Very boring teams question

[AFallingStar]

I know there are some teams experts on here. I have really only used it for staff meetings until very recently. We mostly do recorded stuff on Seesaw but introducing some live stuff using teams. I teach year 5.

I tried doing a small group maths intervention on teams. I realised a bit too late that it would only work if they could see what I was writing.
I have a laptop and an iPad with a pen stylus. I joined on my laptop first then my iPad. Then I let the children in. When I shared my iPad screen (so I could share me writing), they couldn't see the screen. I couldn't either on my laptop. So then I tried using my iPad camera (I thought I could hold it and write on paper) but they couldn't see that... Only me on my laptop camera.

Eventually I shared a blank PowerPoint on my laptop and wrote with my mouse but it was far from ideal.

I've had a play since ... I've had a go with the whiteboard app within teams but that's not installed on my iPad so could only do it with a collaborative whiteboard, which runs the risk of children writing on it (I doubt they would but...)
There also seemed to be a big delay between me writing on the ipad and what I wrote appearing on the laptop while using the whiteboard in teams. Sometimes I couldn't see it on the laptop at all.

Then I tried the screen sharing thing again and it worked fine, but I wondered if it's because I'd joined on the iPad first, then added the laptop? Also that was with just me in the meeting.

Any ideas?

If there are helpful apps, I can ask for them to be installed on the iPad. It's frustrating because I feel like I have everything I need I just can't get it to work together- teams is not my favorite thing!

Download Microsoft OneNote on your ipad and your laptop. Use the same login as Teams and it will sync whatever you create on your laptop with your ipad which saves a lot of messy transferring of files.

I join the meeting on my laptop and then on my ipad, share my ipad screen and go to OneNote. Whatever I write seems to appear pretty simultaneously on teams and you can scroll down and just keep writing on it, unlike when you're annotating powerpoints etc. I copy and paste maths questions in, then work out the answers live.

Sometimes some children can't see my screen when I share it, but if they leave the meeting and come back in they usually can. If it's a real problem, if I stop screen sharing on my ipad and then start sharing again that seems to fix it. Not sure why it happens, and it's not the same children each time either.

Thank you

OneNote was where I'd got to in my meeting by myself. But no one (not even me on my laptop) could see my iPad screen during the meeting with children. Hopefully that was just a one off fail...

Yes, it does that sometimes but stopping and resharing helps. When it’s working it’s fab, so hope you get it up and running!

All the different kit we have is interesting!

I've finally settled on an external webcam that I can move around, a flexible 'phone' clamp on the side of my desk and an xp pen pad thing.

I start all meetings with me on the screen using the webcam, then share a Notebook or PPT screen, then move the webcam to the clamp, looking down on work I'm modelling into maths or lined exercise books. Then I write direct onto the Notebook or PPT when I'm sharing the screen and flick between that and my modelled work.

Took about 3 weeks to finally settle on options that work. Would have been so much better to have been told about all this say, I dunno - a year ago. Oh, and had it bought by school, instead of me. I've probably spent £120 on it all.

@AFallingStar it sounds like maybe you weren’t sharing your iPad screen correctly in the lesson maybe? Can you get into the meeting earlier to set it up before the students come in next time? I always find I’m better not under pressure 🤣

Hi I just plug my visualiser in the laptop and then write on a small A4 whiteboard. It's also great for demonstrating practical maths with various equipment, reading stories and modelling work sheets etc

It seems silly to get a visualiser (there might be one in the cupboard but who knows if it works) when an iPad should be able to do the job...

I think I did share the screen before but then unshared so they could just see me/each other while they came in. There aren't many options sharing an iPad screen so I'm not sure where I went wrong...

Perhaps there will be no pleasantries next week, just "can you see my screen?" from the start.

I did realise that if I screen share "video" from my iPad, that's basically my camera, so that could work. Just need something to balance it on

I do this on my iPad without any issues. I join the meeting that I’m doing from my computer on my iPad without audio, then share my screen, wait for the little 3-2-1 timer to finish and then open the PowerPoint or pdf or whatever I want to write on and the kids can see it live and I can see it on my computer. It sounds like something is going wrong when you share the screen.

If you want something whilst they are coming in, and so you can see them, share a photo rather than your screen, that way you can you can see all the little icons coming in and do the usual “ Hi Jonee” “afternoon Freddie” etc.
I derive my photos either from screen shots of my starter queations on the ppt, or by writing an instruction on the whiteboard app and screen shotting it

Thank you! Fortunately (for my dislike of teams) only doing these once a week so will try some of these tips next week.

We're also doing whole class catch ups. Didn't even try screen sharing, just scavenger hunts and silly questions, and was very proud my myself for solving various issues from last week for this week and actually getting every child to unmute at least once, but several of the kids' videos weren't appearing today. Is that just a teams laggy problem?

Our policy says cameras need to be on so I felt like I spent half the time saying "could you try turning your camera on?" when they probably did have it on, and couldn't see a problem their end! I had the second adult in the room with me and she couldn't see them either though...

Teams has been laggy for the last few weeks as so many are using it. I'm quite good at sharing my screen but sharing computer sound is very hit & miss due to a speaker issue that the IT people haven't sorted. It drives me nuts when the kids say "Miss, don't forget to allow audio" when they can see I already did that. Trying to teach Music without audio is a pain in the arse.

Agree with the One Note suggestion, that's what we do. Kids have also collaborated on it and enjoyed the experience.

We have cameras off due to bandwidth and sometimes I turn mine off as well to help... it’s a pain trying to get them on, reckon you can only do your best. In the summer we said they had to put on for register then could go off again...

Seeing each other is definitely a major plus for the kids - the ones in school got so excited every time a child's video popped up that they hadn't seen yet. Keeping them quiet while engaging with the kids at home is a nightmare, though it was better this week so I think as the novelty wears off the ones in school will calm down and the ones at home will get a bit happier sharing...

Apparently our school internet can only cope with one live meeting at a time so that might explain the camera thing! I have also realised I forgot to turn large gallery on. Live and learn!