Building an Online "Classroom"
The Online Struggle
We've all been there--teaching and learning online--whether it was by choice in school or for work, or you were forced into figuring out how to navigate the online world when we were placed into quarantine. Although we have experience with technology, those of us who haven't worked through online web-meets and online platforms, were given minimal time to figure out a way to communicate with our students and provide them with the information and resources they would have needed to continue their education during that time.
Zoom was introduced to me by an old friend who was in her second year of teaching. She was aware of the platform since she ended up switching schools in the middle of the school year and was required to Zoom her class throughout her move (while having a substitute physically watch the students during that time). I picked up on how the site worked: setting up a time, sending out meeting codes, ensuring that random individuals were not getting into the meet, and turning off the side chat bar between students so that they weren't commenting on the lesson or another student without my knowledge. Though a great resource it was during our quarantine time, it still wasn't able to provide students with everything they needed.
My Classroom Platform
When I first began working at my school, I was immediately introduced to Microsoft Teams. My team of teachers explained that they used the Class Notebook to post videos, articles, and PowerPoints from previous lessons for students to look back on whenever they needed to. Many of my close friends were surprised that we used Teams, since it was mainly used by larger companies to keep track of their employees and the work that was being completed, however; it seemed like a wonderful storage place for my students throughout the school year (in 2019 and briefly into 2020), until our school was shut down and forced to quarantine for two weeks (originally).
I immediately told my students to take all of their books and to look out for email updates throughout the two weeks to see what needed to be completed and how they were going to submit their work back to me. We struggled--majorly--for those two weeks. Emails would get lost, documents wouldn't open, and students were unable to keep up with me and their three other teachers. I knew I needed to find a better way of providing my students with resources and assigning additional practice and/or review quizzes. I also knew that this would need to be a source that my students were familiar with. Even though children have an easier time figuring out new technology than we do, a school-related source needed to be 5th-grader-friendly.
That was when I took it upon myself to explore all that Microsoft Teams had to offer. Students were familiar with many parts of Teams, even though I didn't implement them in my classroom before our quarantine, which made my explanation to them over Zoom easy-to-follow and provided them with a great place to post their thoughts, concerns, and notes.
Some of you may be familiar with its features, but I wanted to share how I set up my online classroom for my students during our quarantine, and how I continue to use the Class Notebook feature (application) even though our school has transitioned into Google Classroom for this new school year.
Please enjoy my brief video on all things Microsoft Teams:
https://www.loom.com/share/1f17ebeff70842569a465bc7c126cc96
Pros & Cons of Microsoft Teams
As many online platforms, MS Teams has its list of pros and cons. From personal experience, I would say that the pros of using this platform are: accessibility to notes and resources for both teachers and students, quick and easy upload of homework assignments (whether you are e-learning or in-person) as well as quizzes, and the convenience of electronic grading, which allows students to directly view comments, rubrics, and scores. One of the major cons of using MS Teams is the application itself is quite slow (as you have seen in my video). Unfortunately, this is a common problem both I and my students have faced in the past, but it still allowed us to stay organized and on top of class work and lessons throughout the last 3 years of my teaching career.
Since I was unable to show you how to assign work and quizzes on Teams, I am including screenshots of my screen to give you a visual on how it works.
This is what the main assignment page looks like. By clicking on create, you have the option to create an assignment or an electronic quiz.
If you were to select create a quiz, you would be able to upload a quiz from your files (as you can see in the image above), or you could create a new quiz. The step-by-step formatting of MS Teams is very user friendly.
Below, I am including resources that can help you set up your own Microsoft Team page, along with your Class Notebook (OneNote), and assignments/quizzes. I hope that the speed of the platform doesn't push you away from trying it as a resource page for your classroom.
Additional Resources
15 Benefits of Microsoft Teams Microsoft 365. (2020, April 28). Ungoti. https://ungoti.com/blog/15-benefits-microsoft-teams/
Clark, H. (2020, April 16). Microsoft Teams in The Classroom: | The Infused Classroom | Holly Clark. The Infused Classroom. https://www.hollyclark.org/2020/04/16/microsoftteamsclassroom/#:~:text=Microsoft%20Teams%20in%20The%20Classroom%3A%20A%20Quick%20Guide
DaniEASmith. (n.d.). Get started with Microsoft Teams for remote learning - Microsoft Teams. Docs.microsoft.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/remote-learning-edu?tabs=accounts
Edwards, L. (2020, July 8). Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks for Teachers. Techlearning.com. https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/microsoft-teams-tips-and-tricks-for-teachers
Microsoft Education. (2021). Introducing Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9g0-rzT8lE
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