The question has two main underlying strands: these Blogs now contain an extensive record of student learning so we want the content preserved for the students; they also represent a lot of hard work on the part of the teachers who don't want to lose all the connections and hyperlinks that have evolved.
So we have tried to put together some helpful tips for our teachers about what to do at the end of the year. They come under headings like:
- if the teacher is leaving the school
- if the teacher is switching rooms or levels
- if the teacher is starting from scratch
- if the teacher is inheriting and 'old' blog
- etc
You are welcome to check out and use our Google Site we have created. If you have further suggestions for it, please add them to the comment here.
NB: as we use Blogger, the resource is all based around Blogger.
We can't help you if your own school has different protocols! eg We have heard of a school that requires teachers to close down all blogs and start fresh at the begining of the year; we have heard of schools directing teachers to hand their blog to another teacher etcWell worth checking out the expectations at the beginning of the year before you start blogging!
This is great, thanks for addressing this issue. The tips on your Google Site are very helpful, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this - not only am I moving classrooms (new building happening) but I'm also moving levels (and changing class room number) so I have a number of things I need to do with my wiki and class blog. Good info here.
ReplyDelete@madmacnz @dragonsinger57, Glad this was useful to you. This is all new to us as we really have only done two years of large scale blogging (ie lots of classes, lots of kids, lots of age levels). At the end of last year we all just did whatever seemed best at the time with our blogs, but now we realise we could do things better if we standardise our approach a little. Writing our reflections in one place (and sharing them) seemed like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteTwo things have really contributed to this thinking this year. One is the acknowledgement that this work really does belong to the students. The other is the ePortfolio thinking - that this work is an important component of an ePortfolio.
I found the hints really helpful for continuing our blog for next year. Thank you. I have printed them out to help me follow through with my Year 3 and 4 class for2010.
ReplyDeleteHi Dorothy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on labels- very useful.
We have copied all the names under labels and this includes the number of entries, copied and pasted these into a new blog entry and then added the new entry as an archive in the class blog, under the links widget. This is accessible with one click.
Regards
Sonya