Microsoft Teams is a communications platform that combines file storage in the cloud with a suite of different apps all in one place. Being part of the Office 365 family, Teams can be set up for free as part of a school-based licence, which in turn makes it accessible for pupils and staff to collaborate online.

A screenshot of the Teams app in use in the classroom.

Share files

One its the biggest benefits is the ability to share files and assignments from a central storage base. Instead of having resources in a variety of different places, Teams can pull it all together, assisting in keeping content streamlined and organised. This means that pupils can locate key information quickly, whether that be in school or at home.

Marking rubric

The assignments tab is particularly useful for when teachers issue a new task or project, as a marking rubric containing success criteria can be attached alongside points for completion and submission dates. Within the same class, different sets of pupils can be assigned different tasks which supports differentiation in the classroom. This can be achieved all through one tab which makes it easier to administer and manage. 

Celebrate pupil achievements

The praise tab enables teachers to celebrate pupil achievements through digital badges and comments. This is an effective way of promoting inclusivity in the classroom by recognising individuals for their progress or effort. Pupils can keep track of which badges they have been awarded through the year and the reasons behind attaining each one. This is then shared on the class channel, helping to recognise individual successes among peers.

The praise tab allows teachers to celebrate individual pupil successes during lessons.

Learning can be transparent

Due to Teams being a digital hub for teachers and pupils, learning can be transparent for all. It engages pupils in new ways by giving teachers creativity to deliver content through text, video, voice, stickers and animated GIFs. This appeals to the 21st century learner as pupils can interact in a digitally social way, transforming the learning experience as dynamic, collaborative and fluid. With Teams, individual needs in a class can be addressed with the capacity to tailor content and resources to different groups. This allows progress to be maximised whilst encouraging productivity to get things done.   

Learning journey

Teachers can have more control over the learning journey that is taking place when using Teams. Being able to modify, change and filter posts and messages, this reinforces the need for establishing a safe and productive classroom environment all of which is achieved through Teams. The quietest of voices can be heard when encouraging pupils to interact through this platform as the social networking type interface makes it a familiar and appealing layout for pupils. 

Develop digital literacy skills

By using Teams, teachers can offer learning experiences that enable pupils to take ownership and develop digital literacy skills as they communicate and collaborate with peers. Differentiation and individual learning needs can be met when teachers develop assignments for either group or independent projects. This can be strengthened further when paired with other apps such as OneNote Classbook or Microsoft Forms. There are also opportunities for personalised learning as the platform can be set up to offer online intervention sessions which has the potential to support pupils who are finding concepts in class difficult to master. This subsequently prepares pupils for the future workplace in that they are using industry standard tools and practices to solve problems. 

Flipped learning

Lastly, Teams encourages flipped learning in a seamless and rich way. By integrating video services such as YouTube or Stream, pupils can be set out of class learning experiences all from the click of a tab. In addition to this, OneNote can be implemented for collaborative note-taking to gain multiple perspectives on topics, or to assist pupils in order to catch up following an absence. Regardless of subject, Microsoft Teams could be a cost saving solution to creating an inclusive digital classroom.

Though I’ve been teaching for over a decade in lots of different groups and guises, I too am starting a new role, taking over the Drama department (a department of one) to lead the subject for the next year. I’m not new to teaching like the NQTs, I feel I have my own style and plenty of experience. I know my subject well and the exams as well as you can. The school is not new, as I’ve worked here a year already, but what worries me is that I’m not the old drama teacher. See, everyone loved old Sir! He was funny and friendly and knew his stuff. He did fun lessons and achieved top results! The classroom feels like his, in a nice way, it’s filled with twenty five years of teaching. He’s even left me a kettle and a fridge in the little office.

So how can I make sure I am still myself, in a role that was once someone else’s? How does an NQT take the best from their mentor but not replicate them?

Being brave enough to be ourselves through:

‘But Miss used to do it like this!’

‘We usually sit in a different place!’

‘That’s not what Sir said!’ 

The teacher before me was undoubtedly successful and popular, I do not resent that. In fact it makes my job easier in that they have built a strong following and raised the stature of our often diluted subject. If anything, it is not a begrudging feeling, it is nervousness – how can I fill those shoes? I’ve spent a few weeks in summer agonising over lessons, picking through the old schemes, my own schemes, writing new schemes, talking to other people about their schemes, speaking to staff and students about existing routines and the usual this and that. Trawling twitter and reading plays. After a while I was all in a spin; too many comparisons. Some of this was useful, but after two weeks of the new term I realised, as I told the NQTs, you can’t do it all ‘new’ in the first term. 

The only innovation I needed was to trust myself. I’ll keep a few old things, use plenty of my own things and try a couple of new things. That’s it. It’s only been two weeks, but I’ve learnt that the only approval I need is from myself, and to treat this role like any other. Don’t try to be something that I’m not and enjoy my teaching. Enjoy the successes and learn from the mistakes as I would anytime, anywhere. 

Innovation is often mistaken for making everything new – innovate yourself, by sometimes being your old self!

Researchers, futurists and those in the human resource profession agree that the future world of work will be influenced by things like technology, globalisation and population ageing. But it is soft skills – also known as human, life or employability skills – that are deemed by professionals to be as important, if not more so, than hard or technical skills in the modern day workplace.

The irony is, soft skills are actually really hard to develop. To get good at them takes time and lots and lots of practice. It’s the development of these soft skills in the K-12 context that I will talk about in this blog.

Why Soft Skills Matter

To successfully function in all aspects of one’s life, soft skills like communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – also known as the 4Cs – are important. That’s because organisations with employees that have them are, amongst other things, more harmonious and productive.

But of all the soft skills out there, what are the ones that employers desire most in those they hire?

Time and time again, it’s the 4C’s, decision making, resilience, confidence, emotional intelligence, time management and cultural awareness that top the lists.

And it’s these skills that should be the focus in any soft skills programme that is developed in a K-12 context.

The Best Ways To Develop These Skills

It’s no good talking about the importance of soft skills if we don’t understand the best ways to develop them in young people.

Here the research is pretty clear about the most effective way to develop these skills: explicit instruction and extracurricular activities.

Explicit teaching of soft skills in a classroom is more effective than implicit teaching approaches. But what does that actually look like? In real terms, it means bite-sized explicit teaching activities and continued practice. Which means that even secondary teachers should be able to manage this within crowded curriculums.

Extracurricular activities, however, are more challenging. That’s because there are substantial socioeconomic gaps in access to extracurricular activities. Therefore it won’t surprise you to learn that young people with the best soft skills usually come from independent schools.  

What Interventions Work Best?

According to research conducted by The Sutton Trust, the programmes that have been trialed and look promising at developing soft skills in young people include:

• Teacher training. Training teachers to improve mindsets and resilience in their students, either in pre-service training or as professional development.

• Structured after-school clubs. This can include music, sports or social clubs.

• Social action activities. These can be community or school-based.

• Social and emotional learning programmes.

Next Steps

Soft skills development should be at the heart of every education system. Education systems in Singapore and Canada are placing increasing importance on character development within their curriculum.

Although it would be great if both the UK government prioritised this also, in the short term there are things that schools can do.

A more focussed whole school approach to the development of these skills is needed – and possible. The development of soft skills should and can be part of the day-to-day curriculum.  

As a former curriculum coordinator at a secondary school, I can tell you that this is possible. But this type of initiative needs to have support from administration. Teachers need to have time to not only understand why it’s important, but more importantly to show them what explicit teaching of these skills looks like. 

For instance, to be a good communicator, you need to be good at a number of communication skills, like listening, reading and writing. These skills can be further broken down into things like active listening.

When we break these important soft skills down into more manageable chunks, explicit teaching of these skills in any context doesn’t look so daunting, does it?

Explore Further

 “We must put values and character development at the core of our education system.” Singaporean Education Minister Heng Swee Keat

If you’re at all interested in reading more about this, here are some useful links to get you started.

Character and Citizen Education Singapore

Global Education and Skills Forum

OECD Education 2030

The Sutton Trust – Life Lessons: Improving Essential Life Skills for Young People

World Economic Forum 2017 – Preparing People for the Future of WWorld Economic Forum – Ten Best Countries for Skills and Education

This is a positive step towards meaningful assessment; a concept that strives for assessments that focus on the student developing academically and gaining real skills. This is different to learning to recite set content and allows teachers to effectively assess whether their students are improving and if not, where the areas for improvement lie. 

What is ‘Intent, Implementation and Impact’?

Intent focuses on the aims of education. Ofsted wishes to move away from creating a ‘conveyor belt’ style education where tests form the key purpose. Instead, they emphasise the importance of asking ‘what do we want to achieve?’. Schools must therefore demonstrate a varied curriculum that displays their commitment to providing an enriching educational programme that will benefit learners academically; not simply teach students how to pass the next test.

Implementation aims to expand this by ensuring that the curriculum is providing the broader content required. This means providing just as much focus on other subjects, as it does for core ones, and offering a wider curriculum that focuses on overall enrichment; requiring focus on the process of learning rather than just the outcomes. 

Finally, impact considers how effective these new methods are at engaging young people in learning by assessing whether they have developed their knowledge and skills, and whether they are interested in their studies, creating a far more holistic approach than previously.

How can we achieve this?

As with the delivery of most educational approaches, its success relies upon teachers being at the helm when deciding what form of assessment is right for their class. By incorporating a blend of formative, summative and unit assessments, and by employing a more personalised approach, teachers can track areas students need to work on and set tasks accordingly.  

This can, of course, be difficult, especially given the stretching workloads many teachers already face. However, by utilising online resources such as EducationCity, which now provides over 90 Assessments across English, maths and science, which are automatically marked, generate corrections and revision pathways for each child based on their specific answers, pressure can be alleviated. Teachers can decide which assessments are right for their class, set them accordingly and use the curriculum-correlated content within the revision pathways to address the areas that students need to develop.

Education is about setting young people up with the very best start to life and a vital part of this is meaningful assessment; stepping away from the one-size-fits-all model will ensure each student can achieve their very best. 

For more information or to take a free trial for your school, please visit https://www.educationcity.com.