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In our blog "What do Teachers Really Want?", we mentioned that we want to provide you with more ideas of how you can use Microsoft technology to teach your specific subject area. For the next several weeks, we’ll be focusing on Subject Snacks – sharing our ideas and rewarding you for sharing...

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...

I am always amazed at the various professional networks that teachers belong to. When I was teaching, my professional network revolved mainly around the teachers I met on local authority organised training (these don’t happen to the same extent any more ) and a professional subject network, such as the...

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...

We were thrilled to see an email from our colleagues at Microsoft headquarters recently that contained a link to all sorts of free guides, videos, templates and other tools to help you use technology in your teaching. Just go to www.microsoft.com/teacherguides and you’ll find a wealth of resources on...

";" 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...

A while ago I blogged about PowerPoint and highlighted some of the great resources that are available, such as Plex for PowerPoint for example. That gives teachers and students absolutely no excuse to create boring and dull presentations and not to avoid the ‘death by PowerPoint’ scenario. Here is...

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...

In Monday’s blog post, I introduced you to the first half of our all-star team of teachers coming to this year’s Innovative Education Forum in Berlin. I hope you’ll take a look at Amy and Jan’s work in more detail on the Partners in Learning Network . Today I’d like to introduce you to David Rogers...

Production is running high in creating your videos for the Innovid Competition and with 3 weeks left before the closing date, many of you are ready to begin recording your ideas. So we have had a lot of questions, one in particular has been ‘Can we use Office 2010 in our videos? ’. Not surprisingly,...

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...

I must admit that as a teacher, I never had time to read any blogs -- it was often too much just to read the Times Educational Supplement. But now I think that if and when I return to the classroom, blogs will be the mainstay of how I will gather information to inform and develop my teaching. Over the...

My favourite part of the Microsoft Innovative Education Forum is meeting the teachers that have submitted Virtual Classroom Tours to share with their colleagues. I’m lucky enough to have been asked to be a judge at this year’s Forum, which is a lot of work, but also means that I get to speak in-depth...

For years, Microsoft has been running a competition for university developer and programming students called the Imagine Cup. In the Imagine Cup we challenge teams of students to find and build technology solutions to real-world issues. We encourage the world's most talented software designers, programmers...

During this Summer, we held a unique event for us, the first Innovative Teachers Summer Camp , where we invited 10 of our innovative teachers to develop some classroom resources. Their task was to begin creating short, 3-5 minute videos, to support teachers and educators in the use of technology in the...

We have talked a lot about Dan Roberts, one of our award winners from the Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum in Hong Kong. He is still very much an active member of the Innovative Teachers programme, and Kristen and I are in contact with him and his school on a regular basis. He has just returned from...

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 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...

Sometimes I don’t know how I ever found any information before the Internet. Granted, you have to know how to sift through all the garbage that’s out there in order to uncover the quality resources that the Internet has to offer. This can be especially difficult in education, as there is an endless number...

For our second post in this planning series, we’re talking to those of you who organise professional development workshops, twilight sessions, or inset days for other teachers in your school. If this sounds like you, read on! In addition to writing this blog, Stuart and I are a bit of a travelling...

Stuart and I have been visiting a lot of schools in the weeks – and now days – leading up to the end of term. As the conversations we’re hearing are all around planning for next year, we thought we’d try to provide you with a series of posts that may help you in the planning process. For the most part...

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...