We are loving Microsoft Teams Meetings so much, we can’t contain ourselves! We have to shout it out! Teams Meetings really does make the distance between you and your students not so far.

In this blog post we are going to share our most frequently shared topics with our teachers.

#1 What is a Teams Meeting?

Let’s begin with looking at the features offered in a Microsoft Teams Meeting. Microsoft Teams Meetings have so many amazing features that are built-in and free! Teachers and students can share their video, speak to each other, and chat. In addition, Meetings can be recorded.

Meetings offer you as the teacher the ability to:

• Create meetings
• Share video with students
• Share desktop and app content with students
• Communicate through the chat feature
• Utilize Microsoft Whiteboard
• Record video meetings
• The recording is posted to the Team and is saved in Stream
• Share the meeting link
• Post meeting to calendar and Team channels

Meetings offer students the ability to:

• Communicate in the chat feature
• Share video and audio with the class
• Utilize Microsoft Whiteboard
• Access meeting recording through the Team channel
• Get real time help and support from teachers and other students

#2 There are 4 Ways to create a Teams Meeting

1. Create a Teams Meeting in Teams
2. Create a Teams Meeting in Teams and share the link in Skyward, Remind, etc
3. Create in Outlook and email the link
4. Create in Canvas

So before you create a Team Meeting, first determine how you want to use the meeting. Then learn how to create a Teams Meeting in the way that is most efficient for you. Click on the graphic below to see a tutorial video specific to your purpose. We want you to learn how to create a Teams Meeting and use it in a way that is best for you and your students and/or co=workers.

Want just the basics? Check out this video on how to create a Teams Meeting 👇

Setting Roles in a Teams Meeting

A frequently asked question we receive is what are the roles within a meeting? Can we restrict or allow certain actions? There are three roles in a Microsoft Teams Meeting: Organizer, Presenter, & Attendee.

By setting students to attendees, this allows students to share their video and audio, participate in the chat, and view PowerPoints. You can set these roles in Meeting options. See the screenshot below for an example. Need step by step directions? Check out this awesome video created by our friend, Alice Keeler.

#3 Teams Meeting Norms

Oh yeah!! You just created a Microsoft Teams Meeting and set the attendee roles! 🎉Great job, friend!

Now we need to talk about the importance of setting Norms. When teaching online in a virtual meeting, it is of #1 Importance to create class norms and share them with the students! Just like in our face to face classes we have rules and we model and teach these to our students so that they understand how to operate in our space. The same applies to online meetings. It is important to teach and show them exactly what we expect in this shared space.

There are a few things to think about in how we interact with each other.

1. How do we speak to one another?
2. What is appropriate and inappropriate?
3. How do we use the chat feature?
4. What is appropriate to show on video?
5. What about the sounds/voices/noises being picked up by microphones?

Whew! There is a lot to think about and it is evident that we should definitely address these questions up front. Here are our top tips for teaching meeting norms to our students.

By covering these points up front, your students will understand the importance of conducting a successful meeting and will understand your expectations.

#4 Resources

Now we need to inform students and parents of how to access the meeting. No worries, Jenallee has you covered. Check out this blog post to access Teams parent information templates, & how to videos. We include two different videos for accessing Teams Meetings, through the link or through Teams.

Additional Distance Learning Resources 👇