Making use of the National Groups

Making use of the National Groups
Overview
Geraldine Shearer, Principal Teacher of Cathedral Primary in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire wanted to work collaboratively with others on a topic she, along with her colleagues, were teaching to P6 and 7.  Geraldine used the National Groups to get in touch with others and successfully worked with another 5 teachers across Scotland.
In this cookbook we’ll have a look at how and where Geraldine left her message on the National Site, and how to edit your profile so other practitioners in Scotland can search for you through the National directory.

Context
What did Geraldine hope to achieve?
Geraldine was one of first mentors trained in North Lanarkshire in January 2009 and straight away was keen to use Glow to support the teaching of the V.I.B Joyning the Learning Project by Learning Unlimited.  With her training only just finished, Geraldine navigated her way through the National Glow Groups and found the Collaborative Projects Sub-Glow Group situated inside the Staffroom National Glow Group.  In there Geraldine left a message for anyone interested in working with her.
She hoped that by using Glow she would be able to collaborate with other teachers easily by sharing thoughts and ideas on this new and exciting project.

National Group

Ingredients

What did Geraldine need to get going?

1. A Glow Username and Password
2. A Topic Plan (or just an idea)
3. Most importantly enthusiasm and a willingness to share

 
Seems very simple, but all Geraldine really needed to make links with other practitioners in Scotland was her Glow log on. 

 Recipe
What did Geraldine do?
Geraldine navigated her way to the National site and browsed the Glow Groups until she found the Staffroom Glow Group.  In there she noticed that there was a Collaborative Group.  At a glance Geraldine could see that lots of teachers from across Scotland were leaving messages, looking to collaborate with one another.  Geraldine felt motivated by what she saw and was very keen to join in. 
Geraldine left a quick message on the discussion board and was amazed at just how quickly she got a reply.

Discussion

Following on from this message the administrator of the Collaborative Project Group directed Geraldine to a Glow Group he had set up for all the teachers wanting to work together on the VIB topic.
Click on the videos below to see how easy it is to leave a message in a National Group. 
*Navigating to collaborative project Glow Group and leaving a reply.

*Edit your Glow profile.

*Search the National Directory for an area of interest.

In hindsight another way that Geraldine could have made links with Glow Members was to search Glow’s National Directory.  In the Directory she could have searched for ‘area of interest’.  Perhaps finding other practitioners with VIB or Joyning the Learning as their Area of Interest.  Geraldine could also have edited her own profile to include VIB, this would have allowed other practitioners to find her when searching for Area of Interest in the National Directory.

 Product
As a result of Geraldine’s message a variety of teachers and their classes from around Scotland were able to work together on the VIB topic.  They held regular class Glow Meets and shared Whiteboard documents, updating each other on their progress on the topic. The pupils got to ask questions of each other and peer assess their work.
The teachers also benefited from each others experience of the topic and were able to share ideas and thoughts when planning lessons.

Click on the videos below to here Geraldine describing the process of using Glow and the benefits Glow brought to her class topic.
*Geraldine describing the impact of using Glow

The National Group that Geraldine was part of is still available to view.  Click on the link below to access the Glow Group.
https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Working%20Together/The%20Very%20Important%20Bear/default.aspx

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