Microsoft Teams - Getting Started

Microsoft Teams is an application found in Microsoft Office 365.  Microsoft Teams is a digital hub that brings conversations, content, and apps together in one place. If your classes are using Teams, you’ll be able to connect with your classmates, ask your teacher questions, work on assignments, and track the work you’ve got coming up. Microsoft Teams is an app of Microsoft Office 365. Teams is for grades PreK-12 and will be the main platform during school closures.  

Microsoft Teams Quick Guide

How do students access Microsoft Teams?

Desktop App (Downloaded on Device)

When using a device (such as a laptop or desktop), you can use the Teams desktop app.  The Teams desktop app is the full version of Teams and offers features like seeing multiple faces of people who are participating in the meeting, closed captioning, backgrounds and more.  District devices already have the desktop version of Teams downloaded, so users will click on Teams to access the desktop version.  If you are using a personal device you can download the desktop app of Teams.

Mobile Device (Tablet or Smartphone):

If you are using a mobile device (tablet or smart phone) you can download Teams from the mobile app store.

Web App (In the Web Browser)

Another option to access Teams is in the web app.  The Teams web app is sufficient for most of your needs and can be accessed by opening a web browser (such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) and going to the district website www.macomb185.org and clicking on Office 365.  The student will need to enter their email address which is the student ID@mcusd185.org and the password.  The password is a two three letter word combination with the first letter of each word being capital and the student’s birthdate number (an example would be TopBat28). If you are uncertain what your student’s username or password is contact the school office. Once the student has entered the username and password push Sign in. 

Through Clever:

  1. Go to the Macomb Schools website:  www.macomb185.org 
  2. Scroll down until you see the circle for Clever and click on it.
  3. Students will then log in to Clever, just like they do while they are at school.  If they do not remember their log in or password they will need to contact their teacher.
  4. In Clever, scroll down until you see Microsoft Teams and click on it.  
  5. In Teams you will see all the student’s classes, known as Teams.
  6. Click on a Team (class).

Overview of Teams

Upon clicking on Teams, you will see the Team has a General channel. Your teacher may create more channels under the General tab to organize topics, projects, and more.  

When in the general channel the following tabs will appear at the top.  These tabs have specific information about the Team you are currently in: 

  • Posts - view messages and announcements from your teachers.
  • Files – access important documents your teacher has shared with you in Teams. 
  • Class Notebook – space to take notes, reference resources, and even practice math equations! If your teacher has setup the Class Notebook and directed the class to use it, you can click the tab and explore.    
  • Assignments  - view assignments and turn in work. 
  • Grades – view assignments and grades that the teacher has assigned through Teams.
  • Search bar - search for anything in any of your Teams, type a keyword in the search bar to locate the information. 

On the left-hand side are another series of tabs.  These tabs are specific to the students. 

  • Activity - notifications will appear regarding messages, replies, assignments and more. 
  • Chat - work with someone on a project, add the names of the people you need to collaborate with.  It is like a mini Team. 
  • Assignments - additional way to see all assignments for all of your Teams in one location. 
  • Calendar - view the Team meetings that have been created.  Once in the calendar Click on the Team meeting event and click Join now to join a meeting from the calendar. This calendar syncs with your Outlook calendar. 
  • Files - shows all the student’s files that have been recently accessed. 
  • Download - another way to download Teams to your personal device is by clicking on the Download app.  District devices have the desktop version of Teams already installed. 
  • Help - Need extra help, click on the Help icon in the lower left-hand corner.