Welcome to our step by step guide for using your blogging platform within your PrimarySite Website.
In this guide we will cover:
- How to log in to the blogging platform for Teachers and Pupils
- How to manage your admin area (setting up your adults, classes and children)
- How to approve posts, comments and profiles
- How to edit your profile
- How to create blog posts
This document will help you achieve all these things in an easy step by step process. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
Getting Started
- Firstly, you will need to locate your blogging platform within your school website. This can usually be found under the children navigation as shown below.
How to log into the Blogging Platform for Teachers and Pupils
- Once having clicked the Blog, you will be taken to the homepage of the blogging platform which will open in a new window. In the top left-hand corner, you will see a menu button.
- Click the menu button and then select the relevant login.
For the Teacher Login;
- You will see the below login screen. You will need to select which class you are associated to from the drop-down list and enter your unique username and password. Should this be the first time you have ever logged onto the blogging platform, just your username and password will be needed, and this will have been provided to you upon the set-up of the blog.
Click the blue ‘log in’ button, you will then be taken to the main home screen of the blog. This area will list all your class and teacher blogs that have been set up within the platform along with showing you the very latest blog posts that have been created
For the Pupil Login;
- The below screen print will automatically show once you have selected Pupil Login from the Menu button. The pupils can only log in to the blogging platform once they have been created within the blog as users to a particular class. Please see the next section on how to manage your admin area and the children and class tabs for this set up.
- Once this has been put in place, the child will then have their own emoji password set for them. This emoji password is automatically generated by our own system within the platform itself.
- You will see the below login screen. You will need to select which class you are associated to from the drop-down list and enter your unique username and password. Should this be the first time you have ever logged onto the blogging platform, just your username and password will be needed, and this will have been provided to you upon the set-up of the blog.
The emoji password itself will always consist of four emojis. If you are at this login for the pupil and they have forgotten their emoji password, you will need to log in as the ‘Teacher’ and reset this password for them in the ‘Manage Children’ tab. Once you have pressed the word ‘Reset’ four new emojis will then be visible.
To help everyone remember passwords in an easier way, there is also a ‘Print Passwords’ button. When clicked this will allow you to have all passwords on one document, that you can either keep yourself as the teacher or you can use the dotted lines to cut these out and pop in a safe environment for the child to have access to, such as their personal diary or homework book. Please note, that you must tick the box for either the individual child for it to appear on the printout or you can tick the select all button for all children in that class.
When clicking to reset a child’s password, you are prompted with the above modal window to check you are resetting the correct child and you can then press the Reset password button. You can see from the below screen print, that we now have four new emojis set for Adam Teacher, and they are different to the print above. You will also briefly see a green bar under the tabs to confirm the success of the reset.
How to manage your admin area (setting up your adults, classes and children)
- In the admin area of the blog you will be able to set up your classes, and your adults log in details. In this area you can also approve comments, posts and profiles.
- Click the blue ‘Admin Area’ button on the blog home screen, you will then see the below screen appear.
We always recommend firstly setting up your adults. This can be done by clicking the fourth tab along the top called ‘Manage Adults’. You will then see the below appear.
You will see a list of any existing users and have the option to reset their passwords, edit their blog permissions or delete them should they no longer require access.
To add a new user, click the blue ‘Add New Adult’ button. You will then see the below screen appear for you to enter their details and assign them their blogging permissions.
The school admin permission will be able to create, delete and edit adults, whereas the teacher permission will not. Anyone who is to have full admin rights to the blog will need to be set up as school admin.
An adult’s username will automatically be generated as you type their first and last name into the free text fields.
When adding an adult, you will need to select the ‘assign this class’ link next to the class dropdown before the adult is assigned. Please do remember though, that assigning an adult to a class is optional rather than mandatory.
You will also need to remember at this point that all adult posts are auto approved on the blog and that their posts are public.
Any adult post that is created, and should the adult be assigned to a class, that post from the adult will automatically populate onto the class page.
Please note there is a minimum (3) character requirement for the first name field when adding a new user.
A password must be set up for new users before they can login. They are created by clicking the Reset Password link on the Manage Adults table. Please note for any of you users that have been migrated from the old blogging system you will retain your old password.
The requirements for password resets are: a minimum of 8 characters, at least one of which must be a lower-case character and at least one that is an upper-case character.
Please note if a person’s name is only two letters, this will not be recognised on the system and you will see an error message line. We would recommend, trying to populate the two-letter name with a hyphen or adding a space between the middle of the name. This will show the username on the blog homepage as having that space when displayed.
The below screen print will show the error message displayed should the first name only be 2 letters in length.
Should a username already be taken and used within the system, this will automatically generate the same name but with a number to follow at the end of the name. The example below shows this username name as the number ‘2’ after it.
Once you are happy that all the details are correct, click the blue ‘Add New Adult’ button in the bottom left. The adult will now be created.
The next step we would recommend, is to add your classes into the blogging platform. To do this, you will need to select the second tab along titled ‘Manage Classes’. You will then see the below screen.
In the class settings, having the red padlock enabled will mean that no children can add any new posts to the blog.
Should the ‘eye’ symbol have a strike through on it and is red in colour, this will hide a class from the public view. However, please do remember, that the post will be available for all logged in users to see.
Click the blue ‘Add New Class’ button to create a class;
You now can add your class name in the free text field and assign your adult to the class using the drop-down box.
Please do make sure that you click the assign this adult link after choosing the adult from the dropdown.
In the manage class area you can also set your privacy settings for the blog posts, using the radio buttons. By using these it will dictate who can read the children’s blog posts, if they require approval, who may leave comments, if comments from children need to be approved and if children’s profiles will also need to be approved.
As default, it will show that a child’s post needs to be approved before it will be posted. It is our recommendation that posts are reviewed. However, should you feel you do not need to approve the posts of your children, please do remember that you cannot individually turn this on/off for each child, it is managed on a whole class basis.
Once you are happy, click the blue ‘Save’ button.
The next step we would recommend, is to add your children into the blogging platform. To do this, you will need to select the third tab along titled ‘Manage Children’. You will then see the below screen.
At this point, please do check that all classes are set up first before adding the children under the relevant class for them being able to blog, you will firstly need to make sure you select using the drop-down box.
There is the ability to add one child at a time, using the ‘add new child’ and you can also ‘add children in bulk’
This allows you to upload your class of children in one go but do remember you will have to wait a few minutes, for this to happen, as it will be dependent on the amount of data being uploaded.
We recommend if you would like to add children in bulk, that you use a txt or csv file to do this.
There is also the ability to paste data into the relevant section, remembering to look at the example you will see on screen, as we require the data to be set in a certain way, for this to work for you uploading your children. It is; last name, first name, and class. This order will need to be separated with a comma and must follow that pattern.
The screen prints below, show how this will appear on the screen.
How to approve posts, comments and profiles
The next three tabs within the Blog Admin area, are all for approval. This is to approve Posts, Approve Comments and Approve Profiles.
You will also have a note to see if you have anything to approve under these sections. Please do remember, that you must log into the Blogging Platform, to see if anything does need approval, there is no email or notification you will get outside of the Blogging Platform to inform you.
To approve a post, you will need to go into this section within the admin area and select the class. Once you have clicked this class, and the post appears, you can see who has written this, and whether you choose to approve this post or delete this post. If you are happy to approve the post, you will need to click the blue ‘approve button’ and to delete this is shown with a ‘grey rubbish bin’ icon. Should you wish to delete this post, you will see a deletion prompt box, and please note, once you hit the ‘red’ delete button’ you cannot retrieve this post.
To approve a comment, you will need to go into this section within the admin area, and select the class, you can see there will be a number at the side of the name of the class. The example you can see below is for Little Acorns Homework Class.
Once you have clicked the correct class, you will see the comment that has been put on the blog post will show here, along with the post title the comment is attached to, and you can approve or delete at this stage.
To approve a comment, you would click the blue ‘approve’ button. Should you hit the grey ‘rubbish bin’ icon, you will automatically delete this comment – and you will not be prompted before you delete, the comment will just disappear.
If a post has no comments attached to it, the actual blog post will not show by saying ‘0 comments’ it will only show who has written this and the published date. The screen print below shows a post with no comments
How to edit your profile
To create a profile for your individual blog, you will need to click the edit profile button. Here, you will see a screen to allow you to start building your avatar.
This is the start of you building your profile. You can add as little or as much, and work through the categories. Children can make this individual and have a little fun with the creation.
Once your avatar is created, you will be able to see this on the right-hand side of the posts you have created, by clicking the blog homepage.
To make sure your profile is saved, it is a requirement that a sentence is written about yourself, this could be as simple as ‘hello this is..’ you can do this by filling in the field text box, where you can see some familiar icons for editing. You can once happy, click the blue ‘save profile’ button.
Please also note that the ‘change password’ button you can see in the above screen print, will only be visible for the login under ‘teacher’ and the button will not be there for when a pupil is logged in.
How to create blog posts
To create a new blog post, click ‘Create Post’
Firstly, a title will need to be added for the post and then the content of your post putting within the relevant text box. In this area, you can format your text, using familiar icons.
The ability to upload an image is also possible when creating a blog post.
The ‘add attachments’ button can also now allow for any type of document to be added to a blog post, such as, a word doc, an excel sheet etc, you are also able to add an audio or a video clip to this area. Please note, if adding a video or audio clip this cannot exceed 75mb in line with how our content management system works and no file attached can exceed 20mb.
If you click the image icon, you will see the below pop up box, to upload your image.
If you click the image icon, you will see the below pop up box, to upload your image.
Once your image has been uploaded, you will see an image properties box appear, this allows you to change the width, height and align the picture image.
This screen print shows an example of a blog post, with an attached video clip added as mp4.
Below is an example of a post written with an image and a comment attached, this comment will only be visible should the post and comment have been through approval. Comments from adults are auto approved. Comments from children or non-logged in users would need to go through the approval process (if the class settings allow for these comments).
