Glow Scotland

Thirty English Teachers from across Scotland brought their skills and knowledge of Glow to Stirling Management Centre to help build a Glow community over the course of two days.

The purpose of the event was to build various subject specific Glow Groups that can be used by English practitioners throughout Scotland providing them with an opportunity to work with others, make lasting connections and share knowledge and ideas which are transferable across schools and authorities throw Glow.

The practitioners, all at different stages with Glow, were just as enthusiastic as each other when they worked in teams to create Glow Groups. The groups included; Scots language, war poetry, personal study, Macbeth, The boy in the striped pyjamas and higher critical essays. Practitioners were given a blank canvas to work from in Glow with ready-made basic Glow Groups to be developed.

True to form, each group communicated well, taking a strategic approach to the planning process with much discussion of what each page should look like and contain. Groups were constantly thinking of the end user when building the groups, taking careful consideration of how the pupils would view the site and how easy they follow the activities in the Group.

The groups created are available for all to see in the Building Glow Communities tab of the Literacy and English Glow Group. If you find any of these groups useful and would like to contribute, you can simply request access through the e-mail address provided in each Group and we would encourage you to do so.

Judith Weston from Earlston High in the Scottish Borders said: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to take two days out to build these groups.

“I’ll be going back to the classroom with a Glow Group packed with resources for English teachers and creative work for children.”

Michael Stephenson from Inveralmond Community High, West Lothian said: “we have built our group through the eyes of the children so they can follow the instructions, navigate easily and upload work tasks for teachers to edit.”

If you are interested in taking part in future events. Simply CLICK HERE to find out more.  

This morning I was at a wonderfully exciting event, shared by thousands of children all across Scotland. The Scottish Book trust arranged for Anthony Horowitz, the best-selling author of the Alex Rider novels (among many, many more fantastic books) was broadcast live over the internet on streaming video and via Glow Meet. It’s estimated that up to 7000 fans around the country viewed the event, and hundreds then joined the Glow Chat afterwards.

Anthony took questions from the children from Uphall Primary and Canal View Primary, and also answered questions that had been submitted by schools in the weeks leading up to the event. He entertained everyone with his irreverent stories of evil grandmothers and detestable teachers - according to Anthony, every teacher he has ever had has appeared in one of his books, and he’s had them all meet a sticky end!

After his very enjoyable talk, Anthony joined children on Glow Meet, answering as many as he could of the thousands of questions that flowed in - so many, that the computer eventually gave up the ghost! Not to worry, though - Anthony will be blogging about the experience on his website, www.anthonyhorowitz.com, and you’ll be able to comment there and ask him the questions that didn’t get through.

World-famous author Anthony Horowitz will be taking part in an online event on Friday the 15th of May. In this event, arranged and hosted by the Scottish Book Trust, He will be talking about his work and answering questions. The talk will be taking place on the Scottish Book Trust’s site at 10.30, and the chat in the dedicated Glow Group at 12:00. You’ll need to request access to the group when you first visit.

For information on how to get involved, and what you need to do to prepare, go to the page for the event on the Scottish Book Trust’s site.

PS - If any schools or classes would like watch Anthony’s talk through Glow Meet instead of the live web-stream, they should go to the Glow Group for the event and follow the instructions for registering interest.

(Photo Credit: Des Willie)

Tuesday the 10th of March sees the National Literacy Conference. The event, Towards Excellence: Building Capacity in Literacy, is being held at the Glasgow Hilton. Places are now full, but you don’t need to miss out. On the day, two programme items will be streamed live from the conference’s Glow Group- just join the Glow Meet below at 10.00 to see Mary Ritchie and Janie McManus from HMIe, and at 10.40 to watch the keynote speech from Professor David Booth, University of Toronto.

Join in on the day for this excellent CPD opportunity, and then extend the event with a selection of the workshop speakers, who have kindly agreed to share some of their work and host discussions on the Glow Group after the event.

Remember, just visit the group here to take part.

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!