Having trouble copying directories to remote machine using scp
 

This is a silly question, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I am getting wrong in the syntax. I am trying to copy a directory on to my schools remote server from my host machine. I am using the command

scp -r /somedirectory my_user_name@my_shool's_server:~

the target is the root directory on my user account.

Using that command, shell spits out:
ssh: could not resolve hostname: Name or service no known
lost connection

Doh, misspelled the name of a shell variable -_-. Marked solved.