Glow Scotland

November 29th, 2011

Accessing Glow from home – things for pupils to do

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It’s great to see so many pupils across Scotland using the Pupil Area on the national site within Glow. The area is full of great resources and is now one of the more popular areas in Glow. Join in by logging in to the Glow National Site

For those interested in the designing of computer games you can have a look behind the scenes at some game design companies including Denki and Honeyslug. These video resources have been created by Education Scotland and some have been made available with kind permission of the companies. These should inform and inspire budding game designers, they also explicitly demonstrate that you don’t have to be a programmer to be involved in making computer games.

Here are just some of the resources available:

November 29th, 2011

Écoutez! Using Glow Learn to support listening practice in Modern Languages

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Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Glow, Glow Learn, West Lothian

The Modern Languages Department in James Young High School in Livingston, West Lothian, is always looking for ways to provide pupils with innovative and interesting resources and activities that will help them develop their language skills.

Sophie Martin and Amanda Lyons have been using Glow Learn this year as a means of sharing resources with pupils.

Sophie and Amanda have created Glow Learn courses to share resources with their Advanced Higher German and Higher French classes respectively. As well as using Glow Learn, they also created a Glow Group for each class. You can find out more about the Glow Groups in the following cookbooks:

To find out more read the Cookbook here

November 24th, 2011

St Andrew’s Day Debating Championship 2012

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: debating, Scottish Parliament
 : Categories Career Opportunities and Pathways, Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Pupils, Social Studies

On Monday 28th November, the annual St Andrew’s Day debating championship will be held in the Scottish Parliament with students and senior pupils from universities and schools across Scotland competing in debating heats covering a range of issues important in today’s society.

The Final will take place in the Debating Chamber chaired by the Presiding Officer with the opportunity to win the specially engraved Scottish Parliament Quaich. This year, for the first time, all schools across the country will be able to follow the progress of the competition on Glow throughout the day and then watch the final, streamed live on Glow TV. This is an exciting opportunity for pupils to get involved in a high quality debate and to learn more about debating.

The programme of the heats that will be covered throughout the day as well as an opportunity to sign up and take part is available in Glow TV. Sign up and join us!

November 23rd, 2011

A RIGHT wee blether – What Did You Do?

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Broxburn, RIGHT Wee Blether, SCCYP, Tam Baillie
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Pupils, West Lothian

Have you and your class been taking part in a RIGHT Wee Blether? If so why not join our Glow Meet and share with us what you have been doing?

We all hope you have enjoyed blethering with your 2 to 5 year olds. In this Glow Meet you will see Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People in Broxburn Primary and Nursery talking to staff and children about how they took part, join us to show us your wee books about him and tell us your stories!!

We will also be looking at some of Our Wee Stories which have been returned to the office and if we’re lucky the blether bear will be there too.

So sign up and join us in Glow TV on Thursday 24th November from 11-12pm.

November 22nd, 2011

Join Julie Sandilands on Glow TV - Wednesday 23rd November @ 13:30h

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Julie Sandilands is a new author who lives in rural Fife with her son. Finn’s Tale is her first published book, offering an uplifting story for both children and adults. Like any author she is passionate about her work. Finn’s Tale has now been joined by an adult novel, The Perils of Skinny Dipping and another children’s novel, A Gypsy’s Tale. Julie will be working with P6 pupils from Strathallan Primary in this session so why don’t you join her on Glow TV on Wednesday 23rd of November at 13:30h.

Julie’s books are suitable for children from primary into secondary school.

Click here to join the GlowTV author event.

November 21st, 2011

TESS - say bonjour to remote French teaching

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SAY BONJOUR TO REMOTE FRENCH TEACHING (TESS, 18 November 2011)

Intermediate 1 French at Tiree High is a lesson like no other. The S3 pupils’ teacher, Helene Bernard, teaches them from 140 miles away, in a classroom at Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh.

When Tiree High was unable to fill the post for a French teacher last year, the school and its local authority had no choice but to use Glow Meet as a medium to connect its pupils with a French teacher elsewhere. A number of classes, including a P7/S1 and an Intermediate 2 class, are now regularly taught remotely.

“It has been very much a challenge for us. It has taken us probably about a year to get some basic technology issues sorted out,” said Maggie Irving, education support officer for ICT at Argyll and Bute Council.

There were problems with sound quality initially, and new laptops had to be bought to resolve these. Connecting a large number of laptops to the school’s wireless network also proved difficult, with the result that the computers are now hardwired through the network.

In addition, the new learning environment proved a challenge for younger children. “They have to sit down and listen very carefully and respond on a keyboard - not the best learning medium for those learners,” she explained.

Miss Bernard, a native French speaker, was one of two teachers last year to take on the challenge of teaching remotely.

Last week, she had the five girls in her Intermediate 2 class working on directions and maps, using Google Maps to work out and describe how they would get from one location in Lyon to another. They worked in teams to follow directions, and she marked the group’s homework, which they had uploaded onto the Glow Meet site.

“It was quite a learning curve, but we have been able to do so many things because of Glow,” she told TESS. “In a normal classroom, I can’t have all my children going on the internet and checking out real life in France, but I can do that online via Glow.”

In many ways, the teaching experience was not dissimilar to being there with the pupils, she said. “You have a whiteboard on the site, you have the children in front of you through the camera, and we have a jotter. Because it is a language, we have to speak a lot. The only thing that is different is that we have a chat box.”

Teaching via Glow could even be more efficient: “Each of the kids is in front of one computer, so they are very focused; it makes for a very effective class.”

November 21st, 2011

e-portfolios in East Renfrewshire – Part 2

ggallacher

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In June 2011, two of East Renfrewshire’s clusters worked with their pupils to create e-portfolios using Glow Blogs. This involved Eastwood High School, St Ninian’s High School and their associated primary schools. At the start of the 2011-12 academic session, the other five Secondary clusters did the same. Part 1 of this cookbook covers the background to this and the set up process for the e-portfolios.

Read more in the Cookbook here

November 21st, 2011

Learn Fractions The Easy Way!

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: fractions, Kinnaird Primary, maths on track, tom renwick
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Falkirk, Glow, Glow Meet, Mathematics

Following on from the successful times table event last year Tom Renwick (Maths on Track) returns this time to Glow TV to do a fractions lesson at Curriculum for Excellence level 2.

Working with a P7 class in Kinnaird Primary School, Falkirk (though suitable for P6 or S1/2) Tom will use the effective combination of the visual 100+ board and interactive Wee Red Box flash cards which promote ‘working memory’ and ‘processing speed’. However it is not necessary for you to have this equipment in your classroom, you can always make the flashcards yourself.

There will be a short break during the event, to allow you to replicate the flash card techniques with your own class, then re-joining Tom a few minutes later to see further techniques which enhance fluency (the list of 12 flash cards you’ll require can be found on the Glow TV schedule listing). It should be fun!

Sign up and join us on Tuesday 22nd November from 2-3pm.

November 16th, 2011

Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

ggallacher

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Glow, Glow Groups, South Ayrshire, Technologies

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.

Read more in the Cookbook here.

November 15th, 2011

The War Poetry Glow Group on the National site

ggallacher

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Barry Wright is an English teacher at Carluke High School in South Lanarkshire. Last year he participated in a Building Glow Communities event held at Stirling and, with a number of other English teachers, created the War Poetry Glow Group on the National site in Glow. In this cookbook, Barry describes the purpose and content of the Group.

Find out more in the Cookbook here.