Individual Student Blogs

Individual Student Blogs

Thanks to the pioneering work of Helen Squires, we have put together this page to help Pt England teachers who teach students with individual blogs ie all the students in Years 5-8. We will bullet point the things that have been learned and the things we have concluded are essential at PES to ensure student safety, maximising student learning and accountability to our BOT and parents.

NB: EVERY Yr 2-8 student has an individual blog. We are out of the pilot stage with this initiative and every student must have this opportunity.

All student blogs must be owned by the school

• • Not the child because they are under the legal age of 13 yrs

  • Not the teacher because after a year the child moves to another teacher

The Admin owner of the blog is pesblog@ptengland.school.nz , pesblogs@ptengland.school.nz, pesblogowner@gmail.com, etc

• • Students can post to the blog using their personal Google login eg dorothyxpg39P8@ptengland.school.nz

  • These are the only email accounts students may use to access their blogs as this keeps them within the Google Apps domain of Pt England School (therefore legal) AND ensure the blog feeds to the Teacher Dashboard

If a teacher needs to give students Admin access for a specific task eg 'blinging' their blog, then there are only two ways this can be done -

• • In the eLearning Centre - all students will have been logged on by the teacher and this will be a closely supervised session. The teacher must ensure all are logged out again before leaving

  • Using the Data Projector in the classroom - if the teacher sets the blog up on the big screen in the classroom, then everyone is able to keep an eye on what is happening

There is a set naming procedure for student blogs. This is so that we all can easily remember how to log onto student blogs

• • All the URLs begin with pes+firstname+initial of surname so john smith would be pesjohns.blogspot.com

  • These are done for you as part of the Manaiakalani project - email Dorothy if you need a new student to have a blog

The class blog will have all the student blogs listed in a sidebar gadget so the teacher (and everyone) can see at a glance who has been posting

All the requirements of a Pt England class blog will be adhered to

• • The settings of the blog will be ensure

    • Under Settings > Formatting > Time Zone shows Auckland (so you know when they have been posting)

    • Under Settings > Comments > Comment Notification Email > the teacher's email is included as is ehsasnz@gmail.com for research purposes

    • Under Settings > Email & Mobile > the teacher's email AND if available, the parents' email is included

    • Under Settings > Permissions > Admin will be pesblog, Author will be the class email, Teacher must also be an Admin

Teachers of Y1 Students who wish to begin Individual Blogs need to discuss this with the Management Team.