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One of the most powerful tools in our own professional development is other teachers. Professional generosity – sharing ideas and feedback with our colleagues - helps us move forward in our own practice. It helps us tweak, refine and improve what we are doing in our classrooms. I know that sometimes...

With the increasing popularity of blogging in schools, Microsoft Live Writer is a tool that makes the whole process very simple and intuitive. Microsoft Live Writer is part of the Windows Live Essentials free downloads and is just one of a family of very useful tools. It can be used to post to multiple...

This weeks idea is similar to a snack that I often forget about, but when I remember, It's delicious, but perhaps not appreciated as the gastronomic delight that it is. The snack in question is the Pot Noodle . This food technology marvel offers the best in convenience snacking, it is often maligned...

Over 100 schools attended our Fun, Free Friday event last week. It was a great day with an absolutely packed agenda. I wanted to share all of the links to the various downloads we mentioned during the day. Many of which we have covered here on this blog. If you need some ideas of how to use the software...

Last month I wrote a blog post about Mouse Mischief , unfortunately it appeared on the day they removed the beta version, Whoops! But, I am really pleased to announce that the full version is now available to download for free at www.microsoft.com/mousemischief If you haven’t read my last post and...

Over the past year, the work we have undertaken with teachers and schools has resulted in us creating and collecting a plethora of video resources. We wanted to make sure that we are able share these with as many of you as possible. So we have created our very own YouTube Channel. The UK Partners in...

";" mce_src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/teachers/WindowsLiveWriter/TuneintoScienceTV_A240/video837c2b7c232f.jpg" galleryimg="no"> Those of you who are old enough may remember school science broadcasts, where you sat with the whole class, (often a number of classes) waiting patiently for...

Do you believe in the idea that our futures and personalities are governed by Zodiac star signs. Here is an example, which one of these do you think describes myself and Kristen, are you able to identify our personality traits from just our blog posts? (or even from the occasions where you may have met...

One of my new Year’s resolution is to get fit again; I suspect many of you have a similar resolution. Well, it's not going to be workout videos for me. No, I’m going to endure the annual marathon that is the 2010 BETT show. If last year's event is anything to go by, I should lose loads of weight, or...

This is how Wordle sees this blog if we use it to analyse the content we've written over the past word. We are really pleased to see that we are clearly focussing on teachers, but also, we are really pleased to see the prominence of teaching and learning, resources, community and the word innovative...

Today is a great day – a day that will no doubt go down in history. Not only is it the one-year birthday of our Teachers Blog, but this post also marks our 100th post to the Teachers Blog. (If you think we didn’t plan that, you’re crazy.) Stuart and I weren’t sure what would come of this blog when...

Whilst planning these blog posts the guys at Expression and Blend team at Microsoft have added some great features to Deep Zoom Composer . The application now includes features to add links to images and areas within your deep zoom. If you have been following this series, I described how to create...

Anybody that has taught knows that certain well-known myths are just not true. For example, there is dinosaur living in a lake in Scotland (actually, I believe this one is true), woman are worse drivers than men and teachers do not work in August. Today I can dispel at least one of these myths: teachers...

I have had a number of requests of how to make the the Deep Zoom mosaics I featured in my first workshop post . It's a question I have been asked before, so I have undertaken a little research and this is what I have discovered. Using the information in this post you could easily create these Deep Zoom...

In my previous post I described how I see D eep zoom as a resource for the classroom, rather than just as image design tool for web sites. In this post, I am going to explore how easy it is to create your own Deep Zooms and use them as a medium for visual story telling. To take part in this workshop...

In May, I blogged about The Climate Mystery , an online game and alternate reality universe where students learn about climate change and issues while they try to save the world from certain disaster. If you want to use this curriculum with your students in September, Microsoft and Congin (the game creators...

I leave Kristen alone for 5 minutes and she has had a blogging frenzy,now I need to catch up after my summer break. This is the first of a series of posts in what I hope will be an informative and constructive workshop, that you would be able to recreate with student and colleagues. As well learn how...

Did you know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy? It’s also 40 years since man first stepped on the Moon. Because of this, in my recent school visits I’ve seen a lot of teachers undertaking projects based around Earth and space. (Incidentally, as a child of the 1960's, I feel really old...

Where will the next Susan Boyle or Leona Lewis come from? Well, with another great application developed by Microsoft Research (the other being AutoCollage – available for free on the Innovative Teachers Network ) it could be from any one of your future lessons! As a primary school teacher, I had to...

Harri is 9 years old and spends most of his time playing football. I know this from the number of times he collects his ball from my garden. He has a digital world, but it is not what you would perhaps expect. He doesn’t use a laptop; the laptop in his family is his sister’s and it's used for ‘ talking...

Do you ever have those moments where you know you’re forgetting something that is so blatantly obvious it’s practically staring you right in the face? Stuart and I have weekly discussions about what to tell you about in this blog, and somehow Learning Essentials, a great FREE resource to help you use...

It’s that time of year again. You are looking in your wardrobe and last year’s fashion and nothing fits --everything seems to have shrunk over the winter! Surely I haven’t put on that much weight, you think! Then you realise how dusty and tired looking everything is. So before you know it, you're shopping...

Many secondary schools I visit are busy creating comprehensive libraries of content to support their students' learning. This content is often shared across a learning platform of some kind. It’s not really my field of expertise, being a primary school teacher, so I admit that am not fully aware of the...

";" mce_src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/teachers/WindowsLiveWriter/TheRookies_9A5B/video1fdda2d319b7.jpg" galleryimg="no"> Sam, aged 7 , Is a PC! Microsoft has some great adverts running at the moment, where kids show how easy it is to use a PC. Take a look at this one, on the right, in...

From our recent posts you will know that last week we attended the European Innovative Teachers Forum in Vienna. I thought I would spend a little time reflecting on what was a great event. This time last week I was presenting part of a keynote with the team from FutureLab, Sarah Payton and Professor...