had to be chased around the scaffold. Margaret Pole (1473 - 1541), Countess of Salisbury did not go willingly to her death and had to be chased and hacked at by the Executioner. These problems led to the invention of a mechanical instrument (now known as the guillotine) called the Maiden - shortened to Maids in the Mary Mary Nursery Rhyme. The Maiden had long been in use in England before Lord Morton, regent of Scotland during the minority of James VI, had a copy constructed from the Maiden which had been used in Halifax in Yorkshire. Ironically, Lord Morton fell from favour and was the first to experience the Maiden in Scotland!

Therefore nursery rhymes and children’s songs are not what they are put out to be in this day and age, and some have very interesting serious stories behind them!

Holocaust Memorial Day - Thanks Kiera!

On the 27th of January, it is National Holocaust Memorial Day. This is when we pay respect to the millions of people who were murdered during the Holocaust in the Second Word War. This was when over 6 million Jews were taken to concentration camps which, more often than not, led to their cruel deaths.

Recently we have seen a slide show in assembly which inspired me to write a poem on the happenings. I decided to write it as if it was happening to me and then at the end using a quote from her tombstone. The poem happens over about 5 minutes but it makes horrific statements about life in one of the camps: Auschwitz. Here is the poem:

Paving Our Road to Hell

Uniforms bearing the badge of death,
Identities gone, only a number left.
Upon us: the coldest form of discrimination
The cure for hatred; mass extermination
Pools of blood on the floor; gas in the air,
The hunger, the pain, is too much to bear.

9 years old, orphaned in this blood hungry war.
I can feel what they’re doing, but don’t know what for.
My ears are immune to the guns and the wails
But the grief of my loss still pierces me like nails
My mother was gassed, my father was shot.
My brother was starved, I was left distraught.

The cells hold the ghosts of the lucky, it may seem
Because, compared to this, death is a dream.
I look at the walls, see the lives taken here
I can feel their surrender, I can smell their fear.
They hate us, they beat us, cruel words they yell
Their inhumane punishments pave our road to Hell

Here she lies, death by fire
Pinned as a thief, a crook, a liar
Her faith in her God caused them to retaliate
Left her with no choice, no chance to debate.
Her skin did not burn alone as she fell
Her faith and trust in God enflamed as well.

learn more

Another 'dramatic monologue'

Even more people posting! Keep it up :D

I was leafing through my poetry resources tonight looking for something and I came across another 'dramatic monologue'. Remember, in a dramatic monologue the speaker unintentionally reveals things about themselves that they might not really have wanted the listener to know - Alfonso gives us clues about his jealous and arrogant nature, for example.

This one is called 'Perfect'.

Sometimes is never quite enough
If you're flawless then you'll win my love
Don't forget to win first place
Don't forget to keep that smile on your face
Be a good boy
Try a little harder
You've got to measure up
And make me prouder
How long before you screw it up
How many times do I have to tell you to hurry up
With everything I do for you
The least you can do is keep quiet
Be a good girl
You've got to try a little harder
That simply wasn't good enough
To make us proud
I'll live through you
I'll make you what I never was
If you're the best, then maybe so am I
Compared to him compared to her
I'm doing this for your own damn good
You'll make up for what I blew
What's the problem... why are you crying
Be a good boy
Push a little farther now
That wasn't fast enough
To make us happy
We'll love you just the way you are
If you're perfect

It'd be interesting to see you discuss this a wee bit in the comments section. Who is the speaker? What's your opinion of them? And why aren't there any question marks in the poem?

You may actually have heard this poem before... it's a song by Alanis Morissette. You can listen to it by clicking on the video below.

'My Last Duchess' - Videos

I'm pleased to see that people are posting! :)

Remember the video of 'My Last Duchess' that we watched in class? Since the sound quality was so terrible I'm giving you the link to watch it yourselves, at home. The commentaries are there too (which we tried and failed to watch in class).

Remember Kiera - you're our next blogger! Get your thinking cap on and decide what you want to write about!

The video below was made by a bunch of GCSE students in England who are also studying 'My Last Duchess'. It's quite funny, but a bit... well, rubbish! Any budding film makers in S2 willing to go one better..?

'My Last Duchess' powerpoint

This is the powerpoint we looked at in class. I thought it might be helpful when you're writing 'Lucrezia's Story' - the full names of all the characters are listed, in case you forget them (they are quite long!)

My Last Duchess

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Children & Teens Presentations & Slid

First Ever Post - Thanks Carina!

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs! cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! :)