Glow Scotland

January 9th, 2012

Jessie Porter Nursery: Sharing and collaborating through Glow

ggallacher

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Dundee City, Early Years, Glow, Glow Groups

Jessie Porter Nursery School in Dundee is a pre-school centre catering for close on one hundred children aged three to five years. Jessie Porter was recently recognised by HMIE as providing a “positive, supportive and purposeful learning environment” where well planned use of ICT features to “promote links across the children’s learning”.

In this cookbook, Jo Bell, an ICT Staff Tutor (Early Years / Primary), describes how she worked with Jessie Porter to develop a Glow Group aimed at showcasing the work that is going on in the nursery, strengthen Nursery / Primary transition links and to share how they are planning for and developing the Curriculum for Excellence in the early years.

Find out more in the cookbook here

December 5th, 2011

Panda-monium as Sweetie and Sunshine land in Edinburgh

pcurrie

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: CfE, China, Chinese, early years, edinburgh, environment, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Glow TV, Literacy, pandas, Tian Tian, video, Yang Guang, zoos
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow, Learner Resources, Literacy, Pupils

Our Glow TV team had an unusually early start to their Sunday as they braved the cold and snow and made their way to Edinburgh zoo for the arrival of two very special black and white guests. Known as Tian Tian and Yang Guang, or ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Sunshine’ the Pandas arrived just after lunchtime on Sunday 4th December to an excited throng of flag-waving well-wishers and a tartan-clad pipe band playing ‘Scotland the Brave’.

The pandas’ arrival marks the start of a ten year stay at Edinburgh Zoo, which many people hope will result in a baby panda. Baby or not, the new residents are sure to bring the zoo many new visitors, keen to catch a glimpse of these endangered bears. They arrived at Edinburgh airport, having made the 12 hour journey from China in a special ‘panda express’ Fed Ex plane with panda livery and a crew dressed in kilts.

Our Glow TV team of junior reporters, Callan, Cammy, Daniel, Emma and Evan, were at the zoo’s Education centre all morning, making Chinese lanterns and watching a panda presentation as well as capturing interviews with zoo staff. They, and lots of other children were then given special black and white jackets and hats and Scottish, British and Chinese flags to wave, before making their way down the hill to welcome the pandas from the airport.

The panda reporters did, of course, capture lots and lots of footage of the arrival excitement for Glow users and this week sees Glow TV turn into ‘Pandamonium’ as we bring you as much panda-related content as we can. Pam Currie from the Glow team will kick this all off on Tuesday at 2:30pm as she gives viewers a taste of what’s to come and provides sneaky early details of an exciting panda competition we will be launching. After that, on Wednesday morning at 10:00 am, Pam is joined in the TV studio in Glasgow by Louise and Melissa from the Daily What News, our Glow news service for schools. They will share panda facts, discuss the related news articles and resources, and give more details and tips on the competition to win ‘Pandaphernalia’, or ‘cute black and white panda stuff,’ if you are groaning at our panda puns by now!

Later on Wednesday, at 2:30 pm Glow TV viewers can watch our ‘Pandamentary’ which offers a truly behind-the-scenes look at all the zoo arrival excitement we captured on Sunday. Watch our intrepid panda reporters take part in fun panda activities and see the zoo keepers’ panda presentation from the Education centre. We even managed to grab a real scoop, when our reporters were relaxing with a hot drink in the cafe, only to see Yang Guang’s truck being reversed alongside us as the zoo staff prepared to unload him to his new home. As true reporters would do, they quickly grabbed their cameras and ran back out to the cold to try to get some sneaky footage of Yang Guang in the back of the truck.

‘Pandaphernalia’ competition details will be revealed in all of these Glow TV broadcasts this week and entries will run until December 16th. Tune in and find out how to enter. A good few black and white panda prizes to be had, including two cuddly panda toys, panda wristbands, panda rock, panda sweets, panda pens and a panda keyring, as well as some limited edition Glow TV t-shirts.

Education Scotland has set up a special ‘UK Pandas’ blog to celebrate the arrival of Sweetie and Sunshine and suggest CfE learning ideas as an inter-disciplianary resource. The blog also contains integrated links to the Chinese Embassy’s excellent ‘Panda Pals’ site, the Fed Ex blog that tracked the journey from China, the Edinburgh zoo homepage and a special Edinburgh Zoo panda site as well as videos and a host of other links.

December 2nd, 2011

Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years

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Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Early Years, Glow, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, Literacy, Technologies, West Lothian

What do you do when Santa’s too busy to talk to you? You hold a Glow Meet with Mrs Claus of course! That was the idea that Margo Kerr in West Lothian had last year.

Margo is currently seconded from her nursery post at Kirknewton Primary School and is working as the Early Years ICT Development Officer within the West Lothian Council ICT team. Margo’s remit is to provide curriculum support to the Local Authority’s standalone nurseries.

Margo administers the West Lothian Early Years Glow Group, which is open to all Nurseries and Primary schools.
Last December, Margo was keen to use Glow as part of nursery and school Christmas activities and came up with the idea of having a Glow Meet with Mrs Claus.

To find out more read the Cookbook here.

November 23rd, 2011

A RIGHT wee blether – What Did You Do?

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Broxburn, RIGHT Wee Blether, SCCYP, Tam Baillie
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Pupils, West Lothian

Have you and your class been taking part in a RIGHT Wee Blether? If so why not join our Glow Meet and share with us what you have been doing?

We all hope you have enjoyed blethering with your 2 to 5 year olds. In this Glow Meet you will see Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People in Broxburn Primary and Nursery talking to staff and children about how they took part, join us to show us your wee books about him and tell us your stories!!

We will also be looking at some of Our Wee Stories which have been returned to the office and if we’re lucky the blether bear will be there too.

So sign up and join us in Glow TV on Thursday 24th November from 11-12pm.

November 10th, 2011

Bookbug – What the Ladybird Heard

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: bookbug, Scottish Book Trust
 : Categories Early Years, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Literacy, Pupils

During their first year at primary school, all children in Scotland will receive a free book with a message from Bookbug.

This year’s chosen book, ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson, won in the 0-7 age category of the 2011 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children’s Books. Thousands of children voted in this age group, so we are pleased to be gifting a book that really was their choice.

This Glow Meet will explore the book ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ including gifting ideas and fun activities that students and teachers can plan at school or in their classroom. The official gifting week is the week beginning November 21.

The session will be presented by Tracy Lowe from the Scottish Book Trust who is a regular Glow Meet presenter, her enthusiasm and love for books is clearly demonstrated in her presentations!

Sign up and join us on Friday 11th November at 10.45am.

October 7th, 2011

Daily Quote – People who help us

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Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Early Years, Edinburgh City, Glow, Glow Groups, Health and Wellbeing, Social Studies, Uncategorized

“Really useful way of teaching the topic, the pupils get really excited about it, when they see the log in screen, even on the smart board they shout Glow, Glow. It is something really exciting for them and it’s brilliant.”

Amy Lumsden and Ruth Torrance teach P1A at James Gillespie’s Primary School in Edinburgh. Following introductory training in Glow, Amy and Ruth were keen to investigate if the Glow tools and functionality could support learning and teaching in their class.

Read more on the cookbook here

September 29th, 2011

A RIGHT Wee Blether – Live in a Nursery

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: SCCYP, Tam Baillie, Wee Blether
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Pupils

Are you involved in the Wee Blether? It started on the 12th September and nurseries and Primary 1 classes across Scotland are taking part.

Following on from the very successful RIGHT blether, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie would like children between the ages of 2 and 5 to have their very own creative conversation using their own forms of expression. It’s important to get involved as it is a chance for young children to inform the Commissioner’s work, to celebrate the variety and diversity of the ways in which children might choose to participate and to encourage their active engagement and involvement.

Find out more about the Wee Blether and how you can be involved on the SCCYP website.

Why not join us live in Glow TV in a nursery setting in North Lanarkshire to see how the children there are getting on with their wee books and talking to staff? You too can join us to share your experiences of a RIGHT Wee Blether and take part in some interactive activities during the Glow Meet.

Why not sign up and join us in Glow TV on Tuesday 4th October from 11-12pm.
We look forward to seeing you then!

September 21st, 2011

SLF Extra – Assessing Dyslexia, online toolkit for all teachers

Karen-Ann McSwiggan

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Health and Wellbeing, Pupils, Supported Learning

Pamela Deponio is Programme Director of post graduate awards in Additional Support for Learning, at the Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership, Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh University. She is a well respected leader in the field of research and study of specific learning difficulties: Dyslexia and has published books and articles in this area. Today she delivered a seminar at SLF 2011 on ‘Assessing Dyslexia’, online toolkit for all teachers. 

A groundbreaking online resource – the ‘Assessing Dyslexia’ toolkit – was launched in June 2010 and has since been widely disseminated.  It can be found at  www.frameworkforinclusion.org.

Click on the Glow Radio to listen to Pamela’s introduction to the seminar.

Pamela gave the background to the creation of the resource which should have a big impact on the difficulty schools and local authorities face getting to grips with identifying Dyslexia and how to best support children. She stressed the need for identification to be made as early as possible.

She took us into the resource itself and demonstrated how it can operate at 3 different levels depending on the level of knowledge of the teacher who is using it. The resource offers a pathway based on Curriculum for Excellence levels and stages of learning that all teachers can follow to ensure that appropriate assessment and support are in place for learners they are concerned with. There is then a wealth of materials available from starting the process, what to look for, factors to consider, planning and responding, reporting and support resources available. 

Click on the Glow Radio to listen to why the audience had come along to the seminar.

The resource sets out to demystify Dyslxia, to encourage teachers to be confident in beginning to access. Pamela pointed out that in Curriculum for Excellence every teacher will now be a teacher of literacy and the toolkit provides an opportunity for all teachers to further their professional development in this area. The Support for Learning Teacher in a school is unlikely to become involved with a child until the class teacher has flagged up that there is an area of concern. 

Although already in use, teachers can make the resource even more useful by providing samples of work to illustrate how dyslexia affects children in the classroom and what can be done to alleviate their difficulties. The team are looking for feedback and samples of pupil work from teachers at this address: assessingdyslexiatoolkit@googlemail.com

You will also catch the Glow TV interview with Pamela Deponio by clicking here where you will be asked to log in with your Glow username and password.

Or on this link from Vimeo:

September 14th, 2011

Daily Quote – Onthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

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Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Early Years, Glow, Glow Groups, Literacy, Technologies

“This project is a really good example of linking home and school through Glow”

Natalie Spence, a probationary teacher at Onthank Primary, Kilmarnock

Find out more by visiting the Glow Cookbook here

August 29th, 2011

Have You Heard About the Wee Blether?

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: RIGHT Wee Blether, SCCYP, Tam Baillie
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Local authorities, Uncategorized

Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie would like children between the ages of 2 and 5 to have their very own creative conversation using their own forms of expression.

This creative conversation, which runs from 12th September – 31st October 2011, is called a RIGHT wee blether.

It is a chance for young children to inform the Commissioner’s work, to celebrate the variety and diversity of the ways in which children might choose to participate and to encourage their active engagement and involvement.

This conversation builds on the Commissioner’s 2010 national consultation with Scotland’s school aged children called a RIGHT blether. Over 74,000 children and young people took part in a RIGHT blether through creative projects, educational workshops, Tam’s Tour and a national vote. The outcomes influenced the Commissioner’s work plan directly in four key areas: Where I Live, Where I Learn, My Community and, The Country I live in – Scotland.

Join us for this Glow Meet to find out how you and your nursery/Primary 1 class can join in with this exciting National initiative.

Sign up with Glow TV and come and have a RIGHT wee blether with Tam on Tuesday 30th August at 3.45pm and find out more in Glow TV.