New Staff Tech

Georgetown Day School

A Short Technology Tour 

(with handouts)

Just like Kermit the Frog sings “It’s not easy being green,”
it’s not always easy starting at new at a school — but at GDS we want it to be as easy as possible.” 

Telephones 

A few documents can get you started.

• MJ’s Telephone Tips (PDF)
• Handy Telephone Guide (PDF from Cisco)

First Class E-mail

You will receive your e-mail during new staff orientation week. We use First Class as our software.  Most e-mail addresses use the first initial and the last name.  For instance Russell Shaw’s e-mail is RShaw@gds.org. Lower case and upper case letters are interchangeable. Read the First Class Getting Started tutorial written by Laura Loftus, and you can find others in the Technology Tutorials folder on your e-mail desktop.

 The GDS Network

Each faculty and staff member receives a password-protected access to the GDS Network. Our network space is sometimes called the “G Drive.”  You may also hear the networks referred to as LMS Common at the Lower School or HS Common at the High School.  Think of a secure password with two types of characters (letters, numbers, characters).  You will use this password to login to several places.  Basic Network 1 Basic Network 2 Where to Save Additional tutorials can be found in the Technology Tutorials folder on the GDS e-mail desktop.

The GDS Website – http://www.gds.org

GDS Online Classroom (linked from your MyGDS page)

A comprehensive online tutorial from Whipple Hill that Bruce Ruble edited and organized for Georgetown Day School community users.  GDS Online Classroom Tutorial

Report Writing Using FAWeb

GDS uses the Blackbaud database system. Blackbaud comes with a web-based report-writing system, Faculty Access for the Web (FAWeb for short). As your division gets closer to report time, the tech staff can help you get started. The preference is for teachers to write directly into the FAWeb rather than writing the reports separately and then copying and pasting into FAWeb. Getting Started Tutorial Tip sheets and tutorials are located in the Technology Tutorials folder on the e-mail desktop.