BEGINNERS GUIDE TO

MICROSOFT TEAMS

Step By Step Tutorial and Cheatsheet

for Educators and Education in
General!
By

Oriol Neha

TABLE OF CONTENT

table of content
chapter 1
How to use Microsoft teams for teachers
INTRODUCTION
1. CONNECTION AND COLLABORATION:
2. INCLUSION:
3. MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK WITH RUBICS:
4. STAFF AND LEARNING COMMUNITIES:
5. ONENOTE CLASS NOTEBOOKS, BUILT INTO TEAMS:
Detailed step by step guide
 SOME KEY FEATURES OF MICROSOFT TEAMS
Teams could change the way you work:
Chapter 2
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS
A) When using a desktop
B) If you are using a mobile device
HERE ARE THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO CREATE TEAMS AND
CHANNELS IN MICROSOFT TEAMS
Chapter 3
HOW TO SET UP VIDEO CONFERENCING IN MICROSOFT TEAMS
HOW TO SCHEDULE MEETINGS
THREE ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF MICROSOFT TEAMS
IDEAS FOR USING CHANNELS IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Easy Tips for understanding Microsoft Teams tabs
Chapter 4
SURE WAYS TO INCREASE ASSIGNMENT-OUTPUT IN MICROSOFT CLASSROOM.
 CHAPTER 1

HOW TO USE MICROSOFT TEAMS FOR TEACHERS

INTRODUCTION
emote learning has come to replace classroom physical learning at least
R for the time being. It is also no surprise that teachers are leading the
charge to enable this transition, after all the medium of teaching may
have changed but it is still teaching anyway. This process of transition has
required that teachers and educators evolve and try to adapt to the use of
modern technology in teaching.
In a very short time, teachers and educators have had to adopt the use of
online platforms to engage and align with their students as they would have
in physical teaching. This transformative period has exposed the passion and
commitment of teachers who are interested in supporting the education of
their students.
The ability to communicate with students and other educators, the need to
enhance their teaching methods to make learning quicker and share their
ideas practically is the most important reason for the need of an online
platform.
Microsoft Teams is a digital platform that can be instrumental in the
transformation from in-person teaching to remote learning. Microsoft Teams
has been useful in remote learning already and there are some ways to get the
most out of it during learning:

1. CONNECTION AND COLLABORATION:

Microsoft teams with its built-in meetings can be used to administer
classroom meetings, use the virtual whiteboard as a tool for collaboration and
to even distribute and share documents. Microsoft Teams is a good digital
hub for collaboration as it permits assignments, conversations, files, video
calls and notes all combined. Even with the amazing status quo of Microsoft
Teams, it still guns for more improvements to plug loopholes and become
better for teachers and educators.

2. INCLUSION:

every educator knows that learning is not always uniformed for students.
There are different learning abilities and pace which require the use of
different tools and methods. It is very important to an educator to have digital
tools to carry students of all learning abilities along. Microsoft Teams has the
Immersive Reader feature and other features such as Message translation and
Live Captions which can be used for meetings.

3. MEANINGFUL FEEDBACK WITH RUBICS:

the most essential aspect of remote learning is the ability to of the teacher to
adopt good teaching practice. Microsoft Teams provides the assignment
feature with Rubic grading. Teachers can give the best feedback possible to
their students as well as transparency for students as relates their
assignments.
This way the students can be taught with the practical methods that will
develop their work. Teachers will also be equipped with the tool to score
their students transparently.

4. STAFF AND LEARNING COMMUNITIES:

Online learning requires essentially three things which include time

management, better organization and collaboration. Microsoft Teams has a
Staff teams feature together with the Professional Learning Community
teams to enable the unification of teachers and educators. The communication
of teachers and educators is made seamless with the use of Staff teams while
working together to enhance remote learning.

5. ONENOTE CLASS NOTEBOOKS, BUILT INTO

 TEAMS:
This is another feature or tool of Microsoft Teams that can be used for
effective teaching and learning. It is best used for taking notes for a range of
lessons and other activities. Students can make use of this feature as their
personal workspace, they can run to it for reference as they would a library,
they could get their content from there and they can even work together on
this space. This feature easily replaces the use of physical notes and handouts
which can be hard to use during remote learning.
Teachers are on the path as well as the student to perfect the practice of
remote learning. It is not supposed to be very easy as this transformation goes
from the normal physical or in-person learning to the use of digital
technology to educate students but Microsoft Teams plays a pivotal role in
making it easy for everyone involved to enjoy remote learning. Educators and
teachers hardly have it easy without the use of Microsoft Teams and all its
learning features.
We would examine further how much impact and ease of application
Microsoft Teams provides for teachers and educators in remote learning
From class setup

DETAILED STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Learning in the classroom has been the norm until schools were recently shut
down due to the ongoing pandemic. In the world today most schools have
tried to rise to the challenge by using online class sessions to teach their
students. Learning online has been challenging to a lot of people especially
those who have poor network coverage in their residential location and those
who might not afford the data. Learning online however has proven overtime
to still be engaging and connecting just as learning in school. Live class
meetings have made it possible for students and teachers to stay in touch and
help each other. With live meetings it still gives a feeling like they are
meeting each other in person but it has its limitations. With this the teacher
can monitor the students’ daily work and know their progress, they can give
them assignments too. Some students feel more confident and are more able
to speak out in online class meetings than they did in their classrooms. Some
students also feel more connection with their teachers and classmates in
online classes.

Microsoft Teams is an online live classroom

platform that helps teachers create a conducive and real learning
environment, it is part of Microsoft office 365 tools. It is more like a digital
hub which houses content, conversations and homework in one platform. It
helps to connect the individuals and makes for a professional learning
experience. Some of the things educators can do on Teams include; make
OneNote Class Notebooks, discuss with students, Give and grade
assignments, share files and website links. Educators can effectively get
timely feedback when they organize interactive online lessons with the help
of end to end assignment management and the in-built OneNote Class
Notebooks. Staff Teams can be used by administrators and staff to stay up to
date. They can make announcements and have topical conversations on the
platform. The Professional learning communities enable educators to share
instructional materials and keep the entire staff informed.
Microsoft teams has platforms that are available for mobile i.e. IOS and
Android and for desktop which includes Linux, windows and Mac. This
makes staying connected possible for all.

SOME KEY FEATURES OF MICROSOFT TEAMS

 THERE IS BASICALLY NOTHING TO DOWNLOAD OR BUY:
When using Microsoft teams you don’t have to buy any new software or
download anything, this is because Microsoft teams are cloud-based. Once
you have an Office 365 Education subscription which is free too you will get
the services of Microsoft teams for free too. The statement I made above
purely majors on desktop i.e. people using Linux, Mac or Windows but don’t
worry Teams on the go app can be used on Android and IOS for mobile
devices too. This makes the teams app easily accessible from anywhere and it
is all for free.
EASY COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION:
Communication on the Microsoft teams platform between teachers and their
students can either be done in groups or individually depending on the desire
of the teacher. Private chats can be created between users on the platform.
Announcements and information coming from the teacher can be directed to
one student or the entire class. Furthermore, the teacher can decide to divide
the team into sub-categories or smaller groups to enable more effective file
storage or give them special projects or assignments. This is very possible
because of the channel feature. Using the in-built Skype technology, users
can do video meetings or can use flipgrid to conduct video discussions. All
these features are integrated into the Teams platform.
OneNote Class Notebooks can be used by teachers to give feedback to
individual students and share notes. Faculty members can collect and curate
resources when notebooks and files are shared among them. This can also
enable the staff to share professional development material and help them
collaborate in developing new documents. At the left column in the platform
teams are listed and separate channels can be created from the team to enable
a more organized discussion.
SOME APP INTEGRATIONS:
This is an interesting feature and this makes it easy to use some educational
apps while on the platform. Some interesting apps found in the Microsoft
teams platform include Flipgrid, Nearpod, Kahoot, and Quizlet. With
frequent usage, a designated tab for an app used by a group can be added to
the platform to help easy access. There are many interesting educational apps
which are integrated with Microsoft teams and they can easily be accessed
without having to leave the platform.
ASSIGNMENTS

This is a new amazing feature that was

recently added to Microsoft teams. It has been said to have been facilitated by
the addition of chalkup platforms. This platform joined Microsoft this year
and it has been said that they brought this innovation. Assignments are now
being managed on the platform with ease and efficiency. With the assignment
tools educators can easily create and give students assignments and also get
feedback from the students on them. You can easily create files and attach
them using the Microsoft office tools available like One Note, word, Excel,
and PowerPoint which are in the platform and you will instruct your students
to follow your lead.
 For assessing the assignments that have been
completed by students, the educator can use Rubrics. The Rubric can be built
using a rubric builder. You can customize your rubrics and permit users to
add a written feedback to it. You can also go back to edit a score that you had
earlier assigned. The rubric feature can be created and used and reused for
other assessments.

TEAMS COULD CHANGE THE WAY YOU WORK:

Microsoft teams have made it possible for people all over the world to enjoy
services that they could have gotten from different platforms to be all
embedded in one platform. This has helped to reduce the stress of opening
different accounts in different platforms and having to move from one app to
the other. This helps to provide quality time and energy to focus on one
platform and get the best out of it.
Teams give students the opportunity to easily contact and communicate with
their educators if they have any problem and this makes for more
collaboration between the teachers and students. With this, the quality of
teaching and learning greatly improves. Students can also discuss effectively
with each other and collaborate with each other. Collaborative projects can
easily be assigned to students and the progress can easily be monitored in the
different groups.
 This platform makes it possible for students
who are introverts to be active in the discussions. It also makes it possible
meetings to be fewer and less time consuming. This is because it is more like
a central location for professional learning and easy collaboration.
 CHAPTER 2

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS

his is a step-by-step guide on how to start using Microsoft Teams:
T 1. Firstly you have to create an Account

A) WHEN USING A DESKTOP

Step 1: i) make sure you have a good internet connection, and then open
office 365 tools.
ii) Select Microsoft Teams, it will take you to the Microsoft Teams web page
and then you should click on the profile icon at the top-right corner of the
screen.
Step 2: A “Sign in” page will appear, then go ahead and click on “Create
one!” link. This will enable you to set up a new account.
 Step 3: i) Now you are on the “Create account”
window, you will enter your email address (if you have a work email address
it will be preferable).
ii) After inputting your email details then you can click on the “Next” button.

Step 4: i) You can now go ahead and

create a password you just have to follow the instructions on the screen. Then
you can enter your details on the next page.
ii) You can now visit the Microsoft Teams homepage and start using the
Microsoft teams app after entering your details and verifying your email.

B) IF YOU ARE USING A MOBILE DEVICE

You just need to download a Microsoft teams app and follow the instructions
above to create a Microsoft teams account.
2. You can download Microsoft Teams App
You can either decide to access the Microsoft teams app from the cloud or
from the web page or you can download the app for direct access.
 A) FOR DESKTOP
Step 1: You just need to open the Microsoft teams webpage from above and
you can easily download the Microsoft teams app. At the top of the web page
screen you will see the “Download Teams” tab just click on it.
Step 2: After clicking on the “Download teams tab” then you will see options
that will be listed out. Go ahead and select “Download for desktop” and it
will take you where you can download for Windows or Mac OS, this will
depend on the OS of your computer.
Step 3: After completing the download, open the file and install it using the
instructions that are attached to it.
B) For mobile
Step 1: You can simply go to the Google play store or the IOS App store
depending on the OS of your mobile device and download the Microsoft
teams app.
Step 2: Once you have downloaded and installed the Microsoft teams app,
open the app and start using it by logging into the account you created above.

B. HOW TO CREATE TEAMS AND CHANNELS

Let’s start by explaining the meaning of channels and teams for easy
understanding as this is a beginners guide.
A team usually consists of the entire organization and it is in a nutshell group
of people who collaborate together.
However, Channels are more like segregated conversations or sub-teams,
each channel can be dedicated to a project, task or a department.

HERE ARE THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO

CREATE TEAMS AND CHANNELS IN MICROSOFT
TEAMS
1. Create a team

A) FOR DESKTOP
Step 1: You have downloaded the app; open the app by clicking on it. At the
bottom left side of the Teams sidebar you will see the “Join or create team”
option, click on it.
Step 2: Click on the “Create team” option, on the new interface that appears.
Step 3: On the next interface, you can select:
Create from an Office 365 group existing before
Create a team from Scratch
You may have existing groups or teams if your organization was using Office
365 before they signed up for teams.
If not, go ahead and create a team from scratch.
Step 4: Defining who will be part of the team is the next thing to do. The
way you want to arrange or organize your Team will be the most important
factor that will come to play.
Public: If the members of your Team will be temporary or changing from
time to time this is best for you.
Private: This will be appropriate if the members of your Team are specific
and few.
Org-Wide: This option is Ideal if you are hosting a large population like an
entire organization or an entire school as one. You can now divide into
departments using the channels feature. This is an amazing option and makes
arrangement of the different compartments of an organization easy and they
will still be together in one Team.
Step 5: You can now go ahead and name your team once you have chosen
the type of team you want to create.
An appropriate team name should be chosen and then at the bottom right of
the screen click create. Your team will now be created.
Step 6: At the left sidebar of your Teams app, the new team you have created
will appear there. Click on the three dots just beside the team name and select
“Add member” to add members to the team you have created.
Step 7: Gradually input the names of the members of the organization that
you want to add to the team. You can give guest access to people from
outside your firm through their email address; it is a good way to host
external users.
B) FOR MOBILE
Step 1: Tap on the Microsoft teams app to open it.
Step 2: You can get to the manage teams page by tapping on the “Teams”
icon at the bottom of the app interface and then tap the icon of “two people
and a plus sign” at the top right corner of the screen. .
Step 3: To successfully create a new team you have to add a team description,
Name the team and set up the privacy of the team.
Adding members is the next thing to do after creating the team. Tap the
“more options” tab with three dots beside it and select the add members
option. You easily add members to your team by typing in their names.
Note: You can easily use the desktop or web app to add people in groups or
multiple members at the same time. This may not be possible in the mobile
app.
2. Create a channel
 A) FOR DESKTOP
You can now create channels after building your team. A general channel is
created by Microsoft teams by default.
You can follow the steps below to add additional channels:
Step 1: You can easily add channels by clicking on the three dots next to the
team that you created or any team you want to add channels in and select
“Add channel”
Step 2: In the next interface that appears, you can now easily:
Create a suitable channel name.
You can also add the channel description.
You can decide to allow access to every team member or a few selected
members; this can be done by modifying the privacy settings.
You can click on the Add button to create the channel, once you have
completed the required settings.
B) FOR MOBILE
Step 1: Click on the teams icon at the bottom of the mobile app interface.
Step 2: To add channels from a team, tap the three dots for the team and then
select “Manage options” which will open a new tray of options.
Step 3: To create a new channel tap on “Add +”. You can add a description
for the channel and name it if you like. Adding a name to the channel will
help you to easily identify it and differentiate it from other channels.
Step 4: Simply tap “Done” if you are creating a standard channel. If you
want to make it a private channel, you can do that by selecting “Privacy” and
selecting “Private”, and then you can now select “Done”. This privacy of the
group will depend on the purpose for creating the channel.
Step 5: If the channel you created is a private channel, the add members will
appear automatically. You can decide to add members immediately or skip it
and add members later. After adding members your channel is ready and set
for use.

CHAPTER 3

HOW TO SET UP VIDEO CONFERENCING IN

MICROSOFT TEAMS

When using Microsoft Teams you can

easily do Video conferencing.
This is the way to go about it:
A) FOR DESKTOP
Step 1: Go to the team or channel that you intend to have a video conference
with when you open the Microsoft teams app.
Under the compose box there is a small camera icon, click on it.
Step 2: You can click “meet now” to start the video call or you can add a
subject description to it before starting.
Step 3: You can share your interface with everyone who joins the call, turn
your camera and microphone on/off using the toolbar on the screen of the
video call. This depends on how you want it.
B) FOR MOBILE
Step 1: Go to the team you want to start a video call with, when you open the
app.
Step 2: Tap “Video call” in the selected chat and the video calling will start.
Participants can easily answer whether they are using mobile devices or
desktop.
With this knowledge of how to easily make video calls, online meetings and
discussions can easily be held anytime you want to.

HOW TO SCHEDULE MEETINGS

Where everyone’s presence is needed,

especially important meetings it is important to schedule the meetings. With
proper scheduling, people can easily sync the meetings with their calendar
and make out adequate time for it.
Here is a guide on how to create meeting schedules in Microsoft Teams:
A) FOR DESKTOP
Step 1: Below the compose box you will see a tab “schedule a meeting” or a
calendar icon, select it.
Step 2: On the left pane go to the calendar and select “New meeting” you
will see it at the top right.
Step 3: The form will open to help you once you select the time range in the
calendar.
Step 4: You can check the availability of everyone using the Scheduling
assistant. You can modify the meeting details by adding the title, adding
other details and inviting participants.
Step 5: To complete the scheduling process click on the save button.
Automatically participants will receive the invitations in their outlook inbox.
B) FOR MOBILE
Step 1: Tap the Calendar at the bottom of the app and go to “Schedule a
meeting” near the top-right.
Step 2: Tap on “Add participants” to invite everyone you need.
Step 3: Set the start time and end time for the meeting. Write a description as
well.
Step 4: Tap “Done” to finish scheduling your Teams meeting!

THREE ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF MICROSOFT

TEAMS
Teams an excellent communication tool for far as well as in-office teams,
there are three things that make it so:
1. INSTANT MESSAGING
 This is an interesting feature added to Microsoft Teams.
Imagine being able to message anyone in the team at any point you want to.
There are a lot of amazing things that this feature can do. This still goes to
show further the Microsoft team is an excellent collaborative tool. This helps
to keep the team connected at every point.
It can help you to:
Easily have a group video chat or a group quick chat.
It can assist you to transfer replies from your Microsoft outlook inbox
directly into a quick chat.
You can also easily have informal conversations with stickers and gifs.
2. LIVE EVENTS

This also another interesting feature that is available on

Microsoft teams.
The Microsoft Teams live events are usually broadcasts meant for large
groups of people or audiences.
Live events are really a form of communication and this is unlike video
conferences and calls which do not really communicate but is more like one
sided. The audience interaction is basically limited to only seeing the content
that is being put out. This can be likened to the recent trend on social media
where some musicians are hosting free concerts.
With this feature on Microsoft teams you can do the following:
Live events can be hosted for an audience of up to 10000 people.
You can easily record the live events for audiences to stream even after the
live broadcast has ended.
You decide to make the broadcast public or allow only some few people
access to it. The choice is yours.
3. APP INTEGRATIONS

There are a lot of wonderful apps in the

workplace which Microsoft teams integrate with to make communication
across various platforms easy.
Some of the apps it integrates with includes:
MeisterTask: This is a special task manager which is made for collaboration
between two or more agile teams.
Azure boards: This is majorly made of dashboards, scrum boards and kanban
boards
Nimble Contacts: Within the team this can be basically used to access
customer insights

IDEAS FOR USING CHANNELS IN YOUR CLASSROOM

You can start a new channel for any of the reasons below but especially to
help you keep your team organized and flowing smoothly.
• Private channels for mini-group work
• Channels into units or topics
• Project or research channels
• Q&A or resources channels
• Channels for joint study space for students (tutorials inclusive)
• Unit idea channels (You can create a new unit and hide/delete after unit
is over)
• Multi-content Channels(Distribute different content to different groups
by creating exclusive channels)
REMEMBER TO;
• Hide the channel after you have moved onto new content or ideas.
• Change the channel notifications to your preference or level of alerts.

EASY TIPS FOR UNDERSTANDING MICROSOFT TEAMS

TABS
Additional Tabs can be added in each channel so it allows for interactivity
and reaching the maximum potential of Teams by adding Apps to the tabs.
It is a superb feature that adds great productivity and creativity to the student
experience.
The tabs stack are stacked on top of each other and cannot be moved around
once chosen.
See it as a "right now" space. Bear it in mind that, "This is what we are
working on right now" and remove tabs as you work through other content.
GREAT APPS FOR YOUR TABS.
Website: Use this app to introduce cool apps like Seesaw and Adobe
Spark.You can also use it to display student work and projects in an open
place.
Stream: Use Stream to insert videos. Here are a few ideas to get this in
respect to education.
• Past Team meeting calls
• Videos that you don’t want to put on YouTube
• Videos created for students to use as a resource
• Tutorials
• Student-created video content
Microsoft Forms: Make use of these forms for student survey and quick
assessment strategies.
Project Board: Project Boards are used to create a workflow for projects and
aid students to keep track of team tasks.
Flipgrid: A Flipgrid Grid can be introduced directly into a channel so that
students can answer prompts in topics straight from teams.
Buncee: Addition of this app allows you to share a Buncee or board with
your class.
Nearpod: Share an already-made Nearpod lesson with your students by using
this app although you will need to create a Nearpod account to access this
feature.
Wakelet: Gain access to a Wakelet full of resources for your students.
Pear Deck: Pear Deck allows you to launch your interactive PowerPoint
presentations directly from Teams to productively engage each of your
students every day!
• NOTE: There are so many ways you can use these apps for Formative
Assessment and Demonstrations of Learning.
• ALERT: If you are a fan of any Google-created sites like Arts and
Culture or Tour Builder sites like these cannot be added into a Team via App
 10 GREAT IDEAS FOR CLASS VIDEO MEETINGS
The question most teachers have isn’t which video meeting platform to use.
It’s how to use it with their students. Break the stereotype of video meetings
as long, tiring lectures by exploring the 10 options listed below;
1. Have whole-class lectures.
2. Organize mini-group instructions
3. Follow your students up for missing assignments/Project works
4. Try a Class Check-in Call
5. Encourage Class Presentations.
6. Read aloud to your students sometimes.
7. Invite virtual Guest Speakers
8. Collaborate with other classes.
9. Make out time to attend to any questions your students might have.
10. Let the parents in by allowing Parents Check-in Calls.
 CHAPTER 4

SURE WAYS TO INCREASE ASSIGNMENT-OUTPUT IN

MICROSOFT CLASSROOM.

A ssignments are the workflow in Microsoft

classroom feedback cycle go round.
Teams that makes the

Good assignments engage students in the productive work as they provide

timely, helpful feedback.
In this section, you'll discover several ways to level up your assignments in
Teams.
How to make an assignment in Teams.
The assignment feature in Teams is very straightforward as you will see listed
below;
1. Click on the ‘Assignments’ tab from your class team and Click ‘Create'.
2. Type the assignment title
3. Give students detailed instructions or attach resource files.
4. Decide how many points the assignment will be
5. Choose someone to assign the Assignment to.
6. Pick a due date and time
7. Click ‘Assign' so students will be able to see it
8. Use ‘Edit Assignment’ to make changes and click ‘Students View' to know
what your students see.
9. Monitor Students Progress in Teams.
10. View student’s work, open files, give feedback and award scores.
11. Return work to students so they can see your feedback
12. Students can re-submit work for revision, updates or more feedback.
TIPS TO LEVEL UP YOUR MICROSOFT TEAMS
ASSIGNMENTS
Improve your assignment practices little by little by following the
suggestions below that can give you a head-start to begin!
TITLES
1. Use categories to enhance better organization. Categories allow teachers to
organize assignments into easy to find topics. This is helpful for students’
executive functioning issues to be able to find information again. For
example, in an English Class you might do something like Writing Prompts,
Essays, Reading, Projects and Poetry.
2. Use Abbreviations in titles. Titles are very important in Microsoft Teams.
When students view assignments, often the first thing they see are titles.
Coming up with some naming conventions can help you maximize that prime
space.
• Unit/chapter codes: For e.g. U4C3 in titles can mean "unit 4 chapter 3".
It gets the idea across in very few characters.
• Emojis: Use an emoji to mean something in your titles. A paper could
mean a written assignment while a movie camera could mean a video
assignment.
INSTRUCTIONS
3. Use video instructions to level up student understanding. Teams allow you
to leave instructions but at times the font is too small for most students who
might not be able to read it, help all students by leaving a video of the
directions. From the Instructions area in teams click on “Add Resources” and
choose link and add link to a video for easy access.
4. Leave Instructions -- then revise them. Create assignments and give it a
title but make sure you take the time to leave detailed instructions for the
benefit of everyone. Update changes in an assignment by using the
‘instructions' in Teams. This helps students to avoid assignments that don’t
reflect the most recent changes.
5. Make instructions easy to read. Nobody likes to read a huge block of text.
It takes its toll on the eyes. Break up your instruction with double returns;
endeavor to add bullet points and numbered lists. Fortunately, Teams
supports colored text and text highlights. Make use of them – Bold, italics
and underline – to help important ideas stand out.
6. Be concise. You can be detailed and yet concise. Students don’t need
flowery prose in instructions or a lecture they need you to go straight so they
can get started.

ATTACHMENTS.
7. Add the accurate amount of attachments. Do not turn Teams Assignment
to a dumping ground for attachments that might not be used because it’s
super easy to add. Don’t add them because it feels like right; add attachments
because they serve a purpose.
8. Add a layer of collaboration with attachments where everyone can edit.
Create an empty collaborative space for students in Word or PowerPoint. Use
a share link and make it "anyone with the link can edit" and add that link to
the assignment’s description. Make sure to think ahead about …
• How collaboration enhances the assignment
• What students should do in the space
• What behavior is appropriate for the space
9. Add “students edit their own copy” attachments. After attaching a file,
choose “make a copy” so it can automatically distribute copies of that file to
each students and add the students’ names to the file name for students who
need their personal space to work on an assignment or just reflect
NOTE: This is a great way to distribute digital versions of mindless
electronic worksheets. Resist the temptation to do that. Do not forget that
classroom technology is an opportunity to teach/learn differently, to be better
at what we do.
10. Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Document. As a teacher,
students will come to you asking the same question multiple times. Save
yourself the stress of answering the same questions time and time again by
creating a FAQ.
• After creating a FAQ Word document.
• Attach it as a "students can't edit" attachment.
• Predict some questions students may have and add their answers to the
document.
• When a student asks any question that has been covered in the FAQ,
refer the student to the document.
• If it hasn't been covered, do well to type your answer (and the question)
in the document.
11. Share success criteria with rubrics. Try using a rubric that can be directly
attached to and created within the assignment area. A single point rubric
would be a perfect way to allow kids to understand what is being asked of
them without getting them confused with loads of criteria. As Jennifer
Gonzalez states in her post, Meet the Single Point Rubric, “Students find
them easier to read when preparing an assignment. With only the target
expectations to focus on, they are more likely to read those expectations.”
ASSIGNMENTS.
12. Differentiate by assigning to different students. Differentiation, when
multifaceted, happens best when we assign different forms of the same
assignment to different students based on their individualized learning
journey. Teams make it easy to do this.
• You can assign to more than one class at time - which makes the
process easy for teachers.
• The best part, however, is the ability to differentiate student
assignments by posting different assignments to certain students!
DUE DATE
13. Give a due date but be flexible. Due dates should be artificial as they’re
arbitrary times and dates set by a teacher when an assignment has to be
submitted. As the goal is learning, the learning should be the priority more
than rigidly sticking to a deadline.
Submit
14. Allow your students to revise and resubmit their work. Once the
assignment is over, the feedback loop stops. But if students are allowed to use
feedback as a means to improve work while the assignment is still going on,
the feedback cycle continues and students show more interest in that
feedback. Allow resubmission of student work into your assignments so it
becomes a normal, expected part of the workflow making feedback a part of
the improvement of student work.
CONCLUSION
Microsoft teams are really interesting software. It is easy to use and it is
better than most apps that are used for video conferencing because it is cheap
to obtain because you don’t necessarily need to download the app. The app is
in the cloud and can be accessed there when you open the web page. It has
easy steps to create an account and sign in. You don’t need to pay to buy a
premium version or a pro version. Microsoft teams are totally free and there
is no need for upgrades. It helps organizations to connect and collaborate
with having to be physically present. It is also a very important tool for
teachers and educators around the world. Teachers can use the tool
effectively to give lessons to their students and they can easily monitor their
attentiveness during the class session. Before creating a meeting you have to
decide if you want it immediately or schedule it for a later date. Scheduling a
meeting makes it easier for students to plan and have a better attendance.
Microsoft teams are easy to use for the students too. Without internet access a
student can still gain access to an ongoing meeting by a phone call. For me
this is one of the most amazing features. The teacher can give students group
projects by grouping then into channels. Microsoft teams also enable the
teacher to share PowerPoint slides while on the meeting and attach notes for
the students after it. Students can be accessed by giving them assignments on
the platform. For me this is almost fully a classroom. The assignments can be
accessed and returned back to the students on the platform too. The app also
gives students the opportunity to give their teacher feedback on the
assignment that was given to them. Microsoft teams is the best app for
modern day education in a world where schools are not functional. It also
makes meeting online close to what is obtained by meeting in the traditional
classrooms.