Teams and MeetNow in the age of coronavirus

Two Year 13 pupils had messaged to say that they wouldn't be in class today for our triple period on the Spanish film. I asked them if they wanted to join us via MeetNow on Teams and they agreed to. We had a few hitches. The Meet button is on the browser but I couldn't see it on the Teams app on my iPad or my phone. A quick query in the always useful c2k Getting to know Teams post primary group and the brilliant Donna Vaughan from c2k pointed me in the right direction as you need to go to your calendar within Teams and start a new event. This allows you to give it a title and put it in the right channel.

The two pupils joined using the link on Teams and I then told them to turn off their cameras and their mics, unless they wanted to say or ask something, and we proceeded with the lesson. It was useful as this is a hard topic to catch up on if you miss it. The downside was that they couldn't hear their peers as easily as me, given that I was beside the iPad and they were socially distanced from me in the classroom. However, all in all, it was a worthwhile first go and definitely worth it from a learning perspective.