Glow Scotland

November 1st, 2010

National Library of Scotland Glow Group Launched

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Glow Groups, Literacy, Literacy and English, National glow groups, National Library of Scotland
 : Categories Glow Groups, Literacy

The National Library of Scotland (NLS) has just launched its new Glow group, which is open to everyone with a Glow logon. Visit the group to find out more about one of the great libraries of the world.

NLS is is an information treasure trove of Scotland’s knowledge, history and culture, with millions of books, manuscripts and maps covering every subject and spanning the centuries from early times to the digital age. The Learning Team at the library is currently working on a new Learning Zone on their website which will help make this unique collection available to teachers and learners throughout Scotland. They are now inviting suggestions from the Glow community on what type of resources you’d like to see and use from the National Library. They’re keen to get feedback from a wide variety of Glow users so check out the group and register your interest, they’d love to hear from you.

October 28th, 2010

Scottish Book Trust Online Teacher in Residence Events

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: books, CPD, Literacy, Literacy and English, Scottish Book Trust
 : Categories Events, Glow Chat, Glow Meet, Literacy

The Scottish Book Trust’s fantastic Online Teacher in residence scheme is in full swing, with some excellent CPD opportunities for teachers. Visit the links below for more details on how to get involved.

1. Choke Chain: Online Teachers’ Book Group Tuesday 2 November at 4pm. Glow Chat featuring Choke Chain by Jason Donald – a dramatic debut novel looking at aspects of a difficult family life, set in South Africa. Suitable for upper secondary level but all teachers welcome. We still have 5 books to give away.
Click here for more details.

2. How to Teach Creative Writing – Tuesday 16 November at 4pm. Glow Meet featuring professional writer and teacher of writing Nick Hesketh on the why, what and how’s of teaching creative writing. A two-part series, participants must be registered and attend the first session on the 16th November in order to gain access to the second session on the 230th November. We only have 6 places left.
Click here for more details.

3. Royal Mail Awards Book Groups – Tuesday 14 December at 4pm. Choose from three simultaneous Glow Chats discussing each of the shortlisted books per ages group for the Royal Mail Awards and how they could be used as cross-curricular lesson tools in class.
Click here for more details.

September 21st, 2010

The Daily What News service is now live

pcurrie

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: CfE, cross curricular, English, Glow, health and wellbeing, Literacy, Literacy and English, Mathematics, Maths, news, news service, Numeracy, politics, relevant learning, science
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Glow, Literacy, Mathematics, National Groups, Pupils, Sciences, Social Studies, Technologies

The Daily What News is the all new Glow news service for schools. Launched this week, the service provides a sophisticated and interactive news service for Glow users, with articles written by a specialist news content editor especially for a schools’ audience. Articles will be published every school day and there will be two versions of each article: What? gives readers a less complex approach to the story; What’s More…provides a bit more of a challenge. In the very near future, there will also be three articles each week which will be published in Gaelic.

The articles are arranged in news categories and will be tagged according to CfE subjects and experiences and outcomes. The articles will be archived and searchable from the main homepage, giving users a rich learning resource that offers learners the opportunity to make meaningful and relevant connections across different curricular areas. Many of the articles will feature an interactive activity that will provide Glow account holders with a fun way to extend or cement users’ learning on the story’s topic. Users can also use their Glow logins to take part in forum discussion topics for each article.

Teachers will find the Teachers’ Area Blog an excellent resource. Beneath each daily news article there is a link to a blog post that provides Glow users with a wealth of lesson ideas and suggestions for several curricular areas from the one news story. The posts are written by a specialist education content editor who links the news story to CfE outcomes and experiences and provides links to other interesting and relevant content. Teachers themselves are encouraged to contribute to these posts so that we build up an extensive bank of cross-curricular lesson suggestions for each news story. The blog is organised in the same way as the news site itself and offers users the option to browse in several different ways or search for specific content.

From each blog post, there is a link to a Glow group that allows users to upload resources to a document store. The documents will be tagged according to CfE level, subject area, date the article was published and article title, offering users the ability to filter searches in several different ways.  In delivering their curriculum outcomes through The Daily What News service, Teachers are encouraged to upload any materials they develop and share with other Glow users, so that we build up an extensive store of learning resources that can be archived for future use.

Feedback received so far has been very encouraging indeed and the service provides educators with a real opportunity to have relevant curricular content that can be accessed through a number of different subject areas in a truly meaningful way.

A recent article in the Sport category focused upon Rangers’ fans’ trip to Manchester and how their behaviour was better than on a previous occasion that had led to trouble in the city centre. The article would surely be a popular one with young people and, because they are known for their reluctance in reading, it is of note that it would be of particular appeal to boys. There is even an interactive activity attached to this article which invites learners to test their knowledge of SPL club nicknames. What better way to engage reluctant learners in purposeful and relevant learning? In the Teachers’ Blog, lesson suggestions were offered in a number of CfE subject areas (Social studies, Health +Wellbeing, English+Literacy) and links were provided to video content and discussion stimuli that would encourage even the most reluctant learner to engage with such relevant and meaningful subject matter.

This is, of course, just one example. There is already a good stock of interesting content on the site, with stories ranging in topic from the floods in Pakistan, for a World focus, to how young people made an impression on the Scottish Parliament, for a story that is closer to home. Each school day sees another story added to the archive, so we are building a wealth of content that Glow users can benefit from.

Whatever the story’s subject-matter, it is always the case that it will be written in a manner that is appealing and relevant to our learners. Add to that the interactive activities and lesson suggestions in the teachers’ blog, and you might just find that The Daily What News is just what you have been looking for!

June 29th, 2010

The Daily What

pcurrie

Comments: 4 Comments » Tags: Tags: Glow, Glowscotland, Literacy, Literacy and English, news, Schools, Scotland, the daily what, the herald
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Development, Literacy, Uncategorized

‘The Daily What’- the all new Glow schools’ news service- will be launched in August in association with our partners for the service, The Herald group and Tinopolis Interactive. In the meantime, we really need user feedback on initial designs for the news service. We are always keen to find out what Glow users think and we will try to recommend changes accordingly.

There is a working prototype (with limited functionality at this point) that will give you a good idea of page layout, content and navigation elements. Please remember that very few links will work at this stage, but you should get a good idea of how the service will look when it is launched.

The prototype can be accessed here: http://www.dailywhat.org.uk/prototype/index.html

We have created a National Glow group for the service, with a particular focus for the moment on collecting feedback. If you have time, we would very much appreciate feedback from Glow users. There are several forum posts which ask specific questions and invite voting from users.

These forum posts can be accessed individually from the main Noticeboard of the Glow group, or by going to the ‘Tell us what you think’ page. There is also an email link, if you would prefer to email your thoughts, and a document store, if you would prefer to create a document of feedback and upload it to Glow. The Glow group also contains images of the prototype page designs.

Whichever option you decide to use, we really do appreciate Glow users taking the time to share their views. Remember, if we find out what you think now, we can make changes before the August launch.

Click here to go straight to the Glow group

December 11th, 2009

Poetry Glow Meet Wednesday 16th December

carolegillespie

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Elspeth Murray, Glow Meet, Literacy and English, poetry
 : Categories Glow Meet, Literacy, South Lanarkshire, Uncategorized

Elspeth Murray is our online poet for National Poetry Day 2009.

Elspeth is visiting an S2 English class in Calderside Academy, Blantyre on Wednesday 16th December to participate with pupils on this year’s theme of Heroes and Heroines. Elspeth will help pupils develop some heroic verse of their very own and you and your class can be there with Glow.

A Glow Meet with Elspeth will be held in the Literacy and English National Glow Group on Wednesday December 16th at 11 10 am. A follow-up Glow Meet where pupils will get the opportunity to present their own poems to Elspeth will take place in January 2010.

Elspeth invites S2 to join her to hear her poetry, work on the Heroes and Heroines theme and to ask her questions about her work and life as a poet.

You can register your interest and post questions for Elspeth to answer by emailing c.gillespie@LTScotland.org.uk

Please note you can also register your interest on the Heroes and Heroines Poetry Glow Page – follow the link from Literacy and English National Glow Group Noticeboard.

November 20th, 2009

Alan Bissett – A Sort of Homecoming…

ronnierankin

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Alan Bissett, books, Glow Meet, Literacy and English
 : Categories Events, Falkirk, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, Literacy, National Groups, Uncategorized

Alan Bissett is returning to his and Adam Spark’s old school, Falkirk High, to speak to pupils about his books and you and your class can also be there with Glow.

A Glow Meet with Alan will be held in the Literacy and English National Glow Group on Thursday December 10th at 2pm.

Alan invites S4-S6 to join him to hear him read from his books and to ask him questions about his work.

It promises to be a great event both for pupils and staff as you get to watch, hear and question one of Scotland’s most versatile talents.

You can register your interest and post questions for Alan to answer by replying to the post Here on the Glow group.

Please note you can now register your interest on the Alan Bissett Glow Page.

January 6th, 2009

National Groups in the Spotlight – Literacy and English

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Curriculum for Excellence, Literacy, Literacy and English, National Groups
 : Categories National Groups

Good news for the New Year – all teachers are now contributing members of the National Literacy and English Group. The National Groups are there for all Glow users and are places to find news, resources, links, and most importantly, people to work with and talk to. The Group will only be a success, though, if people get in there and use it, so it’s time to dive right in and get started!

Literacy is everyone’s business, and literacy development is part of every curricular area. The National Group is there to help all teachers and learners and it will change and grow to meet the needs of the education commumity, so get involved in its future by taking part in the discussions and sharing what you’re doing.

The group currently provides news related to literacy events and projects across the country, meeting and chat rooms for collaboration, discussion boards to share ideas and ask questions, and links to National Literacy Documents and insightful research from across the globe – and that’s just to start with.

Do you have a literacy project going on Glow? Why not put a link to it in the Literacy Glow Groups tab and let people see what you’re doing? The resources tab is another useful port of call, with links to lots of excellent sites for pupils and teachers.

Coming soon to the site are national events, including the chance to virtually attend the National Literacy Conference in March, as well as competitions and activities for pupils.

The National Literacy and English group is there for every teacher and learner, and we will make it everything you need it to be, so let us know what you want from it.

P.S. – Calling all English teachers… The English Teachers Glow Group is now open inside the staffroom. This fantastic and extensive group has a wealth of ideas about how to use Glow with your English classes, and provides a place to share resources with your colleagues across Scotland for all stages of secondary English. We highly recommend a visit!