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

‘What’s it really like living on an island?’ That was the question being asked by the Primary 1 pupils in Bannockburn Primary after reading some of Mairi Hedderwick’s ‘Katie Morag’ stories. To help answer that question, one of the school’s Primary 1 teachers, Jenny Shineton, decided to use Glow Meet to enable the pupils to speak to children who do live on an island.

Context

Bannockburn Primary is a fairly large school, with a roll of approximately 400 pupils. This session, there are three Primary 1 classes, taught by Jenny Shineton, Theresa Dandie and Claire Baillie. The teachers work closely together to plan rich learning experiences for their pupils.

© Mairi Hedderwick published by Red Fox Used by permission of The Random House Group Ltd

Part of this session’s learning was based around pupils’ engaging with the Katie Morag Stories, “Katie Morag delivers the mail”, “Katie Morag and the two grannies”, ‘Katie Morag and the Big Boy Cousins’, ‘Katie Morag and Tiresome Ted’ and “Katie Morag and the wedding”.

 A wide range of rich, engaging, cross-curricular learning activities were undertaken using the content of these stories as a stimulus.

© Mairi Hedderwick published by Red Fox. Used by permission of The Random House Group Ltd

As part of the language work being explored, pupils looked at and talked about photographs of islands, including Coll, the island that was once home to Katie Morag author Mairi Hedderwick and the inspiration for the stories. The children were asked to discuss what it might be like to live on an island, such as Struay – home to Katie Morag – and to compare this with living in Bannockburn.

It was this exercise that inspired Jenny to make enquiries about making contact with pupils who actually live on an island, to really bring the topic to life.

Hear P1 teacher Claire Baillie explain why they decided to do this (0:15)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet

Through making enquiries with the National Glow Team, Bannockburn was put in touch with Eigg Primary School. Eigg is one of the small isles, lying off the coast of the West Highlands. It is about 160 miles away from Bannockburn.

The Headteacher of Eigg Primary school is Hilda Ibrahim. Hilda was introduced to Glow as part of Highland’s pilot with the Mallaig ASG, and she was keen to explore its potential and the added experiences it could bring to her pupils. She was therefore delighted to be able to collaborate with Bannockburn.

Preparation and Planning
Initial contact was made and the schools corresponded by email to make arrangements. A Glow Group was created at Stirling’s Local Authority level. As well as the Bannockburn teachers being given membership, the teachers on Eigg were added as members and then sent the URL of the Group, since they did not have automatic sight of it, not being part of Stirling Council. The link to the Glow Group was then added as a web link on Eigg’s Glow school site for ease of access.

In preparation for the link-up, Bannockburn held a practice Glow Meet between two classes in the school. This allowed them to add the Glow Meet web part to the Glow Group and practise using the Glow Meet shared whiteboard. Eigg, being remotely located, had already made great use of Glow Meet as a means of communication with other schools in their ASG.

The Glow Meets
After the arrangements had been made, the first Glow Meet then took place. The sixty pupils from Bannockburn’s three Primary 1 classes were excitedly sitting in one classroom in the busy central belt. All of the pupils from Eigg Primary school sat in the classroom in their school, on the peaceful west coast island.

‘How many is all pupils?’, you ask – just nine! Those nine pupils range from P2 to P7, and although they were linking with Primary 1’s, Hilda was keen to have all pupils on Eigg sharing in the experience.

The first session was mainly used to introduce the pupils to Glow Meet and to make use of the shared whiteboard, which they wrote on. There were a few issues with sound feedback, but this was overcome by each school only switching on their microphone when it was their turn to speak.

The second Glow Meet was more structured. The P1 pupils in Bannockburn had discussed and planned the questions they wanted to ask ahead of time and took turns to come up to the webcam and microphone. Each pupil began by telling the Eigg pupils how things were for them, then asked how it was in Eigg. For example, they would say things like, “We walk to school or come by car. How do you get to school?” The pupils on Eigg would then respond.

Theresa Dandie, one of the Bannockburn teachers remarked that her pupils were amazed to hear about what life is really like on an island. They were surprised by the differences between their school and Eigg Primary. Hearing, for example, that Eigg Primary school does not have a dining hall, was a revelation!

Curricular outcomes
Alongside the many other experiences and outcomes that the pupils in Bannockburn were able to engage with as part of the Katie Morag topic work, preparing for and using Glow Meet allowed the pupils to take part in learning activities to support the following Early Level experiences and outcomes:

Literacy and English
LIT 0-01c I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts, sharing my thoughts in different ways.
LIT 0-02a/ENG 0-03a 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.
LIT 0-04a I listen or watch for useful or interesting information and I use this to make choices or learn new things.
LIT 0-07a/LIT 0-16a/ENG 0-17a To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning with what I already know.
LIT 0-09b/LIT 0-31a I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts and I use what I learn to invent my own, sharing these with others in imaginative ways.
LIT 0-19a I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts, sharing my thoughts in different ways.

Technologies:
TCH 0-01a I enjoy playing with and exploring technologies to discover what they can do and how they can help us
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.

IngredientsWhat did the teachers in Bannockburn Primary School need to do to set up and take part in the Glow Meet with Eigg Primary school?
• Have a Glow Group where teachers from both schools were members
• Send the URL of the Glow Group to Eigg
• Add the Glow Meet web part to the Glow Group
• Have a web cam, microphone and speakers for the Glow Meet sessions

In the first video below we will hear from the Headteacher from Eigg talking about the Glow Meets, then find out in the rest of the videos how to replicate these elements.

Eigg Headteacher Hilda Ibrahim talks about the Glow Meet link (1:35)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet

Now Learn how to do it yourself in the following videos:

How to make people from two schools members of a Glow Group (6:57)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to use the shared whiteboard in a Glow Meet meeting room (8:25)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet

Impact

For the P1 pupils in Bannockburn, linking up with the pupils on Eigg has really brought relevance to their learning. What started off as a story, became alive, by being able to ask questions of people who could tell them first hand what island life is really like.

Using Glow Meet has given pupils in both Bannockburn and Eigg the opportunity to speak to people that they would otherwise never get to see or talk to, opening up their learning opportunities.

The Glow Meets had a really positive  impact on pupils’ talking and listening skills. The P1 pupils really had to think about what the wanted to ask the children on Eigg and gained great confidence from speaking to an audience.

Claire Baillie tells us about the impact she feels the Glow Meets had for he children (0:25)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet

For the teachers involved, a great deal was gained from the experience too.

Theresa Dandie admitted that she knew almost nothing about Glow before Jenny Shineton proposed the Glow Meets. Having taken part, Theresa says that she feels far more confident in using Glow now and can see a lot of potential for using it as part of her learning and teaching. She tells us why she enjoyed using Glow in this video clip:
Theresa Dandie – Why I like Glow (0:07)
Bringing the Katie Morag stories to life using Glow Meet

On Eigg, the impact of not only this Glow Meet, but Glow Meet in general has been enormous. It has opened up a whole new world to the pupils, who normally only have a very small community of people to interact with. Using Glow Meet has enabled them to link up with Bannockburn and other schools in the Mallaig ASG.

Using Glow Meet has enhanced the learning experiences of all of the pupils involved in this collaboration.

Interested in doing something similar and need a school to link with?
Why not head to the Collaborative Projects National Glow Group and start to make some connections!

Overview
What do you do when Santa’s too busy to talk to you? You hold a Glow Meet with Mrs Claus of course! That was the idea that Margo Kerr in West Lothian had last year.

Margo Kerr as Mrs Claus

Margo is currently seconded from her nursery post at Kirknewton Primary School and is working as the Early Years ICT Development Officer within the West Lothian Council ICT team. Margo’s remit is to provide curriculum support to the Local Authority’s standalone nurseries.

Margo administers the West Lothian Early Years Glow Group, which is open to all Nurseries and Primary schools.
Last December, Margo was keen to use Glow as part of nursery and school Christmas activities and came up with the idea of having a Glow Meet with Mrs Claus.

Context
Margo realised that in the run up to Christmas, Santa would be far too busy to be able to hold a Glow Meet with the West Lothian children, and instead decided to hold an event that would enable the children to speak with Mrs Claus.
She created a Glow Meet room within West Lothian Early Years Glow Group, as this Group is open to all of the Early Years establishments and Primary schools across the Authority and so was an ideal place for them to come together for the event.

Margo began preparations for the Mrs Claus Glow Meet by emailing the Headteachers of all of the Early Years establishments and Primary schools to let them know about the event and invite them to participate in it. She let them know that Mrs Claus would be reading a story from the North Pole to the children.

Once she had an idea of the number of establishments who were interested in participating, Margo arranged that there would be four story-telling sessions over two days – two in the mornings and two in the afternoons, to accommodate both morning and afternoon nursery classes.

As the Glow Group that was to host the Mrs Claus session had a large membership, and early indications were that a lot of schools would be joining in the event, Margo contacted the Glow helpdesk to ask them to make the Glow Meet meeting room public. This is generally necessary when a Glow Group has a large membership, to ensure all users can access the room.

The advanced planning for the event enabled Margo and others in the West Lothian ICT team to support schools in ensuring that their computers were ready to join a Glow Meet, by ensuring, for example, the machines had the correct versions of Java installed. The schools could also access the Glow Meeting room ahead of the event to ensure they were comfortable with where it was and how to join it. This meant that the event itself went very smoothly.

The story choice

"I've Seen Santa!" cover art copyright © Tim Warnes 2005.

Margo chose a story for Mrs Claus to read that was not so widely used by teachers, to avoid repeating the more common Christmas stories that schools and nurseries might already be using. She chose a story called “I’ve seen Santa” by David Bedford both for its content and its lovely illustrations (which are by Tim Warnes), as she planned to upload the images to the shared whiteboard in the Glow Meet room.

In preparation for the Glow Meet, Margo contacted the publishers of the book, Little Tiger Press, to request permission to use the illustrations from the book on the Glow Meet shared whiteboard, explaining the purpose and audience for the event. The publishers were happy to grant this permission and an acknowledgement thanking the publishers for their permission was added to a text editor web part within the Glow Group where the Glow Meet was held.

Margo then made preparations for Mrs Claus. As she herself was to play the part of Mrs Claus, Margo created a costume, prepared the hair and make up and with the help of the West Lothian ICT team, created a backdrop to act as Mrs Claus’s home to add authenticity.

The Mrs Claus Glow Meet event
Approximately 30 establishments took part in the event over the four sessions, with over 600 pupils watching Mrs Claus read the story. Although the event was aimed at Nursery and Primary 1 children, in some schools, the P6 buddies of the P1 children also joined the Glow Meet.

The story telling session provided pupils with an enormous amount of enjoyment. After Mrs Claus read the story, children were able to speak to her and ask questions via their web cam about important issues, such as what they would like for Christmas, or what does Santa eat for breakfast!  Margo (sorry – I mean Mrs Claus) was then able to relay this information live on screen directly to the elves in Santa’s workroom (ie Laura Compton, the West Lothian Glow Key contact who played the part of Alfie the elf!).

This really gave pupils a sense of participation. The whole session allowed Margo and the teachers to involve children in an activity which contributed to the following Early Level Literacy and English Experiences and Outcomes:

Listening and Talking
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 0-07a / LIT 0-16a / ENG 0-17a To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning with what I already know.
LIT 0-19a I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts, sharing my thoughts in different ways.

Through the use of Glow too, teachers have had the opportunity to introduce technology to children so provide a context for the Early Level Technologies outcome:
TCH 0-04a I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning.

Let’s look now at some extracts from one of the Mrs Claus sessions:

Video – Mrs Claus story-telling session (10:07)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years

Ingredients

What did Margo Kerr need to do to set up the Glow Meet story session with Mrs Claus?
• A Glow Group at Local Authority level
• A Glow Meet web part
• A web cam
• A microphone

Although Margo’s story telling room is at Local Authority level, something similar could easily be set up within one school, with, for example, a teacher playing the part of Mrs Claus, or simply with older children reading to the younger ones.

In the following videos, we will take a look at how to set up and join a Glow Meet, to enable the Mrs Claus story telling session to be replicated and how to record and playback a Meet session to enable it to be viewed after the original event.

How to set up a Glow Meet (5:36)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years
How to join a Glow Meet (3:38)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years
How to use the shared whiteboard in a Glow Meet meeting room (8:25)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years
How to play back a recorded Glow Meet session (3:22)
Glow Meet-ing with Mrs Claus: Engaging Literacy in Early Years

Impact
There was a fantastic response to the Mrs Claus story-telling session.

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience and teachers saw great potential in the concept of having a story telling session done via Glow Meet.

As a result, a weekly story telling session now takes place every Friday morning within West Lothian, using Glow Meet. Sometimes Margo reads the story, but increasingly more often, children in the upper stages of Primary read the story to the nursery and P1 pupils who choose to join in and watch. In recent weeks, as many as 45 establishments have joined a single story-telling session.

Further details of this are in the Story Telling in Early Years cookbook.

Overview

Margo Kerr is currently seconded from her nursery post at Kirknewton Primary School and is working as the Early Years ICT Development Officer within the West Lothian Council Early Years Team. Margo’s remit is to provide curricular ICT support to all Early Years practitioners (nursery – P3) within the Local Authority and to drive forward and support the implementation of Glow within the Nurseries.

There are five standalone Early Years Centres and eight Nursery Schools in West Lothian. Since these Early Years establishments are not attached to a school, they do not have access to a school Glow establishment site. West Lothian therefore asked to have a separate, single Glow establishment created for the standalone Early Years establishments. The staff in all of these nurseries had their Glow accounts provisioned within this establishment, which is called ‘West Lothian Early Years’ to enable them to all work together.

Margo was keen to provide a place where the Nursery staff could communicate and collaborate and so created a Glow Group at Local Authority level. It was created at this level to enable all nursery staff, from both the standalone nurseries and those attached to schools, to be able to access the Group if they wanted to. Margo tells us a little bit about this and how she introduced staff in the standalone nurseries to the Glow Group:

Margo Kerr – Why I set up the Early Years Group 0:55
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

Margo Kerr – Introducing the Glow Group to the Nurseries 0:41
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

The Early Years Group is intended as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for practitioners in the standalone nurseries to enable them to share resources, have discussions and take part in collaborative events. Due to popularity though, requests to join the Group have been regularly received from nurseries attached to schools and also from teachers in the schools themselves.

There are a number of different pages within the Group and a range of web parts have been used. In the following video, we can take a closer look at the Group:

What does the West Lothian Early Years Glow Group Look Like? 6:04
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

One of the most popular features within this Group is the Story Room and that will be the focus of this cookbook.

Story Telling using Glow Meet

Margo was looking for a way to provide collaborative activities for the nurseries, and came up with the idea of story telling sessions using Glow Meet.

Story telling sessions take place on a Friday morning and the stories are read by pupils in the upper stages of Primary schools. Children in the nurseries – and also in Primary classes too – watch and listen to the stories being read via Glow Meet.

The first story to be read, was one written by the P7 pupils in Mid Calder Primary School. The pupils had been working on a project about ‘Hamish the Haggis’, which involved writing stories about the adventure of Hamish and creating illustrations and animations to accompany them. The children were then asked to write stories about Hamish which would be suitable for an Early Years audience, requiring them to consider and adapt their language to suit.

During the first Glow Meet story room session, one of the pupils from Mid Calder Primary read the Hamish story, and the illustrations drawn by the children to accompany it, were uploaded to the shared whiteboard within Glow Meet.
After the session, children were able to talk about the story they had heard with their own class and teacher, discussing whether they had enjoyed it and what they had liked or disliked about it.

The session proved extremely popular and was well received by the entire audience. As a result of this session, requests came flooding in to Margo from teachers of all Primary stages, to be made members of the Glow Group, to enable them to participate in the story telling events.

Margo tells us about the story telling sessions (1:27)
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

The story telling sessions are all recorded, to be uploaded into the Glow Group to form a library of stories that nurseries and schools will be able to access and playback at any time. So, if a group of children misses a session, they will still be able to access it at a later time.

The story telling has enabled Margo, the nursery staff and Early Years teachers to involve children in activities which contribute to the following Early Level Literacy and English Experiences and Outcomes:

Listening and Talking
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 0-07a / LIT 0-16a / ENG 0-17a To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning with what I already know.
LIT 0-19a I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts, sharing my thoughts in different ways.

Through the use of Glow too, teachers have had the opportunity to introduce technology to children so provide a context for the Early Level Technologies outcome:

TCH 0-04a I enjoy exploring and using technologies to communicate with others within and beyond my place of learning.

Ingredients

What did Margo Kerr need to do to set up the Story Room within the Early Years Glow Group?
• A Glow Group at Local Authority level
• A Glow Meet web part
• A web cam
• A microphone

Although Margo’s story telling room is at Local Authority level, something similar could easily be set up within one school, with, for example, older children reading to the younger ones – and vice-versa. In the following videos, we will take a look at how the story telling room could be replicated.

How to set up a Glow Meet 5:36
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet
How to join a Glow Meet 3:38
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet
How to use the shared whiteboard in a Glow Meet meeting room (8:25)
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet
How to record a Glow Meet 2:09
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet
How to play back a recorded Glow Meet session 3:22
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

Impact

There has already been a lot of very positive feedback about the Early Years Glow Group.

Staff in the nurseries have, for the fist time, a single place where they can communicate and collaborate. This helps alleviate any feelings of isolation for the staff in the standalone nurseries. They have access to all relevant documents and information, and are sure of these being the most up to date versions. They can hold discussions and meetings via Glow Meet and reduce travel time and costs, so making the most of their time.

Children in the nurseries are given the opportunity to engage with older children from right across the Local Authority and will soon have access to a library of stories from all previous Glow Meets, so opening up the range of resources they can learn from.

Due to the popularity of the Early Years Group’s story-telling sessions, Margo has now moved the Story Room out of the Early Years Glow Group and created a new group at Local Authority level. This new “Early Years Story Room” Group is solely dedicated to this purpose and all teaching and non-teaching staff within the Local Authority have been granted automatic membership. The Glow Group comprises only two pages – the Noticeboard Page which hosts the Glow Meet web part and a second page called “Previous Stories”. This is where Margo plans to embed videos of all of the story-telling Glow Meets to form the library bank.

Margo tells us about the initial impact that the group has had.

Margo Kerr- Feedback on the Early Years Glow Group 1:05
Story Telling in Early Years using Glow Meet

Read about the time that Mrs Claus read a story in the Story telling room in the Glow-Meeting with Mrs Claus cookbook!

Overview

Chatting about a message for the discussion board

P1 pupils in 5 schools in 3 local authorities started using Glow to facilitate a book project on the subject of Julia Donaldson books. Initially St James’s Primary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, had wanted to undertake a literacy project and thought Glow would be an interesting way to open this up and make links with other schools at the same time. Athelstaneford Primary school in East Lothian was also interested in taking this forward. Through the teachers collaborating within the national Collaborative Projects group within Glow, schools in Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire decided to work together over a period of 6 weeks. Although there are many aspects we could focus on for this group, in this Cookbook we will learn what was involved in bring a Picture Library web part onto the page and configuring the settings of this to allow pupil work to be shared across the schools. There was much pupil work that came as a spin-off from the project which wasn’t expected by the teachers involved. In other Cookbooks on this project additional aspects will be investigated.
Although the group was developed as the project continued for the teachers involved, a similar project could be done with very little customisation of a Glow group and very little information added. Throughout this Cookbook we will concentrate on the simple usage of the group for the purposes of making use of the Picture Library web part, although there are obviously options for further development which were taken within this particular group.

Context

Gruffalo Masks at St James's

Anne Louise Nicholson had originally wanted to work on a literacy project with P1 which could have a different dimension from other projects, she wanted to be able to extend outside of the classroom. Having used Glow for groups within the whole school previously this seemed like the logical next step. Through participation in the National Collaborative Projects group Ms Nicholson had made contact with Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford Primary in East Lothian who was keen to take this forward with her.
The project was expanded by Anne Louise Nicholson and Lynne Lewis to other schools from East Lothian, Sarah Boyd at Longniddry Primary and Emma Kerr at Pencaitland Primary and also Laura Kerr at Lairdsland Primary in East Dunbartonshire. Eventually the project comprised of 5 different P1 classes across 3 different local authorities. Within the main, each class used only a teacher machine with web cam/microphone and speakers, although St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire arranged for the pupils to use computers individually to contribute to Discussion Boards and to upload their work to be shared. Ms Nicholson at St James’s took the responsibility of setting up the Glow Group with the required web parts.

Naomi's work from the Picture Library

In the main regular web conferencing, or Glow Meet sessions were held with all schools participating. Each of these was led by a different school and the teachers had planned what the content and context of each session would be. All of this was building towards the final Glow Meet session where the schools would join with the author Julia Donaldson. Over a period of a number of weeks pupils were motivated to undertake work outside of the Glow Meet sessions to share with other pupils. Anne Louise Nicholson was surprised by how eager they were to share their work with the other pupils. In this Cookbook we will look at the way an additional page in the group was used to allow the pupil work to be shared with all the schools. The whole project had already taken place when we spoke to the teachers which allowed us to have a complete view of how the entire project had gone and its impact on the pupils and teachers involved. We will concentrate on St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire for illustration in this Cookbook.
In discussion with Ms Nicholson we learned that the project had set out to address many experiences and outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence but we have selected a few of these pertinent to our concentration on using the Picture Library web part to share work:
Experiences – Listening and Talking
• LIT 0-01b– I enjoy exploring and choosing stories and other texts to watch, read and 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.

Experiences – Reading
• LIT 0-07a / LIT 0-16a / ENG 0-17a– To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning to what I already know.

Ingredients
• 5 P1 classes
• Each teacher needed a computer with an internet connection
• Each teacher needed a Glow username and password
• Membership of the National level group which had been set up for the project
• Screen to project onto to enable whole class to see for web conference sessions
• New page added to Glow Group
• Picture Library web part added to the page
• New document web part created and added to the page
• Julia Donaldson books for each class
• Several Glow Meet or web conferencing sessions with all the schools involved
• Participation from the author Julia Donaldson for the last session
• Planning documents for the project shared and agreed on by each teacher

In the next sections, we’ll learn how to recreate the elements of the Glow group that the teachers used for the project. In particular, we’ll find out how to add a new page to a group, add a Picture Library web part and configure this and also how to create and add a new document library to the page. Each video lasts for around 2 minutes and you can choose which section to watch at any time.

Recipe

The Other Work page of the Glow Group

The videos begin by quickly showing the Glow Group with the additional page for “Other Work” added and then develop into explaining how a page can be added to a Glow Group and then move through adding a text editor web part for information and then adding the Picture Library web part and changing the settings of this to allow comments to be displayed. We will then look at creating a new documents web part and adding this to the page to provide a different way for pupils to upload and share their work.

Videos

The finished Other Work page (2:20)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Adding the Other Work page to the group (1:43)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Adding a text editor web part and adding information and instructions (3:28)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Adding the Picture Library web part and changing the settings to allow description and comments (9:55)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Creating a new document web part and adding this to the page (3:20)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Impact

The videos finish with a longer tour through the Glow Group and an interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on how the project came about, why they needed a page for “Other Work” and how they used this. Anne Louise explains that her pupils were very motivated to work on activities outside of the actual Glow Meet sessions taking place. They were very motivated by the thought of an external audience and this led them to concentrate more fully on the content, the presentation and layout of their work.
Videos
Tour through the finished Glow Group (8:35)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on unexpected pupil work (1:44)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Additional Interview with Ann Louise on unexpected pupil work (2:20)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson about how the project began (2:10)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Pupil Work

Morgan's finger spaces in the Picture Library

Further information on using the Picture Library web part can be found in a number of places: searching on Glow Help at the bottom of every page will bring you information; clicking the Learning about Glow link on the left-hand navigation bar will take you to a menu where you will be able to access a Glow training guide on Glow Groups which contains a section on this web part.

Overview

Julia Donaldson Literacy Project – A Glow Meet with Julia Donaldson

P1 pupils in 5 schools in 3 local authorities started using Glow to facilitate a book project on the subject of Julia Donaldson books. Initially St James’s Primary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, had wanted to undertake a literacy project and thought Glow would be an interesting way to open this up and make links with other schools at the same time. Athelstaneford Primary school in East Lothian was also interested in taking this forward. Through the teachers collaborating within the national Collaborative Projects group within Glow, schools in Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire decided to work together over a period of 6 weeks. Although there are many aspects we could focus on for this group, in this Cookbook we will learn what was involved in creating and adding a Glow Survey web part which the teachers and pupils used to vote for their favourite Julia Donaldson book ahead of the final Glow Meet session. In other Cookbooks on this project additional aspects will be investigated.

Although the group was developed as the project continued for the teachers involved, a similar project could be done with very little customisation of a Glow group and very little information added. Throughout this Cookbook we will concentrate on the simple usage of the group for the purposes of making use of the Glow Survey tool, although there are obviously options for further development which were taken within this particular group.

Context

The Julia Donaldson Literacy Project Glow Group

Anne Louise Nicholson had originally wanted to work on a literacy project with P1 which could have a different dimension from other projects, she wanted to be able to extend outside of the classroom. Having used Glow for groups within the whole school previously this seemed like the logical next step. Through participation in the National Collaborative Projects group Ms Nicholson had made contact with Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford Primary in East Lothian who was keen to take this forward with her.

The project was expanded by Anne Louise Nicholson and Lynne Lewis to other schools from East Lothian, Sarah Boyd at Longniddry Primary and Emma Kerr at Pencaitland Primary and also Laura Kerr at Lairdsland in East Dunbartonshire. Eventually the project comprised of 5 different P1 classes across 3 different local authorities. Within the main, each class used only a teacher machine with web cam/microphone and speakers, although St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire allowed the pupils to use computers individually to contribute to Discussion Boards. Pupils were logged on individually to respond to the “Book Factor” survey. Ms Nicholson at St James’s took the responsibility of setting up the Glow Group with the required webparts.

In the main regular web conferencing, or Glow Meet sessions were held with all schools participating. Each of these was led by a different school and the teachers had planned what the content and context of each session would be. All of this was building towards the final Glow Meet session where the schools would join with the author Julia Donaldson. Over a period of a number of weeks pupils voted for what their favourite Julia Donaldson book was using Glow’s Survey tool ahead of the final Glow Meet with Julia Donaldson herself. The whole project had already taken place when we spoke to the teachers which allowed us to have a complete view of how the whole project had gone and its impact on the pupils and teachers involved. We will concentrate on St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire for illustration in this Cookbook.

In discussion with Ms Nicholson we learned that the project had set out to address many experiences and outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence but we have selected a few of these pertinent to our concentration on the Glow Survey tool:
Experiences – Listening and Talking
• LIT 0-01b– I enjoy exploring and choosing stories and other texts to watch, read and 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.

Experiences – Reading
• LIT 0-07a / LIT 0-16a / ENG 0-17a– To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning to what I already know.

Ingredients
• 5 P1 classes
• Each teacher needed a computer with an internet connection
• Each teacher needed a Glow username and password
• Membership of the National level group which had been set up for the project
• Screen to project onto to enable whole class to see for web conference sessions
• New page added to Glow group
• Glow Survey created and web part added to Glow group
• Julia Donaldson books for each class
• Several Glow Meet or web conferencing sessions with all the schools involved
• Participation from the author Julia Donaldson for the last session
• Planning documents for the project shared and agreed on by each teacher

St James's pupils and the Funny Face Song

In the next sections, we’ll learn how to recreate the elements of the Glow group that the teachers used for the project. In particular, we’ll find out how to add a new page to a group, create a Glow Survey and add this web part to the page. And also how pupils can respond or vote in the survey and how the teachers can change the view options at different times on the survey. Each video lasts for around 2 minutes and you can choose which section to watch at any time.

Recipe
The videos begin by quickly showing the Glow Group with the additional page and the survey added and then develop into explaining how a page can be added to a Glow Group and then move through creating the Glow Survey web part, adding this to the page along with a text editor web part. We will also look at configuring the web part, pupils responding and a graphical summary being displayed for pupils on the page. The videos finish with a longer tour through the Glow Group and an interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on why and how they used the survey tool.

The Book Factor Page of the Glow Group

Further information on using the Glow Survey tool can be found in a number of places: searching on Glow Help at the bottom of every page will bring you information; clicking the Learning about Glow link on the left-hand navigation bar will take you to a menu where you will be able to access the Glow Groups training guide which has a section on surveys.

Videos

The finished page in the group (0:53)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Adding a new page to a group (1:36)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Adding a text editor web part for instructions (3:10)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Creating the Survey web part and adding it to the page (4:48)C
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Configuring the survey web part and responding (3:19)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Impact
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

A tour through the finished Glow Group (8:35)

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson about how the project began (2:10)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on the Glow Survey Tool (1:12)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Book Factor

Overview

St James's pupils and the Funny Face Song

P1 pupils in 5 schools in 3 local authorities started using Glow to facilitate a book project on the subject of Julia Donaldson books. Initially St James’s Primary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, had wanted to undertake a literacy project and thought Glow would be an interesting way to open this up and make links with other schools at the same time. Athelstaneford Primary school in East Lothian was also interested in taking this forward. Through the teachers collaborating within the national Collaborative Projects group within Glow, schools in Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire decided to work together over a period of 6 weeks. Although there are many aspects we could focus on for this group, in this Cookbook we will learn what was involved in adding the Glow Meet web part, in joining a Glow Meet session and how this culminated in the author herself joining the schools in a live session. In other Cookbooks on this project additional aspects will be investigated.

Although the group was developed as the project continued for the teachers involved, a similar project could be done with very little customisation of a Glow group and very little information added. Throughout this Cookbook we will concentrate on the simple usage of the group for the purposes of using Glow Meet, although there are obviously options for further development which were taken within this particular group.

In the recipe section of the Cookbook you will find several videos to take you through the process of setting up your own Glow Group should you wish to undertake a similar project. At the very end of the Cookbook there is an impact section containing a video interview with one of the teachers involved in the project.

Context

Anne Louise Nicholson had originally wanted to work on a literacy project with P1 which could have a different dimension from other projects, she wanted to be able to extend outside of the classroom. Having used Glow for groups within the whole school previously this seemed like the logical next step. Through participation in the National Collaborative Projects group Anne Louise Nicholson had made contact with Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford Primary in East Lothian who was keen to take this forward with her.

Athelstoneford Puppet Show for Julia Donaldson Project

The project was expanded by Anne Louise Nicholson and Lynne Lewis to other schools from East Lothian, Sarah Boyd at Longniddry Primary and Emma Kerr at Pencaitland Primary and also Laura Kerr at Lairdsland in East Dunbartonshire. Eventually the project comprised of 5 different P1 classes across 3 different local authorities. Within the main, each class used only a teacher machine with web cam/microphone and speakers, although St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire allowed the pupils to use computers individually to contribute to Discussion Boards. Anne Louise at St James’s took the responsibility of setting up the Glow Group with the required webparts.

Lairdsland Primary Julia Donaldson Glow Meet

In the main regular web conferencing, or Glow Meet sessions were held with all schools participating. Each of these was led by a different school and the teachers had planned what the content and context of each session would be. All of this was building towards the final Glow Meet session where the schools would join with the author Julia Donaldson. The whole project had already taken place when we spoke to the teachers which allowed us to have a complete view of how the project had gone and its impact on the pupils and teachers involved. We will concentrate on St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire for illustration in this Cookbook.

In discussion with Anne Louise Nicholson we learned that the project had set out to address many experiences and outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence but we have selected a few of these pertinent to our concentration on Glow Meet:

Experiences – Listening and Talking

• LIT 0-01a– I enjoy exploring and playing with the patterns of language and can use what I learn.
• LIT 0-01b– I enjoy exploring and choosing stories and other texts to watch, read and 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 0-02a / ENG 0-03a – 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.
• LIT 0-04a – I listen or watch for useful or interesting information and I use this to make choices or learn new things.
• LIT 0-09a – Within real and imaginary situations, I share experiences and feelings, ideas and information in a way that communicates my message.

Experiences – Reading

• LIT 0-07a / LIT 0-16a / ENG 0-17a– To help me understand stories and other texts, I ask questions and link what I am learning to what I already know.

Ingredients

• 5 P1 classes
• Each teacher needed a computer with an internet connection
• Each teacher needed  a Glow username and password
• Membership of the National level group which had been set up for the project
• Simple web camera
• Speakers
• Microphone
• Screen to project onto to enable whole class to see for web conference sessions
• New page added to Glow group
• Glow Meet web part added to Glow group and configured
• Julia Donaldson books for each class
• Several Glow Meet or web conferencing sessions with all the schools involved
• Participation from the author Julia Donaldson for the last session
• Planning documents for the web conferencing sessions shared and agreed on by each teacher

Julia Donaldson Literacy Project Glow Group

In the next sections, we’ll learn how to recreate the elements of the Glow group that the teachers used for the project. In particular, we’ll find out how to add a new page to a group, add a Glow Meet web part and configure this and join a Glow Meet session. Each video lasts for around 2 minutes and you can choose which section to watch at any time.

Recipe

The videos begin by quickly showing the Glow Group with the additional page and the Glow Meet web part and then develop into explaining how a page can be added to a Glow Group and then move through adding the Glow Meet web part, configuring it and onto joining a Glow Meet session. The videos finish with a longer tour through the Glow Group and an interview with one of the teachers involved.

What does the group with the additional page and the Glow Meet web part look like? (0:25)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Adding the new page to the Glow Group (1:18)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Adding the Glow Meet web part (1:22)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Creating the Glow Meet room (2:53)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Joining the Glow Meet (1:57)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Where to get additional help with Glow Meet (1:47)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

An extended tour of the Glow Group (8:35)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet

Further information on using the Glow Meet tool can be found in a number of places: searching on Glow Help at the bottom of every page will bring you information; clicking the Learning about Glow link on the left-hand navigation bar will take you to a menu where you will be able to access the Glow Meet training guide or the Glow Meet online tutorial.

Impact

In this section you will be able to view a short excerpt of an video interview with Anne Louise Nicholson from St James’s Primary school (Paisley) in Renfrewshire. Please see other Cookbooks on this project for interviews with Anne Louise on different aspects of the project.

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on the Glow Meet sessions (1:36)
Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Glow Meet