Using a Glow Group to document planning and preparation for CfE

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Bruce McMaster is a teacher of Biology at Broughton High School in Edinburgh. In this cookbook Bruce will talk us through how he uses a Glow Group to document his planning and implementation of a pilot aimed at preparing for the roll out of Curriculum for Excellence.

Context

Bruce is an advocate of the use of technology in teaching and with the introduction of Glow to Broughton, he was keen to investigate how best to use the tools and functionality of Glow to further enrich the learning experiences of his pupils. Bruce also recognised the potential of Glow as a management tool to record his experiences of piloting a Curriculum for Excellence Biological Systems outcome. Bruce made use of various Glow tools to store planning documents, make links to similar piloting work in other schools and authorities, survey pupil opinions of the pilot work and display the results of the pupil projects. The Glow Group developed by Bruce is used by the Biology department to help inform planning for the roll-out of Curriculum for Excellence in the new session.

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear Bruce outline how he developed a Glow Group to document his experiences of piloting a Biological Systems CfE outcome with an existing S1 class.

Ingredients

What Bruce used to develop the Glow Group: 

1. A Glow Group
2. News web part to post his ideas, plans and intentions for colleagues to follow
3. A Survey web part to involve the pupils in the development of the pilot
4. Web links web part to provide quick links to other development work around the country
5. A Text Editor web part to display text and images relating to the pupil project work
6. A Picture Library web part to display pupil work

Recipe

In the first video below we will hear how Bruce is developing a Glow Group to document his planning and preparation for Curriculum for Excellence. During Bruce’s video, he talks about a pupil survey to get their opinions on the pilot work and he shows us examples of pupil work via the Picture Library web part. In the other videos we will find out how to use the Survey and Picture Library web parts:

Impact

When time for face to face meetings and CPD is at a premium, Bruce’s Glow Group provides the staff of the Biology department at Broughton High School an anytime, anywhere collaborative environment to aid in their preparation for rolling out Curriculum for Excellence.

Well planned use of Glow will help pupils achieve many of the Curriculum for Excellence learning experiences and outcomes. The example highlighted in this cookbook is linked specifically to:

I have explored the structure and function of organs and organ systems and can relate this to the basic biological processes required to sustain life. – SCN 3-12a

Follow the links below for other cookbooks from Bruce McMaster: 

Using a Glow Group to document planning and preparation for CfE5.051