Glow Scotland

As the school term neared a close across Scotland, Glowing Thursday held a very special event to entertain and involve schools from across the country.

Scotland’s Got Talent saw an inspiring afternoon of children from primaries and secondaries dancing, singing, doing comedy acts, playing musical instruments and even doing the Highland Fling!! Fourteen acts including schools in the Western Isles, East Lothian and North Lanarkshire all took part via Glow Meet to entertain more than 28 other classes throughout Scotland.

For some schools this was the first time that they had ever taken part in a Glow Meet and it was well receved by all. One teacher said “I thought the talent showcase was a great success” and another thought ‘It was good to see different schools’ settings for their acts and to see what works and what didn’t.’

All participants will receive a certificate and a small thank you gift for all their hard work and for keeping Scotland entertained at the end of a very long term!

A new schedule for next session’s Glowing Thursdays will be available at the beginning of August and will include ‘Scotland’s Christmas Talent’, so if you missed out this time make sure you join in with the next one. Find out more at http://www.glowhelp.me/thursdays

Did you know that within the Sharing Practice page of the GlowScotland website, schools from across Scotland share their experiences of using Glow?

Log on and find out how pupils  from across Scotland watched leading scientists perform a bird autopsy beamed live into their classrooms from the Scottish Seabird Centre; or how Burravoe Primary School in Shetland used Glow to keep in touch with pupils when bad weather closed the school.

Read about how schools in East Dunbartonshire are using Glow in a project to ease the transition to secondary school, and how James Young school took a phased approach to the roll out of Glow to benefit learning and teaching.

In addition, practitioners from across Scotland, working with children at different ages and stages, share their experiences of using Glow.

Why not log on and see if you can benefit from any of these ideas and stories ?

Our first online debate takes place this Thursday, the 11th of June. The Debate will come live over Glow Meet from the National Debating Group. Join the Glow Meet at 4PM to watch Bearsden Academy and Aberdeen Grammar debate the motion ‘This House Believes Now More Than Ever We Need A United Kingdom’ - this should be very interesting, and there will be a chance for virtual spectators to ask questions after the speeches.

Click Here to request access to the group and PLEASE check that you can access Glow Meet from your location before the event to avoid disappointment!

Laura Kerr from the East Dunbartonshire Glow team sent me this wonderful piece of news about how Glow was used to help run a fantastic authority-wide Easter event.

“On the run up to Easter, pupils in East Dunbartonshire were given the opportunity to participate in an Easter Egg-stravaganza challenge. Pupils were set the challenge through Glow to design an Easter product, design packaging and create branding for the product. With over 160 entries from 11 different schools, the standard was exceptional. Entries were uploaded to the glow group by each participating school and our Chocolatier judge had the difficult task of picking the winners.

7 lucky winners from 4 schools were announced via Glow Meet and they had the opportunity to visit a real chocolate factory! The children came together for the morning and talked about their entries with others while making friends from schools across the authority. They had a tour of the factory, watched the experts at work and even had the chance to make their own chocolates to take home.

Craigdhu Primary, the overall winners of the competition,
received a donation from the chocolate factory of a 40KG Egg! They are currently in the process of raffling tickets to win the egg and raise money for another Interactive Whiteboard.

What an experience the pupils and teachers had although, there wasn’t an Oompa Loompa in sight!”

David Baker from the East Dunbartonshire Glow Team contacted me today to let me know about a fantastic use of Glow that has been happening in his authority.

“Pupils in several East Dunbartonshire schools recently had the privilege of interviewing Molly Brown, one of the most famous survivors of the sinking of the Titanic.

Thanks to the wonders of Glow Meet, the pupils were able to ask Molly Brown (aka Susan Morrison, a teacher at Gartconner Primary School, Kirkintilloch) about her time on the Titanic and how she coped with the tragic events.

The idea was originally put forward by Susan as a way of enhancing the Joining the Learning topic her class were studying. Feedback from all those who took part has been very positive and is a “Glowing” endorsement of using ICT in this way.

We look forward to using Glow in further, new and innovative ways in the months to come.”

So Glow can even help you see dead people…kind of

April 29th saw the first national Glow Meet for chemistry classes. It was hosted in Aberdeen Grammar School thanks to P.T. Chemistry, Susan Davis, and Aberdeen City’s Principal Officer (Education ICT), Richard Elliott, but classes from around Scotland benefitted: St John’s HS, Dundee; Stirling HS; Marr College, South Ayrshire; Lenzie Academy, East Dunbartonshire; and several from Aberdeenshire - Fraserburgh Academy, Aboyne Academy and the Gordon Schools.

Craig Burnett, a recent entrant to the profession, described his path from Banchory Academy to his current postion with Talisman Energy, and also took the audience through the Higher Chemistry content statements about the Chemical Industry.
Gavin Smith shared his vast experience in various areas of the chemical industry with the pupils, and showed the huge responsibility that can weigh on engineers’ shoulders in terms of making sure that plants (including oil rigs) are safe - from design through to everyday procedures.
Some of the teachers who accessed the Glow Meet with their classes have left feedback in the National Sciences Glow Group:

“I used Glow Meet for the first time this morning and I really enjoyed it! I thought the presentation worked very well and I thought Gavin and Craig were very interesting and covered the topic well. I found Glow Meet very easy to use and I was happy to find that you could still join in the discussion just by typing. Thanks for giving me opportunity to join in this morning. I will be keeping an look-out for more Glow Meet events.”

“First experience of Glow Meet a very positive one. Gavin and Craig excellent at giving the pupils a wider perspective on the applications of Chemistry after school/university.
We found Glow Meet easy to use, no problems with set-up.
We didn’t have a microphone and so had to type all questions in - found this a bit restrictive and slowed things down a bit, making the Glow meet not quite as interactive as we had anticipated.
Would definitely participate again.”

“I am trying to push the use of Glow in SHS and it is events like this that are going to make it happen. The feedback from both Chemistry staff and pupils has been great. Thanks to Gavin and Craig and more please!”

If you have ideas for future Glow Meets for chemistry or any of the other sciences, leave a note in the National Sciences Glow Group, or by leaving a comment on this blog.

The David Miller Glow Meet masterclass on the Robert Frost poem, ‘Out, Out’ , and all accompanying resources are now available to view inside the English Teachers’ National Glow group. To access these fantastic resources click HERE.

The next Glow Meet masterclass will run at the end of April and will feature Neil Winton PT English at Perth Academy talking about some of the inspiring work he is doing using WIKIs in the English classroom. More details to follow.

If you are not already a member of the group click HERE to request access.

On Thursday 19 March David Miller - UK teacher of the Year- delivered a wonderful masterclass through Glow Meet to teachers all over the country. Not only were those taking part able to listen and see David as he talked through his approaches for teaching the Robert Frost Poem ‘Out, Out’ , they were also able to ask questions and leave comments as the session was running.
The masterclass was such a success that David is already planning a second - this time based around a joint animation/poetry project that he has run in school alongside his art department called ‘Poetry in Motion’.
For those who missed the Robert Frost masterclass, the session and the resources David uses will be posted in the English teachers’ National glow group.
Neil Winton, PT English in Perth Academy, will be delivering the second masterclass after the Easter holidays. Neil has extensive experience of using WIKIs in education and his session will cover some of the work he highlighted at last years Scottish Learning Festival. Further details to follow.

This is a reminder that the David Miller masterclass will take place on Thursday 19 March at 5pm. David currently holds the title of UK Teacher of the Year and his lesson on the Robert Frost poem ‘Out, Out’ is one which helped him to win the title.
The session will run through the English teachers’ Glow group and details of how to take part can be found here. If you are not yet a member of the English teachers’ group then you can request access by clicking on this link. As well as the lesson, there will also be the opportunity to ask David questions and make connections with other practitioners all around the country. We hope to (virtually) see you there!

On 24 February I was lucky enought to be invited along to Lairdsland primary where Julia Donaldson - author of many children’s books including ‘the Gruffalo’ - was visiting. Julia had been invited as part of a project set up by Anne Louise Nicholson of St. James’s primary school in Renfrewshire and Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford primary school in East Lothian.

The project involved children from Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire joining together to work on a whole range of activities based around some of Julia’s books.

The 5 schools got together through GLOW meet and each school performed part of “The Smartest Giant in Town” for each other as a puppet show.

After reading “Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book”, each of the 5 schools investigated a genre that features in the book and during another GLOW meet session told the other schools all about their genre.

The children also took part in ‘The Book Factor’ where they chose their favourite Julia Donaldson book. The winner was ‘Stickman’ and this was the story that Julia read during her visit after receiving her certificate from the children.

As well as reading Julia answered questions and also got the children to sing along to a new song ‘Funny Face’ where they got to make lots of funny faces at one another!

Julia was wonderful with all of the children and used the Glow technology to engage with as many of them as possible during her visit.

It was a fantastic morning and my thanks go to Anne Louise, Lynne and Laura for their invitation.