School Website Access for Glade Elementary Teachers
If you have questions, please feel free to contact me
Tony Bollino –
Logging In
To log in to your school website and access your blog or page:
- Open Internet Explorer (or Firefox, etc)
- In the Address Bar, enter the web site address of your school, followed by /user, then press Enter on your keyboard. See the following examples:
Public Site ------http://education.fcps.org/ges
Login Page ------http://education.fcps.org/ges/user
- On the screen that appears, enter your Username and Password, then click the Log in button. (See your school’s Site Manager for your login information).
Changing Your Password
- After logging in, the screen shown here will appear.
- Click the Edit button.
- On the screen that appears, enter your new password in both fields shown, then click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Logging Out
Click the Log out link in the top right corner of the screen.
Accessing Your Web Page
- Log in to your school web site.
- Place your cursor over the Staff menu item, then your grade or department.
- If your name appears to the right of your grade or department, click on your name.
- If your name doesn’t appear in the menu, click directly on your grade or department, then click on your name on the page that appears.
Accessing Your Blog
(Note: Not all schools are set up to use blogs.)
Depending on the way your school has set up your blog, you can access it in one of two ways. The method shown below will work for all schools.
- Log in to your school web site.
- On the first page that appears when you log in, click View recent blog entries.
The other way to access your blog is to follow the directions above for “Accessing Your Web Page”. This will take you directly to your blog, or will take you to your web page, which will have a link to your blog.
Teacher Pages
Teacher Home Page – General Info
Each teacher has a home page on their school website. The home page for all teachers must include the following information (at a minimum):
§ Teacher’s Name
§ Full Classroom Phone Number (not just the extension)
§ Email Address
The home page can also include additional information, such as the teacher’s schedule, a photo, biographical information, etc.
Additional Teacher Pages – General Info
The teacher can choose to create additional pages that link off of existing pages. These pages are called “child pages”, and are normally used for each class taught by the teacher. The pages, in outline form, for a sample high school science teacher, might look like this:
§ Teacher’s Home Page
o Environmental Science
§ Field Trip Photos
§ Project Instructions and Resources
o Biology Merit
o Biology Honors
This sample teacher has a home page, three child pages off the main page (one for each class taught), and two child pages of the Environmental Science page. Each of the class pages might contain information about the class, the course syllabus, homework assignments, attachments related to the class, and useful links for the class. The teacher can add as many child pages as desired to any page.
Editing Your Teacher Home Page – Basic Instructions
1. Log in to your school website and navigate to your home page (under Staff in the main menu)
2. Click the Edit button at the top of the page.
3. To update your page:
a. In the Title field, change the title of your page as desired.
b. In the Body field, enter the information that you would like to publish.
c. Click the Save button when done.
NOTE: You may have to click the Save button twice, for the page to save. It is best to first click in a blank space outside of the Body field before clicking Save. You will see this message when your page has been saved correctly.
Adding a Child Page to your Home Page
1. Log in to your school website and navigate to the page or yours to which a child page will be added.
2. At the bottom of your page, click the Add child page link.
3. Add the Title and the Body information on the new page that appears, and click Save when done.
4. The new page will be created, and the navigation to it from the parent page will also be created.
If you look at the image above, you will notice the navigation bar at the bottom of the new child page. This allows you to navigate through your book. The up link takes you to the parent page of the page you are viewing. The links to the left and right on that line take you to the previous and next pages of the book. Also, on any parent page, you will notice a link at the bottom of the page to all of its child pages.
Blog Basics
Each staff member has a main blog page on their school website. This blog page contains summaries of the individual blogs written by the staff member. A blog is a posting on an individual topic, similar to a news article. The normal use of a blog is to communicate recent information on a topic. A teacher might write a blog to post today’s homework, or to communicate what' is happening in class this week. Any school-related information that the teacher would like to communicate can be written in a blog, but if the information is static, such as the teacher’s contact information, or the teacher’s schedule, this information is generally more suited for a web page than a blog.
Below is a sample blog page for a teacher. There are two blog postings on this page. The first one, titled “First Grade Language Arts News” only shows a portion of the total blog (notice the Read more link in the lower right corner of the blog box). By clicking on the title of the blog, or on the Read more link, the full blog will display (shown in lower graphic below).
Blog Basics (continued)
The second blog in the sample on the previous page is titled Homework. It currently shows the homework due on March 24th. To post the homework due on March 25th, the teacher should create a new blog for that day. The teacher should also delete any old Homework blogs that are no longer needed; perhaps those that are more than two weeks old.
Creating a New Blog Entry
1. Log into your school website
2. Navigate to your blog page.
3. Click the Post new blog entry link (at the top of your page, right below your name).
4. On the Create Blog entry screen:
d. In the Title field, enter the title of your blog.
e. In the Body field, enter the information that you would like to post.
f. Click the Save button.
5. The blog posting will appear and is now available for the public to view. If changes need to be made to the blog, click the Edit button at the top of the screen, make changes to the Title and/or Body, and click the Save button.
Editing an Existing Page or Blog
1. Log into your school website and navigate to the page or blog you want to edit.
2. Click the Edit button at the top of the screen
3. Make changes to the Title and/or Body
4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.
5. The edited page or blog will appear and is now available for the public to view. To make additional changes, repeat from Step 2 above.
Deleting an Existing Page or Blog
1. Log into your school website and navigate to the page or blog you want to delete. (Note: Never delete your main teacher page.)
2. Click the Edit button at the top of the screen
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the Delete button.
4. Click the Delete button again to confirm.
5. The school home page will appear, since the page or blog you were viewing has been deleted.
Formatting the Text in on a Page or Blog
Highlight the text in the body of your page or blog that you would like to format, then use one of the buttons shown in the box below to apply the formatting.
NOTE: The most trouble-free way to apply formatting is to first write your page or blog in full, and then apply the formatting to the desired text. Applying the formatting as you are writing may lead to unexpected results.
Adding Images to Pages or Blogs
To add an image to a page or blog:
Make sure the file name for the image you want to upload does not have any spaces. For example, if you want to upload a file named “picture of me.jpg”, rename it to something like “pictureofme.jpg” or “picture_of_me.jpg” before beginning the process described below.
1. Go to the desired blog or page and click the Edit button.
2. In the Body section, place your cursor at the location where the image is to be inserted.
3. Click the Insert/Edit Image button
4. Click the Browse Server button.
5. The very first time you load an image (or document), click on your folder on the left (see picture below). After the first time, this folder will be the default folder, and all images and other files will load automatically into this folder.
6. Click the Upload button, then the Browse button.
7. Find the desired image, select it, and click the Open button.
8. Click the Upload button.
9. At this point the image is loaded up to the web server. If you want to Resize or Delete it, select the file, and click the Resize or Delete button.
10. To send the image to your blog or page, click the Send to FCKEditor button.
11. In the Alternative Text box, enter a description of the picture. This text will appear when a cursor is hovered over the picture. This text is also needed for 508 compliance for the visually impaired, since it can be read by screen readers.
12. Click the OK button.
13. Save your blog or page to save your work.
Attaching Files to Pages or Blogs
Since not all site visitors will have programs like Word and Excel at home, it is highly recommended that all documents be converted to PDF format before being attached to your blog or page. (See the end of this document for free PDF conversion options).
To attach a file to your Page or Blog:
1. Go to the desired page or blog and click the Edit button.
2. In the Body section, place your cursor at the location where the attachment will be linked, and type the text that will link to the document. See highlighted text in the example below.
3. Select the text, and then click the Insert/Edit Link button.
4. Click the Browse Server button.
5. The very first time you load a document (or image), click on your folder on the left (see picture below). After the first time, this folder will be the default folder, and all documents and other files will load automatically into this folder.
6. Click the Upload button, then the Browse button.
7. Find the desired file, select it, and click the Open button.
8. Click the Upload button. The file is now loaded up to the web server.
9. Click the Send to FCKEditor button.
10. Select the Target tab, and set the Target field to New Window.
11. Click the OK button.
12. Save your blog or page to save your work.
Inserting Links to Other Web Pages
1. Select the text or image that will link to another page (see the highlighted text in the example below).
2. Click the Insert/Edit Link button.
3. In the Link window that appears, enter the web address of the site you are linking to.
4. If you want the linked site to open in a new window, select the Target tab, and set the Target field to New Window.
5. Click the OK button on the Link window. Be sure to save the page when done.
Converting Files to PDF for Free
PDFCreator is a free PDF converter that has been approved by FCPS. It can be downloaded at:
http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator/download
Once this program is downloaded and installed, to convert files to PDF documents:
1. Open the file that you want to convert to PDF
2. From the main menu of that program, click File > Print
3. Set the Printer Name field to PDF Creator, and click the OK button
4. Enter a name for the file in the Document Title field, and click the Save button.
There are many other free and paid programs and websites that can convert files to PDF’s, such as the sites http://convert.neevia.com, http://www.zamzar.com, and http://www.freepdfconvert.com. Check with the technology coordinator or user support specialist in your building to discuss these options.
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