Broward Teachers Union

Teams Info	More
	Important for Your Class Teams & More Help Videos Online Instruction

QUICKSTART GUIDE	Microsoft Teams QUICK START GUIDE
SCHEDULED UPDATES TO TEAMS iN BROWARD	Broward's Information and Technology Department has been working with Microsoft to create various updates and enhancements to Teams. SEE SCHEDULE
FEATURES ADDED AUG 1	Bypass Lobby • Prevent Students from Starting Meeting • Screen Sharing Large Gallery & Together Mode • Focus Mode and Full Screen Mode Meeting Notes • Meeting Controls / Hand Raise / Leave Meeting
SHOULD I USE WEBSITE OR APP?	The IT Division’s officially endorsed method of conducting video conferencing through the Teams product is to use the Teams native app. This offers more control and features during video conferences. This allows you to be able to control the beginning and end of the meeting and to turn moderation on for each channel, which makes it impossible for students to chat. Elementary teachers are encouraged to make a separate Team for each class roster of students that they teach.
CREATE SMALL GROUPS	Small groups can currently be achieved by: • Creating a Teams meeting and placing it in an assignment in Canvas for certain students. • Only allowing certain students at designated times into a Teams meeting. • creating and using a Team and add channels to be used for small groups of students. You can schedule meetings in the channels for those small groups to meet with you.
BREAKOUT ROOMS	The IT Division is currently previewing a Teams Breakout Room feature that should allow for more seamless management of breakout groups with organizer monitoring. This feature, if tested successfully, should be available for all users by mid-September. Until then, you’re advised to conduct break out groups in 1 of 2 ways after first creating a channel within each class Team, with students assigned in small groups to each channel: Select “End Meeting” in the main instructional meeting when directing students to sub-channels within a Team for breakout groups. Doing so prevents students from lingering unsupervised in the main instructional group. This best practice is shared with teachers by Innovative Learning in all of their Teams training, particularly in the Teams for Web Conferencing and Best Practices in Web Conferencing webinars (which are recorded). With the new security measures, students are no longer able to click a meeting link and start a meeting. or Connect a second client (e.g., muted cell phone, muted extra tablet, Teams browser version on the same laptop on mute) to the current main Teams meeting, allowing the teacher to monitor the main meeting room and read the chats of students lingering in the main channel, while interacting with small student groups in the sub-channels.