Glow Scotland

March 31st, 2009

English Teachers masterclass ‘inspiring’

Tina Stevens

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Dunbartonshire, Events, Glow Groups, National Groups

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.

March 30th, 2009

Exploring Glow Learn

Dawn Adams

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Events, Glow Groups, Glow Learn, Local authorities, Uncategorized

Over recent months Glow Learn, Glow’s virtual learning environment has been explored by many more people from across Scotland. A lot of this exploration has taken place at Stirling Management Centre during a series of two days Glow Learn training events.

Glow Learn provides tools to plan, prepare and deliver learning materials, assign work to pupils and track and monitor pupil progress online. It also allows users to search for and share learning materials across schools, local authorities and nationally.

Attendees have included Glow Mentors, staff from local authorities and many others who have an interest in Glow that they wanted to explore further.

Training has allowed participants to get to grips with using the Glow Learn tools, consider how it can be used to support learning and teaching and have an opportunity to make links with others using Glow’s virtual learning environment. A blend of presentations and hands on has allowed attendees to discover more. We’ve had 6 courses with around 245 people spending time using Glow Learn so far.

As participants have returned to their schools, local authorities and other establishments, they’ve started to use Glow Learn in different ways. Some examples have included schools making links to support their World War Two topics, the online provision of Access 3 Maths and English for interrupted learners, the creation of learning spaces for climate change projects and the development of learning resources to support Graphic Communication.

The possibilities are endless and attendees have been sharing their ideas in a National Glow Group both during and after training.

Find out more about what others have been doing with Glow Learn, their shared questions and answers and some useful materials in the National Glow Learn Training Glow Group.

March 27th, 2009

Glow Meet for Imagery in Troon Primary

Karen-Ann McSwiggan

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Glow Meet
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Glow Groups, South Ayrshire

I had the pleasure of being part of a P5 lesson recently in Troon Primary School. Fiona Patterson, Principal Teacher in Troon Primary had wanted to explore innovative uses the class could make with Glow Meet and invited me out to be part of this with her. Fiona had set up 4 Glow Meet rooms in the Primary 5 Glow Group and divided the class into 4 groups. The lesson was designed around the following Literacy and English Outcomes:

– applying the elements writers use to create different types of short and extended texts with increasingly complex ideas, structures and vocabulary

I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.
ENG 226AD

Ahead of time we had saved 4 whiteboard documents with 2 photos on each. The pupils logged on and started up Glow Meet by entering the appropriate room for their group whilst Fiona revised adjectives, alliteration, similes and metaphors. A team leader from each group then loaded different whiteboard documents. Each whiteboard document dealt with a specific aspect. For example, the alliteration one had 2 photos of snowy landscapes; the metaphor one had 2 photos of sunsets.

Pupils then used the chat facility in pairs to describe the photos using adjectives, alliteration, metaphors and similes. This allowed each group members to view what their peers were adding into the session. Using the chat facility also meant that the pupils could stay on the page viewing the photos at the same time. The pupils spent 10 mins on each whiteboard page and then team leaders loaded up the new page from a pupil shared area on the network.

The pupils were extremely motivated for the task. Fiona and their class teacher, Ruth Campbell, felt that they got far more out of the pupils during this session, than they would have on paper. Comments from the pupils at the end included, “great”, “cool”, “I really liked using the pictures on the computer”. I’m sure you’ll agree that this was super use of the Glow Meet tool.

March 27th, 2009

A Different Type of Quiz…

satbance

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The ubiquitous ‘quiz’ has been part of Primary Schools for a long time as it can be inked to every area of learning. But what if the children were able to take part in a national quiz without leaving their classrooms? Glow has the ability to do this, and in March there was an ‘Interactive Quiz’ held in the Primary Homecoming on-line classroom group.
8 schools took part (as far as Argyll and Bute, Aberdeenshire, and Midlothian), with each class preparing 5 questions on the subject of ‘Scotland’s Homecoming.’ Each school posted their chosen topic for questions on the Primary Homecoming Group and the subjects ranged from ‘The Life and Work of Burns’ to ‘Saint Andrew.’
The quiz was run via Glow Meet (Glow’s video-conferencing tool), and the shared whiteboard facility was used by 2 schools who chose to have picture rounds (‘Scottish landmarks’ and ‘Famous Scots’); they were able to lead the other schools through their presentation remotely.
Knowing that you are challenging pupils across the country instead of just within the school, or even in the local area, can be a real way to enthuse students. This was shown by the excellent results to some challenging questions! For example, do you know when, after 1707, Scotland once again formed it’s parliament in Edinburgh?
Well done to Rashielea who were the eventual winners - their prize was a Nintendo DS!

March 25th, 2009

South Ayrshire Schools Switch on to Glow

Lesley Dickson

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories South Ayrshire

Glow mentors in South Ayrshire have just finished cascading Glow training to every school in the authority. Over a period of three weeks the sixteen mentors visited a total of fifty-eight schools, carrying out an impressive hundred and twenty-three training sessions.

The ninety-minute twilight sessions focused on the basics of getting into Glow and its general structure and terminology. Teachers were also made aware of the potential of Glow to improve learning and teaching, and communication. In addition, they were shown how to access resources and how to participate in existing groups by taking part in news, discussions, etc. To ensure a consistent experience for teachers, mentors worked from a training plan developed by the authority.

The initiative has been an overwhelming success with just under 1400 staff responding to the survey which was presented at the end of each twilight session. 90% of staff were either ‘Fully’ or ‘Mostly’ in agreement that the session had stimulated their interest in using Glow.

In addition to the twilight sessions each school has received an allocation of support days from their mentor along with some extra cover to allow staff to be released from class. The content of these days provided more detail around areas like creating Glow groups, building pages and getting classes involved in using Glow within general learning and teaching.

South Ayrshire mentors are to be congratulated on the huge amount of work they have undertaken, as do the central support team, lead by Alastair Smith, for planning such a comprehensive roll out.

March 25th, 2009

Its good to Glow, it’s time to Glow, Glow every Thursday!

Lorna Arbuckle

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Every week a virtual event will be held live within Glow bringing together like minded practitioners from across Scotland to collaborate and you’re invited.

Events vary and will include web conference masterclass sessions with experts, Glow chatrooms relating to topical issues, ‘how to’ discussions, competitions and quizzes.

If you have your Glow log in and would like to take part, please have a look at the Glowing Thursdays National Glow Group.

If you would like to take part, but don’t yet have your Glow log in, you can find out what stage your local authority is with Glow as well as all the latest local Glow news by clicking on your authority within our interactive map. This will give you the details of your Key Contact.

Every Thursday you will find out what events are coming up the following week. Don’t miss out, click here to find out whats happening this Thursday.

March 25th, 2009

Take part in Building Glow Communities here

Lorna Arbuckle

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Practitioners across Scotland are very quickly embedding Glow into daily classroom life and we want to highlight this good practice to other users. Between May and September a series of two day events will take place at Stirling Management Centre. Each event will bring together 60 practitioners from stages or subject areas from all across Scotland. At the events, teachers will work together to create Glow groups and share resources which can be used for ongoing collaboration as examples of how Glow can enhance classroom practice. The groups created will be shared nationally and follow up support visits will be arranged by the Glow team. This will be a unique opportunity to work alongside colleagues from across the country and share ideas, experiences and resources.

If you are interested in taking part, please click HERE for more information.

March 20th, 2009

Percy returns with a bang

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: 4 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Uncategorized

PERCY NEWS

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/scotland/Percy-the-Puffin-turns-to.5082435.jp

Over sixty schools and a thousand Nursery and P1 pupils joined us in a Glow meet in the Early Years National Glow group and the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow group , from across Scotland on Wednesday morning. They came to see and hear a story about Percy the Puffin.

This Glow meet took place live from The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick where Education Officer and author of the story, Emily Dodd, told of how Percy the Puffin returns to Craigleith Island every Spring.. landing with a bang and a crash, before setting up home on dry land.

Our youngest school learners took part in activities which describe how Puffins return to nest and feed on islands in the Firth of Forth. How Percy meets his mate, digs a burrow and feeds his family. The story contained opportunities for learning across the curriculum: for literacy, numeracy, expressive arts and outdoor learning. The children were enouraged to act out the story by pretending to be a puffin.

The Seabird Centre also used their own webcams and video footage of real Puffins, live from the Islands of the Firth of Forth, to enance this experience. For most of the children and teachers, this was their first experience of learning with Glow. They were eager to take part and they wanted to ask lots of questions about Percy: why is a Puffin called a Puffin and what does Percy drink? One colourful character even asked if Percy likes eating Pizza!

It was a great event which has started a conversation about Puffins in Nursery schools across Scotland. You can follow this conversation and see a video clip of Emily telling the story of Percy the Puffin in the National Site: in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow group and the Early Years National Glow group. You can also find a list with details of those schools which took part in this event. Some of them also signed the Glow meet register on the day:

Auchterellon Primary
Barr Primary
Bellfield Nursery
Burravoe Primary
Cathkin Nursery
Clepington Primary
Craigiebarns Primary
Dundee EDS
Fintry Nursery
Forthill PS
Glendee Nursery
Gorebridge Primary
Jessie Porter Nursery School
Knock Primary (IoL)
Law Primary
Longhaugh Nursery
Pencaitland Primary
Prestonpans Nursery
Rashielea Primary
St Andrews Primary
St James Primary
St Josephs Primary
St.Lukes and St. Matthews
St Mark’s Nursery
St Ninian’s Primary
Woodlea Children’s Centre

March 13th, 2009

David Miller masterclass - details on how to take part

Tina Stevens

Comments: 5 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Dunbartonshire, Events, Glow Groups, National Groups, Uncategorized

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!

March 11th, 2009

Scots Phrasebook on Glow

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Homecoming, National Groups, Scots
 : Categories Glow Groups

If you’re looking for something quick and fun for your class to do on Glow, why not stop by the Scots Phrasebook Glow Group, within the national Homecoming Group. You can upload some favourite Scottish words, or introduce the rest of the country to phrases used in your area.

Simply add your word to the list under one of the headings and tell us what it means, and where it’s from (if you know).

Each tab has its own picture gallery where you can submit pictures to bring your words to life, or why not have your class make posters illustrating their favourite Scottish words, take pictures of them and share them here? In this way, they can display their work to other classes around the country! You can also upload pupil work based around Scottish words into the document store, be it videos, documents, podcasts or anything else.

Have a look today and see what the weans, peedie bairns and wee yins can come up with!