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Have you heard of TALIS?, if not, I bet you have heard of PISA, the worldwide evaluation in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries of 15-year-old students scholastic performance, performed first in 2000 and repeated every three years. It is coordinated by the OECD...

It is award ceremony time at the moment, Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes. It unlikely that UK Partners in Learning has been nominated in any of those. But we have  been shortlisted for a 2012 NAACE Impact Award for Adviser or Consultant or Support Service, which is a fantastic achievement in itself...

Stuart and I work with a lot of teachers. We both used to be teachers (Stuart more recently than me). We meet teachers from all over the world and spend a lot of time in schools. Yet there are times when we think we have absolutely no idea what you want and how we can best help you. So we decided to...

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...

";" 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...

Alessio Bernardelli teaches in Croesyceiliog School in Cwmbran, Wales, in this blog post he describes his journey with the Innovative Teachers Network programme, how it has transformed his teaching and his views on education as he has developed his own professional learning network. These are his...

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...

Whilst working for Microsoft, I have had some great opportunities. One of the things that has had the biggest impact has been the people I have met. I am convinced that it would have been very unlikely that I would have met or even heard about such people when I was in the classroom. This thought is...

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...

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...

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...

I can’t keep up with Stuart’s humourous posts lately, so I’m not even going to try. It’s too early on a Monday morning for me to come up with funny puns on pop culture. I’m just going to tell you about something else that Microsoft is offering for free. A few months ago I wrote about Microsoft’s Peer...

To collect another award of course….. Regular readers of our blog will know all about the Chickenman , aka Dan Roberts . He is one of our most proactive Innovative Teachers and award winners. But he's not just all feathers and eggs; his work is highly motivating for his students bringing Dan a number...

Planning is probably the most disliked word in the teaching profession (apart from inspection , that is). From my experience it dominates your time as a teacher. You have a variety of planning to undertake: lesson, weekly, short, medium, long and individual, to name just a few. You have endless planning...

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...

Have you seen those yoghurts that contain an unpronounceable micro-organism that has a beneficial effect on the well being of your digestive system? Stay with me here and you will see where this is going. A recent experience -- not with yoghurt I hasten to add, but with digital images -- got me thinking...

";" mce_src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/teachers/WindowsLiveWriter/TheDeathofPowerpoint_D3F6/videoa3bf1bf08ddc.jpg" galleryimg="no"> Is it really the fault of Powerpoint? Recently, I've had a number of requests from schools for ‘something else for teachers to use other than PowerPoint...

Alone in the office, with the lights low, I often succumb to a guilty pleasure! (It's not what you think!) I spend time looking at the Office Labs site. Now before you make any snap judgements, the Office Labs are not the ‘Geek-fest’ you might imagine. After all in her last post, Kristen describes the...

Chris Henderson is the final teacher accompanying us to Vienna later this month for the European Innovative Teachers Forum. Chris is from Saltash.net Community School , which you've heard us talk about many, many times at this point. Dan Roberts (aka, the 6-foot chicken), our award winner in Hong Kong...

Listening to the views and perspectives of students was a central recommendation highlighted in the in the 2007 Diversity and Citizenship Curriculum Review . Technology has had a major impact on allowing schools to successfully meet the recommendations our students have made. Mandeep Atwal from Shireland...

I think I enjoyed last Friday's Innovative Teachers event at Microsoft just a much as Stuart did. The teachers we meet are always inspiring, and this group of 12 was quite special. Like Stuart and the teachers, I was also inspired by Guy Shearer's keynote. I've borrowed the title of Guy's talk in...

There are certain social protocols that we naturally adopt, such as body language, eye contact, personal space and appropriate conversation. I am the shy and retiring type and I think I am only now getting comfortable in a wide variety of social situations. But I think I am again experiencing that adolescent...

There are only 7 days left before the closing date for submissions for the Microsoft UK Innovative Teachers Forum . If you were thinking of submitting a Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) yourself or know of a teacher whose work in the classroom deserves recognition. Then this is the week when you need to...