Foundation Funded Microsoft Innovative Educator Training (MIE)

This year, 62 Mt. Bethel staff members completed training for Foundation funded Microsoft Innovative Educator certification led by Carrie Lowery, TTIS, (Technology Training Integration Specialist). Third grade teacher Ann Saour shares her training experience with us and how MIE certification has impacted her in the classroom.

In the third grade classroom that I work in, our students were extra eager to learn about Early Explorers in Social Studies, knowing they were going to get the choice to teach what they learned with use of Power Point Online or SWAY. The students couldn’t wait to research more information of their explorer and add to their presentations. I can’t even begin to tell you the enthusiastic learning that I witnessed eight and nine years take part in. This learning was also evident when the students completed an extension activity. This included an essay they wrote imagining themselves on the first voyage to the New World with describing their long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. I firmly believe that I would not have witnessed such elevated knowledge of this part of history without bringing more technology into our lessons.

In this course, we have:

• learned how to utilize the Office 365 tools including OneDrive, PowerPoint Online, Forms, Sway, OneNote, OneNote Class Notebook, Skype, and Teams

• covered the use of OneNote for organization, to enhance communication, collaboration, and critical thinking

• thought about ways lessons can be enhanced or changed to increase student levels of engagement and collaborative participation, and

• been exposed to new tools like Flipgrid and Microsoft Translator.

I look forward to implementing more learning tools on One Note and Microsoft On-line. Our students are going to love being able to add 3D objects from Power Point on-line to their Minecraft Education building. Immersive Readers, Picture Dictionary, Language Translation, Text (LINE)Focus are also just a few tools that will greatly impact access to curriculum for” ALL” students, but especially our Special Education and English Language Learner (ELL) population.

Although, many teachers like me had some training in the past on Office 365 tools, this course gave us the time to create and utilize the programs. Training with multiple grade levels and staff also provided insights to heighten our utilization of Office 365.

Thank you to the MBES FOUNDATION, our TTIS, Carrie Lowery, and our administration for this opportunity.