Hello Everyone!!

My hours online are from 8 am to 12 pm Monday through Friday and encouracge the students to be on at the same time so I can assist them. 

We are in an interesting time. All students will be learning from home (DL - Distance Learning) until we can re-enter our schools safely. You should know that every student in Yonkers Public Schools has access to Microsoft Office and every student has an account. where they can access programs to help them learn from home. Many teachers, such as myself, use Microsoft Teams as a platform to communicate with students, assign, and grade students work all online.

Attached at the bottom of this page is a file (Microsoft Instructions) with instructions on how students can access their school Microsoft Accounts.

Also, as a student/teacher/employee in Yonkers Public Schools, each student/teacher/employee can download MS Office 365 onto 5 devices for free. Many people use it on their tablets, smartphones, computers, and/or laptops, I know I do.

What is TEAMS and Why Use It?

MS Teams is an online collaboration software platform that allows teachers and students, and students and students, to communicate and review/complete assignments online. MS Teams is the district approved platform for posting assignments and communication with students. Teams is also a free app and teachers can run the program from the app and students can review assignments, communicate with each other or the teacher, and best of all do their work online and submit it.

Teams is where I post information and assignments for my classes. While we are doing Distance Learning (DL) students will be submitting their work electronically through MS Word and other Microsoft programs and apps. Please do not send pictures of the work unless I specifically request it. Everything must be submitted directly through the assignments posted on Teams.

Teams is NOT for communication between teacher and parent, for that I use Class Dojo (see below).

How to Log into Microsoft Teams and Other Programs? (Computer/Cellphone)

See attached file at the top of this page (Microsoft Instructions).

On a computer/tablet/laptop etc. Go to www.office.com

Sign in using your school credentials (school computer username and password).

When you are in will see an array of programs including (Outlook for email, OneDrive for cloud file storage, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams).

If you are using the free Teams app on your cellphone, use your school computer credentials to log in.

How Do Parents and Teacher Communicate

I use Class Dojo as a way to communicate with parents. Parents can log into www.classdojo.com and search for me (Mr. Restaino) or Class Dojo is a free app you can download on your smartphone. At the beginning of the year every student was sent home with a specific parent code for you to join. No worries if you don’t have it. Once the app is downloaded you can search for me and request to join the class.

How Do Parents Check Grades?

I use the district program PowerSchool for my grades. At the beginning of the year, letters were sent home with each’s student’s specific code for PowerSchool. Many parents don’t know this and this is something I do not have, you would need to call Central Office and request it. A loop hole is you can down load the PowerSchool app and have your child login with their school computer username and password, just like for Teams.

Thank You for Your Involvement

I hope you found this information helpful. We all need to adjust to online learning and patience is required. Please feel free to reach out and ask questions and keep up with what your children are doing in their classes.