Glow Scotland

11th March, 1.45pm – 2.45pm

Join author Annemarie Allan in Glow Meet to find out more about Breaker, an undersea adventure.

‘Tom and Beth are not happy when they move to North Berwick and find themselves facing a rainy, windswept beach, a house that’s falling apart and a school full or strangers. When they meet Professor Macblain, with his weird and wonderful inventions, little do they know that he has a secret: not only is he a thief, but he has stolen the one thing that can save the Firth of Forth from environmental catastrophe.’

Find out what inspires Annemarie to write, delve in to the wonderful world of sealife in North Berwick and ask her questions. Explore a range of themes such as family, making friends and moving to a new place. Find out more about living by the sea, green energy, science and the environment.

Law Primary will be joining Annemarie at the Scottish Seabird Centre to get some insight into being an author, writing skills and the wonderful book Breaker which is set in North Berwick where they go to school.

This Glow Meet is aimed at pupils from P4 – P7 and is being run in partnership with the Scottish Seabird Centre and Floris Books.

Find out more
To sign up for this Glow Meet click here to visit the Glow group.

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 ?

A pilot Glow Group has been set up at national level to enhance the experience of a visit from Generation Science’s outreach show – Body Builders. Schools that have access to Glow and have booked a Body Builders Show from Generation Science in the next few weeks are able to use the Glow Group to extend the value of the visit.

The show scenario has four characters visiting the doctor:
Timmy Hawkes, a skater with bone trouble
Kevin Shearer, an out of breath football hero
Rome Zeglobe, an itchy explorer
Don Pupi Panti, a chef extraordinaire with flatulence

Through the very humorous interviews, the pupil audience gains a good understanding of body systems, general health, anatomy, and how to act in a responsible way regarding personal health. The Glow Group enables schools involved to follow up the visit by pupils’ responding to the patients requests for advice, by staff uploading pictures from the visits or posting further work related to the health topics.
It is hoped that teachers will give feedback on whether they feel the Glow Group gave extra value to the visit. This will help the Glow Team and Generation Science plan for next year’s shows.
Generation Science brings shows and workshops into schools to make the learning of science simple and fun. The website has details of all the shows, a downloadable programme and teachers’ notes. These back up the science covered in the shows with the Curriculum for Excellence links for teachers and with follow on experiments for pupils. The shows run from January to June each year. In 2008, 66000 children got to see a show!
If you have had Generation Science visits this year, please leave some feedback about it here and what you would want from Glow in supporting future visits.

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.

I spent a great morning with Hilery Williams recently looking at setting up a Glow Group across East Lothian for the Dyslexia Support Service there. Hilery has great ideas for building links for staff and encouraging their collaboration. It will be a great way for her to publicise the service further. The service provides:

• Consultation with class/subject and support for learning teachers
• Training for staff
• Advice on identification and assessment
• Advice on appropriate strategies, programmes and resources
• Small group/individual tuition where appropriate
• Advice and support for pupils in transition

The Glow Group will allow teachers to download information, find out about current research and initiatives and take part in discussions with each other across the authority. Current thinking from Hilery is that the Glow Group will be divided up into the following sections:

• DSS Info
• Resources
• Dyslexia Friendly Schools’ Pledge
• Dyslexia at Transition
• Dyslexia Forum

If you’re in East Lothian watch out for this super Glow Group appearing in the next month or so and hopefully we can persuade Hilery to agree to share this at a National Level.

Emily Dodd, Education Officer for the Scottish Seabird Centre, will tell the story of Percy the Puffin and his homecoming to early years pupils, in Glow meet. You can join her while she tells this story in her classroom, in N. Berwick. If you are an  early years practitioner, not just in East Lothian, who would like to take part in this national event, go to the Early Years National Glow Group and join us in Glow meet.

The story is a whole class activity and ideal for introducing pupils in nursery classes to Glow. Look out for news in Glow and join us on the morning of  Wednesday the 18^th of March. Come into Glow to hear more about Percy’s homecoming and adventures in the Firth of Forth. Further details about Percy and other stories can be found in the Scottish Seabird Centre website:

http://www.seabird.org/education-nursery.asp

Teachers will need a projector, web camera and computer, with marrratech software (a whiteboard can also be useful). If you are a new user in Glow more information about using Glow meet can be found at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/trainingmaterials/index.asp

If you are an early years practitioner and intend to take part in this Glow meet event, you can also ask questions in the Early Years National Glow Group. Ask questions in ‘Discussions’. Alternatively you  can ask for support from a local Glow mentor. Further support is available from your Local Authority and at National Level. Find out more about Glow in your Local Area at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/localauthorities/index.asp

This Glow meet will be facilitated by  Martin Brown and Stuart Oliphant from the LTS Glow team.  For further information contact m.brown@ltscotland.org.uk.

I was warmly welcomed at St Martin’s RC Primary and Nursery School, in Tranent, today.

Dave Gilmour,  the East Lothian Council Key Contact for Glow, and I were helping  a small group of primary and nursery teachers get to grips with Glow. It was informal and informative. I was  really impressed with their ‘have a go’ attitude and the way they very quickly came up with questions about Glow groups and how to use them for different teaching and learning purposes.  It was clear to me that while quite a few of the group were trying Glow (hands on) for the first time, they would not be slow in trying it out with children in their classes.

I spoke with Christine Muir, a nursery teacher. I showed her some basic tools or web parts, how to create a Glow group and how to add members to the group. She promised to create a Glow group for her nursery classes.  I assured her she cannot break Glow and look forward to seeing her ideas for using Glow for whole class teaching.  I am sure she will develop some of the ideas we talked about: using the National Site and content for teaching literacy eg Bo Bear, using Glow meet offline with pupils to record speaking and acting etc and sharing digital images of pupil work from her Glow group. 

It would also be great if nursery teachers in ELC could develop Glow groups for outdoor learning, eg Forest Schools projects, and share these links in the National site in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group. I know teachers in ELC have a wealth of experience in this area. If they record what they do outside in Glow groups, then pupils can bring their learning back indoors and enjoy sharing the experience even more.

It was great to visit St Martin’s RC Primary School and great to work with such positive teachers. The fantastic pictures above are by Frank Carty: seen on the walls surrounding the school.

On Wednesday 21^st January, pupils across Scotland watched leading scientists perform a bird post-mortem beamed live into their classrooms from East Lothian through Glow.

Ecologists at the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick carried out the post-mortem on the fulmar as part of their Save the North Sea project, which aims to raise awareness of the damage caused by 20,000 tons of litter dumped every year.

Dr Franeker is a senior scientist at the Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem studies in the Netherlands and he took pupils through the dissection and findings. Pupils and teachers who logged on were able to ask questions throughout the procedure.

Pupils studying Biology were able to see live on Glow how scientists are researching what is happening in the North Sea and how they are using the findings to protect sealife and cut the amount of marine litter. Pupils asked questions about the birds’ eating habits and enquired how many birds die of litter pollution each year. One school even asked Dr Franeker how old the bird was and if he is used to the smell when dissecting!

The event is just an example of how Glow is providing unique learning opportunities for pupils that could be difficult for schools to organise themselves. The seabird centre is doing fantastic work that provides a real opportunity for teachers to discuss science, biology, environmental change and citizenship in the context of real work that’s going on in Scotland.

This type of approach not only gets pupils enthusiastic about their learning but also helps them make connections across different subjects and instils a deeper knowledge and understanding.

Around 65 pupils from Cathkin High School joined in the Glow Meet.  S4 pupil, Robin Meek, 15, said:  “It was really interesting.  I’ve never seen anything like it before so it was amazing to watch.  It was much better being able to watch it live and ask questions directly to the scientist involved in the project as you remember it more and can understand how it all fits together.  It wasn’t too gory.”

If you have a Glow login you will be able to access the Science Glow Group in the National Site. On Wednesday 21st January, a very special Glow Meet session will be taking place there. It will be well worth dropping in, with your class, at 2pm – 3pm, especially if you are studying Higher Biology or are interested in environmental issues.

The Scottish Seabird Centre Education Officers, Emily Dodd and Anna Pugh have invited classes across Scotland to come into the Glow Meet session to see the dissection of a seabird, a fulmar. You may be thinking, how grisly! …until you realize this bird has died, not of old age, but because of our lack of care of our environment. Emily told me a similar post mortem was held last year at the SSC and several pieces of plastic were found in the poor bird’s stomach. Reading about this in a book is one thing, but seeing it in real time, via Glow Meet, where classes will be able to pose questions to the scientists performing the autopsy, is quite another! Some North Berwick HS pupils are going to be lucky enough to be in the SSC during the dissection, but schools all over Scotland will for the first time be able to drop into this via the videolink that Glow Meet offers.
It should not be difficult to access the Glow Meet (assuming your local authority and school have enabled this function in Glow – and you have a Glow login as a member of staff). If you are going to bring your class in to see the post mortem, I’d be grateful if you would let me know (j.jelly@ltscotland.org.uk) but essentially, navigate to the national Science Glow Group, find the Glow Meet webpart on the discussions page and click on “Join the Glow Meet”. If you have a webcam, you can be visible to others, if you have a microphone, you will be able to voice questions, but even if you have neither of these things, you will still be able to see the post mortem and pose questions by typing them in. If you are coming in with a webcam in place, a school name placard would be a great help to others in identifying you.
Glow is enabling the sharing of events such as this. There is another great opportunity in the Social Studies national group on 19th Jan. to experience first class Google Earth training via Glow Meet.
Don’t be shy, make use of these opportunities. Log on to Glow and come into these Glow Meet sessions.
Hoping to see to see you on Wednesday! (The session will be recorded though, so if your timetable means you can’t come in live to the session on Wednesday, you can access the Glow Meet recording later)

PS Click here to find out more about using Glow Meet and all the other Glow functions.
You can read more about the post mortem by clicking the poster: fulmarposter.jpg

Recently I have been in North Berwick and Edinburgh discussing Glow with our partners in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group. I met with Emily Dodd, the Education Officer at the Scottish Seabirds Centre (SSC) in North Berwick. She has an amazing classroom at the harbour and some fantastic technology to back it up. Using large screens, linked to web cams on local islands in the Firth of Forth, I watched, recently born baby seals on the Isle of May. Emily and I will work together to share pictures and video of wildlife in Glow. we want to share some of her pictures of seals, dolphins and puffins. We also talked about a Glow meet session where Emily will tell storys about the local wildlife at different times of the year, starting with a story about local puffins in April. Primary and nursery teachers can look out for news of this event in the new year and download information for taking part in these interactive stories.

On the same day I visited Rebekah Stacks who is an Educational Officer with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They are in the process of developing more outdoor learning materials and they want to share more of their great video and web camera material in Glow.  Look out for school projects and pictures of wildlife in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group, or upload a project from your school.