Teams is now available for teacher and student use!
Teams is a platform that works inside of Office 365 to help you connect and work with staff and students around documents and files. It allows users to create teams, invite people to join and then chat around and share documents easily. Within in each team, members can create channels that come with a text based conversation space, a place to load and share files and the ability to customize through the addition of tabs that can connect to documents and other tools.
One killer feature that is available to teachers, is the ability to create assignments from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files and easily distribute copies to students. Students are then able to complete their work right in the app and turn it in to the teacher. Finally, teachers can attach custom rubrics that will score automatically tabulate the score. To learn more about Teams, and get started using it click on the patch below.
What is Teams?
Teams is a digital platform within Office 365 that brings conversations, content, and apps together in one place. It enables teachers to create collaborative, paperless classrooms and also can be used to create professional learning communities.
You already have access to the tools through ISD’s Office 365 account.
What does Teams Do?
Teams are groups of Office 365 users (determined by the creator of the team) that provide an online space to converse around and share documents.
Each team can create sub-spaces which are called channels. These channels allow teams to focus on individual topics or work. Each channel has a conversation space where team members can share ideas and post documents. Each file uploaded or shared to a channel is stored in the files tab of each channel.
So why bother with Teams?
Teams is an easy to set-up and use platform that will allow you as a teacher to do the following:
- Engage student voice through persistent conversation tools built into the platform
- Easily support collaboration through document sharing. No more getting links or email addresses, simply load a file and it is shared with the team, ready for collaboration
- End-to-End assignment management allows you to create, assign, collect and provide feedback on student work
How do I access Teams?
Visit Teams by logging into Office.com and then clicking on the Teams icon at the top of the dashboard or download the app (android || iOS)
You can also install the Teams desktop application to your computer.
How do I log into Teams?
Visit Office.com and use the following credentials:
Username: ISD email address (e.g. – birgissonj@issaquah.wednet.edu)
Password: ISD newtwork password
Helpful Hints
Use Class Codes to Invite Students
Teams makes it easy to add students to a class. You can add them yourself by clicking on the three dots to right of the team name (in the Teams nav panel) and choosing Add Members. This will bring up a dialogue box that lets you type in names and finds the students in our active directory.
Or, you can have the students add themselves. To do that follow the directions below:
1.) Click on the three dots to the right of the team name in the nav panel
2.) Choose Manage Team > Settings > Team Code
3. Click the button that says Generate
4.) Students will then choose Join or Create Team and enter the code in the box that says Enter Code
The Files Tab = Easy Document Sharing
Teams lets you create spaces for specific topics, projects or ideas related to your team. These spaces are called channels. Each channel gets a conversation tab, files tab and a notes tab. The conversation tab lets team members chat and share documents, while the Files tab is a place to load or create documents meant to be shared. Placing a document in the files tab automatically makes it editable by all members of the team.
Forms Quizzes = Immediate Feedback for Student
If you create a quiz in Microsoft Forms, you can then distribute that to students through the Assignments feature of Teams. When students finish taking the quiz, they can see their score right away. This lets students see what they need to learn. A great and quick formative assessment tool that does the grading for you.
Resources
Working With Assignments in Teams
Teams Training Videos
Where can I get help with Teams?
Each school building has an Ed Tech Lead (a fellow staff member) who can help you with any questions you might have. You can find out who your Ed Tech Lead is here.
You can always contact any of the Instructional Technology Specialists in the Ed Tech department as well. We are here to help.
