Most of last week for me was spent in Prestonpans for the Glow Mentor training is East Lothian. This was the third Mentor training that I have attended officially as a trainer, and it was a great opportunity to meet the Mentors from East Lothian Council – many of whom I’ve been reading online for some time, so great to finally meet them in person!
In so many ways, ELC are digital pioneers – making great use of the read/write web already in the great work being done through Edubuzz. Building Glow onto this sure foundation will undoubtedly provide them with great opportunities, and with any luck, bring some of the work being done already to a wider audience not familiar with the workings of the read/write web?
Much has already been written of the two days training, so if you haven’t already I’d urge you to check out what some of the mentors have already written more expeditiously than I could manage!
What did I learn through my couple of days as a trainer? First of all, I still feel that I need to spend more time in preparation. On day one I took the ‘portal demo’ slot. I can’t emphasise the importance of this session, as for many people this is their first introduction to Glow, and it’s vital that people get a good understanding of how the different sites within Glow sit together. It’s easy to think that when speaking to a group such as ELC Mentors, that they will already have a good understanding of this after all the work they did in the pilot phases, but in reality this session is the ‘first look’ at Glow for many. Quality time needs to be spent explaining the links between role based, school, local authority and national sites. Without a good understanding of the relationship between sites, people struggle later on.
When time was spent over the two days looking at creating, using and adapting Glow groups, my colleague Martin contextualised this for ELC. I really liked this approach. I think it gave the two days a good focus, and purpose for creating and using Glow groups. It’s great to see this within a detailed curricular context. It certainly helped when making connections with Curriculum for Excellence.
What else did I learn? Things can go wrong, and things can take longer than expected. My day two presentation concerned Glow Meet, which would have benefited from greater clarity on my part as the presenter. With more preparation, it would be possible to have the ‘up my sleeve’ alternative that any good teacher has at their fingertips.
It’ll be exciting times for Glow in East Lothian now though. With the Ops and Mentor training now under their belts, I look forward immensely to seeing how they choose to use Glow in earnest.
Loads of highlights from the two days – particularly the opportune discussions with Eleanor about teaching and learning with the hearing impared, the decoration on Tessa’s car, but final mention ought to be given to Paul Trickett, who showed me 5-ball juggling in action. I’m still practising extending my ability at 3-ball cascade, but it’s great to see a master in action!
