Using your iPad to blog

Download the Blogger app for free from the App Store to upload photos and videos taken on the spot from your ipad or from your camera roll.  The app doesn't allow you to find existing labels or manipulate the images, but you could do this from your computer afterwards.

Other possibilities which probably give you more options are Blogsy ($6.49) and Easy Blogger ($3.79) which is specifically design for kids.

What do I put in my post?

What should we write?

There is no set criteria for what to write for each post - you can write about your learning, discussions, or physical projects. Other schools will be able to ask questions about specific details, and you can edit your post at any stage, so don't be too worried about getting it all down and right straight away. Below are some ideas if you're stuck:

The details: 
What: what you have done, added, changed, taken away, thought about, learned, discussed, made plans for etc.
Who: was involved physically, in discussions, outside agencies, teachers at school, other schools etc
Where: community project, school grounds, online, classroom, shared area etc
When: dates, time frame, what stage of the project, etc
How: how it linked to the curriculum, the process, steps you took, decisions you made, etc
Positives: what you liked, thought was beneficial, easy to achieve, what you collaborated on etc
Challenges: what was difficult, problems/barriers you faced, what you
Improvements: what you would do differently - materials, process, people etc
Questions: what you are wondering about, need help with, etc

An example:
What: Setting up the school vege garden
Who: Y7 and 8 Highlands students, Miss Hammonds, Mr Sleep, Bunnings, Alan (the caretaker)
Where: behind the astroturf next to the native tree plot
When: Term 3, 2013

Great things:

• Bunnings sponsored the build and provided the materials as well as the plants
• Bunnings staff helped teachers and students with construction and how to plant.
• We used a 30cm x 30cm grid to plant
• Mr Sleep and Alan knew how to build!

Challenges we faced:

• Trying to find a spot to put the garden that everyone was happy with (the caretaker, the principal, the students etc).
• Organising time out of class for Miss Hammonds and Mr Sleep during the build and gardening
• There's a (ugly bright orange) fence around the garden to stop the public going into the area (destroying it), but it also prevents students from looking at the garden and using it easily.
• The garden is next to a semi-pubic walkway

Questions we have:

• What's the best way to keep the garden going?
• How do we keep it maintained during the holidays?
• Who should get to eat/use the produce?

Why are we posting?

Why would we need a Taranaki Enviroschools blog?
A blog could provide a range of benefits for schools. It is a possible platform for enviro-leaders to:

• Share ideas, questions, and possible solutions to the projects and processes going on in their schools. 
• Update on activities or discussions at convenient times, without the travel or scheduling required by a meeting or school visit.
• Have time to leave considered comments, questions, or posts.
• Self-reflect on their enviroschool's progress.
• Search the blog for topics of interest, e.g. relating to a possible future project.
• Access a record of their progress to be used in BOT reports or school documentation.
• Get to know other enviro-leaders and build a support network.
• Decide whether a school visit to another school would be relevant to their own progress.

These are what I have envisioned from my time as an enviro-leader. Please comment if you can think of other benefits which you would like listed. 

When, who, and where?

When do we reflect?
After you have completed an initial reflection of your school, you can update what you have been working on during the term. You might want to reflect on a project during its implementation, at the end of the project, or at the end of each term.

Who should write it? Who can comment?
Anyone can post who the school decides should have access - students, teachers, principals etc.

Your existing email can be setup with access to post on the blog. We could also setup a special email for your envirogroup or class. The post will then be published to the public by the facilitators once they have checked for layout issues, grammatical errors etc. This may change in the future depending on school preference.

Comments can be made by members of the blog, of which most participating enviroschools in Taranaki will be.

Where does it go?
Posts are published to the Home page in chronological order (most recent first), but they are also sorted by the labels given to each post. This is why it is important to label with your schools name, and the general topic of the project.

How to begin...

As we move through the Enviroschools journey, it pays to pause now and again to take note of where we have come from and where we are now.

Your first school blog is a way to reflect on what you are proud of in your school or ECE. Some of us love to take photos and do drawings, others can put together powerful presentations or videos, and still others may enjoy writing or telling stories about what they have done.

An easy first step is using photos and descriptions (Photo Shoot p259 of the Enviroschool Kit).

Photo Shoot

You will need:

Digital cameras / ipads
Access to your photos from a computer

1. Take ten minutes to think about things you are proud of in your enviroschool.
2. Walk around the school and try and capture images of things that make you feel proud. this may include some things you thought of ealier and some that occur to you as you walk around.
3. Select 3-4 images showing what you are most proud of in your enviroschool.

Where younger students have taken photographs, older students or adults can interview them about their images, asking:

What did you photograph?
Why?
What is it an example of?

4. Record the key aspects of these explanations for each of your selected images.
5. Create a new post, label with your school's name, upload the photos (see Using this blog), and write either captions or text to describe your images.

Technicalities of making a post

Don't let the blog bog you down,
get your students to upload!

There are a few steps to follow to make sure this site runs smoothly!

Label your post
On the right hand side click Labels.

• Topic: Select one of the existing topics, or create a new topic (e.g. Worms, Compost, Decision making), or select 'other'.
• School: choose your school (e.g. Toko School), or create a label for your school if its not there. This will make sure everything related to your school will appear on its page.

Use headings
Next to the font size button you can select a preset for the text: heading.

You can also Bold or italic your text.

Add photos, movies and links
Click on the blue and grey icon to add one or more photos from your computer; the word Link, to add in a website you think people would like to connect to; or the movie clip to add a short video clip from your computer.


Keep working on it later
You can save your post and work on it later by clicking Revert to draft.  This means it won't be made public until you choose Publish or if you are making changes, Update.

Preview
Always preview your post to check the layout of the photos and text and the spelling and grammar etc. You will find the grey Preview button to the right of the orange Update button.