Microsoft Training for teachers

The summer holidays as a teacher

"Time off", "Long holidays", we've heard all the comments about 6 weeks holidays, aren't you lucky. Maybe 3 weeks off, but the rest of the time there is the planning and preparation to do for our new academic year. We are so busy producing materials and educating our students, but it is at this time of year, we have some time to improve our own skills and update our use of technology ready to return and prepare for an excellent Autumn term.

Where do you go to update the skills you need to be an amazing teacher?

There are many ways to update your skills and find new tech to use, from following Twitter #tags such as #ukfechat #ukedchat to being members of Facebook groups about your subject area. Sharing best practice with colleagues at work. Spotting something on Instagram or Pinterest that makes you want to investigate further.

We all have to demonstrate our continued professional development (CPD) as part of our performance reviews and self-assessment reports, so training that is traceable and trackable is also essential.

I always look forward to setting some time aside to work through courses during the summer holidays. As I teach computing, I'm forever updating my skillset whether this is learning new packages, the latest updates to my current packages (oh joy, that means re-recording my video tutorials) and learning new units (not an easy task in computing as the theory updates very quickly and can be obsolete in 2 years).

Microsoft Training

We use Office 365 where I work, it is brilliant, and there are so many different packages available that work well together. In the workplace, our students will be expected to know most of the Microsoft suite for their job roles, so I believe it is essential to give them the most extensive skillset they can through their time in college, gaining confidence through their studies with us.

Where to start?

I use the Microsoft Educator Community training materials to improve my skillset, their introduction states:-

Connect and collaborate, find training and lessons, and earn badges and certificates on this personalized hub created for educators like you.

I especially like the "Learning Paths", these take you through a set of courses that will build to give you a specific skill set.

Have a look and see what you could learn, the following tutorial is a great place to start if you have never used OneNote.
https://education.microsoft.com/Getting-Started-with-OneNote

I've been using OneNote with my students this year and have found this really useful, especially with the Class Notebook add-on installed. It was a great way for students to build an e-portfolio for their graphics project with me, allowing me to access it and check on their progress throughout the course. Using it for note-taking and also distributing tasks and collaboration.

There have been some challenges, students don't read and watch the training built in (for IT students, they need to start to gain self-motivation with new packages), therefore, I need to develop this into early lessons. The other brilliant use of OneNote is capturing content as you research direct from the Browser, via email and direct links with the Office Suite.


If you haven't yet started using OneNote, this is a perfect starting point.


There are also lesson plans available across all subject areas, really worth investigating and video tutorials.

You never know, there may be a lesson already created that you could use this year. Start tracking your badges and downloading your certificates.