Glenwood High School

Glenwood High School in Fife, with a roll of 860 pupils and with 90 teaching staff, has seen a significant increase in the use of Glow over the last six months. By the end of the year, around 75% of staff and pupils had active accounts and in an average week over 200 pupils were using Glow during school hours.

This cookbook describes how a number of staff, from different departments, have been using Glow to enhance learning and teaching. The video clips and Glow Group tours show the work that has been undertaken, the pupils’ responses and the lesson learned. Additional cookbooks focus on each teacher in turn, and provide the detail of how you can replicate (or adapt) their ideas.

Context

In January 2011, a number of Glow training courses were run in Fife and staff from eight secondary schools were invited to attend. At Glenwood, volunteers were sought from across the school and 14 participated in the training. Most of the sessions offered were one-day Glow Basics training, which covered how to create a curricular Glow Group to support learning with a specific class. At the end of the day’s session, staff had a Glow Group ready to go and a good idea of how they wanted their pupils to use it. The aim for many of the staff was initially to upload revision documents in preparation for prelims and for pupils to be able to use discussion boards or forums to ask questions or look for help. As can be seen from the clips below, while these basic Glow features were used extensively, staff have also progressed on rapidly to using other tools, such as wikis, blogs and Glow Meet.

In the first clip here, Dave Dawson, DHT at Glenwood, describes the progress over the last few months:

Dave Dawson: uptake and usage of Glow at Glenwood (1:35)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Alison Wood

Alison Wood attended one of the training courses in January and has since used Glow with S1, S3 and Higher English classes. With her first year class she was keen to encourage pupils to tackle more challenging texts. Pupils wrote book reviews, uploaded them into a Glow Group and commented on each others’ reviews in a Glow forum. For her Higher class Alison created a Glow Group, and uploaded notes and past papers for pupils to use at home in the run up to exams. She also used surveys during lesson time for pupils to assess their own knowledge of the set texts. Viewing the survey results allowed pupils to quickly see where their responses differed from those of other pupils. This generated a very valuable class discussion where pupils could identify for themselves where they’d got work to do, and the necessity of going back to revising the text.

With third year pupils Alison has created a wiki to stimulate pupils’ interest in the background of a set text. The third years have been intrigued by the possibilities of the wikis and many have gone well beyond the initial requirements in developing their own pages.

Alison Wood: ‘Poetry and Protest’ wiki created by S3 (1:51) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Alison has found the ‘Daily What’ an excellent resource in encouraging pupils to read newspaper articles. She can see a lot of potential for this, and is looking forward to making more use of it in the coming year when she will have a data projector in her classroom and therefore able to use this with a whole class, rather than needing to book an ICT suite.

Alison Wood: Glow enhancing learning and teaching in English (3:32) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

The full cookbook on Alison’s work can be found here. This includes ‘how-to’ video clips which show how to create wikis and how to make best use of the ‘Daily What’.

Clare Hunt is PTC of Business, Enterprise and Computing at Glenwood. She and her colleagues have begun to use Glow across S1-S6. With first year pupils, Glow offered an ideal place to share the work that pupils had been undertaking in class on a ‘Cyber-bullying’ project. Pupils’ presentations were uploaded to a Glow Group and discussed at home with parents and carers. In class the discussion around internet safety continued with pupils creating avatars and posting comments in a Glow forum.

Clare Hunt: S1 Cyber-Bullying presentations and discussions (1:59) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

At the end of the year S2 classes created Vokis to record their evaluations of the Computing course. Pupils found this a highly motivating activity, and took great care over their comments, spelling and punctuation, as the Voki’s speech is only as good as the text that’s been entered! The Vokis were then posted into a Glow blog, so that pupils could see each others’ and Computing staff could hear all the feedback on the course.

Clare Hunt: S2’s Computing course evaluations (2:14)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

The full cookbook on Clare’s work is available here. It includes ‘how-to’ video clips on using Glow forums, and on creating Vokis.

Kim Yapp teaches Modern Foreign Languages. For the last couple of years, the department has run a Culture Project at the end of first year. Pupils are asked to work in groups, create a presentation on a cultural theme and deliver the presentation to their class. Prior to the arrival of Glow in the school, the project, though very successful, presented logistical difficulties, as pupils saved their work to their own network area, which is inaccessible to the teacher or to each other. If pupils were absent, their work could not be added to the group presentation. In addition, when classes were delivering their presentations, accessing the completed group work again caused problems. Either all work needed to be saved to a single location such as a memory stick or each group in turn needed to log on and off the network. Kim was delighted to find this year that using Glow easily solved all these problems! One Glow Group was all that was needed – for pupils to upload their individual work, to save their completed group work and from which to present it to the class. There were unlooked-for benefits too – Kim could monitor progress after each lesson as the presentations were being developed, allowing her to intervene with any pupil not pulling their weight in their group – and pupils could show their work to their families.

Kim Yapp: S1 Culture Project (6:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Further details on how Kim set up her Glow Groups and ran the Culture Project are available here. This cookbook includes ‘how-to’ clips on creating and customising Glow Groups, and using a Documents web part.

Janet Rutterford

Janet Rutterford teaches English, and as a guidance teacher also has a remit for primary-secondary transition. When Glow was introduced at Glenwood earlier this year, she was interested to look at ways in which it could facilitate transition. As a first experiment, a Glow Meet session was arranged between a first year class and a P7 class at Southwood Primary. Both classes were very well prepared. The P7s drafted their questions and sent them to the high school, giving the first years time to think about their responses. The preparation proved invaluable when the day came for the Glow Meet, as no-one got stage fright in front of the web-cam and all were happy to ask and answer the questions!

On the back of the overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from the first year, Janet has continued to develop the transition Glow Group. Pupils generated a wide range of ideas of the content they thought would be useful for the P7s, and Janet was impressed with their skills and confidence with Glow.

Janet Rutterford: using Glow to support transition (2:27)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

A cookbook on Janet’s transition work will be coming soon. The ‘how-to’ clips will include the basics of setting up and using Glow Meet.

Craft and Design Technology teacher, David Lumsden, attended one of the Glow Basics courses but has since concentrated on using Glow Learn. He and colleagues in his department find this ideal for classwork and class tests. They are also developing a S1 and S2 homework policy which will be entirely delivered through Glow Learn, potentially offering considerable savings in paper and duplicating costs.

David uses Glow Learn to create tests and assessments. A range of question types, including multiple-choice and short answer, can be used and most will be automatically marked. Progress records allow him to see a summary of the class’s performance on all questions. Individual pupil’s responses can also be viewed, marking reviewed and feedback given to the pupil.

David Lumsden: assessments in craft and design technology (2:37)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

David comments that pupils’ response to Glow Learn have been very positive and the hand-in rate for tests and homework has been much higher than previously.

More information on David’s work, including ‘how-to’ video clips on Glow Learn will follow shortly.

Kayleigh Brown teaches History at Glenwood and has used Glow extensively with her fourth year class to prepare them for the Standard Grade exam. For the prelims Kayleigh has uploaded PowerPoint files and revision mind maps – resources that pupils had used in class and were familiar, but uploading them to Glow ensured that pupils had access for homework and during holidays. Kayleigh has also shared these resources with other History teachers and departments through the Fife ‘Study Support’ Glow Group.

Kayleigh Brown: Standard Grade History (6:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Kayleigh asks her pupils to submit their homework through the Glow Group. She created a ‘Upload your homework’ web part, which allows a pupil to hand in their work but not to see the work of any other pupil. Kayleigh can see all the work her pupils submit, review it, add notes to it, and give feedback. Both teacher and pupils have found this invaluable. Using a survey to gather feedback from pupils about their performance in their prelim was also a big hit with Kayleigh. The graphical summary allowed here a rapid overview of where pupils felt they needed help, and viewing individual responses allowed her to see any private concerns about their progress which pupils had expressed.

A cookbook providing more detail on Kayleigh’s Glow Group can be found here. This includes video clips showing how to create a homework web part.

Drama teacher, Clare Todd, comments that she “was really excited when I first heard about Glow. It was exactly what I’d been looking for.” Clare wanted pupils to be able to access learning resources at home, use a forum to ask questions and discuss what they’d been doing in class. She knew that she didn’t have the skills to create her own website, so Glow’s arrival in the school really enthused her. She now has a Drama Glow Group accessible to all pupils in S1-S6 to give a flavour of what classes are doing in lessons and on trips. There are also separate Glow Groups for S1, S2, Standard Grade, Higher and Advanced Higher classes.

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 1 (7:14)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 2 (2:29) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Like Kayleigh, she asks pupils to submit homework and makes use of surveys for self-evaluations. She’s recently been introduced to Glow Learn by colleagues in other departments in the school and sees this as her next step, as it provides better options when asking pupils for personal responses, and will be easier to monitor and record pupils’ progress.

The cookbook describing Clare’s work in more detail can be found here. The ‘how-to’ videos show how to create and use surveys.

Next steps

Dave Dawson

The use of Glow at Glenwood has grown very rapidly over just a few months – thanks to the hard work of teaching staff and to those responsible for creating the accounts. Glow is becoming well embedded in the curriculum: it’s not viewed as an adjunct, but a tool to be used, when appropriate, to enhance learning and teaching.

The challenge now is to continue to develop. In the new academic year, each department has been asked to have a Glow representative and for Glow to be included in development plans.

Dave Dawson: next stages of Glow development at Glenwood (0:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Clare Fallon is Principal Teacher at St Mark’s Primary in Irvine, North Ayrshire. She is a Glow Mentor and decided to start using Glow with her pupils at St Mark’s. She began to use Glow with P4 to P7 as she teaches ICT to the whole school. After giving each child their Glow usernames and passwords they were ready to get started. They used many of the resources on the national site as part of their introduction to Glow.

Clare Fallon

In this Cookbook we will focus on the use of Glow Meet for the P4s and also the P7s to link up with St Luke’s Primary and also with St Matthew’s Secondary School. To see a tour of the P7 Glow Group click below:

Tour of the P7 Glow Group (0:47)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

P4 Glow Meet

Initially, Clare was really interested in trying to set up a Glow Meet session, or web conference, with another school in her cluster. She chose St Luke’s as she had worked with the staff there before. Both P4 classes happened to be working on the same project about Ancient Egypt and both Primary 4 teachers were eager to help. To get started the teachers used a Critical Skills based approach where the pupils designed some fantastic posters they had made to explain the facts they had learned about the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. The children then shared their knowledge with each other through a Glow Meet where they talked each class through their posters.

Glow Meet at St Mark's

Primary 7 have also enjoyed using Glow this year. They’ve been involved in many different activities from posting  and adding to discussions, to emailing their friends from the class and also friends from outwith the school. Clare spoke with them about how Glow could help them communicate with the children in their local community. They decided to have a Glow Meet session with S1 pupils at their cluster secondary school, St Mathew’s Academy. This would become part of an ongoing programme of transition activities during P7. They decided that this experience would be even richer for the pupils if they invited P7 pupils from

S1 Pupils at St Mathew's

St Luke’s Primary in the cluster to be involved. They were hoping to be able to have a variety of questions from a wide range of children for the Glow Meet. To get started for ideas Clare posted a discussion which the P7 pupils replied to with their ideas for questions.

The P7 pupils from both schools were able to discuss with each other what they thought the most important issues to be addressed during the Glow Meet session should be. These were then emailed to St Mathew’s Academy as the S1 pupils wanted to prepare their responses. The Glow Meet was then able to be held with all pupils involved.

Click below to see the tour of the Glow Meet Glow Group:

Tour of the Glow Meet Glow Group (1:10)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Ingredients

What did Clare need to prepare for and to run the Glow Meet web conference with St Mark’s and St Luke’s Primary Schools and St Mathew’s Academy?

• A Glow Group at local authority level with membership for all 3 schools
• The Discussion Board within the P7 Glow Group at school level with membership for all P7 pupils
• Glow Mail accounts for each pupil
• At least one computer with a web camera and microphone in each school

Recipe

Although Clare used the original version of Glow Meet for web conferencing, the how-to videos below will demonstrate how to get started with the new version of Glow Meet.

The how-to videos below will be enough to get you started with the new Glow Meet. You will find additional help in the Glow Meet section of the Glow Help Blog here.

Adding the Glow Meet web part to your Glow Group (1:26)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Creating the Glow Meet room (0:56)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Entering the Glow Meet (2:03)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Impact

In this first impact video Clare Fallon speaks about starting to use Glow and this is followed by a video of Joseph, a P4 pupil, speaking about the Glow Meet with the P4’s in St Luke’s Primary.

How Clare first got started with Glow (1:06)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Joseph P4

We took turns to show our posters and our posters were brilliant, so the P4’s in St Luke’s said. And theirs were brilliant too!

It was brilliant! I just thought it was good to share about our posters and everyone in St Luke’s.

Joseph, from Primary 4 talks about his class’s project (1:23)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

More specifically Clare now talks about the P7 Transition Glow Meet Project.

Clare speaks about the cluster transition Glow Meet (1:34)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

The Glow Meet enabled the children to speak to their peers who they wouldn’t normally meet until their induction visit to St Mathew’s in June. The children learned, first hand, about some of the skills and strategies which would support them as they moved on.

The children contributed effectively to an important and really meaningful event.

The first year pupils answered their questions really well and engaged with their audience.

All the children were able to use ICT across the curriculum. They chose relevant information to suit the purpose and took into account their audience.

I hope that this opportunity has really helped the children to feel a bit better about moving on to a new and exciting stage in their lives.

Avneet and Molly talk about the Transition Glow Meet (1:57)
Using Glow Meet for Transition at St Mark’s Primary

Avneet and Molly P7

It made it easier for us to go to St Mathew’s on our induction because it made us see what secondary was like.

Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton is PT Raising Achievement at St Aidan’s High School in North Lanarkshire. She is also the Glow Mentor for the school. As part of the many things Margaret was using Glow for she wanted to work on a Transition Glow Group which she just started before the end of term. Margaret had been impressed by what she saw in the Glow Cookbook, Transition Glow Group in Angus Schools, particularly by the involvement of the S1 pupils and also with their Interactive Map.

Some of St Aidan’s High School’s associate primary schools are as much as 12 miles away and Margaret was attracted by the idea of being able to use tools such as Discussion Boards and Glow Meet to keep in contact without having to wait for physical visits.

The video below is Margaret’s description of the Glow Group and tour of the Interactive Map:
Margaret’s Tour of the Glow Group and the Interactive School Map (2:42)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Ingredients

The Noticeboard of the Transition Group – click to enlarge

The St Aidan’s High School Transition Glow Group has been built at local authority level in North Lanarkshire so that all primary schools will see the Glow Group name in their list of Glow Groups. If the Group had been built in St Aidan’s High school site they would have to have sent a link to each primary school.

Graphical Interface

As you can see from the screenshot a graphical interface has been used for the design of the Glow Group. This was done to simplify the interface for pupils and teachers. There are only 2 visible page tabs in the Glow Group, the Noticeboard and the Glow Meet page. The other pages in the Group have been created as ‘Hidden Pages’ and are accessible by clicking on the named button links on the Noticeboard graphic.

Content of the Glow Group

The Questions Page – click to enlarge

The Glow Group is mainly about sharing information with the schools. There are pages with pictures and information about the Senior Management Team; the captains and prefects; pupils care and support; the student council; subjects within the school; tutor time; student planners; competitions and the schedule of primary visits. However, there are also 3 more interactive areas in the Questions page, the P7 wiki and the interactive map of the school. It is planned that the following year there will be much more participation from subject departments within St Aidan’s High School. This will possibly be in the form of challenges and competitions which the primary pupils will be able to participate in.

Pupil Voice

The Questions Page is about the primary pupils being able to ask questions which the S1 pupils will answer. There is also a separate discussion board where the S1 pupils will ask and answer questions that they feel they wish they had known about before they came to secondary school. These discussion boards can be set up so that they are moderated and an administrator of the Glow Group has to approve posts before they are seen by all members of the Glow Group.

The Angus Schools Cookbook mentioned above has how-To videos which will take you through the process of setting up moderated discussion boards if this is of interest.

The P7 wiki

P7 wiki – click to enlarge

Although it is early days in the set-up of the Glow Group, Margaret has created a Glow wiki with a page for every associate primary school. It is hoped that the schools will use these pages to give information about their school to be shared with the other primary schools in the cluster. In the wiki area they can easily use text, images, audio files and even videos to describe their school. It is also hoped that they will showcase pupil work in these pages.

The Interactive Map

Interactive Map – Click to enlarge

Margaret originally made the Interactive Map in a PowerPoint document, with a separate page for every photograph of the different areas of the school. She carefully annotated the corridor photographs so that they would provide detail on the direction of further corridors and stairwells and to every classroom within them. Every photograph of a corridor links to each of the classrooms within it and onto further classrooms. Each classroom has the name of the subject and the teacher(s) who teach there. On every page there is a small version of the photograph of the front of the school at the bottom right-hand corner to allow users to navigate back to the home page. Margaret also compressed every individual photograph to minimise the size of the finished document. When it was completed in PowerPoint and the links were all set up, the file was converted to a pdf. This was to reduce the size even further. Once placed into a document library the photo of the front of the school, on the interactive map page was linked to the pdf document.

What did Margaret need to be able to set up the Transition Glow Group:

• A Glow Group set up at local authority level with Margaret given Administrator access to this
• Contributor membership set for every associate primary, for all teaching and non-teaching staff; P6 and P7 classes; teaching and non-teaching staff at St Aidan’s High School and all S1 pupils
• Several PowerPoint slides saved as images to be used as graphical interfaces at different points within the Glow Group
• Hidden pages set up for the different areas of the Glow Group
• The pdf version of the interactive map available in the document library and linked to from the photograph of the school on the school map page
• Moderated discussion boards set up for S1 and P7 pupils
• A P7 wiki created with a page created for every associate primary school

Recipe

The videos below show how you could re-create some aspects of the St Aidan’s High School Transition Glow Group in your own Glow Group.

Saving the pdf document into the document library (1:58)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Adding a text editor and image of the school (3:33)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Linking this image to the pdf document (1:50)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

You may wish to visit any of these Cookbooks for further information about creating Hidden Pages:

Std Grade Music – A Glow Group using a Graphical Interface

LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group

“Which Writer Wins?” Chapter 1: The Author & Book pages

FIFA 2010 World Cup in Inverclyde!

Impact

Interactive Map – Click here to enlarge

The S1 pupils were really keen and enthusiastic to be involved in the project. They did all the work to take the photos of every classroom in the school.

Some of our associated primary schools have now looked at it and they’re now going to make a map of their school. It just shows how it catches on.

The S1’s are really really keen to have a link with the primary pupils.

Click below to see the videos where Margaret talks about what she was setting out to achieve with the Transition Project Glow Group.

Why did Margaret want to use Glow for Transition? (0:32)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Why was Margaret interested in the interactive map? (0:50)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

The Transition Project at St Aidan’s High School Cluster has obviously only just began and will grow in many exciting ways under Margaret’s steer. What a great resource the Interactive Map is for pupils, not only when they’re in P7 but also when they arrive into S1 and are having to navigate their way around the school on a daily basis!

You may wish to visit other Cookbooks written about St Aidan’s High School:

• Sharing Instrumental Performance Videos at St Aidan’s High School
• Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Context

Museums Galleries Scotland works alongside the nation’s museums and galleries to achieve the shared vision of creating a welcoming museums and galleries sector that opens doors and celebrates collections, inspiring creativity, learning and enjoyment for all. It’s the lead voice of 340 museum and gallery members, welcoming 25 million visits each year and representing an industry worth up to £800 million to the Scottish economy.

This cookbook came about because Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) were keen to explore how Glow could be used to support collaborative learning projects involving schools and museums.

Clydebank Museum was poised to develop a new learning project with Dalreoch Primary School in Dumbarton. This would build on an earlier heritage learning project which had taken place in the school the previous year. This new project would involve the use of Glow.

The key aim of the project from MGS point of view was to develop a cookbook which would provide a guide for schools and museums wanting to develop partnership working and would highlight for schools and museums the opportunities for delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence by using Glow to enhance collaborative learning projects.

Dalreoch PS have a close relationship with Clydebank museum. They had previously run an experiential, interdisciplinary learning project with their P5, P6 and P7 pupils. This ran over most of one term and culminated in an ambitious ‘showcase’ to which parents, partners and guests were invited.

The project this year focused on the science and technology aspects of the shipbuilding industry in Clydebank linking with its historical progress through the years from the First World War. It was planned by the Clyde Community (upper school) class teachers with specific IT and Glow guidance from Glow mentor Karen Scott and in collaboration with Maeve Dixon, Learning Development Officer at Clydebank Libraries and Museums.

As well as numerous cross curricular active learning activities in school led by teachers and by the staff at Clydebank Museum, the project involved visits to the shipbuilding exhibit at Clydebank Museum, to the Titan Crane at the site of John Brown’s shipyard and to the Denny Tank at the Scottish Maritime Museum, Dunbartonshire. It also involved input from many partner organisations, experts and members of the local community. One of these was ‘Mr. McDonald’ the irascible manager of the Harland and Wolff shipyard who kept the pupils in line as they designed their own cruise ships.

A Glow group was set up at local authority level (West Dunbartonshire) to hold documents and photographs provided by the museum which could be used as a resource for the Dalreoch project and for other local schools in the future.

A group was also set up at school level to hold a selection of resources from the local authority group, work created by the pupils, a discussion forum,  a Glow Meet room, pictures of the showcase event and an interactive survey which was used to evaluate the project. The group also allowed the pupils to show their parents what they were doing in school.

As the project progressed, Glow Meet was used to enable Mr. McDonald to check up on the progress of the pupils’ designs. During one session he delivered the devastating news that war had been declared and that their ships would have to be converted to war work. Much discussion followed on what changes would have to be made and on the importance of weapons and camouflage in the new designs.

A Glow Meet session was also run from the storeroom of the museum so that pupils could be shown objects related to the topic and have the opportunity to ask questions about them. This allowed the pupils to see a part of the museum not accessible to visitors and to see objects not currently on display. In addition to the Glow Meet session, pupils had the chance to handle a selection of objects in a ‘handling kit’ on loan from the museum.

The project culminated in an amazing showcase event. Parents and invited guests gathered in the school hall to be welcomed with celebratory drinks and snacks. They were then led off by designated pupil guides to enjoy various activities related to the project. These included the design room, the tracing room, the floating and sinking tank, the museum room and the Glow experts. At each stop pupils explained the work of that department and parents had a hands-on task to complete. Everyone then gathered in the hall for the launch of the ship HMS. Experience. A fanfare was played, the crowd broke into ‘God Save the Queen’ and  Mrs. Bance, the wife of the head teacher, spoke the appropriate words and swung a bottle of champagne against the bow. The ship then slid across the stage while the crowd waved their Saltires and gave three cheers. A recording of a ship launch was played in the background and primary one deafened everyone with their party tooters! A fitting end to a fantastic project.

If you are interested in running a similar project you can find details of your local museums by using the search facility on the Museums Galleries Scotland web site.

Recipe

• Glow accounts for all participants (Glow key contact to arrange)
• access to school Glow group for museum staff (school ASM to arrange)
• a Glow group
• internet access at school and museum
• internet ready computer(s) at school and museum
• digital cameras for recording the project
• involvement of teacher and class
• involvement of museum education officer
• involvement of school Glow mentor
• joint planning involving school and museum staff and local authority
• local experts and enthusiasts
• risk assessment for museum visits (available from the museum)

Additional Ingredients for Glow Meet

School

• a webcam
• interactive whiteboard or digital projector
• a microphone (preferably portable)

Museum

• a digital video camera
• a good microphone
• an expert to take part in the Glow Meet

Method

The videos below give a flavour of the project from the point of view of the class teacher, the pupils and the museum development officer.

There is also a short clip from one of the Glow Meet sessions with ‘Mr. McDonald’.

Overview of the Project (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Glow Meet with the Shipyard Boss (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

How Glow Enhanced the Project (1.00)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Pupils Talk about Glow (2.53)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Pupils Talk about Glow Meet (2.17)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the School Glow Group 1 (4.11)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the School Glow Group 2 (3.19)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the Local Authority Glow Group (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Ship Launch (1.46)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Useful Documents

Lesson Planning

Project Overview

Useful Links

Local Authority Glow Key Contacts

Glow 101 Video Tutorials

Glow Guides

Glow Help Blog

Glow Meet Guides

Museums Galleries Scotland Web Site

Museum Galleries Scotland Grants

Museum resources which support delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence and links to Museums

Heritage Education Forum

Clydebank Museum

Denny Tank Museum

Overview

Recently, four schools from East Dunbartonshire volunteered to attend the Scottish Learning Festival to their pupils to take part in a range of activities. To support their preparation for this, a Glow Group was created at Local Authority Level to enable the schools – Bearsden Primary, Killermont Primary, Lenzie-Moss Primary and Oxgang Primary – to communicate, collaborate and share their learning.

In order to look at how the Group was used, this cookbook has been split into four parts., This part, Part 2, looks at the use of Glow Meet. Part 1 looks at the use of hidden pages in the Glow Group, Part 3 will focus on how the Glow Blog was used and Part 4 on Pictures and Videos. All four parts will contain the same overview in the ‘context’ section, with the different elements being explored in the ‘Focus On’ and recipe sections.

Context

Jan Pollok, Quality Improvement Officer and Glow Key Contact for East Dunbartonshire Council sent out a Targeted News item from the Local Authority site in Glow, asking for schools to volunteer to attend the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) to take part in LEGO activities. Jan had initially wanted to choose two schools, but after responses came in from schools, she decided to invite the four schools named above.

Jan met with Joanne Connolly, one of the Glow Educationalists from the National Glow Team, to discuss how Glow could support the schools before SLF and also how it could be used during and afterwards.

As a result of this conversation, Jan created a Glow Group at Local Authority level to enable the four schools to have direct sight of it. The layout was then designed and built, after consultation with the schools.

Initially, the Primary 7 teachers from the schools met with Jan and Joanne to discuss the activities that the pupils would be undertaking at SLF and to give their input to the Glow Group structure and content. It was agreed that the Group would contain hidden pages, with only the Noticeboard Page visible and links to the hidden pages provided there. This gave the Group a sleek and simple look and made it very easy to navigate around. (find out more about hidden pages in Part 1 of this cookbook series)
We can look at the Group and its layout in the following video:

Tour of the SLF LEGO Glow Group  (11:48)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
 

Elements of the Glow Group

The Glow Group was created with hidden pages, and links to these were provided by hot-spotting an image in the text editor web part.  A range of different web parts were then added to the hidden pages in the Glow Group:

Glow Meet

The first part of the Glow Group that was used was the Glow Meet page. It was agreed at the initial meeting that a Glow Meet would be held to enable the children to introduce themselves and become more familiar with Glow Meet. It also provided an opportunity for the schools to check their equipment was working. You can find out more details about it in the ‘focus’ section of this part of the cookbook series.

Picture Library

Both before and after the Glow Meet, the pupils spent time in their classrooms using the ‘We-Do’ LEGO kits that they had been given to allow them to practise prior to attending SLF. They took photos of the models they built and these were uploaded to the Picture Library on the ‘Our Photos’ page of the Group. Find out more in Part 4 of the cookbook!

Document Stores

There are two Document Stores in the Glow Group.

The first is on the Documents page. This was there to give pupils a place where they could perhaps write instructions on how to build a particular LEGO model and share those with others by uploading to the Document store. It was also discussed that pupils might do creative writing about the models they built and those pieces of writing could also be uploaded and shared.

The second Document store was created through the Advanced Settings link, in order to have a fresh, new, empty web part, rather than just a duplicate of the original Document store on the Documents page. This Document store was named Video Files and was added to the ‘Our Videos’ page. A folder was created for each of the schools, along with a fifth folder for SLF. Schools could use this to upload videos of their LEGO models in action, since the ‘We-Do’ kit includes software enabling the models to be programmed to move and make sounds. Find out more about how this Document store was used in Part 4 of the cookbook series.

Discussion Board

A discussion board was added to the Discussions page. This was originally intended for staff to ask questions about preparations for SLF and for pupils to discuss the activities they had been doing with the LEGO kits. However, the discussions about these activities naturally transferred themselves to the final page of the Glow Group, the Glow Blog.

Glow Blog

A page was created to host the Glow Blog.

The Glow Blog web part on the page enabled pupils to make quick posts about the activities they were doing. It was also used during the Scottish Learning Festival and afterwards. The use of Glow Blogs is the focus of Part 3 of this cookbook series.

In the next section, we will focus on one of the elements briefly described above. The others will be focused on in the other three parts of this cookbook series.

Focus on: Glow Meet

Glow Meet was used in the Glow Group on several occasions and for a range of purposes.

Once the Glow Meet web part had been added to the Glow Group and the Meeting Room created, the first use that was made of it was for the teachers in the four schools simply to test it out. The teachers wanted to check that they could access it successfully from their classroom machines. This was particularly important for two of the teachers who were using new computers. They needed to check that they still had the correct version of Java on their machine as Glow Meet requires a specific version of Java (version 5.11) to be installed for it to work. (You can find out more about this in this Helpsheet:  Java for Glow Meet  )  This was particularly useful and meant that teachers could hold a meeting without needing to take time to travel.

The second use of Glow Meet was for the pupils from the four schools to introduce themselves to one another and to show the LEGO models they had been making. This Glow Meet session was recorded and subsequently added back into the Glow Group. This was done by using screencapture software, uploading to an online hosting site and then embedding the video into the Text Editor web part. You can find out how to do this in the ‘how to’ videos below.

By adding the recording of the Glow Meet, pupils were able to access this from home and show heir parents what they had been doing in school that day.

During the Scottish Learning Festival itself, Glow Meet was used to broadcast back to the East Dunbartonshire schools, the activities being undertaken by the pupils who were there. The four schools attended for half a day each and only eight pupils from each school were able to attend. By using Glow Meet, the other classmates were able to watch the activities live, and still feel part of the event. All four sessions were recorded and the recordings will be uploaded to the Glow Group so that they can be watched back at any time.

Ingredients

In order for the East Dunbartonshire schools attending the Scottish Learning Festival to be able to access and use Glow Meet in the SLF LEGO Glow Group, the following was required:

-    The Glow Meet web part was added to one of the hidden pages in the Glow Group and a meeting room was created
-    Schools required web cams, microphones and speakers
-    Computers to be used for Glow Meet needed to have the correct version of Java installed (v5.11)

Additional work was done to create the other elements of the Glow Group which have been touched on in the ‘elements of the Glow Group’ section above. These will be covered in the other parts of this cookbook series.

Recipe

In the following videos we will look at how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above. In particular, we will look at the use of Glow Meet, recording sessions and embedding the recordings in a Glow Group.

How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to embed a video of a recorded Glow Meet into the xml web part (8:45)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet

Impact

Using the Glow Group has had a great impact on the schools involved in the LEGO activities.

They have had a place for communicating and sharing their learning.

Pupils have been able to share with others, both in their own school and outwith, the models they have built, through use of the picture library, Document store for videos, and through their blog posts.

Staff have been able to use the Group to meet virtually using Glow Meet and to plan using this, so eliminating the need to travel to actual meetings. Glow Meet has also enabled the pupils to speak to one another and to the Glow Team, prior to attending the Scottish Learning Festival, which helped reassure them before attending such a large event.

The use of the picture library provides and excellent means of formative assessment, showcasing the work pupils have done and providing an opportunity for peer review.

In all, the Glow Group has been highly beneficial to all who have used it.

You may also be interested in reading the other parts of this cookbook series:

Part 1: Focus on – Hidden Pages

Part 3: Focus on – Glow Blogs

Part 4: Focus on – Pictures and Videos

Overview

Recently, four schools from East Dunbartonshire volunteered to attend the Scottish Learning Festival to enable their pupils to take part in a range of activities. To support their preparation for this, a Glow Group was created at Local Authority Level to enable the schools – Bearsden Primary, Killermont Primary, Lenzie-Moss Primary and Oxgang Primary – to communicate, collaborate and share their learning.

In order to look at how the Group was used, this cookbook will be split into four parts. Part 1 will look at the use of hidden pages in the Glow Group, Part 2 at the use of Glow Meet. Part 3 will focus on how the Glow Blog was used and Part 4 on Pictures and Videos. All four parts will contain the same overview in the ‘context’ section, with the different elements being explored in the ‘Focus On’ and recipe sections.

 Context

Jan Pollok, Quality Improvement Officer and Glow Key Contact for East Dunbartonshire Council sent out a Targeted News item from the Local Authority site in Glow, asking for schools to volunteer to attend the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) to take part in LEGO activities. Jan had initially wanted to choose two schools, but after responses came in from schools, she decided to invite the four schools named above.

Jan met with Joanne Connolly, one of the Glow Educationalists from the National Glow Team, to discuss how Glow could support the schools before SLF and also how it could be used during and afterwards.

As a result of this conversation, Jan created a Glow Group at Local Authority level to enable the four schools to have direct sight of it. The layout was then designed and built, after consultation with the schools.

Initially, the Primary 7 teachers from the schools met with Jan and Joanne to discuss the activities that the pupils would be undertaking at SLF and to give their input to the Glow Group structure and content. It was agreed that the Group would contain hidden pages, with only the Noticeboard Page visible and links to the hidden pages provided there. This gave the Group a sleek and simple look and made it very easy to navigate around.

We can look at the Group and its layout in the following video:

 Tour of the East Dunbartonshire SLF LEGO Glow Group (11:48)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group
 

 Elements of the Glow Group

 A range of different web parts were incorporated within the Glow Group:

Glow Meet

The first part of the Glow Group that was used was the Glow Meet page. It was agreed at the initial meeting that a Glow Meet would be held to enable the children to introduce themselves and become more familiar with Glow Meet. It also provided an opportunity for the schools to check their equipment was working. You can find out more details about it in part 2 of the cookbook series.

Picture Library

Both before and after the Glow Meet, the pupils spent time in their classrooms using the ‘We-Do’ LEGO kits that they had been given to allow them to practise prior to attending SLF. They took photos of the models they built and these were uploaded to the Picture Library on the ‘Our Photos’ page of the Group. Find out more in Part 4 of the cookbook!

Document Stores

There are two Document Stores in the Glow Group.

The first is on the Documents page. This was there to give pupils a place where they could perhaps write instructions on how to build a particular LEGO model and share those with others by uploading to the Document store. It was also discussed that pupils might do creative writing about the models they built and those pieces of writing could also be uploaded and shared.

The second Document store was created through the Advanced Settings link, in order to have a fresh, new, empty web part, rather than just a duplicate of the original Document store on the Documents page. This Document store was named Video Files and was added to the ‘Our Videos’ page. A folder was created for each of the schools, along with a fifth folder for SLF. Schools could use this to upload videos of their LEGO models in action, since the ‘We-Do’ kit includes software enabling the models to be programmed to move and make sounds. Find out more about how this Document store was used in Part 4 of the cookbook series.

Discussion Board

A discussion board was added to the Discussions page. This was originally intended for staff to ask questions about preparations for SLF and for pupils to discuss the activities they had been doing with the LEGO kits. However, the discussions about these activities naturally transferred themselves to the final page of the Glow Group, the Glow Blog.

Glow Blog

A page was created to host the Glow Blog.

The Glow Blog web part on the page enabled pupils to make quick posts about the activities they were doing. It was also used during the Scottish Learning Festival and afterwards. Learn more about this in Part 3 of the cookbook series.

In the next section, we will focus on one of the elements briefly described above. The others will be focused on in the other three parts of this cookbook series.

Focus on: Hidden Pages

It was agreed that to make the SLF Lego Glow Group look good and be easy to navigate, it would be build with hidden pages.

When a Glow Group is created, there are four default pages – Noticeboard, Discussions, Documents and Glow Groups. The last three of these pages were deleted to leave only the Noticeboard.

This means that only the Noticeboard page is visible.

In order to access the hidden pages, links to them have been made on the Noticeboard.

Creating hidden pages

Hidden pages are created using the Advanced Settings link in a Glow Group. This is only accessible to the Administrator of a Glow Group.

Once created, hidden pages can contain any content that a ‘normal’ Glow Group page can hold.

In order for users to be able to access the hidden pages, a link to them has to be provided. This can either be hyperlinked text, or a hot-spotted image.

In the SLF LEGO Group, the links were provided by hot-spotting different areas of an image which had been uploaded into the text editor web part.

Once on a hidden page, users simply click on the Noticeboard tab to return to there and can click on an image and choose a new page to go to.

You can see how this looks in the video tour of the Glow Group in the context section above, and learn how to create and link to hidden pages in the recipe section below.

Ingredients

In order for the East Dunbartonshire schools attending the Scottish Learning Festival to be able to access and use the pages in the SLF LEGO Glow Group, the following was done:

-         A Glow Group was created at Local Authority level
-         Teachers and pupils from the schools were made members of the Group
-         Hidden pages were created
-         An image was uploaded to a text editor web part on the Noticeboard page
-         Different areas of the image in text editor were ‘hot-spotted’ to link to the hidden pages

Additional work was done to create the other elements of the Glow Group which have been touched on in the ‘elements of the Glow Group’ section above. These will be covered in the other parts of this cookbook series.

Recipe

In the following videos we will look at how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above. In particular, we will look at creating hidden pages and linking to them:

How to remove pages from a Glow Group and close web parts from a page (2:22)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group
How to create a hidden page and hyperlink text to access it (10:39)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group
How to hotspot an image and link it to a hidden page (6:22)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group
 

Impact

Using the Glow Group has had a great impact on the schools involved in the LEGO activities.

They have had a place for communicating and sharing their learning.

Pupils have been able to share with others, both in their own school and outwith, the models they have built, through use of the picture library, Document store for videos, and through their blog posts.

Staff have been able to use the Group to meet virtually using Glow Meet and to plan using this, so eliminating the need to travel to actual meetings. Glow Meet has also enabled the pupils to speak to one another and to the Glow Team, prior to attending the Scottish Learning Festival, which helped reassure them before attending such a large event.

The use of the picture library provides and excellent means of formative assessment, showcasing the work pupils have done and providing an opportunity for peer review.

In all, the Glow Group has been highly beneficial to all who have used it.

Read the other parts of this cookbook series:

Part 2: Focus on – Glow Meet

Part 3: Focus on – Glow Blogs

Part 4: Focus on – Pictures and Videos

Overview

In West Lothian, one of the recent In-Service days was used to give all staff the opportunity to engage with the new plans and forthcoming arrangements for assessment. In order to ensure that all staff from every school had access to the same information and resources about this, the Local Authority decided to use Glow to support the day’s activities.

Context

The day was planned on a cluster basis, with teachers from each Secondary and its associated Primaries working together in the Secondary school, along with staff from Nurseries, Special Schools and Outreach Teams. It began with the Director of Education and Cultural Services, Gordon Ford, speaking to every member of staff, via Glow Meet:

Gordon Ford: Glow Meet to all West Lothian teachers (3:16)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
Following Gordon Ford’s address, Meg Morrison, Area Adviser from Learning and Teaching Scotland, spoke to all staff about the plans for assessment, in particular the NAR (National Assessment Resource).

Meg Morrison: Glow Meet to introduce the day’s activities (8:00)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day

After the Glow Meet, staff were tasked with a range of activities, requiring them to explore the assessment proposals and comment on these.

West Lothian has a CfE Development Glow Group at Local Authority level, which is used by each cluster for communication and collaboration. For the In-service day, two new pages were added to the Group. The first was entitled NAR; the second was labelled IN-SET 17^th August 2010.

On the NAR page is a page viewer web part showing the Learning and Teaching Scotland online service which contains samples of emerging approaches to assessment. The page selected to view shows examples from some West Lothian schools. There is also information about the West Lothian schools who are participating in the NAR pilot.

The ‘IN-SET 17^th August 2010’ page provided staff with a dedicated area for accessing the resources needed for the day and a place for uploading the results and feedback of their collaborative working during the sessions. Staff used a Discussion Board on the page to submit questions about assessment and the NAR, to be responded to later in the day.

The day culminated with another Glow Meet to all schools.

Rosemary Delaney (LTS Development Officer) and Meg Morrison gave their responses to the questions that had been submitted by staff throughout the day and gave further information on the NAR and assessment in general. This enabled the same message to be simultaneously delivered to all staff.

Rosemary Delaney: NAR and Assessment (10:25)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
Meg Morrison: NAR and Assessment Part 1 (5:42)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
Meg Morrison: NAR and Assessment Part 2 (3:24)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
 

All of the day’s Glow Meet sessions were recorded. The recordings were then uploaded into XML web parts in the Glow Group for staff to watch back. This provides a permanent record of what was said and can be used for reference at any time.

Ingredients

The support for the In-Service Day was provided via and existing Local Authority CfE Development Glow Group (you can read more about this Glow Group in the following cookbook: Supporting Curriculum for Excellence in a Local Authority). This meant that all West Lothian staff already had membership of the Glow Group and could easily access it through their My Glow Groups list. In order to ready the Group for the In-Service day, the following was required to be done:

- Add two new pages
- Create new three Document stores and add those to the page
- Create a new Discussion Board and add it to the page
- Add a page viewer web part and link it to the LTS online service
- Add a Glow Meet web part to the page and create a meeting room
- Record the Glow Meet sessions
- Use screen-capture software to capture the recorded Glow Meets ,upload the mp4 files that this created to a hosting site then get the embed code from there and embed the videos into the xml web part.

We can see these elements in the following tour of the Glow Group:

West Lothian CfE Development Glow Group: Inset Day and NAR pages (3:17)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
 

 Recipe

In the following videos, you can see how to replicate some of the elements from the West Lothian in-Service Day pages in the CfE Glow Group:

How to have multiple Document stores in a Glow Group: Creating a new Document Store (5:36)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to create a new Discussion Board (7:02)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to edit the user permissions on a newly created Discussion Board (3:48)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
How to embed a video of a recorded Glow Meet into the xml web part (8:45)
Using Glow to support an Authority-wide In-Service Day
 

Impact

Using the Glow Group for the In-set day had a tremendous impact for the West Lothian schools.

Using Glow Meet to communicate to all staff simultaneously enabled the same message to be delivered to all, ensuring continuity across all schools. Being able to also record these Glow Meets and embed them back into the Glow Group also provides a permanent record of what was said, so that staff can refer back to the recordings as required. It also means that any staff who were absent are able to see and hear the information that was provided.

Staff welcomed the opportunity to be able to feedback and ask questions during the day at a time that suited them, by adding posts to the Discussion Board or uploading files to the Document store. Having a further Glow Meet to address these questions meant that staff received an immediate response. It also enabled all staff to benefit from the answers to questions raised by other schools.

Using the Glow Group reduced the need to produce paper copies of documents and so helped to reduce costs. Using Glow Meet reduced the need too for Gordon Ford and the staff from Learning and Teaching Scotland to travel to each school, saving time and travel costs.

Laura Compton is Curriculum Development Officer and Glow Key Contact for West Lothian . She provided much of the Glow support for the day and was delighted with the success of the event. Laura felt that being able to communicate to all staff at the same time was invaluable, saying:

“The impact of having LTS expertise available to answer questions in real time was huge for most staff. In the current financial climate having the Director being able to address 2500 staff at no cost was fantastic”

Gordon Ford, Director of Education for West Lothian also commented on the benefits for him:

“The opportunity to speak live to 2000 staff was excellent. By using Glow we got this important in-service day off to a great start”

The day was most successful and all involved in its organisation feel that Glow played a vital part in this.

Overview

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (well, in Bathgate, West Lothian) the Primary 1 and 2 teachers in Windyknowe Primary School set themselves a huge task. They embarked upon a ‘Joining the Learning’ Fairyland activity that involved every one of the 100 Primary 1 and 2 pupils taking part in an Enchanted Forest project which culminated in them having a Glow Meet with a dragon!

Context

The teachers were keen to provide an engaging and enjoyable learning experience for the pupils and so did a lot of preparation and planning in advance of embarking on the 6-week project. Firstly, they visited other schools who had already been involved in the project to get advice and ideas from them. This allowed them to clarify the things they would like to do themselves.

They decided then that they would like to mix up the children from the P1 and P2 classes to enable them to select the activities they would like to take part in and so provide opportunities for personalisation and choice.

A letter from a Dragon!

The project started after the Easter holidays with a letter arriving from a dragon! This was accompanied by dragon dust (which strangely resembled glitter!), footprints on the floor and scorch marks on the letter itself. All of the 100 children were gathered together to be read the letter from the dragon. Immediately they were captivated.  In his letter, the dragon asked the pupils to turn the rooms into an Enchanted Forest. He left articles for the children and these were then used as a basis for the themes that the classrooms were given.

Initially the children went away and thought about the items that the dragon had left. They were asked to consider why he might have chosen these things. Each group of items was linked to a different classroom and each classroom had a different theme and colour scheme, so the pupils had to think about how the rooms and the items were linked. After learning more about the items, the pupils selected which room they would like to work in to find out more about that theme. They picked names for their chosen room, to reflect its theme. The rooms were then named The Armoury Room, The Waterfall Room, The Cottage, The Royal Room and the Great Hall.

The entrance to the area where the P1 and P2 classrooms are was transformed into an Enchanted Forest, just as the dragon had requested. In addition, the pupils then decorated their chosen room to reflect its theme. They undertook different activities in their groups within their chosen room throughout the week and in addition there was always one joint community activity each week.

Hear the pupils talk about the dragon and some of the different rooms in the following video clips:

Signs of the dragon (1:39)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
Which rooms were there? (2:19)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
The Armoury Room (0:43)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
The Royal Room (1:21)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
The Waterfall Room (0:36)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
Making Cinderella’s cake (1:01)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
Being a knight (1:01)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
 

Curricular activities

Each week, a new letter arrived from the dragon and this letter introduced a new fairytale to the children. The first was “The Princess and the Pea” by Hans Christian Andersen. To link with this, every pupil made a fabric square which the staff then lovingly sewed together to form a patchwork quilt. Each story that the pupils read was accompanied by a joint activity. For example, when they read “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” by the Brothers Grimm, they made a woodland freeze for the Cottage Room;  for “Cinderella”, each group made one tier of a cake which they then assembled to form one giant cake.

Other activities were also undertaken and used to embed learning from all curricular areas. For example

• The children wrote stories. The teachers were amazed at the length of the stories and the level of vocabulary that the children were using.  It was clear that they had picked up language from the fairytales that they had read.
• Spelling included words from fairytales – such as beanstalk!
• There was a huge amount of ICT usage incorporated throughout the range of activities – the children took photos and filmed what they were doing, as well as using the internet for research. They also became familiar with video conferencing and web cams through using Glow Meet.
• They learned about castles and in particular looked at Edinburgh and Stirling castles.
• In the Waterfall room, the children learned about the lifecycle of frogs
• The 7 dwarfs were used to help pupils learn number bonds as part of their numeracy learning.
• Outdoors, the pupils worked together in groups to build castles
• There was a lot of drama and role-play, with the children frequently dressing up as knights or princesses

There were some large-scale activities planned for the children too. There was

• a ‘Ball in the Hall’ where the children learned to dance
• a Knights challenge where the pupils who had chosen to work within the Knights room took part in tasks to becomes a knight. This then led to a knighting ceremony.
• a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Assembly presented to the rest of the school
• an open day, when parents were invited in, by Royal Decree, to visit the enchanted forest. Over 200 parents and siblings visited.

 Who is this dragon?

Throughout the weeks, the dragon mysteriously visited the school and the children frequently spotted signs that he had been there. Tell-tale signs were seeing dragon dust, or footprints in the enchanted forest, or scorch marks in the playground!

The children were extremely intrigued by the dragon and whilst there were initially a couple of sceptics, after a while all of the children were hugely engaged in trying to discover more about him. They used books and the internet to research different types of dragons and the Primary 2’s even interviewed the staff to try to find out more. They were desperate to know if the dragon was a boy or a girl (as dragon dust had been spotted in both the girls and boys toilets!).

The pupils regularly declared that they had caught a glimpse of the dragon, either at the window or flying up in the sky. However, during the Ball in the Hall, the dragon finally did in fact make a real appearance! For just a second, he peeked in through the hall window. He was spotted by a few of the children, and the excitement that this generated amongst the entire P1 and P2 cohort was tangible. The teachers had carefully arranged it so that it was clear to the pupils that the dragon was not one of the teachers, as they were all present at the time he was spotted, and traces of dragon dust were placed outside by the support staff to confirm his presence.

Meeting the dragon

As it was nearing the end of the 6 week project, the teachers decided that now was the time for the pupils to finally see the dragon.

Another letter arrived from the dragon, suggesting that he would like to speak with the children. He explained that he was very familiar with Glow and that he would therefore like to use Glow Meet to see and speak with them.

One of the teachers arranged for her son to play the part of the dragon.

Since he had been hearing all about the dragon and the adventures that had been happening in the Enchanted Forest at home, he enthusiastically agreed!

A leafy backdrop was created in an area of the school separate from where the P1 and P2 classrooms are, and ‘the dragon’ sat there to do the Glow Meet.

The pupils had prepared questions for the dragon beforehand and took turns to speak to him during the Glow Meet. They even sang ‘Puff the magic dragon’ to him!

At the end, the dragon explained that his Kingdom was now ready for him to return to and that he would be leaving the children to move back.

This brought the entire project to a fitting end.

(The children did add one more activity of their own though, by making Goodbye cards for the dragon!)

Watch excerpts from the Glow Meet with the dragon in the following videos:

Question and Answer session with the Dragon (8:47)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
Singing ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ to the Dragon (2:44)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
 One pupil tells us her thoughts about meeting the Dragon (0:19)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
 

Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes

The topic enabled the teachers to cover an extensive range of Experiences and Outcomes with the children. Amongst many others, they covered:

Literacy and English

LIT 0-01b / LIT 0-11b I enjoy exploring and choosing stories and other texts to watch, read or listen to, and can share my likes and dislikes.
LIT 0-01c I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts, sharing my thoughts in different ways.
LIT 0-04a I listen or watch for useful or interesting information and I use this to make choices or learn new things.
LIT 1-20a / LIT 2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience. 
LIT 1-21a I can spell the most commonly-used words, using my knowledge of letter patterns and spelling rules and use resources to help me spell tricky or unfamiliar words.

Mathematics and Numeracy

MNU 0-03a I use practical materials and can ‘count on and back’ to help me to understand addition and subtraction, recording my ideas and solutions in different ways.  

Expressive Arts

EXA 0-01a / EXA 1-01a / EXA 2-01a  I have experienced the energy and excitement of presenting/performing for audiences and being part of an audience for other people’s presentations/
EXA 1-02a  I have the opportunity to choose and explore a range of media and technoligies to create images and objects, discovering their effects and suitability for specific tasks
EXA 0-10a  I have opportunities to enjoy taking part in dance experiences.
EXA 1-10a  I am becoming aware of different features of dance and can practise and perform steps, formations and short dance.
EXA 0-12a I have the freedom to choose and explore how I can use my voice, movement, and expression in role play and drama.
EXA 0-16a I enjoy singing and playing along to music of different styles and cultures.  

Technologies

TCH 1-03b I can access, retrieve and use information from electronic sources to support, enrich or extend learning in different contexts.
TCH 0-04a I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning.
TCH 0-04b I enjoy taking photographs or recording sound and images to represent my experiences and the world around me.
TCH 1-04a / TCH 2-04a I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. 

Ingredients

The teachers used a school Glow Group called the Enchanted Forest to host their Glow Meet. Assisted by another teacher in the school, Laura Gingell, the Glow Meet web part was added to the Glow Group and a Meeting Room created within it.

In order to provide the experience of the Glow Meet with the Dragon, the teachers needed the following:

• A Glow Group
• A Glow Meet web part added to the Glow Group with a Meeting room created in it
• Web cams – for the dragon and for the room where the children were congregated
• The computer in the children’s room to be connected to a projector to display the Glow Meet on a whiteboard for all to see
• Microphones, for the dragon and for the children
• Speakers for the dragon and the children

In the following videos we will learn how to replicate some of the elements of the Enchanted Forest Glow Group, in particular, the Glow Meet elements:

How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
Glow Meet with a dragon!- Early Years Fairyland topic

Impact

There were many benefits realised from this project, both for the pupils and the staff:

- The children developed in confidence, mixing easily with pupils from the other P1 and 2 classes. This was evident during the school concert when they performed in front of an audience with far more confidence than they had previously
- Their ability to work in groups and share was improved and they played together very well, as they had to get to know one another.
- They became more independent
- There was more of a community feeling within the P1 and P2 area in the school as they worked as one, rather than as separate classes
- The children had the benefit of regularly working with a range of teachers instead of just their own class teacher
- The pupils were very engaged in their learning
- The inclusion of the dragon was an extremely motivational element throughout the project. Any mention of the dragon sparked great interest and proved to be a great way to encourage the pupils to do things – they were happy to do it if the dragon asked them to!
- The language work that the pupils produced was incredible. The length of the stories they wrote and the vocabulary they used was far beyond what the teachers would normally see from P1/2 pupils.
- When a new letter arrived from the dragon, the pupils were very good at suggesting ideas about what they should do to meet his requests. 
- Their interest in reading has been sustained and the children regularly choose to read a fairytale from their reading corner.

During the project the six P1 and P2 teachers all worked extremely well together. They all offered and shared their ideas and planned joint activities as a group. Through their discussions, the ideas evolved that were then implemented throughout the project. All of the staff loved the experience of the project and were completely enthused. This enthusiasm was most certainly passed on to the children. One of the teachers involved in the Fairyland topic, Michelle Skene, said of the project: “we’ve loved every minute of it, maybe even moreso than the children!”

The Glow Meet itself had a great impact on the project. It gave a way of bringing the topic to a conclusion and allowed the children to see the dragon that had consumed their thoughts for the previous six weeks.

The children still talk about the dragon now, weeks after the end of the topic. They also still incorporate other areas of their learning from the Enchanted Forest into their everyday work.

The staff and pupils all loved the project and having a Glow Meet with a dragon is something they would most definitely recommend!

Overview

Divided City Book

Alison Cassidy of St Margarets’ Primary ran a joint project with Donna Bullivant of Cowie Primary in Stirlingshire. The project was based on their class’ work, studying the book Divided City by Theresa Breslin.

In this Cookbook Alison explains how Glow and also Guitar Hero allowed the two schools to collaborate fully.

Context

Both P6 classes in Cowie and St Margarets’ Primary were studying the book Divided City. Alison and Donna decided to start a joint project based on their studies.

Pupils from the schools would form bands, four or five members in each, with members from each school. They would then compete in a Battle of the Bands using Guitar Hero. The pupils had to decide on a name, design logos and T-shirts, write lyrics and finally perform in a show.

Glow helped the pupils collaborate on their literacy and art topic work. The finished band logos were scanned and uploaded into a Text Editor web part. The classes used Glow Meet to vote on their favourite logos. They also used Glow Meet to rehearse their performances.

Ring of Fire practice

As Alison explains, it wasn’t long before the pupils became so confident using the technology that they started running the Glow Meet sessions themselves!

Ingredients

One of the logo designs

To run the project successfully Alison and Donna needed:

1. A Glow Group
2. Web Links web part to learn more about the Divided City
3. A Picture Library web part to store the logos and band pictures
4. Text Editor web part to display the band logos and band pictures
5. Glow Meet web part
6. A web cam, microphone and speakers for the Glow Meet

Both classes also used a digital scanner to allow the original artwork to be uploaded into the Glow Group.

Recipe

In the first video below, Alison takes us on a tour of the Glow Group.

Learning about Anti Sectarianism using Glow and Guitar Hero

Watch the video below to find out how to use the Text Editor web part to display all the pictures.

Learning about Anti Sectarianism using Glow and Guitar Hero

Impact

Alison is very positive about how the tools and functionality of Glow can be used effectively in class to enhance learning and teaching. She has continued to use Glow on other projects with her classes. The project is a very good example of how Glow Meet can be used effectively with equipment available to the majority of class teachers.

Glow Poetry Masterclass

Overview

Lindsay Ross is an English teacher at Calderside Academy, Blantyre in South Lanarkshire who teaches a mixed ability S2 class. Lindsay had been working on poetry with the class, but was keen to bring poetry to life and help the pupils understand how to write powerful, effective poetry of their very own.

Lindsay hadn’t used Glow before, but he was very keen to use new technology to help his pupils explore poetry in different ways and work with other pupils throughout Scotland.

Context

We decided to invite a well known Scottish poet, Elspeth Murray, to give a national poetry masterclass on Glow Meet from the S2 class in Calderside Academy, and to hold a follow up lesson with Elspeth to showcase the pupils’ own poetry which they were to write in the month between the two lessons.

The pupils in Calderside had found it challenging to produce their own poetry and Elspeth decided to concentrate on poetry writing skills, using some of her own work to help the pupils understand how to use language and imagery effectively. Elspeth also decided to focus on the theme of Heroes, a topic which would be easily understood by the pupils and the ultimate aim was to get the pupils to write a poem about their hero.

Lindsay did some preparation with the class, looking at some of Elspeth’s work on her website (www.elspethmurray.com), and the pupils chose a favourite poem of Elspeth’s and decided on their reasons for choosing the poem.

We all felt that we had to share the poetry masterclass with other schools throughout Scotland, so we decided to use Glow Meet to enable Elspeth to communicate with a wider audience. We also decided to ask the “remote” schools’ pupils to write their own poems about their heroes which would be posted on Glow for Elspeth to read before the second session.

Through promoting the poetry masterclass on Glow in the Literacy and English National Group, on the glowscotland blog and by contacting Glow key contacts across Scotland, we found a number of schools who were interested in taking part in the poetry masterclass. We decided to use a Glow Meet room already set up in the national ‘Literacy and English’ Glow Group, rather than Lindsay creating his own Glow Group specially for the event.
A number of schools signed up for the poetry masterclass in the Poetry Glow Group within the national Literacy and English Glow Group. These schools were Carluke High School, Galashiels Academy, Inverclyde Academy and Inveralmond Community High School. On the day of the poetry masterclass, Carluke High School, Galashiels Academy and Inveralmond Community High School were available to participate. Inverclyde Academy were unfortunately unable to take part as they had technical difficulties to do with the main server in their authority. Once the schools were in the Glow Meet room, Elspeth welcomed everyone and was delighted to get responses from the online schools. Elspeth then launched straight in to her lesson, starting with an enthusiastic performance of Ship Shop, the poem which the majority of the pupils at Calderside Academy had chosen as their favourite. Elspeth gave the pupils short, sharp exercises to help them focus on what is a hero and these resulted in the pupils having the beginnings of their own poems, which they developed in the month between the first and second sessions.

The second session took place around a month after the first. As well as the schools which participated in the first session, St Peter’s Primary School, Crieff High School and teachers from Dingwall Education Centre registered to take part. On the day of the second session we had Carluke High School, Dingwall Education Centre and Galashiels Academy taking part. The pupils from the online schools were keen to share their poems and respond to Elspeth’s tasks throughout the lesson.

The pupils read out some of their own poems which they had written after the first session and these demonstrated a noticeable gain in confidence, excellent use of language and imagery, and improved communication skills.

The poetry masterclass contributed to pupils’ development of the following Curriculum for Excellence outcomes and experiences:

For pupils participating in the masterclass in Calderside Academy and those participating online:

Listening and Talking:

LIT 3-01a
I regularly select and listen to or watch texts for enjoyment and interest, and I can express how well they meet my needs and expectations, and I can give reasons, with evidence, for my personal response.

I can regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to create texts of my choice, and am developing my own style.

LIT 3-01a
I can regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to create texts of my choice, and am developing my own style.

Writing

LIT 3-20a
I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I am developing my own style. I can regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.

ENG 2-30a
As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made me feel.

and

ENG 3-30a
I can recreate a convincing impression of a personal experience for my reader, sharing my feelings and reactions to the changing circumstances with some attempt at reflection.

ENG 3-31a
Having explored the elements which writers use, I can create texts in different genres by:

* integrating the conventions of my chosen genre successfully and/or
* using convincing and appropriate structures and/or
* creating interesting and convincing characters and/or
* building convincing settings which come to life.

Ingredients:

In order to run the Glow Meet national poetry masterclass, we had to:

use a video camera, microphone and speakers linked to a PC
arrange a link-up with other schools by advertising the masterclass on Glow, glowscotland blog and through Glow local authority key contacts
find a Glow Meet room in a national Glow Group (Literacy and English) which all the schools could access

Recipe:

If you’re interesting in replicating or adapting some of Lindsay’s ideas, the screen-capture videos below show:

Launching Glow Meet and using the basic features Glow Poetry Masterclass

Using an existing Glow Meet room in a national Glow Group Glow Poetry Masterclass

Creating a Glow Group Glow Poetry Masterclass

Adding Glow Meet to a Glow Group Glow Poetry Masterclass

How pupils would download and upload documents using Glow Glow Poetry Masterclass

Making a link with another school through Glow Glow Poetry Masterclass

Teacher’s View:

The event was, in my opinion, an extremely worthwhile, interesting and enjoyable experience. The pupils did enjoy it and were quite taken by the exposure. The work they did was some of the best they have done all year and was of a very high standard. The pupils definitely enjoyed working with Elspeth and would be happy to do something like this again  -   as would I.

Lindsay Ross