Glow Scotland

April 30th, 2009

Wha’s Like Us? A New Homecoming Group with an EAL Focus

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: EAL, English as an Additional Language, Glow Chat, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, Homecoming
 : Categories Events, Glow Groups, Glow Meet

New in the Homecoming National Group is ‘Wha’s Like Us?’ This group is aimed at classes where there are pupils who have come from different countries to live in Scotland. It will allow pupils living all over Scotland to talk about their experiences living in this country, along with their classmates.

There will be regular monthly topics for classes to work on together, and a chance for pupils to upload their work, chat, discuss and Glow Meet.

The first topic will be school life, starting next week, Tuesday the 5th of May. The future topics will be chosen by the group members. Any class, primary or secondary, can get involved - just follow the instructions on the group.

Access requests are now open - come in and explore and think about how you’d like to use the group. It’s the intention that the group will change and grow to meet the needs of the classes using it, so essentially it can be designed by the users collaboratively. Hope to see you there soon! Join Wha’s Like Us and start linking across the country!

April 29th, 2009

LTS Outdoor Learning Conference 2009

mbrown

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Groups, Outdoor Learning, Uncategorized

The LTS Outdoor Learning Conference took place at Crieff Hydro and in Glow. It was organised by Mark Baker our Outdoor Learning Development Officer and supported by a large number of LTS staff, the Glow team and facilitators from across Scotland.

You can view the comments and discussion notes from facilitators and those who attended the seminars and workshops in the National Site Glow groups by following the link from the National Parks and Outdoor Learning Glow group.

It was an exciting event ove two days with over three hundred people attending, including some inspiring speakers. The corridors and meeting roms buzzed with conversations about the Scottish outdoors, school projects and Curriculum for Excellence. In the main room we heard powerful messages about the importance of outdoor learning in Curriculum for Excellence and our daily lives from the key note speakers: Bruce Robertson OBE, Director of Education Aberdeenshire talked about his vision for schools and Heather Reid from the BBC talked passionately about her childhood, camping and exploring next to Loch Tay with her parents. Their presentations were streamed live in Glow and in the LTS Outdoor Learning pages.

While guests attended 24 seminars on day one and 16 workshops on day two, teachers from across Scotland were able to follow discussions and video in the Outdoor Learning Conference Glow group. Information from these seminars and workshops was fed into the conference Glow group during the conference. There is also a page in the glow group with photographs of meeting, taken over the two days.

Further comments about the conference could be seen in twitterfall (click here to see all the comments) in the Glow group pages. It became an international event. We had one follower commenting in twitter and watching the video streaming in the LTS pages, from Australia, @mrrobbo: thanks for taking part. Here are some comments, from twitter, about Eddie Broadley’s presentation at the end of the conference on day two:

whereisab #outdoorlearn09 3 things we need for true contentment: Relationships, job worth doing, to make a difference

theokk Retweeting @olliebray: #outdoorlearn09 - ‘A classroom of the future should not be limited to a classroom at all’.

olliebray #outdoorlearn09 Mark Baker (conference coordinator) getting thanks for organising the conference! Great job Mark!

I am looking forward to seeing more outdoor learning in Glow for example in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow group and in school Glow groups.

April 27th, 2009

Education award nominee delivers fantastic Glowing Thursday session

Tina Stevens

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, Local authorities, National Groups, Perth and Kinross, South Ayrshire, Uncategorized

Class teacher Avril Taylor is from Pinwherry Primary School, a 14 pupil primary school in South Ayrshire that is discovering the benefits of Glow Meet. Avril has been so successful in her incorporation of Glow into The P5/6/7 composite class that she has been nominated for a Scottish Education Award.

On Thursday 23 April Avril was the latest ‘expert’ to deliver a Glowing Thursday session where she explained to teachers from across the country how she is using Glow to change the way lessons are delivered and also to help link up this tiny rural school with others around the country.

Glowing Thursday’s are open sessions where any Glow user can log-in listen to and ask questions of an ‘expert’ of the week. As well as explaining her own practise, Avril was able to answer a query about improving writing and also offered ideas for activities to do on Glow with a teacher also from a small rural school. When asked if she had had any issues with Glow her reply was, ‘only that it is addictive’ - in fact her only complaint was that, ‘It didn’t come with a Health warning!’

Avril has also been generous enough to share some of the work the children have been doing on the national Glowing Potential group. Click HERE to access this work.

The next Glowing Thursday event will feature Neil Winton talking about Perth Academy’s use of WIKIs in the classroom. The school have seen their achievements in writing go ‘through the roof’ since the introduction of WIKIs and if you would like to find out how this was done you can access the session HERE on Thursday 20 April at 5pm.

April 24th, 2009

Building Glow Communities Primary 4-7 Event

Lesley Dickson

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There are still some places available on the first of our Building Glow Communities events to be held at Stirling Management Centre on Wednesday and Thursday the 20th and 21st May. To find out more about the event and to apply for a place click Here.

April 20th, 2009

English Teachers’ second free masterclass - details announced.

Tina Stevens

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, National Groups, Perth and Kinross

The second on-line masterclass session to be run through the English teachers’ National Glow group will run on Thursday 30th April at 5pm. This session will feature Neil Winton - PT English at Perth Academy - showcasing the best use of WIKIs in the English classroom. Perth Academy’s huge success in this area is well documented (access the article in TESS HERE) and Neil has spoken at a variety of events including last years Scottish Learning Festival about how the school’s writing results went ‘through the roof’ thanks - in part - to their introduction of WIKIs.

The masterclass will be available digitally through Glow Meet to all members of the National English Teachers’ Glow group. To request access to the group click HERE

To view Perth Academy’s Midsummer Nights’ Dream WIKI click HERE

April 16th, 2009

Have a go at animation with Oscar Stringer’s help.

satbance

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Have you ever thought how much fun it would be to introduce animation in to a classroom? Well here is the chance - internationally renowned animator Oscar Stringer will be running on-line workshops that teachers can take part in on the following dates; Wednesday May 13th and Friday June 5th. The initial session will be for absolute beginners who would like tips and the basics to get started with claymation. The second session will be for those who have had an initial go at animation and would like to improve their skills.

Oscar will be working with a small group of children and the workshops will be filmed for a live Glow Meet (video conferencing session) where any teachers across Scotland can join in. The theme for the animation project will be Scotland’s Homecoming, and if you want to find out more go to the Primary Homecoming On-line Classroom National Group.

April 15th, 2009

Glow Meet Invitation to all Higher Chemistry Classes - 29th April

J Jelly

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: chemistry, industry, science
 : Categories Aberdeen City, Events, Glow Meet, Uncategorized

Unit 3, Topic a, of Higher Chemistry looks at the Chemical Industry. A Glow Meet involving two chemical engineers, covering the Higher Chemistry Content Statements in this topic area, and giving an idea of the career opportunities available in the field, will take place on Wednesday 29th April at 9.25 – 10.30 in the National Sciences Glow Group

The engineers are Gavin Smith, Process Engineering Manager, Altra Energy and Craig Burnett, Operations Reservoir Engineer, from Talisman Energy Ltd. Gavin has 17 years’ experience in many industrial chemistry fields and Craig is recently qualified, with fresh memories of the decisions pupils are about to make regarding their future careers. They kindly responded to a plea for volunteers to assist Higher Chemistry classes in this way, issued through the Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Aberdeen Grammar School chemistry department is hosting the event, so pupils there will be able to ask Craig and Gavin questions directly, but classes from around the country will also be able to see and hear the engineers and ask questions of them via Glow Meet’s tools.

Richard Elliot of Aberdeen’s ICT Support Team is coordinating the Aberdeen end.

The Glow Meet room will be open from 9.00am on Wed 29/4/09, with the session getting underway in earnest at 9.25 until around 10.30.

Click here to find out more about using Glow Meet.

If you are planning on joining the Glow Meet, you can let the Glow Team and other participants know by leaving a note of your school and local authority on the discussions area in the National Sciences Glow Group as a reply to the post there.
Bring your chemistry classes in to this novel event where experienced industrial chemists can give pupils an insight into how chemistry and the topics they have to study, fit into the real world.

April 7th, 2009

An Island Adventure with Glow

Tina Stevens

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Local authorities, Western Isles

Last week I embarked on a week long visit to the most southern of the populated Western Isles. My whirlwind tour which covered Lewis, Harris, Benbecula and Barra was the next phase in a series of Glow training events for teachers and school staff in one of the most remote local authorities in Scotland.

My first stop was E. Scott School in Tarbert, where the original Western Isles mentors had been trained the year before. Here, I spent the day with teachers from across Lewis and Harris exploring ideas for learning and teaching and demonstrating how much easier Glow would make communication across the islands. This turned out to be slightly ironic when internet access across the whole island went down in the middle of the afternoon! (This was due to a mainland problem on the interconnect link).
Obviously used to such minor setbacks the group and myself simply set up wirelessly in a local Hotel using laptops until normal service was resumed. For myself and some of the teachers there, there was a real sense of deja vu as exactly the same thing had happened the year before!

On Tuesday I flew to Benbecula to catch a connecting flight to Barra - only to be told at Benbecula that the Barra flight had not left Glasgow! After the local Glow contact Hamish Budge scrabbled to hire a car there followed a mad dash to catch the local ferry to Barra. Finally arriving in beautiful Castlebay at 4 I was introduced to the teachers at Castlebay School who had all stayed on to attend a twilight session on Glow and left showing real enthusiasm about the difference that it could make in their classroom and school community.

On Wednesday I spent the day with Barra school management and administration staff discussing how Glow would make the dissemination of school information much easier and again Glow was received very enthusiastically. The group came up with many excellent ideas for the types of information that could be circulated including absence lists and school news. I then left Castlebay glowing… and headed back on the ferry to Benbecula.

On Thursday I spent the day at Sgoil Lionacleit with Uist based school management and administration staff. After hearing about some of the ideas from their Barra counterparts they also quickly realised the huge difference that having access to Glow would make to their schools.

On Thursday evening and Friday morning Hamish and I did a double-act to deliver sessions to a special Glow working group of teachers from Sgoil Lionacleit who are preparing to roll Glow out to the rest of their staff after Easter. They were incredibly excited about the learning and teaching opportunities that Glow could offer, and both Hamish and myself helped them plan a strategy to give the rest of the staff their best first experience of the portal.

Kenny Matheson and the entire Western Isles central team have worked incredibly hard to get Glow going in their authority and thanks to them after the Easter holidays every school in the Western Isles will have Glow available to them. It was this wonderful thought that made the ferry to Skye and then the long drive back to Glasgow worthwhile. My thanks in particular go out to Coleen, Jane and Hamish for their expertise, company, humour and enthusiasm during the course of an unforgettable week.

April 7th, 2009

David Miller masterclass now available inside the English teachers’ Glow group

Tina Stevens

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

The David Miller Glow Meet masterclass on the Robert Frost poem, ‘Out, Out’ , and all accompanying resources are now available to view inside the English Teachers’ National Glow group. To access these fantastic resources click HERE.

The next Glow Meet masterclass will run at the end of April and will feature Neil Winton PT English at Perth Academy talking about some of the inspiring work he is doing using WIKIs in the English classroom. More details to follow.

If you are not already a member of the group click HERE to request access.

April 3rd, 2009

Glasgow gets Glowing!

Joanne Connolly

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On Friday 27 March 2009, the first of Glasgow’s teachers logged on to Glow.

Mr Bill Sargent of Hyndland Secondary school became the first teacher in Glasgow to use Glow, as part of the City’s initial rollout. More teachers within Hyndland and other schools will be introduced to Glow over the coming weeks, so watch this space!