Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams for Students
In 2020, to better support remote learning, the district enabled the online meeting tool, Microsoft Teams for SPS students. These changes help improve communications, user experience, and security for students and teachers.
How to Log in to Microsoft 365 and Teams
Students log in to their SPS Microsoft 365 account to access Teams, SPS email, and other Microsoft tools:
- Go to the Microsoft 365 login page
- Log in with your SPS student email address and password
- Email example: 1jrsmith@seattleschools.org
- Click the purple Teams icon
How to Change Notifications in Teams Chat
The Team chat pop-ups and sound notifications can be adjusted or turned off if they are distracting. To adjust chat notifications:
- Open the Teams application (this is not the same as clicking on a meeting link.)
- SPS laptop: click on the start menu and find “Microsoft Teams” (alphabetized with “M” applications).
- SPS iPad: Microsoft Teams is an icon on the Home Page.
- Click on the circular user icon (this is a photo or initials)
- Click “Settings”
- Click “Notifications”
- Chime sound notifications: Under “Sound,” change the toggle box to off.
- Pop Up notifications Mentions and Replies Only: If you want your student to only get “pop up” banners for replies or if they are “tagged” in a chat, then select “Mentions & Replies”
- Pop Up notifications Block All Pop Ups: If you want them to never get “pop up” banners, then click “Custom” and change all of the drop downs to “Only show in feed.” This will allow your student to open the chat and view it, but it will not cause the “pop up” banner that can be distracting to students.
How to Join a Teams Meeting
- Join a Microsoft Teams Meeting using a personal computer
- Join a Microsoft Teams Meeting using a SPS student device
Teams Meeting Troubleshooting
To troubleshoot for Teams on laptops and iPad, please start by shutting down and restarting the application and browsers. You can also try restarting the meeting through Clever or Seesaw. If the issue continues, please contact your teacher for a new meeting link and/or read below for tips to help resolve common issues.
My student is trying to join a meeting. We see the active meeting chat but cannot see or hear the people?
Your student is probably in the Teams app but hasn’t fully joined the meeting yet.
- Find the meeting link from the teacher and click on it to enter the meeting.
- Then click “Open Microsoft Teams” if prompted.
Where does my student find the meeting link? I don’t see anything in Teams?
Teams meeting links are shared by teachers and can be placed in different locations. Please check with your student’s teacher if you are not sure where to find meeting links.
Teams meeting links might be posted in the following locations:
- Student’s Schoology landing page
- Student’s Schoology course page
- Seesaw inbox or activity
- Student or parent email
- Teams calendar
- Or your teacher may have another location
Why is my student unable to create a chat with another student in Teams?
Starting the 2021-22 school year, a new control has been introduced to Teams chat for students that prevents them from starting a conversation with another student without an educator present in the chat. Please have your student reach out to their teacher and request a supervised chat with the other student.
Why are we not seeing the same features in Teams as other students have?
If this is only happening occasionally:
This may mean that you need to restart Teams and rejoin the meeting. Additionally, some settings only work in certain settings (for example, the “Large Gallery” view only appears as an option if there are 10 or more users with their webcam turned on at that moment).
If this is happening consistently be sure your student is:
- Not logged on as a “guest.” This can happen if you are using a personal device and are not logging into the Teams application with your student SPS username and password before clicking on the meeting link.
- Using the Microsoft Teams Application and not the browser version of Teams. After clicking on a Microsoft Teams meeting link, do not select “Continue in Browser.” Make sure to click on “Open Microsoft Teams”
If you have a personal device, make sure you have the most up to date version of Microsoft Teams downloaded.
Student Safety and Security
The student email and Microsoft Teams accounts are essential to help the district to provide safe and secure tools for our students.
Students will only be able to send and receive email messages to people with Seattle Public Schools email address, such as teachers and other students. Seattle Public Schools (SPS) email addresses end with “@seattleschools.org.”
Students will not be able to send nor receive email from non SPS email addresses, such as Gmail. For parents worried about cyberbullying and similar risks, please read more about cyber bullying and online safety.