FFHS website updated for new school

Although it’s been up and running in one form or another for more than three years, the Fort Frances High School web page now reflects the diversity of the new facility.
“We are rather proud of our latest design as it incorporates almost every facet of our new high school,” said Ken Stanley, who teaches computer courses at Fort High along with Chris Denby and Sherree Martin.
“There are links to each department, student activities, sports, computer class projects, maps of the new school layout, and much more,” he added.
The high school’s website address is http://eagle.rrdsb.com/~ffhs
Stanley noted many of the pages were designed and coded by computer students working directly in HTML, a programming language. And every networked computer in the school points to the high school website as its home page.
One particularly well-used link from the home page was the library research link, Stanley said, which was designed and maintained by both the computer teachers and FFHS librarian Joyce Cunningham.
Major resources accessible through the link include the library catalogue, EBSCO HOST (a database of 500 magazines, 415 pamphlets, and book reviews), E-STAT (enhanced socio-economic database from Statistics Canada), and Encyclopedia Britannica.
Resources to be added soon include “Exploring Shakespeare” (Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar), “Discovering Authors” (biographies and criticisms of most studied authors), and CPIQ (a service providing magazine articles and excerpts from reference books).
And the library home page has links to 50 other sites teachers have identified as being useful.
The FFHS library also is the first in Ontario to be part of the Follett Neighbourhood, an international linking of home pages and library collections.
In the near future, Cunningham said more sites will be added and grouped more effectively–using anchors to make them more accessible to students and staff.
Besides studying the home pages of other schools and libraries to get ideas, and discussing them with other librarians and computer resource personnel, the FFHS library page should continue to grow as new resources are located through the Consortium of Ontario Libraries (COOL) and other sources.
The computer teachers welcome comments on the site as they strive to update and improve it. They can be reached at kstanley@mail.rrdsb.com, smartin@mail.rrdsb.com, or cdenby@mail.rrdsb.com
Cunningham also welcomes feedback, and can be contacted at jcunningham@mail.com