Glow Scotland

The Scottish Book Trust Online Teacher in Residence is an online teaching and CPD resource community and programme of events aimed at teachers in Scotland interested in creative learning approaches to literature and literacy within Curriculum for Excellence.

Working with two practising teachers, Scottish Book Trust will develop a diverse range of online teaching and CPD resources, and an online community where teachers can benefit from:
• regular CPD resources and events
• best practice examples
• shared teaching resources
• interaction with like-minded colleagues

Teachers will be able to connect with Online Teacher in Residence through a dedicated web space or our national Glow Group.

Eric Booth will be hosting the online launch via a Glow Meet at 4pm on Thursday 25th February. In order to attend this event, teachers will need to sign up via the Online Teacher in Residence Glow Group before 24th February 2010.

Please sign up by clicking here.

The Online Teacher in Residence web space can be found by clicking here.

Further information can be found on the Scottish Book trust website by clicking here.

If your or colleagues have any additional questions, please email otir@scottishbooktrust.com

This year’s Scottish Book Trust Writer in Residence is the award-winning teen fiction writer Catherine Forde.

Catherine will be available to answer all your questions about creative writing on Glow on the Third of February – time to be confirmed –

Click here to sign up to take part!

The event is suitable for secondary school pupils

Catherine Forde has been writing novels with teenagers as the central characters for over a decade. Most of her novels are contemporary and Glaswegian. In a previous life she taught English in secondary schools and colleges and edited dictionaries. Catherine likes to explore the relationship between teenagers and the adults in their lives, and her writing is colloquial and dialogue-driven. Recurring themes in her novels are the influence and impact of music on the individual, fitting in and fractured relationships.

Between now and March Catherine Forde will have a new writing task for learners on the first Monday of every month, and teacher’s notes on the task are also available. Watch Cathy’s brilliant video podcasts where she explains each task, and use the accompanying written notes. There are already 3 tasks online – check them out at the Scottish Book Trust’s site:

Click for pupils’ pages

Click for teachers’ pages

Once again this year, young people from around Scotland have been invited to vote for their favourite shortlisted title in the Royal Mail Scottish Children’s Book Awards. Glow has teamed up with the Scottish Book Trust to bring you a national Glow Group where you can discuss your thoughts on the books with other young judges in schools across Scotland.

Teachers and librarians can click this link to request access to the Glow Group. Once you’re in, you can contact the Glow team via the group, and they will add your class/reading group as members too.

This is an exciting opportunity for readers to have their opinions heard. The shortlisted books come in three age categories – 0-7, 8-11 and 12-16 – so there’s something for readers of all ages to get their teeth into. Schools will need to register with the Scottish Book Trust in the first instance – click here for more details - and voting closes on the 13th of November, so there’s still plenty of time to get involved.

The Scottish Arts Council and Learning and Teaching Scotland have joined forces to bring arts education online through Glow. As a result of this partnership, a new post and project have been created to explore Glow’s potential to support innovative approaches to learning and teaching through the arts.

I have recently joined the Glow Team as Development Officer (Arts) and I’m hugely excited about this project’s potential to enable artists, performers and writers and Scotland’s schools to work and learn together in ways that have never been possible before. Glow is breaking down barriers and making learning experiences and opportunities more widely accessible – the recent Anthony Horowitz and Oscar Stringer Glow Meet events and the Willie Rodger print project are just a few examples of the exciting work that is already going on via Glow.

Over the next 22 months I will be working with selected Scottish Arts Council funded arts organisations on a number of ambitious demonstration projects, to be announced later this year, which will trial new ways of learning and will show how creativity and the arts are a fantastic way of supporting Curriculum for Excellence.

The project will provide CPD opportunities for both teachers and arts practitioners to work together to develop ideas, projects and resources. I am keen to make contact with teachers, cultural co-ordinators and local arts teams who would like to be involved so please do get in touch – I’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Look out for a new national Glow Group for the project which will highlight developments and opportunities providing a focal point for all related activity and a place to collaborate and share good practice. The project will also be showcased at the Scottish Learning Festival on 23 September.

Enquiries: glowenquiries@LTScotland.org.uk

Click here for press-release

Click here for FAQs

This post and project is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund

It’s nearly time for our second national online author event, again in association with the Scottish Book Trust.

MG Harris, author of the acclaimed Joshua Files novels, will be reading from her latest work, Ice Shock and then answering questions, all via Glow Meet. The event is being broadcast from Lenzie Academy at 13:30 on Tuesday the 9th of June, and you and your class can register to take part by visiting the Glow Group for the event and requesting access.

Once you’re in, you can leave your details in the sign-up form, and you can start to add your questions for MG to the discussion board – you may then get the chance to ask it to her live over Glow Meet on the day!

The event will last and hour, and is most suitable for P6 – S2, although everyone is welcome!

There will be a chance to check you can access Glow Meet with support from LTS on Monday the 8th (more details will be on the Glow Group), but please do go in and try before then if you can and get in touch if you have any problems – contact k.barrowman@ltscotland.org.uk with any issues.

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)