Microsoft Teams Help - Staff
Staff laptops must have been connected to the school network after 13/04/2020 for Teams to function correctly.
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool that allows sharing files, hosting live lessons (video chats), assigning quizzes and assignments, automatically grading quizzes, and general chat.
Teams is not just for teaching and learning. Staff can use it to keep in contact with each other, hold meetings, and instant message.
Accessing Microsoft Teams
Teams is part of Office 365, your log in details for Office 365 are your email address and normal school password- i.e username@thomas-hardye.net
The Teams app can be accessed one of these locations:
In School
Teams can be accessed through:
Start Menu Microsoft Office Microsoft Teams
At Home
When on a personal computer or staff laptop at home
- Log into the Teams web app
- Click on your initials in the top right corner
- Click 'Download the desktop app'
Microsoft have a wealth of knowledge available to help you get used to Teams. The pages in this help area will cover the most common use cases we have thought of. If you would like to do further reading, you can do so here:
Microsoft Teams Education Help Pages
Microsoft Teams - Overview
Tabs
Microsoft Teams is divided into the following 'tabs' on the left side:
Activity
The activity tab shows all recently activity on Teams - comments, replies, reactions.
It is a quick place to keep track of what has changed since your last visit.
Clicking on the activity notification will display the relevant Team on the right
Chat
Chat allows you to have private conversations with other members of staff, either individually or in groups.
To start chatting, click the 'New Chat' button, then invite the person or groups you want to chat with
Teams
The Teams tab gives you an overview of all Teams you are a member or owner of.
Teams are discussed in more detail here:
Assignments
The assignments tab displays an overview of quizzes or assignments assigned in Teams.
Assignments are discussed in more detail here:
Microsoft Teams - Team Overview
A Team is a collection of Channels each with their own tabs that contain information.
Channels are used to logically separate information, for example you could use a channel for each topic in a course or for different areas of discussion.
When you first open the Teams tab it will display all Teams you are an owner or member of. This will likely be blank the first time you open it.
From here, you can either:
- Create a Team
- Click on an existing Team to view it
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Manage the Team
Managing Teams
Restricting Team Permissions - Create a new channel
Parts of a Team
When you create a Class Team it will have one channel - General.
The General channel has the following tabs:
- Posts
- Files
- Class Notebook
- Assignments
- Grades
Posts
The Posts tab is a forum and activity feed for the channel. Anything posted in the channel will appear here.
It is also where Meetings are held.
By default students are able to create posts. If you wish you change this follow the steps here: Restricting Team Permissions
Files
The Files tab is folder where you can post documents for students to access. Anything in the top level of the folder can be modified and deleted by students, so be careful here.
Every Class Team will contain a Class Materials folder in the Files tab. This folder is Read-Only for students, so we suggest you place documents here.
Class Notebook
The Class Notebook tab has nothing in by default, other than a button to Set Up a OneNote Class Notebook. These are different and seperate from Class Workgroups but function in a similar way.
The Notebook contains a page for each student who is a member of the Team. Students can only see their own page, but you can see them all.
You can find more information on the Class Notebook here: Class Notebook
Assignments
The Assignments tab allows you to create and assign quizzes and assignments for the students in your Team.
Quizzes are created using Microsoft Forms and then posted to the Team.
For more information, see here: Assignments
Grades
The Grades tab gives you an overview and marksheet of all assignments and quizzes you have assigned to the Team.
Microsoft Teams - Create a Team
To create a team, click on Join or create team in the top right corner or at the bottom of your Teams list (lower left).
Select a Team type.
For curriculum classes, choose the Class type. This uses a template that will be most useful. Team types are explained here: Microsoft Teams Types
Give the Team a logical name and description.
You can create a Team by using another Team as a template. This would allow you to quickly create Teams for multiple classes without needing to duplicate work.
Add students and staff to the Team. Students will be added as members with limited permissions, staff will be owners with full access to the Team.
You can invite an email group, there are also groups for every subject group in SIMS. You will need to search for the group exactly to find the correct one.
For example, the 10F Drama group would be 10F/DR1
The Team will be displayed!
By default a Team will have a General Channel for general purpose chat, but it may be more useful to create Channels for different topic areas.
For more information on what you have just created, look here:
Microsoft Teams - Creating Channels
Channels are an important part of Microsoft Teams. They give you a way a logically break up discussion and resources into logical groups - for example by topic area in subjects.
If everything was left in the default General channel it would quickly become impossible to keep track of discussions.
Creating a Channel
Click on More Options (three dots) next to the Team name
Click Add Channel
Give the channel a useful name, and description
Decide on the channel's privacy setting
- Public - Accessible to everybody who is a member of the team
- Private - Accessible to only specified users. This can be useful if you wish to create breakout groups within the class
Check the 'Automatically show this channel' option, this will ensure it appears in the left bar for students.
Check this area for recommended changes once the channel has been created. Restricting Team Permissions
Microsoft Teams - Hosting a live lesson
Please read this guidance document before hosting a live lesson
Getting Started
Test microphone and Camera Inputs
It is important to make sure that your microphone and camera is set up correctly before hosting a lesson so that students can see and hear you clearly.
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Click on your profile picture in the top right:
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Select Settings:
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Select Devices:
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If you are using the integrated laptop speakers or headphones your speaker should be set to 'Speaker/HP (Realtek High Definition Audio)'.
If you are using another device such as USB speakers, use the dropdown to select the correct device.
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If you are using using the integrated laptop microphone, your microphone should be set to 'Microphone Array (Realtek High Definition Audio)'.
As before, if you are using an external microphone make sure to select it from the dropdown menu.
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If you are using the integrated laptop webcam, your camera should be set to 'Integrated Camera'.
Once again, if you are using an external webcam make sure to select it from the dropdown menu.
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Finally, to ensure all devices are set up correctly click the 'Make a test call' button.
This will take you into a short automated call which will talk you through testing each device.
Add Channels
Channels help to structure classes to particular lessons or topics.
Lessons can also be hosted through an individual channel so that students know what topic is being covered.
See this section for creating channels
Starting a live lesson
Once you have made sure your inputs are all working and have your channels set up, you are ready to start conducting live lessons.
Scheduling a lesson
Please schedule all live lessons in advance using the calendar. This will allow students and parents to be easily informed of live lessons taking place and remove the need to send separate reminder emails.
The video below from Tom Hardinge will walk you through scheduling and joining scheduled lessons.
You will notice that you also have the option to schedule meetings via your calendar page. If you choose to schedule lessons this way, you must include the relevant Team under the section titled 'Add channel' as demonstrated below, otherwise the students will not be notified of your lesson.
click '+ New meeting' to schedule a new lesson, which will bring up the same form as shown in the video.
You would need to add the relevant team (class) to this section, otherwise students will not be notified. If following the method shown in the video this is automatically included.
If you are using the ‘lobby’ function to prevent students from joining your lesson before you, please note you will need to ‘admit’ students to the lesson when it starts. This can be done by clicking on the participants list and then clicking on the ticks next to each student under the “waiting in lobby” section.
In-Lesson Tools
While hosting a lesson using Teams, you have a number of tools available to you to make learning easier for you and your students.
- Call Timer - Shows the length of the current lesson.
- Camera toggle - Allows you to turn your camera on or off.
- Microphone toggle - Allows you to turn you microphone on or off.
- Share menu - Brings up a menu that allows you to share your screen with students. This will be covered in more detail below.
- More options - Additional call options. This will be covered in more detail below.
- Meeting chat - Allows for live text chat from both yourself and your students. Anything typed in the meeting chat will be saved and displayed after the call.
- Show Participants - Shows a side menu containing all current users connected to the lesson. It also shows suggestions of people that should be invited to the call.
- End call - Ends the current lesson. This will then create a new post in the channel the meeting was held in with all messages from the meeting chat in the comments below
Share Menu
The share menu allows you to share what is on your screen with the students in the lesson. You can select the whole screen under desktop, this will show everything on your screen including when you switch programs.
This screen is useful for when you need to quickly swap between programs while teaching, for example if you have a video you want to play from YouTube in a powerpoint.
You should be careful to not have any personal information open while using this method of screen sharing so as not to accidentally show it whilst conducting the lesson.
The Window section allows you to select a specific program you want to share with your students, for example PowerPoint as shown above.
This method of screen sharing is more secure, as it will continue to display that program, even if you switch to a different one. Similarly to freezing the screen on a projector.
More Options
The more options menu contains a number of useful additional options available while conducting a lesson.
The main option of focus here is 'Start Recording'. As per the supplied guidance, all live lessons should be recorded where possible. This option should be selected when starting a lesson. The recording will be saved automatically when the lesson ends, but it is good practice to leave teams open for a while after the lesson to ensure that the recording is uploaded successfully.
Another useful option here is 'Turn on live captions'. This will display automatically generated subtitles whenever anyone is speaking which is especially useful for those who are hard of hearing, or are in an environment where they are unable to use their device speakers.
'Show background effects' allows you to obscur what is behind you. This is only available on the desktop app. - See The FAQ Section for more instructions on blurring your background.
The final key option here is 'Turn off incoming video'. This will allow you to turn off all incoming video from students if necessary.
Meeting Chat
When the 'Meeting chat' option is selected, the panel shown will be opened to the right side of the Teams window.
This panel allows you to communicate with students who perhaps do not have access to a device with a microphone, or to attach files for students to access during and after the lesson.
All messages sent using the meeting chat will be displayed under the post that is created once the lesson is ended.
Using the command '@Team' is particularly useful as it will send a notification to everyone in the team, this can be used anywhere in Teams for example to notify of an upcoming lesson or deadline.
Participants
When the 'Participants' option is selected, the shown panel will open to the right side of the Teams window.
This shows all users who are currently attending the session.
From here, you can also select students who have not yet joined the lesson and choose 'Ask to join'. This will send them a notification requesting they join the lesson.
Microsoft Teams - Managing Teams
Teams have several options available to help customise them.
To access them:
- Click the More Options menu (three dots)
- Click Manage Team
From here, you have access to the following tabs:
Members
Display all members and owners of a Team.
From here you can add new members of a team, remove existing members, and change roles of existing members.
Pending Requests
This will show anybody who has requested to join your Team. Students can invite others to join the Team, but you will need to approve them.
Apps
Displays all apps available for you to use within your site.
Teams has integration with many sources, allowing for you to customise the Team how you see fit.
The most useful apps will likely be OneNote (class notebooks) and Forms (quizzes and questionnaires).
Channels
A central location for you to manage all Channels in the Team
Settings
Global settings for the entire Team.
Here you can set a theme and icon for your Team, along with a few other restrictions.
Analytics
Gives you an overview of how the Team is being used, including total number of messages and number of unique viewers.
Microsoft Teams - Restricting Team Permissions
The default permissions that students have as members of a Team may be too relaxed for most cases.
We suggest you change the following immediately after creating the Team.
These settings can be changed on the Team and Channel management pages: Managing Teams
Remove Student's Posting Ability
By default on the General Channel students are able to post new messages and reply to others. This may be useful in some cases, but we suggest you turn it off.
For the General Channel:
Click the options menu (three dots)
Select Manage Channel
Select Only owners can post messages
This will stop any people added as students (members) from posting in this Channel.
Channel Moderation
In Channels other than General you can enable Channel Moderation. To create new Channels follow the steps here: Creating Channels
Click the More Options menu (three dots) for a channel (not General)
Click Manage Channel
Change Channel Moderation from Off to On
- By default only Team owners (teachers) are moderators. Trusted students can be made moderators by clicking on the Manage button.
- Moderators are able to post new posts
Disable @Mentions
Teams has the ability to notify other members or owners of the team using @mentions: Microsoft Help Page on @mentions
If students are able to post, or reply to posts, in a Channel they may abuse this function and send unnecessary notifactions to other users. We recommend this is turned off, to prevent abuse.
Click on More options (three dots) next to the Team name
Click Manage Team
Click on the Settings tab (this may be hidden depending on your screen size)
Expand the @mentions section
Uncheck the options here:
- Show members the option to @team...
- Give members the option to @channel
Microsoft Teams - Assignments
Microsoft Teams closely integrates with Microsoft Forms, giving you the ability to create quizzes and questionnaires that can be assigned to a Team.
Microsoft's guidance for creating quizzes can be found here: Create a quiz with Microsoft Forms
Microsoft's guidance for creating assignments in Teams can be found here: Create an assignment in Microsoft Teams
Quizzes created correctly are self-marking, displaying all results in the Grades tab: Track student progress in the Grades tab
Microsoft Teams - Class Notebook
Microsoft's help pages on the Class Notebook can be found here: Use OneNote Class Notebook in Teams
Microsoft Teams - FAQ
How do I make my camera work?
Instructions for this will differ, depending on if you are using the web app or desktop app
Please do not use teams on a remote desktop - These virtual machines cannot detect or use your camera / microphone.Web App
When making or joining a call, ensure you 'Allow' access to your camera and microphone.
If using a staff laptop, it must have been connected to the school network after 13/04/2020
Desktop App
-
Click on your profile picture in the top right:
-
Select Settings:
-
Select Devices:
-
If you are using the integrated laptop speakers or headphones your speaker should be set to 'Speaker/HP (Realtek High Definition Audio)'.
If you are using another device such as USB speakers, use the dropdown to select the correct device.
-
If you are using using the integrated laptop microphone, your microphone should be set to 'Microphone Array (Realtek High Definition Audio)'.
As before, if you are using an external microphone make sure to select it from the dropdown menu.
-
If you are using the integrated laptop webcam, your camera should be set to 'Integrated Camera'.
Once again, if you are using an external webcam make sure to select it from the dropdown menu.
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Finally, to ensure all devices are set up correctly click the 'Make a test call' button.
This will take you into a short automated call which will talk you through testing each device.
How do I blur my background in a live lesson?
Blurring your background is good practice during a live lesson, it will help remove identifiable features behind you.
Note:
- Background effects are only available using the desktop client. They will not appear in the web client.
- Background effects work best in good lighting, with good contrast between you and your background.
During a call, meeting, or live lesson:
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Click on More Options (number 5)
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Click on Show background effects
The background effects page will appear on the right. Select one that is appropriate for you, the top right entry is just a simple blur.
The Preview button allows you to check what a particular background will look like before applying it.
Click Apply when you are happy.
How do I stop my laptop from locking during a Teams Meeting / Live lessson?
Currently, Staff laptops will lock automatically after 15 minutes of inactivity. You can increase this to one hour by putting your teams meeting / live lesson in full-screen.
To do this during a meeting or live lesson:
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Click on More Options (number 5)
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Click on Enter full-screen
This will put the meeting into full-screen mode meaning that you now only need to interact with your laptop once every hour to prevent your laptop from locking.
Staff Top Tips
Live learning/meetings
How to schedule a meeting (or live lesson) in advance
How to share the audio from your computer
How to set up and use ‘breakout rooms’
Effective use of the chat function
Organising resources
How to create pre-recorded content with a visualiser
How to create pre-recorded content with Loom
Assessment and Feedback
How to “schedule” an assignment on Teams
Useful Links
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| School Portal | Parent Portal |
| School Email | Remote Desktops |
| NextCloud | Revision Site |
| Safeguarding | Policies |
Contact Us
The Thomas Hardye School
Queens Avenue
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 2ET
01305 756801
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