This is another guest post from Linda Foulkes one of South Africa’s Microsoft MiE Experts for 2015. Linda has contributed a number of blog posts on this blog in the past the most recent encouraging teachers to enter their students for the Microsoft Office Championships 2015 . Linda’s blog can be found at: https://folklind.wordpress.com. Linda is currently attending the week-long 2015 E2 Global Educator Exchange in Redmond washington along with three other South African teachers!

Being chosen as an Microsoft Innovative Expert Educator for 2015 has provided me with the most amazing “learning” MOMENTS to date. Support and involvement from Microsoft South Africa and Globally has been absolutely phenomenal.

Did you know that Microsoft provides such “directed learning” pathways for teachers, students and individuals to professionally develop themselves?

It is extremely important for teachers to engage in their own PD in order to engage students. Every single day I am learning new technologies, new updates, gaining new collaborations and so on.

Often I start to put my technology away, after being stared at over the top of my laptop by my beautiful jack russell [Laila] who reminds me that it is time to play ball, and “plup” goes my Facebook page with just another burst of learning…so one really needs to be strong and “park” it for a little later…the reason for this comment is that one needs to keep the balance between work and family to remain healthy, happy and productive!

Maybe I should introduce a “no technology evening once a week”!

This video highlights my journey of only some of the learning MOMENTS which I have been exposed to on my journey thus far as an MIEExpert for 2015:

I am so thankful [and beyond excited] to Microsoft for affording me the opportunity to attend the Redmond Global Forum at the end of April – counting the days till I am able to meet some of the most inspiring teachers in the World, be an agent of change on my return to South Africa, and source opportunities to continue my learning pathway with the newly found knowledge which Redmond instils in me.