Teacher contact Sections

1. Teacher contact Sections Franklin Township Professional Development October 11, 2010

2. Overview • Today’s Training • How do we update a Teacher Contact section? • “Nuts and Bolts” Session

3. Let’s Look at theTeacher Contact Section

4. Teacher Contact Sections • Teacher contact sections will be provided for free on the school home page. • Pages have already been created by the technology department.

5. What should I do first? • Go to your school’s home page. • Use the school where you are home-based • You will see a row of headings called “Channels”. • Please click on the Teacher Contact channel. • Next, find your name and click on it.

6. Location of Teacher Contact Channel

7. Inside the Teacher Contact Channel

8. What should I do next? • At the top right corner, click the “Sign In” button. • Provide your username and password. • Since the website does not attach to your “regular” login, you will use first initial and last name as your username and only last name as your password.

9. Example of Username and Password • Staff member: John Smith • Username: jsmith • Password: smith

10. Please login to the system and try this now.

11. Why do I need to login? • Allows you to edit content on the website for the sections you have access to. • Allows you to see restricted information that might not be available to the public.

12. Screen shot after login…

13. So how do I access my Teacher Contact section to work on it? • Click on “Site Manager” in the top right of the corner of the page. • You will notice that your screen has changed. • You are now on the “back end” of the Franklin Township Board of Education website. • Since you have already navigated to your page prior to logging in, you will see the “back end” of your section.

14. Your Section Workspace

15. Pages in your section • You will see two pages. • The first page is the Overview page. • The second page is the Assignments page.

16. Overview Page (Back End) • In order to add or change any of your contact information (i.e. add phone number, add grade level, etc.), click on the word “Overview”. • The overview page is a Flex Page.

17. Overview Page • This page should contain: • Your Name • Your School(s) • Grade Level/Subject • Email Address • School Phone Number • Brief description of what will happen in your class this year.

18. What about the greeting on the page? • This should be changed. • It should now read: • “Welcome to $SN’s Teacher Contact Information!” • $SN takes the place of your name when you edit your page. It will fill it with your name when others view it.

19. Assignments Page • This page appears as a default in your section. • You will learn how to make this page inactive (if you would like). • It is not mandatory to update your assignments on this page. It is your choice whether to display this page or not. • This page is optional.

20. Assignments Page (Back End) • To get to the assignments page, click on the word “Assignments” in your section. • Please notice that the check box to the left of the word “active”. That means that the page is active.

21. What should I put on my Assignments Page? • List of upcoming assignments. • This may include homework and long-term projects. • Again, this page is optional!

22. What is a Flex Page? • A flex page is a page that can be used many different ways. • It is similar to a Microsoft Word page. • You can add hyperlinks, attachments, etc.

23. Flex Page

24. When editing is completed… • Click save at the bottom. • If you need to get out of the page without saving, click cancel.

25. Your Teacher Contact Section

26. How do I make my Assignments Page inactive? • To the left of the word “Active” is a checkbox. • Click on the checkbox to remove the check. • This will make your page inactive.

27. What do you mean the page is “Inactive”? • It means that you can work on the page on the back end, if you would like. • The user of the website will not see this page if it is inactive. • They will only see the overview page.

28. Assignments Page is a Flex Page • This is the same type of page that the overview page is. • You can type your assignments here.

29. What font should I use in my Teacher Contact section? For general text, please use Tahoma as your standard font.

30. Here is a suggestion… • This is only a suggestion! • The easiest way to put assignments in the flex page is to paste them in. • You will need to have your assignments typed in a Microsoft Word document to paste them in. • If you prefer, you can type straight into the flex page instead of using Microsoft Word.

31. How to paste from Word • Open your Word Document. • Highlight the whole document. This can be done by hitting Ctrl-A. • Next, copy the highlighted selection (Ctrl-C). • Go back to the Assignments page. • Click on “Paste from Word” (top row, 8th button from left).

32. How to paste from Word (continued…) • A box will pop up. • Paste the contents from your Word document into the box. • Click OK. • The contents of Word document are now in the Assignments page. • Make sure the Active button is checked. • Click Save.

33. Why are you suggesting that we type in Word and then copy and paste? • By using Word, you don’t need to be logged in to work on your document. • You are limiting the time that you have to be logged into the system. • If you cannot access the website, you will still have access to the document that you can copy and hand to the students and keep a record for yourself.

34. How can I see my update? • At the top left corner, you will see the tab “View Website”. • If you click on it, you will see the website. • You may need to hit “refresh” to see your changes.

35. What do I do to update my assignments page? • Go back to your section. • Go into the assignments page. • Delete everything in the flex page. • Follow the procedure for copying from Word to paste into the flex page. • Please remember that use of the assignments page in optional.

36. So what is expected of me regarding my Teacher Contact section? • Make sure that your contact information is accurate on your overview page.

37. Can I do more than the minimum? • Yes. • You may use the assignments page as outlined earlier. • You may also create more pages if you would like. • Please follow the policy guidelines set forth by the district about website content.

38. Where can I find the protocol? • The protocol, as well as this PowerPoint presentation are available online. • Please sign in the district home page. • Click on the “Faculty and Staff” channel. • Click on “Instructional Technology”. • Please note: If you do not login, you will not see the Instructional Technology section.

39. What if I want to have outside websites linked to my page? • Please post the following message and disclaimer on any pages that connect to an outside link: • Important Message to Parents and Guardians: The following website link(s) are provided for educational purposes.  Please be aware that, while on-line, there is always potential for a child to access links that may lead to inappropriate content.  It is recommended that parents and guardians supervise children while they are on the Internet.  For more information please see the US Department of Education's Parent Guide to the Internet or the Guide to Internet Safety offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (insert link so parents can click on the guide). • Disclaimer:  The Franklin Township Public Schools website contains links to government Web sites that our educators have recommended as resources to students, parents, and/or community members.  The Franklin Township School District is not responsible for any content or advertising which may be posted on these websites.  The links provided do not indicate any endorsement by the Franklin Township School District.

40. Can I use pictures or names of students? In order to display a picture or name of a student, a parent/guardian must opt-in to the program by signing a specific form. You also need prior approval from an administrator. If this form is not signed and you do not have administrator approval, these images or names are not allowed on our website.

41. What if I work in more than one school? Your teacher contact sections can be linked so that you only need to update one teacher page. Please make a note on your overview page that the visitor has been redirected to your teacher contact section at your home base school so that the visitor realizes they are now looking at a different school in the district.

42. What are strings? A string ($) allows you to use a code to find data and use it on your website. Earlier, you looked at $SN on your overview page. $SN = code for Section Name For you, your section name is your name, which is why it already on your teacher page.

43. Can I use a string to welcome people to my section? • Yes! You would use the code $UF to list someone’s first name. • This code will only display the user name if someone logs into the Schoolwires website. • If not, it will list as “guest”. • So, if you type in “Welcome, $UF”, you will see “Welcome, Guest” on your screen.

44. Where can I find other $?

45. Blocks

46. What strings will I find here? • You will find items such as date, user’s full name, and others.

47. Questions or comments about creating teacher sections?

48. Sample Teacher Contact Sections

49. Idea starters for teacher pages... Look through different Teacher Contact Sections (both inside and outside the district). What do you like? Why?

50. Polls/Surveys