Innovative ideas in Education and Innovativeness

Dear All,

We witnessed a very nice "Sharing & Caring Day" at Marriott Hotel on Saturday. The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Program which has been conducted with the collaboration of Educational Technologies General Directorate of the Ministry of National Education since the beginning of the year 2007 gave its first fruit. As the advisor of the program I had trained 96 teachers about the Innovative teaching on the new Curriculum during the spring months of 2007. 43 innovative ideas were developed as innovative projects of Turkey by those teachers and their poster and powerpoint presentations were shared on Saturday. 10 projects were determined as the best ones by the jury which wwas formed by the experts of the Ministry and Microsoft Turkey guided by the Educational Projects Director of Microsoft Turkey_Ms Şeniz Ciritçi.

All the projects were very impressive although they were designed and put into practice in a very limited time. The award winners got their momentums at an Award Ceremony at Domalis Restaurant at the same night by the Bosphorus. According to the philosophy of the Microsoft Innovative Program; technology is a vehicle on the way of demonstrating "innovative mind" as a key factor within the new curriculum. Innovations come to an end but innovativeness never... The second step of this program_Peer Coaching and Leadership skills_ will go on duing the Fall months of this year. We wish good luck to our teachers on the way of sustaining an innovative approach. In order to see another photo from the Ceremony, please look into the Turkish version of this Blog. Thanks.

Hayal KÖKSAL