I wanted to introduce myself to you as the new Director of Technology. I will also be the Educational Technology Facilitator and teaching two courses C-Steam and Computer applications. I can't wait to start a new school year at Gaston Day! I grew up in Gastonia and even after meeting my husband in college, I brought him back and made him a Gaston County resident. He quickly became a lover of Sundrop and Blacks BBQ.

I am excited to jump right into the start of the school year and I wanted to invite all parents to a tutorial on parent portal in our new filtering system Securly. 

My background is in public school where there are filters in place set forth from the state. At my charter school I also used a filter called Zscaler where I was able to restrict websites by category, example: games, adult content, shopping, etc. Securly offers the same categories but what I like most about it is that Securly gives our parents a portal where they can view logs and monitor what the child sees on his or her school ipad.

I offer a web filter request where students and teachers can submit a website to be unblocked, they are asked questions such as, is this for educational use and does this site need to be unblocked for students and staff or staff only. I have been told by students I limit filtering too much and thanked by staff for blocking time wasting games and streaming sites. I would rather have them submit a request to view a blocked website than to view something controversial or spend study hall on time wasting sites.

I want us to work together to