Penn High School students use gamification to solve real-world STEM challenges. Annually, Microsoft hosts America’s innovative educators at its Microsoft Partners in Learning US Forum. The US Forum is an opportunity for educators to showcase and exchange their best practices in teaching and learning...

The big news for me yesterday was at Finalists Announced for Round 1 of the Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 US Forum . I attended this event as a judge last year and learned an incredible amount from these amazing teachers. This first round announced 44 teachers representing 32 projects from across...

Being somewhat opinionated about the subject (who am I kidding – most subjects) and at the same time being more or less incapable of keeping my opinions to myself I have written here about what makes a good teacher a number of times. I’ve talked about subject matter expertise and passion for the subject...

I was attracted to Frank Machos’ display from the Philadelphia School of the Future because of the MIDI music instruments and computers that he had.  When we talked, I discovered that this was not a music course, but a marketing class. Frank’s innovative approach is to get students to understand...

Watch the video of educator Johnny Kissko of Lubbock ISD sharing how he is using Kinect for XBOX360 in the classroom to engage students and remake the modern learning environment. Related posts: Microsoft Presents the 2011 U.S. Innovative Education Forum Microsoft Innovative Educator Webcast Series...

I got a chance to chat with Dr. Jane McGonigal, author of "Reality of Broken," at the US Innovative Education Forum at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, WA. Checkout her thoughts on gaming, learning through failure, and what Chief State School Officers should be doing on next-generation assessments...

Last week was incredible at the US Innovative Education Forum. I’ll have more to say about that as this week goes on. Some great educators to highlight for example. Some lessons learned. And some pictures.BTW one of the teachers at the IEF, Kenneth Holden ( @kennetholden ) has posted his IEF Day 3 -...

Wow! Just WOW! I spent yesterday judging teacher projects as part of the US Innovative Educator Forum in Redmond. It was absolutely inspiring. In fact I would go as far as to say this was the most encouraging day in regards to American education I have ever spent. And yes that includes learning about...

For some competitions one selects a bunch of smart people, hands them a rubric and says “have at it. Be fair.” Honestly though is that really the way to do things? Generally not. When running a serious competition you want good judges, smart people who ...read more

(Cross-posted from the Official Microsoft Blog ) School may be out for summer, but for many highly-motivated teachers and school leaders, there is no break. Educators are hard at work scouring the Web and connecting with their peers, looking for new teaching ideas to inspire their kids next year and...

Microsoft Corp. today announced the selection of 72 additional educators to attend the 2011 Microsoft U.S. Innovative Education Forum (IEF). These finalists will be traveling to the Microsoft campus in Redmond in July to showcase the creative ways they ...read more

This year’s first round of 2011 U.S. Innovative Education Forum Finalists are a diverse group of talented educators. These educator have put forth their innovative classroom strategies for engaging students with relevance, rigor, and remixing education ...read more

By 2035, today’s preschoolers and kindergarteners will be entering the workforce. The students of today are laying the core building blocks for the workforce of 2035. That is why I applaud the focus from President Obama’s State of the Union address last week focused on innovation, education...

When I was in Cape Town, South Africa for the Worldwide Innovation Education Forum (IEF), I had the opportunity, along with the other 550 teachers and education leaders who participated in the event, to visit two South African schools and to hear about the challenges and successes of the education system...