When working in any Office product (Word, Excel, Power Point) you can save files as Templates. If you have a specific format you use frequently, save that file as a template, and then you can create new files from the template without having to search for the file or delete the contents of a file to start a new document. For example: a letterhead or a lesson plan format.

With the document open, choose Save As, click Browse, change the Save as type to "template," name your template, select Save. You can also Pin your template so it will show up in the featured section of the application. If you don't pin it, then you will have to click on "Personal" to view your saved templates.

Bitmoji is your own personal emoji. Create an expressive cartoon avatar - Choose from a huge library of stickers - all featuring YOU!! Create your bitmoji on your mobile device (iOS or Android) and then add the Bitmoji Chrome Extension to easily access your bitmojis.

Once you have your bitmoji created, you can create a virtual classroom to share with your students in Seesaw with reminders for the week or use as your Teams background when video conferencing with your students!!

Check out this video for step-by-step instructions

or watch the recording from our 4/29/20 training (start at video mark 22:20)

We would love to see the scenes you create!!!

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If you are sharing your screen with students and you are on a webpage sometimes it is hard to see because of the size. Use the hot keys to zoom in and out of the website:

PC: CTRL + to zoom in and CTRL - to zoom out

Mac: CMD + to zoom in and CMD - to zoom out

To reset your screen back to 100% you can press CTRL + 0 on a PC and CMD + 0 on a Mac.

To share your computer audio with students when you are sharing your computer screen, you have to select "include system audio" before you share your screen. NOTE: The audio is louder for them than what you hear so be aware of that.

Then if you want students to be able to see whatever you click on, choose "Desktop or Screen #1" when you select which screen to share.

Reminder: even though you are unable to see yourself when you share your screen, if your camera is on your students can still see you. :)

When you participate in a Teams meeting/chat you will continue to receive notifications if anyone posts in that chat. It could be days or weeks later. If you no longer want to receive notifications from the meeting/chat you were involved with you can "leave" that chat group.

In Teams, click Chat (far left navigation), choose the chat group you were a part of, then on the far right side of the screen there is an icon with 2 people on it - click that, then choose "Leave." You will still have access to the items posted in that chat but if someone adds something to the conversation you will not be notified.

When you post messages in the main team or specific channels, anyone who is a member of that team and/or channel can see that message. You can have private chats that are only visible to those persons in the chat.

To private chat with one or more individuals:

Click on the "New Chat" icon to the left of the Search box at the top of the screen, enter the names of those you want to chat with and then enter your message.

Have you been in a training and each time an attendee adds a chat message you get the purple banner pop-out and a beep noise?! If you set your status to "Do Not Disturb" during the training, you will not receive any notifications.

To make this change:

Click on your picture (top right), hover over the top option (probably will say "in a call"), choose "Do Not Disturb." Don't forget to change it back to "Available" when finished with the training.

In the conversations bar, select the Format icon (A with a pencil on it) to bring up the formatting options. You can enter a headline, subhead and a message. You can add hyperlinks, tables, change the text style and color and even add bullets or lists.

You can also create your own custom graphic banner to use in an Announcement. Watch our training recording from 4/30/20 for instructions (start at video mark 39:20).

Link to Blog post for instructions or watch the video below for a demo.

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