The site has been created and developed by a small team of people over the last several months. Now, as the new site is launched, the full GSB community will be able to explore the variety of available site-based tools designed to keep us all informed about all things GSB.
Navigating to the home page, virtually every first time viewer remarks on the quality of the photos in the slideshow. This new site supports a more dynamic home page that will do justice to the beauty of our campus.
Most of you will know that in the past we've used two web sites to communicate web-based school information. One site was public, fully accessible. The other was our password-protected intranet, KnightSite. KnightSite held class sites, pre-K - 12, as well as a host of other school-related information. Our new site combines both functions in one site. But in order to access the more private, secure information of "the new KnightSite," you'll have to log-in.
Logging in creates a web site - a set of pages - personalized to the specific users. Students, faculty and parents may have different information available based on their roles in the system. Additionally, all users have the ability to customize certain pages in order to received targeted information. The calendar provides one example of this user-specific functionality.
Above is a screenshot of the school's September calendar. Note the circled areas on the top of the page. The first allows the user to set the view (list or grid). In the center, there are options to display specific days, weeks, months or create a custom view. On the right, the Filter Options button allows users to filter for calendar listing. So if, for instance, a user only wanted athletic events to appear on the calendar, a couple of click will bring that result.
When a user logs in, the system identifies classes and important relationships associated with that specific user. These are listed in My Groups. In the screenshot below, you'll see that classes and children are identified for this parent/teacher.
On the KnightSite home page, convenience is built in to the page with a listing of important links to web sites frequently used by GSB community members. A click on any of the listed links will open a new tab in your browser and bring you to the selected home page. As Gill St. Bernard's School continues to expand web-based services, this centralization of link information is increasingly important. Whether you're looking for next week's menu, the weather on campus, your online grade book or Accelerated Reader quizzes, getting to your site efficiently is important.
It is a new site with plenty of features and great content to explore. Hopefully, everyone takes some time to look over the new site and be reminded of the beauty of our campus, the energy of our students, the focus of our faculty and the commitment of our parents and trustees.
