Microsoft Teams - Announcments

Here's a quick tip for making your messages stand out in Teams:

https://youtu.be/3g79NrBYHlw

Messages and announcements in Microsoft Teams This video shows how to create good messages and announcements in Microsoft Teams. Learn the basics to ensure your message is properly crafted. More details ... youtu.be

Microsoft Teams Meetings

As we move into week 3 (wow!) of our Flexible Education Program and Remote Learning, you may find a need to better communicate with your students.  

Teams has a built-in Meeting option for you to video-conference with students, the entire class, or multiple classes.  Here are a few resources to help you get started.  If you want to test the Meeting, let me know and I'll be happy to be your guinea pig. 😁

I've had a Team Meeting a couple of times and here are a few things to consider:

1. Make sure you change the participants (students) to Attendees, otherwise they will have the ability to mute you and other attendees and take control of the meeting.
2. Record the meeting so you can post it for students who were unable to attend.
3. END the meeting so students cannot jump on to the call after you leave.
4. You can share resources (PowerPoint, Word doc, etc.) with the meeting attendees so have those open and ready to share before you start the meeting.  (There's also a Whiteboard option if you need a blank space for writing.)

This is a short video to show you how to set up a meeting and set students to attendees.

https://youtu.be/WDU9ezNAipw

Using Teams Meeting with students and setting them as attendees Setting up a Meet Now from the channel posts is awesome but it does not let you set Meeting options. To do that, instead use Schedule Meeting when setting up... youtu.be

This one is a little long but they discuss Teams Meetings at the beginning so you don't have to watch the entire video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpgA3UBlWMs&feature=youtu.be

Microsoft Education - Meeting in Teams and Remote Learning at Renton Prep - YouTube We go deep into meetings, online lectures, and cool features for Microsoft Teams with Teams for EDU Program Manager, Gordon Chang. We also are joined by Renton Prep head of school, Michelle Zimmerman. www.youtube.com

This one shows you how to use the Meet Now option to give (almost) immediate feedback to student questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJc1t34F7OY

Providing Assignment Support with Teams Meeting Is a student confused about the directions on an assignment? Click on the activities bell to see students commenting on assignments. Think a video chat would help? Click MEET NOW icon right in the reply and start chatting. Use the record options www.youtube.com

Free TCEA Membership

This is a great opportunity to join TCEA for free.  They always have great resources and PD throughout the year.

https://blog.tcea.org/free-membership-remote-learning/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-membership-remote-learning

Here for You: Free Membership and Remote Learning Help • TechNotes Blog You may not feel completely prepared to provide remote learning to your students. But TCEA is here to help you with free membership and resources. blog.tcea.org

Digital Reading Resources

Here's a how-to guide for accessing eBooks from our library. It's for a mobile device but should be accessible from any device. 

I also compiled a list of links to our library as well as some of the free sources like Audible and the Houston Library.

https://wke.lt/w/s/TyUO_6

Digital Reading Resources - Wakelet This is a collection of eBook and audiobook options available! wke.lt

Microsoft Forms - Quizzes: View and Post Scores

These two videos explain how to view and post scores for a quiz in Microsoft Forms. The first video explains the basics of posting scores for a multiple choice quiz and the second gives more information about posting, as well as how to find your quizzes on the Forms page. This second part also shows you how to score a short answer quiz.

part one:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/8bfe56af-b3d0-486b-9fa6-44a74678f349

part two:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/83463e93-782b-4700-8bfc-be0920487ec0

Just remember, I teach English! I don't math. I think isolation is finally catching up with me! 😀

Microsoft Meetings - Security Settings

This is a good explanation of how to set meeting options so students are not Presenters in the meeting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDU9ezNAipw&list=PLqa7N83LLptyBLm66UYMKxaKLhvZg4rR9&index=24&t=0s

Using Teams Meeting with students and setting them as attendees - YouTube Setting up a Meet Now from the channel posts is awesome but it does not let you set Meeting options. To do that, instead use Schedule Meeting when setting up a Meet Now. This allows you to go to ... www.youtube.com

Microsoft Forms - Quizzes

I apologize upfront because this video is much longer than my others, but this is a popular topic and in light of recent extensions, I think more of you may want to use the Quiz option in Microsoft Forms for assessments.

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/62a84fcb-927c-49cd-ae4c-f09678e7da20

I'm working on another video to give you a better idea of what it looks like once you have student responses and how to submit those scores to Teams.

Math folks: I will work on a video to show you some math features but some of your peers have used this and can help in the meantime.

Microsoft Teams - Student View

Here is a video to show you what assignments look like from the student side.  I hope this will help you troubleshoot or explain the process for students if they are having issues. 

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/52da8f21-1482-4d3d-b924-5fb8e4d7be2a

A few things we've learned about Teams:

• There is a 10 file limit, despite the file size, when submitting work to an assignment in Teams.  It's best if students are able to scan their assignments into one file.  So far, the file size hasn't been an issue. 
• One way they can do this is with Office Lens, which integrates with OneDrive, Scannable (I have not used this app), OR they can use the Notes app on the iPhone.  I've seen several Facebook posts about this feature. It works great and will upload files to OneDrive.  I was not able to get it to upload directly to Teams from this app but if I can figure it out, I'll let you know. Here is a quick how-to guide for using the Notes app.  
• Students cannot edit within Teams; they will need to open the document in Word online and then edit. (This is only if you've given them a Word document as part of your assignment. I think the video explains it a little better.)
• Also remember: file names cannot have any special characters like #.  When the student submits the file it will not work but it does not give any error messages to let them know the problem. 

I will put these resources into the LCM Team. Let me know if you have any questions or find something really cool! I know we've had issues and it's not perfect but I'm learning every day from you all. 

Staff Team

I created a Team for the high school staff, so we have one place to go for support and information about the remote learning resources.  This is still a work in progress, but you can find the videos and resources I've shared this past week on the first page.  I'll continue to email tutorials as I create them or resources as I find them but I will also curate those in this Teams site.  

In the Team, I created a page for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Forms so you can ask questions or post solutions to problems you've run into as you use these tools. Many of you have done some amazing things this past week and learned some dos and don'ts and tips and tricks that we can all benefit from.

You should get an email that you've been added, but if not, you should see a new Team called LCM High School when you open the Teams app.

I hope this helps with everything in one place instead of searching through 100s of emails looking for the information.

I have more student tutorials coming after I review them and I'll send them to Marcia to post on the high school website. My students did a great job and I think they will be helpful for students who are having trouble.

Learn 360 / More Teams Tutorials / FlipGrid

I want to share some information about Learn360, which is one of our TexQuest resources.  This morning I was looking for some resources for one of my classes and I was amazed at what they have available - videos, printables, audio, maps and flags, and STEM Lessons.  Science and math teachers, y'all will want to check out this section.

Here's a quick video to get you started: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/26188eda-c1df-495a-a9cd-372d4eb25df6

I also came across this collection of tutorials for Teams - they are short videos targeting specific tasks in Teams.  

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqa7N83LLptyHiUNIrdFB11tacCLcvVpy

Microsoft Teams Start - YouTube Sign in to like videos, comment, and subscribe. Sign in. Watch Queue Queue www.youtube.com

I don't want to overwhelm anyone, but if you are looking for an easy way to get feedback from your students "in person" you may want to try FlipGrid.  I gave my classes a quick assignment here and it was so nice to see their faces!  And it's easily integrated in Teams.  Here is a quick-start guide for FlipGrid but it was really easy to get started. Flipgrid-Remote-Learning.pdf

Microsoft Forms - Quiz Settings

I had a question about allowing students to retake a quiz in Teams.  The default setting is one response per user but you can change this and several other options that you might find helpful.

This explains how to change the defaults.

Microsoft Immersive Reader

This video is a bit long (17 minutes) but is an excellent overview of the Immersive Reader app, which is embedded in Office 365.   Just keep in mind that this will not work in a pdf that is attached in Teams.  It does work with pdf files through OneNote and if anyone is interested in this I can work with you to get this set up.

IR is a powerful tool for our students with accommodations, ELLs, auditory learners, etc. Really, all of our students can benefit from Immersive Reader.

Math teachers: around 11:41 in the video they talk about some math features that are available in OneNote, and that are compatible with Immersive Reader.

Also, here is a link to Microsft Teams tutorials on YouTube: 

If you need help and can't find me or just want to research it on your own, you may find what you need here.

Thank you for everything you're doing for our students. You've all been incredible to work with, I've learned so much in the past two days, and I couldn't be prouder to be a part of this team!

Teams Notes and Student Tutorial

To those who came for training today, thank you for your patience and perseverance!  We made it through Day 1. 🙂

One of my awesome students made a tutorial showing how students submit assignments.  Of course, there are many scenarios, so as questions arise we will address those as best we can.  Other students are creating more tutorials which I will share as well.

Some notes from today:

• If students need to take pictures of their work to send to you, there are a few options.
• I like Office Lens because you can connect this to your Office account and it will save the pics to OneDrive.  This app will take a pic and save it as a PDF.
• Another app that was recommended was Scannable
• Or, students could just take a pic on their phone and submit the jpg
• The Posts tab is a message center for the class. Anything posted here will be seen by all members in the class.
• The Chat tab is a message center for individuals. The conversations there are only seen by you and the student in the chat.
• The copier in the library can scan documents if you need a PDF
• If you can Print, you can save as a PDF. (This should be listed in your Printer options - Print to PDF or Save to PDF
• This does not always work but, you can open some PDF documents in Word and then edit the content.
• It's actually really easy to record a video on your phone, upload to YouTube and post to Teams! 

I'll be in the library tomorrow and Thursday if you need help.  

I can't imagine working with a better staff and administration.  Thank you for all you are doing for our students!

Messaging in Skyward

Did you know you can send messages and emails to students and parents through Skyward? Do you need a way to email multiple parents or an entire class section? With the social media-inspired message center in Family Access, you can stay in touch with your students and those supporting them at home. Check out the tutorial for the Skyward Message Center, an easy way to communicate with students and parents/guardians.

Getting Started With Teams

If you are working on your assignments tonight and want to get started on Teams I have two videos that I hope will help you with the basics of creating your class and adding assignments. For now, you can find those videos here: http://bit.ly/2wgemqf - I will update this tutorial with more videos later. If you have trouble with the PowerPoint, you can access the videos here: 

http://bit.ly/2w1ltCV

A couple of notes: 

• Last year, I created classes for each period, but this year I created one class for each prep. I prefer this method but either way works and has pros and cons. 
• There is not an easy way to add multiple students but you CAN create a Join Code for your class that you can share with students.  I prefer to add the students so I know that they are part of the class but I understand this is time-consuming.
• I have had trouble with students who have Macs but it is not impossible - just wanted to give you a heads up.
• When students submit documents for an assignment they cannot have any special characters like #!@*, etc.  If the document file name has one of these special characters, students will not get an error message to tell them the problem. It just doesn't work. 
• Phones work but the formatting can get wonky.

Tomorrow, I will have hands-on training in my classroom throughout the day.  I'm still working on a schedule and will get that to you ASAP.

Thank you!  We'll figure this out together as we go!

District Resources for Remote Learning

I will send more information about each resource, but I wanted to send out a quick overview of some of the online district resources we have for our students. (I realize not all our students have internet access at home, but this is a good place to start.)

1.      Office 365 – Students can access all the Office 365 resources from any device, and they can collaborate with teachers and students within the apps.

Distance learning with Office 365: Guidance for parents and guardians

2.      Teams – Microsoft Teams, formally known as Classroom, is a virtual classroom where teachers can collaborate with students online and meet virtually, share content with students, and assign work, and give assessments. 

Click here for more information on Teams features.

Here is a Quick Start Guide.

3.      OneNote – OneNote is like an online three-ring-binder that you can share with other teachers and students. You can add text, links, video, audio, etc.

This website has everything you need to get started: https://onenoteforteachers.com/

4.      Word/PowerPoint – If you’re not comfortable with Teams or OneNote – you can create a hyperdoc (document with links and interactive features) like this one using Word or PowerPoint. In Office 365 Word, you can insert text, pictures, and links. In Office 365 PowerPoint, you can do all of that plus insert videos.  These documents can then be shared with students or posted on your school website.

5.      TexQuest Digital Resources (Accessible through ClassLink or the LCMHS Library page)

1. EBSCO - eBooks and articles
2. LearningExpress (part of EBSCO) – lots of tutorials and practice tests for a variety of subjects and EOC. (Students will need to create a username/password to access this resource)
3. Learn360 – videos and other resources for many subjects and grade levels
4. ProQuest and Gale – research databases, current events, etc.
   
   There is an overview of each of the resources for all grade levels on the Library page.
   
    

6.      DiscoveryEducation (Also accessible through ClassLink) – streaming videos and additional content for various subjects and grade levels.

Our laptops have built-in screen recording capability with the Windows Game Bar app.  Here is a good article with instructions for using this feature:  https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-record-your-screen-on-windows-10/

There are several other screen recorders out there. I use Screencastify; however, the free version is limited to 5 minutes.  Both options will record your desktop including the Interactive Tools for the whiteboards. Sound is recorded through the built-in microphone and does pick up background noise but it has worked fine for me.

You can upload your videos to YouTube, OneDrive, or the Office 365 Video app. 

Also, don't forget if you have adopted textbooks in the last few years, many of these have online resources that may be helpful reinforcements for your content.

This is not a comprehensive list of the resources that we have or that are being made available for students during this time, but I hope this helps you get started and prepared in case we are in the same situation as other districts.