Nursery – Primary Transition Project
Please note that this cookbook refers to Glow Meet using Marratech. Glow Meet is now delivered over Adobe Connect which offers enhanced functionality. To find out more about Glow Meet using Adobe Connect then click here. The principles around the benefits of Glow Meet are the same regardless of the technology used for Glow Meet.
Overview
Joyce O’Fee, Depute Head Teacher in Clepington Primary Dundee had been ‘Glowing’ for about 9 months when she saw the potential to use Glow to further develop her Nursery – Primary Transition Project.
This cookbook will look at how Joyce added practitioners from other establishments into her Glow Group. It will also look at how she used the Image web part to make her project more visual for the younger learner. We will also have a tour of the Transition Glow Group looking at the type of content Joyce made available to her associated Nursery Establishments through the use of Glow.
Context
When Joyce was first introduced to Glow she immediately saw the potential to develop good practice. Her already successful Transition Project would fit perfectly into Glow and indeed enhance communication between the school and the 12 Nursery Establishments. Joyce with the support of Lorraine Munro from the Dundee Central Team spoke to each Nursery and asked for their thoughts on joining her Glow Group for the project. Their response was very positive as they thought that Glow would enhance the programme and increase communication. Given the green light by the nurseries, Lorraine made sure that all EYP’s and the teachers involved had their Glow Usernames and Passwords.
Joyce hoped that the Transition Group would encourage Listening and Talking not just amongst the staff in the discussion forum but amongst the pupils as they looked at the different images of school life posted on Glow. Joyce identified the following Outcomes from the Early CfE guidelines as the basis of her Glow Group.
As I listen and talk in different situations, I am learning to take turns and am developing my awareness of when to talk and when to listen.
*Responsibility of all
I listen or watch for useful or interesting information and I use this to make choices or learn new things.
*Responsibility of all
Joyce had always used ‘Simon the bear’ as her stimulus for Transition. Simon and his Logbook would be sent off to each Nursery and whilst there, the children would play with him and record the events of his visit. This allowed the children to feel a little more comfortable when visiting the school for the first time as Simon would be there waiting for them. Keen to continue using Simon, Joyce straight away with the help of Crazy Talk put a flash file of Simon talking into her Glow Group. The children loved to see Simon each time they logged in and he would often cause a great deal of discussion, especially when pictures of them playing with Simon was posted on a variety of pages within the Glow Group. Instead of just using the Logbook to record events, Joyce now used the Image web part to display images of Simon and the children.
This gave the children the opportunity to see each other before they met. The image web part was also used to display helpful information such as School Uniform and People who work in our school. More examples can be seen in the ‘Tour of the Transition Project’ video clip.
Ingredients
(What did Joyce do to get started?)
- Created a Glow Group in Clepington Primary
- Set the membership and permissions of the EYP and Teachers and made the Glow Group available for them to access
- Became familiar with the Image web part
Joyce also made herself familiar with an Image Resizing tool as she wanted her images to fit perfectly into the Image web part. For the purposes of this cookbook www.webresizer.com will be used.
Recipe
The videos below show
- A tour of the Transition Group
- How to add a member from another establishment and share the group
- Resizing and adding an image to Glow
- How to add another image web part into Glow
- How to rename an image web part to make it more personal
*A Tour of the Transition Group
*How to add members from another establishment and share the Glow group
*How to add an image web part
*Resizing an Image and Adding it to Glow
*How to rename an image web part
*Joyce O’Fee – Introduction
*Joyce O’Fee – Organisation and Impact
Product
(Impact of using Glow in the Transition Project)
Using Glow had a definite impact on the level of communication between the school and the associated nurseries. There has been a marked increase in the communication between the nurseries and the school. This good communication was enhanced through the use of discussion boards and will continue to be enhanced through GlowMeet.
Children were able to access Glow Group at anytime and become familiar with staff pictures, uniform and school life.
Joyce will now be able to add to this group each year as the basic template is in place, cutting down on level of work each year.