Getting Started with the OneNote Staff Notebook: A Walkthrough for Staff Leaders in Education

OneNote Staff Notebook is a shared OneNote notebook for school leaders, educators, and staff. Use it to keep staff meeting notes, shared resources, school plans, and private feedback in one place. Build your Staff Notebook skills with the free, full online course here: OneNote Staff Notebook training.

Each Staff Notebook has three spaces:

Collaboration Space - A shared space where staff leaders and staff members can work together.
Content Library - A read-only space where staff leaders can publish policies, meeting materials, procedures, and other shared resources.
Staff Member Notebooks - Private spaces shared between the staff leader and each individual staff member.

Choose how to get started

Staff Notebook can be created from Microsoft Teams for Education or from the Staff Notebook Wizard. Choose the path that matches how your staff group works.

Set up in Teams

Use this path when your PLC, department, school leadership team, or staff group already works in Microsoft Teams for Education.

Roster: Staff leaders and staff members come from the staff team membership.
Storage: The notebook is stored in the staff team's SharePoint site.
Access: Staff leaders and members open the notebook from the Staff Notebook tab in the staff team or from OneNote.

Use OneNote Staff Notebook in Teams

Find your Staff Notebooks

Ways to use Staff Notebook

Staff meetings and PLCs: Keep agendas, attendance, minutes, and follow-ups in one shared workspace.
School initiatives: Plan school improvement work, events, committees, and cross-grade projects with shared pages.
Policies and procedures: Publish school policies, calendars, deadlines, and key resources in the Content Library.
Professional learning and observations: Use private staff member notebooks for feedback, development plans, classroom observations, and artifacts.

Create and manage a Staff Notebook

For the detailed creation flow, use the Create a Staff Notebook article. You can choose default sections, preview the staff leader and staff member views, create the notebook, then copy the notebook link for your records.

Design private spaces