Using a Glow Group as a “Worry Forum”

Overview
Avril Denton has recently taken up post as Primary 7 Teacher at Girvan Primary School in South Ayrshire. She had used Glow in her last school, Pinwherry Primary and wanted to begin using it to support learning and teaching at Girvan. One of the first activities they undertook was using a discussion web part as a “worry forum” with the pupils.

Girvan Primary 7 (1) Worry Forum Group

In this Cookbook we will focus on how Avril has created a Glow Group to be used as a “Worry Forum” by reconfiguring the permissions of a discussion web part so that the pupils can only view their own posts.

This first video clip provides a short tour around this page of Girvan’s Primary 7 (1) ”Worry Forum” Glow group.

What does the “Worry Forum” Glow Group look like? (2:32)

Context

Avril Denton P7 (1) Teacher Girvan Primary, South Ayrshire

Being P7 teacher is quite different for Avril at Girvan in terms of being able to use Glow as in her previous school at Pinwherry she had a P5-P7 composite class which was much smaller and was able to access a computer for every pupil. Girvan presented a challenge as to getting her pupils onto using Glow for both class activities and homework. The classroom adjoining Avril’s has an interactive whiteboard and a number of pupil machines and whenever this space is available Avril takes the opportunity to use it with her pupils.

Although the pupils have access to their class Glow Group where they undertake many activities and also use Glow Learn, the “Worry Forum” group is a separate Glow Group for this purpose alone.

The class was being asked to use the worry forum initially to post something very simple about where they sit in class so that Mrs Denton could demonstrate to them that they are the only ones who would see that post but that she would be able to see all posts. This surprised pupils but gave them a level of confidence to trust in the forum and be able to make posts which were far more important to them about things they were worried about. They are given time periodically in class to post worries they have to the board (and encouraged to use this from home) with Avril getting back to them as soon as possible with a response. This was to replace a more traditional worry box which had previously been used by the class posting paper worries into it. The class felt that it was much more obvious to other pupils when the older worry box was being used.

The Curriculum for Excellence Outcomes being covered in this innovative way by Avril are HWB 2-01a I am aware of and able to express my feelings and am developing the ability to talk about them. HWB 2-02a I know that we all experience a variety of thoughts and emotions that affect how we feel and behave and I am learning ways of managing them. HWB 2-03a I understand that there are people I can talk to and that there are a number of ways in which I can gain access to practical and emotional support to help me and others in a range of circumstances. HWB 2-06a I understand the importance of mental wellbeing and that this can be fostered and strengthened through personal coping skills and positive relationships. I know that it is not always possible to enjoy good mental health and that if this happens there is support available.

This Cookbook will focus on how to create a Glow Group to be used as a “Worry Forum”. It will look at removing unwanted pages from the group and renaming other pages. It will also look at adding some text editor web parts with instructions and reconfiguring the permission of a Discussion web part to prevent pupils being able to see each other’s posts.

Worry Forum page of the group with discussion web part

Avril wanted the pupils to feel that they could really feel secure with the discussion web part to be able to let her know what was troubling them and become confident individuals as she was able to get back to them quickly and reassure them that their “worry” was being taken seriously and, if appropriate being dealt with.

In this Cookbook, we will find out:

• What the “Worry Forum” Group for Girvan Primary P7(1) looks like
• How to remove pages not required
• How to rename a Discussions page
• How to configure the settings of the Discussion web part to prevent pupils from seeing each other’s posts and the teacher’s replies
• What the impact was

Ingredients

What did Avril initially need to do to allow the pupils to use the Worry Forum Group?

1. A Glow Group with pages removed
2. A Worry Forum page made from the Discussions page
3. 2 text editor web parts for information and instruction
4. An image web part
5. A Discussions web part with the permissions changed

It was also necessary to ensure pupils had Reader with Discussions rights within the Glow Group to enable them to post worries.

In the next section, we’ll take a look at the “Worry Forum” Glow group and learn how to recreate elements within it.

Recipe

The first video below (referred to above) shows the “Worry Forum” Group and the uses made of 2 simple web parts. The videos that then follow show how these elements can be recreated. Details are:

Video Clips

What does the “Worry Forum” Glow Group look like? (2:32)

Creating a Worry Forum Glow Group (1:18)

Removing unwanted pages and renaming a page of a group (1:53)

Removing default web parts from the Noticeboard and adding a text editor web part (2:35)

Adding an image to the Noticeboard and adding content to the text editor web part (3:44)

Adding a text editor web part to the Worry Forum page (2:58)

Changing the default permissions of the Discussion web part (1:48)

Setting the membership of the Worry Forum Group (1:33)

Impact
There are 2 short video clips here. Firstly, we begin with Avril herself describing the activity and the impact and then some of the pupils speak about how it was helpful to have the worry forum.

Short clip with Avril Denton explaining getting started with the Worry Forum (1:53)

Short clip with pupils’ reaction to using Glow in this way in class (0:54)

Using a Glow Group as a “Worry Forum”5.054