Glow Scotland

August 30th, 2010

Glowing Cookbook - Glow Meet with a dragon! Early Years Fairyland topic

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Development, Glow Meet, West Lothian

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (well, in Bathgate, West Lothian) the Primary 1 and 2 teachers in Windyknowe Primary School set themselves a huge task. They embarked upon a ‘Joining the Learning’ Fairyland activity that involved every one of the 100 Primary 1 and 2 pupils taking part in an Enchanted Forest project which culminated in them having a Glow Meet with a dragon!

The teachers were keen to provide an engaging and enjoyable learning experience for the pupils and so did a lot of preparation and planning in advance of embarking on the 6-week project. Firstly, they visited other schools who had already been involved in the project to get advice and ideas from them. This allowed them to clarify the things they would like to do themselves.

They decided then that they would like to mix up the children from the P1 and P2 classes to enable them to select the activities they would like to take part in and so provide opportunities for personalisation and choice.

The project started after the Easter holidays with a letter arriving from a dragon! This was accompanied by dragon dust (which strangely resembled glitter!), footprints on the floor and scorch marks on the letter itself. All of the 100 children were gathered together to be read the letter from the dragon. Immediately they were captivated. In his letter, the dragon asked the pupils to turn the rooms into an Enchanted Forest. He left articles for the children and these were then used as a basis for the themes that the classrooms were given.

Visit this cookbook to find out more.

August 30th, 2010

Glow Light Image 30.8.2010

Lesley Dickson

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Glow Light Images

Isle of Sky

Every week the photograph behind the new Glow Light interface will change. This week’s Glow Light image is decribed as a ‘lady wearing wellingtons near beach’. An alternative title could be ‘a typical Scottish summer day’ as the picture sums up the beauty of our scenery and the variability of the weather.

Image is from www.SuperStock.com

August 30th, 2010

Glow Light is now live!

Andrew Brown

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: feedback, glow light, gui, refresh
 : Categories Development

The new Glow landing page is now live! The page is designed to help with navigation of Glow through an easy to use homepage.

Initially, Glow Light will be live for users in the following local authorities:

Aberdeenshire
Edinburgh
Clackmannanshire
Dumfries and Galloway
East Ayrshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Eileanan Siar
Fife
Glasgow
Moray
Inverclyde
North Lanarkshire
Renfrewshire
Shetland
South Ayrshire
West Dunbartonshire
West Lothian

Some local authorities have decided to turn on the new homepage at a later date, which is why it will not automatically appear for all users.

What do you thinkof it? We’d love to hear your feedback, and make improvements where we can.

August 27th, 2010

Account and Services Manager Support through Glow

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Glow Groups

We are delighted to announce the launch of this year’s online training facility for all Account and Services Managers (ASMs) across Scotland. The national ASM Support Glow Group will deliver workshops and drop-in sessions, allowing administrators to access training within the Glow Group and participate in sessions delivered by a Glow technical consultant.

Sessions will be held fortnightly and will aim to rotate days and times to accommodate as many users as possible. The ASM Support Glow Group can be found under National Glow Groups or via the “Glow Help” group on the national site. The site is open to all ASMs and Staff, with an open invitation to all local authority and school ASMs to join in via Glow Meet.

Questions out with the training sessions can be posted in the ASM Discussion Forum contained within the Glow Group.

The first scheduled ASM training sessions will take place on:

Friday 3rd September (11am-12pm) - New Glow Services discussion + Drop-In
This first session of the new school year will have an update of the changes that have happened over the summer within Glow and any impact this may have for ASM’s. This session will be delivered via the Glow Meet room within this page. Hope to see you there..

Wednesday 15th September (2pm-3pm) - Drop-In session
Session to cover any ASM questions you may have.

The team hope to see you there.

August 27th, 2010

“Which Writer Wins?” Chapter 1: The Author & Book pages

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Angus, Curriculum for Excellence, Pupils

The “Which Writer Wins?” initiative takes place each year in Angus and involves around 1200 pupils in 55 primary schools.

P5 pupils are invited to read, or listen to, at least one book by each of three different authors and then to vote for their favourite writer. This is the first of a series of cookbooks in which we’ll explore how Glow has added a whole new dimension to this enjoyable and hugely valuable project.

Visit this cookbook to find out how the “Which Writer Wins?” project aims to provide pupils with opportunities to:

• Read for enjoyment
• Develop awareness of genre
• Reflect on writers’ ideas and crafts
• Express their opinions and listen to the views of others

August 26th, 2010

Glowing Thursday- CfE Modern Languages

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: modern languages, S1
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Glow Meet, Local authorities

Not wanting to reinvent the wheel yet again? Want to find out how other teachers have amended their S1 syllabus to meet the aims of CfE Modern Languages?

Then join our CfE Modern Languages Glowing Thursday on Thursday 2nd September from 4-5pm.

Thea Searle, Modern Languages Subject Supporter for Highlands Council will present the approach taken by her authority in preparation for implementation for CfE. Thea will consider the key messages of CfE and how these are being taken forward by building on the primary experience and auditing the S1 syllabus (based on Metro 1) against the Experiences & Outcomes. She will also discuss future plans including the identification of further resources to be developed.

August 25th, 2010

MR BIG – The tale of a literacy project!

Gail Cairns

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Angus, Development, Glow Meet, Literacy

“What can Glow do for my pupils?”

One teacher’s question led staff tutor Graeme Reid down some quite unexpected routes, developing a literacy project encompassing early reading skills, functional writing and regular use of a gorilla suit.

Over the last year, Graeme Reid has been seconded out of school three days a week to be a staff tutor in Angus. Graeme’s remit includes supporting schools to use Glow to enhance learning and teaching. On one of his school visits, Graeme was asked by the P1-P3 teacher how Glow could be used with, and by, young pupils.

As copies of the picture book “Mr Big” had recently been given to all P1 pupils by the Scottish Book Trust, Graeme decided to use the book as the focus of a literacy project. “Mr Big”, by Ed Vere, is the tale of an enormous gentle gorilla who finds it difficult to make friends, as his physical appearance scares people away.

The Mr Big project focussed on developing pupils’:

• Early reading skills
• Listening and talking skills
• Functional writing

Visit this cookbook to find out how Glow was used to support the project by:

• Providing a wider audience for pupils to share their learning
• Providing pupils with opportunities to communicate with pupils and adults beyond their own school.

August 24th, 2010

Lost images from your blogs?

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Uncategorized

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the work that took place on Saturday to improve Glow Blogs. Unfortunately, the changes made resulted in some images being lost from Glow Blogs.

We are focusing on rectifying this problem and will be able to assist any user who has lost images from their blogs. Please contact us at [email protected] if you require any assistance.

If you have a folder of your images we will ensure they are placed back on your blog.

Again, we apologise for any inconvenience.

August 24th, 2010

National Museums Scotland Glow Group

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Events, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, Social Studies

The National Museums Scotland Glow Group is now open to all Glow users. You can go there to find out about their fantastic opportunities for schools and download their primary and secondary programmes for the year ahead. You will also be able to find out more about the exciting Lewis Chessmen Glow Meet on Thursday the 2nd of September at 13.30.

For all this and more, visit the group by clicking here.

August 23rd, 2010

World of Work Wednesdays - Working in Football

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: 3 Comments » Tags: Tags: football, work
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Meet, Literacy, Local authorities, Mathematics

After the successful World of Work Wednesday event with television presenter Heather Reid and scientists from Royal Observatory we are delighted to announce a new schedule for the new session. Our events will take place fortnightly from 2-3pm in the World of Work Wednesdays Glow Group and will focus on a wide range of job and career opportunities to enlighten and enthuse young people throughout Scotland. In addition each event will have a different Curriculum for Excellence focus to enable young people and teachers to enhance their learning experiences.

Our first event is Working in Football, highlighting both Numeracy and Literacy, and will feature contributions from five people involved in the Scottish Football Association; Jim Fleeting, SFA Head of Coaching, John Fleming SFA Referee Development Officer, Paul Mitchell, BBC Commentator and Darryl Broadfoot SFA Head of Communications. We are also going to be joined by a female football player so you can hear about her experiences in what is often seen as a male dominated sport.

The event is coming live from Hampden Park so we hope that you can join us on the day to hear more about the exciting opportunities that are on offer in the world of football.

Join us on Wednesday 1st September and find out more about future features in the World of Work Wednesday Glow Group.