3 weeks ago I started to learn how to use Wordpress in order to set up blogs for each class in our school. After many errors on my part this is how we've done it.
We set up a 'main school' page from which there are links to the blog for each class.
The main page blog is a full blown - using coding - Wordpress blog. I decided that as I find coding a bit confusing I chose not to learn it at this point in my life (enough to do at the moment but not to say I won't find much enjoyment in the language of coding at a later date...) and so each class has been set up with a 'primaryblogger' blog which is relatively straightforward to use. Primaryblogger has been fantastic at responding to my various and frequent requests! They have helped solve many of the things I didn't know very quickly and mvass from Twitter provided me with this great link to help me even more!
There's a setting on the dashboard under 'discussion' that allows everything to be approved before being published to the world. This keeps things safe.
I started the Nabby3 blog nearly two weeks ago now and have been thrilled with how enthusiastic my class are about it. I've also learnt about how blogging helps learning in different ways....from E-Safety every time they write a comment or a post, to how much they have learnt already about whereabouts countries in the world are from who has visited our blog. We're excited that a school in New Zealand loves our butterfly pictures and as we've been learning how to write letters, we thought we'd write letters to them as well as sending them copies of our butterfly pictures!...great application of 'real life' learning! Some children have relatives in far flung places, how fantastic for these relatives to be able to have 'contact' via the class blog! How fantastic for parents to be able to have contact with what goes on in Nabby3 via their blog!
I have now set up most of the children in my class as contributors. This means that they can log in to the blog and write posts whenever they want to. The role of contributor however doesn't allow the posts to be published without approval....hence keeping things safe.
I introduced the other class blogs to staff in the staff meeting this week. Everyone is keen to start their blog - having looked at the Nabby3 blog - and also because at the moment we have a poorly HT who we can support by blogging - this allows him to 'look inside the classrooms' despite not being in school.
I absolutely recommend Primaryblogger, and if you're thinking of blogging with either your class or your whole school then check it out!
We set up a 'main school' page from which there are links to the blog for each class.
The main page blog is a full blown - using coding - Wordpress blog. I decided that as I find coding a bit confusing I chose not to learn it at this point in my life (enough to do at the moment but not to say I won't find much enjoyment in the language of coding at a later date...) and so each class has been set up with a 'primaryblogger' blog which is relatively straightforward to use. Primaryblogger has been fantastic at responding to my various and frequent requests! They have helped solve many of the things I didn't know very quickly and mvass from Twitter provided me with this great link to help me even more!
There's a setting on the dashboard under 'discussion' that allows everything to be approved before being published to the world. This keeps things safe.
I started the Nabby3 blog nearly two weeks ago now and have been thrilled with how enthusiastic my class are about it. I've also learnt about how blogging helps learning in different ways....from E-Safety every time they write a comment or a post, to how much they have learnt already about whereabouts countries in the world are from who has visited our blog. We're excited that a school in New Zealand loves our butterfly pictures and as we've been learning how to write letters, we thought we'd write letters to them as well as sending them copies of our butterfly pictures!...great application of 'real life' learning! Some children have relatives in far flung places, how fantastic for these relatives to be able to have 'contact' via the class blog! How fantastic for parents to be able to have contact with what goes on in Nabby3 via their blog!
I have now set up most of the children in my class as contributors. This means that they can log in to the blog and write posts whenever they want to. The role of contributor however doesn't allow the posts to be published without approval....hence keeping things safe.
I introduced the other class blogs to staff in the staff meeting this week. Everyone is keen to start their blog - having looked at the Nabby3 blog - and also because at the moment we have a poorly HT who we can support by blogging - this allows him to 'look inside the classrooms' despite not being in school.
I absolutely recommend Primaryblogger, and if you're thinking of blogging with either your class or your whole school then check it out!
