Are you a teacher looking for new ways to grow professionally and engage your students? Are you a school leader whose school is on a path of digital transformation and who wants to get support and connect with like-minded leaders?
Microsoft supports a thriving community of educators and school leaders who are working together to change students’ lives and build a better world. The Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert and Showcase School programs were created to help you learn, grow, and connect.
Educators and schools in these Microsoft education programs benefit from the support provided by Microsoft on their digital transformation journey. In addition, Microsoft offers opportunities for educators and school leaders to share and exchange ideas around innovation and successes that highlight new practices and solutions through community connections, online and through regional and global events.
The nomination period for the 2021-2022 Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program and Showcase School program is now open. Nominate yourself by July 15, 2021 to become part of this coming year’s cohort of changemakers!
Jump to the next section to learn how to join the Showcase School program.
How to join the MIE Expert program
If you are a teacher, a school leader, a professional learning specialist, an education coach, a curriculum specialist, or anyone who supports teaching and learning and wants to grow your own practice, the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert program is for you. It’s a community of self-driven educators who are passionate about integrating Microsoft technology into teaching and learning, who inspire students with creative thinking, and who enjoy working collaboratively. MIE Experts get access to free professional and career development opportunities and certification programs. They also share their learning by playing leading roles in regional training sessions, giving presentations at conferences, writing blogs, engaging in social channels, and more. Resourceful and entrepreneurial, they relish the role of “change agent” and work to achieve excellence in education using Microsoft technologies and innovative teaching practices. With current momentum and advancement of technology integration underway in education, the MIE Expert self-nomination process has been adjusted this year to reflect the technology proficiency and expectations needed by the community.
To join this diverse and exciting community, please follow these four easy steps to nominate yourself.
Step 1: Join the Microsoft Educator Center (MEC) and complete your profile. You will need to download your transcript, link it to a shareable location, then share that link with us as part of the nomination process. You can find your transcript by going into your profile on the MEC. Additionally, if you use Microsoft Learn you can share your Learn profile as part of your nomination.
Step 2: Ensure that you have successfully passed two hours of courses on the MEC and earned your certified MIE badge. You must be a Certified MIE to become (or stay) an MIE Expert.
Step 3: Download this Word document with all the questions to help you prepare your nomination (and helpful links to get you up to speed on the tools you are less familiar with).Note that there are three phases to the nomination process (1) sharing information about you, (2) a scored questionnaire to demonstrate a base knowledge of Microsoft tools that support teaching and learning, and finally (3) the long-form answers which will be reviewed by the local Microsoft team in your country/region.
Step 4: Nominate yourself by July 15, 2021 (If you submit by July 8, and don’t make it through the scored questions, you will have a chance to rework your nomination and submit by July 15).
The 2021-2022 cohort of MIE Experts will be announced the week of August 30, 2021.
We look forward to welcoming you into the growing MIE Expert community and celebrating innovation in teaching and learning together.
How to join our Microsoft Showcase School program
Schools around the world are exploring new approaches to teaching and learning to ensure students are prepared for success in school and in life. The Microsoft Showcase School program supports such efforts, and we invite you to explore the Incubator Path, the first step toward becoming a Showcase School.
Throughout a school’s education transformation journey, Microsoft and its partners assist in building capacity, guiding transformation, and providing early access to new research and solutions. There is a relentless focus through the program on securing strong student outcomes by creating effective, secure, and efficient schools that provide personalized and predictive learning that empowers students.
Whether your school is fully operational or is still a project idea — if you are considering a growth journey toward digital transformation, school leaders are invited to nominate their school to the Showcase Incubator Path. The Showcase Incubator Path is the initial step schools take before becoming a Showcase School.
Schools will go through the Incubator Path at their own pace supported by Microsoft and its partners. Along the way, they will have access to the broader Showcase School community to establish global connections and facilitate learning from and with other schools. If this sounds like a program you would like to join, follow these two easy steps to nominate yourself before the deadline of August 1, 2021.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the Microsoft K-12 Education Transformation Framework and review the Showcase School rubric to identify where your school is on the transformation journey and the areas in which you’d like your school to grow as a result of your participation in the program. The work of the Showcase School program is based around the Framework, which is designed to support school communities working toward transformational change.
Step 2: If you’re part of a project to establish a new school, whether it’s brick-and-mortar or virtual, nominate your school.
If you are a school that is open and operational: prepare a two-minute Microsoft Sway or video that tells the story through a single, clear example of how you as the school leader have led your school’s innovation in one of the following areas:
- Vision for change
- Educator and leader professional development
- Improvement process and data-driven decisions
- Personalized learning and well-being
- Future-ready skills
Begin your Sway or video with your school’s name, city, and country. Your name and role should also be visible at the start of the presentation. Clearly respond to the following prompts:
- This is what we think about education transformation today.
- This is what we hope to learn about education transformation when we engage with Microsoft.
- This is what we are keeping in mind as we take these next steps.
- These are our current blockers/challenges.
- Close your Sway or video with your school name, city, and country, as well as your name and role visible.
Once you have completed these steps, you will be ready to fill out the self-nomination form.
A blog announcing the new 2021-2022 cohort of schools in the Showcase School program will launch the week of August 30, 2021.
We look forward to welcoming you into the Incubator Path of the Showcase School program.
