From coding challenges to immersive Minecraft Education experiences, there are many ways to bring Earth Day themes to life while helping students develop essential skills. Discover six classroom-ready resources to help you celebrate Earth Day 2025 and make a lasting impact on your students.

1. Dive into data to protect the Earth with Data Explorers

Data Explorers is an action-packed Minecraft Education world that aims to build data science and sustainability skills, created by ReWrite Edu in collaboration with NetApp and World’s Largest Lesson. This choose-your-next-path style game takes students across five different ecosystems in search of scientists who help them use data to solve specific environmental problems. Along the way, students can hone their data collection and analysis skills, as well as see how scientists apply data to real-world problems.

At-a-glance:

• Designed for students ages 11-14
• Focused on data collection and analysis skills
• Includes an educator guide for easy implementation

2. Engage in animal adventures with Planet Earth III Worlds

This beautiful lesson collection is the third installment in Minecraft Education and BBC Earth’s series of worlds inspired by the groundbreaking series from BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. Students will step into wondrous realms of the natural world to experience the struggles and triumphs of survival while playing as a series of incredible creatures, including the great white shark, the Arctic wolf, the musk ox, and more. They’ll explore the way these animals’ lives are intertwined by playing as both predator and prey, parent and offspring, friend and ally, and discover the precarious balance of survival.

At-a-glance:

• Designed for students aged 8-13
• Explores the challenges and victories of survival
• Experience beautiful visuals inspired by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit

3. Build eco-themed games with MakeCode Arcade

Microsoft MakeCode is a free, online learn-to-code platform where students can build games, code devices, and mod Minecraft. Support your students’ programming skills with MakeCode Arcade by quickly creating and modding retro arcade games with Blocks and JavaScript in the MakeCode editor.

This Earth Day, check out these eco-themed MakeCode Arcade experiences:

• Save the Forest – Engage students in an interactive coding challenge where they help control wildfires. Using block-based coding, students program an air tanker and set up technology to support a ground team working to protect the forest.
• Happy Flower – Teach students about the relationship between flowers and pollinators by coding a digital flower that sends bees back to the hive. This activity introduces basic programming concepts while reinforcing key science connections.
• Shark Splash – Take students on an underwater adventure where they code a shark navigating the deep sea in search of food. This skillmap blends game design and computer science with marine ecology.

4. Foster a sustainable future with FarmBeats for Students

Empower students to explore how technology can drive sustainability with FarmBeats for Students. This hands-on program brings precision agriculture to classrooms, engaging learners in real-world applications of digital sensors, data analysis, and AI. Through interactive activities, students collect and analyze environmental data, build machine learning models, and discover how AI can help optimize farming practices—supporting a future where we can feed a growing population while preserving our planet’s resources.

At-a-glance:

• Combines an affordable micro:bit-based hardware kit with free, curated curriculum
• Features interactive activities that engage students in real-world applications of AI
• Focuses on sustainability in agriculture and environmental stewardship

5. Enhance literacy skills with Earth Day reading assignments

Use Reading Progress to seamlessly blend Earth Day topics into your reading lessons while supporting each student’s literacy growth. With AI-powered passage generation, you can create customized reading passages on environmental themes in just a few clicks. Simply choose the topic, age level, length, and language—and adjust the complexity as needed to meet your students where they are and deepen their engagement with Earth Day.

You can also use AI-generated comprehension questions based on the passage. Specify how many questions you want, review the questions before assigning them, and easily tailor them to fit your students’ learning goals.

At-a-glance:

• Quickly generate Earth Day-themed reading passages with AI-powered passage generation
• Personalize reading passages based on phonics patterns or words students find challenging
• Use AI-generated comprehension questions to check for understanding

6. Design, update, and personalize Earth Day lesson plans

Spark creativity and save time with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Whether you’re planning an Earth Day lesson, generating engaging content, or creating visuals to bring your teaching to life, Copilot Chat can help—for free.

Need fresh activity ideas or ready-to-use classroom materials? Just ask Copilot Chat! Try these prompts to enhance your Earth Day lessons:

• Create a detailed lesson plan on sustainable farming practices for [grade level]. The lesson should highlight concepts like crop rotation, organic farming, soil conservation, and water management, with real-world examples and student-friendly explanations.
• Generate a list of thought-provoking, open-ended discussion questions for a [grade level] Earth Day lesson. Ensure the questions encourage critical thinking, personal responsibility, and diverse perspectives. They should be designed to spark meaningful conversations about [topic] and connect students’ thinking to their role in protecting the planet.
• List a variety of engaging, hands-on eco-centric activities for a [grade level] class to do for Earth Day. Include indoor and outdoor options with a brief description, required materials, estimated time, and how it connects to [a specific topic like environmental awareness, sustainability, or climate action].

Explore the Copilot Chat learning module on Microsoft Learn to discover practical ways to use it in your daily workflow.

Celebrate Earth Day 2025 by bringing sustainability to life in your classroom. These ready-to-use resources are designed to help you engage students and spark meaningful conversations about our planet’s future. Empower your students to take action for a greener future—one engaging, interactive lesson at a time.

The post 6 ways to create memorable Earth Day experiences for students appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

We’ll showcase some of the latest product enhancements and features that can help you increase student engagement, refine your instructional techniques, and simplify your workflow. Additionally, we’ll share professional learning opportunities to help you grow and enhance your skills. Let’s dive in and explore some of the latest developments from Microsoft Education.

Simplify your workflow and enhance student engagement

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and agents

We recently introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, an offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers. Copilot Chat is the experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure. 

You can customize your Copilot Chat experience with AI agents tailored to your specific needs. Simply provide the agent with institutional files—such as a lesson plan template and language usage guidelines—to create specialized assistants, like a “lesson plan agent” that aligns to your institution’s standards.

Advancements in AI

At Bett UK 2025, we announced AI-powered products and resources to help boost your efficiency, expedite your administrative processes, and enhance student engagement. Some highlights include:

• Copilot+ PCs – featuring enhanced security, optimized performance, and AI-integrated experiences. Now with code name Project Spark—our first education-focused Windows 11 app for Copilot+ PC—to bring on-device intelligence to your classroom.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – new resources and updates help leaders deliver safer AI experiences in their schools.
• Minecraft Lesson Crafter – an AI-powered tool that helps you design custom lesson plans in Minecraft Education, while also practicing how to write effective AI prompts.
• Khanmigo for Teachers – provides over 20 free, AI-powered tools to help streamline class prep with no prompting required.
• Khanmigo Writing Coach – designed by educators, it uses AI to make essay writing an interactive experience and provide students with step-by-step guidance without ever writing a word for them.

Learning Accelerators and Teams Assignments updates

Help your students build foundational and future-ready skills with Learning Accelerators, a set of learning tools included in Microsoft 365 Education. Support ongoing improvement and give your students more opportunities to learn, practice, and receive targeted coaching instantly in an inclusive environment. Check out some of the latest updates to Learning Accelerators:

• Reading Coach is now available as a free, standalone app. Explore how Reading Coach helps students build reading fluency with AI-powered reading practice.
• Math Progress is now available with Microsoft Teams for Education, making it easier for you to create math problems, track student performance, and identify learning needs.
• Speaker Progress now allows students to upload their own PowerPoints and provides real-time feedback on their presentation skills like pacing, pitch, and body language. Also, more languages are now available in Speaker Progress, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean.
• Teams Assignments are now integrated with Blackboard by Anthology—bringing Learning Accelerators, MakeCode projects, Reflect check-ins, and other tools directly into the learning management system (LMS).

Whether you’re helping students become more confident readers, strengthening math skills, or improving public speaking, these updates make it easier to support student learning and engagement.

Dig Deeper into the world of AI with Minecraft

The CyberSafe series from Minecraft Education uses game-based learning to help students boost their digital citizenship skills. In the latest installment, CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper, learners develop skills to use AI tools responsibly by tackling real-world challenges and exploring questions of academic integrity, human oversight, data privacy, and deepfakes. Discover this fun Minecraft world and empower your students to think critically and use AI responsibly.

Stay ahead with professional learning opportunities

Level up cybersecurity curriculum with MSLE

Bringing AI, cybersecurity, and digital safety into the classroom is easier with the right support. The Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) program offers professional learning opportunities that help you integrate these important topics into your teaching with confidence. The MSLE Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp provides:

• Train-the-trainer sessions led by Microsoft experts.
• Flexible resources to help you incorporate AI and cybersecurity into any subject area.
• Support for preparing students for Microsoft Certification exams.

With expert guidance and ready-to-use resources, this program helps you equip students with the knowledge they need for the future.

Tap into possibilities for innovation

Inspiring a new generation of learners

Microsoft welcomed nearly 30,000 Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIEE) and 600 Microsoft Showcase Schools (SCS) for the 2024-2025 academic year. These educators and schools are leading the way in enhancing learning through technology, and they’re poised to make an even greater impact in the year ahead. Interested in joining these inspiring communities? Learn more about the programs and details about the nomination process for each.

Education pricing for Microsoft 365 Archive

In today’s digital landscape, educational institutions require strong information management to fully leverage AI. Effective information governance helps ensure that AI applications use accurate, complete, and reliable data to generate meaningful insights and improve outcomes. Microsoft 365 Archive can help you manage your data and is now available for qualifying education tenants at education pricing.

Whether you want to try new ways to engage your students, boost your professional learning, or tap into possibilities for innovation at your school, Microsoft Education has tools and experiences for you to explore. Dive in and get started today!

The post Amplify learning with updates from Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Pi Day not only highlights the importance of this fundamental concept but also serves as a reminder of the beauty and wonder of mathematics. Whether students are exploring fractions through the new Minecraft Education world Ratio Riddles or geometry through PiCraft, building skills with Math Progress, or engaging with activities you designed with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, find creative and innovative ways to make math more meaningful for Pi Day 2025.

Solve Ratio Riddles with Minecraft and Cambridge Mathematics

Ratio Riddles, a brand-new mathematics lesson from Minecraft Education, introduces the concepts of ratio, proportion, fractions, and scale through a series of three engaging games designed for students ages 8-14. This is an easy-to-teach lesson designed to engage learners in foundational mathematics principles while fostering curiosity and confidence.

• Help the Professor of Cartography rescue students from the gardens using fractions.
• Assist the Guild Master with the installation of new stained-glass windows using scale factors.
• Compete in the Professor of Alchemy’s well-diving challenge by using ratios to concoct powerful potions.

Made in collaboration with Cambridge Mathematics and accompanied by lesson guides, Ratio Riddles makes these essential mathematics concepts concrete and fun! For educators new to teaching with Minecraft Education, explore more easy math lessons and resources.

Immerse students in the world of math

As Pi Day approaches, we invite educators, students, and families to embark on an educational adventure with PiCraft! This student workbook offers a unique blend of gaming and learning that transforms the abstract concept of pi into a tangible, interactive experience. By engaging in activities such as estimating and calculating the area of a circle within the Minecraft universe, students can grasp the practical applications of pi in geometry. This hands-on approach demystifies complex mathematical concepts, making learning both accessible and enjoyable.

Designed for students ages 8-14, PiCraft encourages critical thinking and problem-solving through immersive challenges. Along the way, students also learn coding with Microsoft MakeCode, applying mathematical concepts through block-based or Python programming. Easily integrate these activities into your Pi Day lesson plans and encourage students to explore math in a dynamic, engaging way.

Personalize math practice with Math Progress

Bring engaging math practice to your classroom on Pi Day and throughout the year. Math Progress, a powerful Learning Accelerator, streamlines math assignment creation, provides student performance insights, and helps educators determine course trends at the student or class level. With Math Progress, you can tailor your teaching strategies and differentiate instruction to support student success. Get started with Math Progress with Microsoft Teams for Education and use it to assign personalized math problems to your students.

Math Progress offers access to:

• Problem generator – Easily create sets of math problems based on specific concepts or assign custom problems tailored to your class needs.
• Customizable assignments – Personalize assignments by allowing students to “Show their work,” requesting they upload images or links to OneNote pages to demonstrate their problem-solving process.
• Real-time feedback – Students can work through problem sets at their own pace, receiving immediate guidance to reinforce key concepts and address common mistakes.
• Performance insights – Access powerful insights at both the student and class level to prepare for upcoming math topics with student performance data, misconceptions, and the most frequent question difficulty ratings.
• Inclusive learning – Math Progress is available in over 80 languages, making it easily accessible to a diverse population of learners.

Immerse students in deliberate practice with real-time coaching on key math concepts—while streamlining and simplifying lesson planning. Use Math Progress to help your students improve math fluency, build confidence, and celebrate their progress.

Enhance math instruction with assistance from Copilot Chat

Pi Day is a great time to reimagine math instruction, and enriching your math lessons doesn’t have to stop there. Copilot Chat can be your math instructional assistant year-round. Whether brainstorming creative activities, solving complex problems, or generating fun math challenges, Copilot Chat can help you make learning more interactive.

Take your math instruction to the next level with support from generative AI. Try these customizable Copilot Chat prompts to spark curiosity, reinforce key concepts, and make learning more engaging throughout the year:

• Explain how [math concept] is used in real life, especially in [industry or career]. Provide examples that students in [grade level] can relate to.
• Suggest interactive, hands-on activities to teach [math topic], using [list available classroom materials or technology].
• Give me three thought-provoking questions to start a class discussion on [math concept].
• Create a math challenge in which I ask students questions about [topic], and students must answer before receiving the next clue or question in a fun, game-like format.
• Create a problem based on [math topic] with a common mistake and generate a question I can ask students to identify and correct the error, explaining their reasoning.

Refine your responses by providing more details in the prompts or selecting questions suggested by Copilot Chat. Interested in learning more about prompting? Check out five prompting tips to get more from your AI assistant.  

For Pi Day 2025, explore math in fun and engaging ways with your students. Bring essential math concepts to life with Ratio Riddles, PiCraft, Math Progress, and Copilot Chat. Create impactful learning opportunities that inspire curiosity and confidence in your students, making Pi Day—and every day—a journey of discovery and encouragement in mathematics.

The post Design interactive Pi Day activities with Ratio Riddles, PiCraft, and Math Progress appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

To help you bring these stories to life in your classroom to celebrate Women’s History Month 2025, check out our list of tools and resources that will help make learning more meaningful and engaging. Students can explore the triumphs of strong, female leaders in Minecraft Education, learn valuable information literacy and presentation skills with Learning Accelerators, and discover contributions of local women through lessons you create with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. These tools help inspire curiosity, support critical thinking, and connect students to the powerful stories of women who have shaped our world.

1. Experience the courage of Hispanic women in LatinExplorers 2

Introduce your students to a remarkable group of Hispanic women who have shaped their communities and the world. With Minecraft Education’s LatinExplorers 2, created in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, students will discover how Gloria Estefan, Ellen Ochoa, and Monica Ramirez made an impact through music, science, and advocacy. Along the way, they’ll develop leadership skills, build empathy, and learn how to tackle challenges—just like these fearless women.

Classroom connection: Before getting started, explore supporting files on the LatinExplorers 2 webpage. You’ll find an educator guide to help facilitate the experience in your classroom, along with a toolkit for using LatinExplorers 2 at a family event.

2. Walk in the shoes of Noble laureates

Conflict resolution is a critical leadership skill, and Minecraft Education’s Peace Builders lesson helps students develop their capacity to deal with problems through real-world examples. In this immersive experience, created in partnership with the Nobel Peace Center, students meet four Nobel Peace Prize laureates who addressed global conflicts in unique ways—including Jody Williams who worked tirelessly to ban landmines in post-war Cambodia. Through Williams’ story and other peace builders, students will explore strategies to prevent and resolve conflict, strengthening their ability to lead with empathy and action.

Classroom connection: Check out the supporting files and use the Jody Williams Class PowerPoint to introduce important concepts and guide your students in creating their own campaign to address issues that matter to them.

3. Introduce strong female role models with Lessons in Good Trouble

Inspire your students to become catalysts for positive change in their community by learning from civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, and Emmeline Pankhurst in Minecraft Education’s Lessons in Good Trouble. In this experience, your students will work alongside outspoken activists to understand historic periods when women were denied educational opportunities and voting rights. The courageous women in Lessons in Good Trouble demonstrate how peaceful activism can challenge injustices and create a more equitable society for everyone.

Classroom connection: Enhance your students’ learning by making Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, or Emmeline Pankhurst the focus of a research project. Use a Learning Accelerator such as Search Progress or Search Coach to help take their learning to the next level.

4. Research influential women with Search Progress and Search Coach

Extend learning beyond Women’s History Month while helping your students build essential digital literacy skills with Search Progress and Search Coach, two Learning Accelerators. An assignment in Search Progress empowers students to find, evaluate, and use credible online sources to develop critical information literacy skills along the way. And, both tools make it easy to track student learning in real-time.

For example, you might create a Search Progress assignment that asks students to research Emmeline Pankhurst’s contributions to the women’s suffrage movement. Using Search Coach, your students receive real-time feedback on their queries, helping them to refine their research strategies while building background knowledge on this influential leader.

To get started with Search Progress and Search Coach, explore these resources:

• A quick guide to Search Progress
• A quick guide to Search Coach
• A guide to Search Progress for educators
• A guide to Search Coach for educators
• Search Progress and Search Coach learning module

5. Practice presenting with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach

Help students share their Women’s History Month learning by creating a PowerPoint and practicing their presentation skills with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach, two Learning Accelerators. Use Speaker Progress to create presentation assignments and track your students’ growth at the individual, class, grade, and school levels. Then have your students use Speaker Coach to complete the assignment, while receiving real-time, AI-powered feedback on pacing, pitch, clarity and more.

To integrate Minecraft Education learning with presentation assignments, have students create a PowerPoint on ways to increase diversity just as Ellen Ochoa modeled in LatinExplorers 2. They can practice their delivery in a private space with Speaker Coach, helping to boost their confidence as they strengthen their communication skills.

Get the most out of Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach with these resources:

• A quick guide to Speaker Progress
• A quick guide to Speaker Coach
• A guide to Speaker Progress for educators
• A guide to Speaker Coach for educators
• Speaker Progress learning module

6. Expand on Women’s History Month with Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat can help you create classroom materials, activities, and lessons tailored to Women’s History Month topics or even more of your students’ interests. Use generative AI to streamline lesson planning by copying and pasting one of these ready-to-use prompts into Copilot Chat:

• Generate a list of five women from [geographic area or country] who have made significant contributions in the past [two decades]. Include a paragraph on their achievements, challenges, and leadership. Include an engaging activity for students in [grade level] that requires them to explore information in an interactive way.
• Write an oral reading passage about Jody Williams, detailing her Nobel-prize winning accomplishments. The passage should be at a [700L] Lexile level and under [number] words. Provide three comprehension questions for a [grade level] student.

Make sure to check out “Meet your AI assistant for education” to discover more ways Copilot Chat can help you personalize learning, support brainstorming, provide feedback, and more.

From Minecraft Education experiences with women leaders to Learning Accelerators that help students practice their skills, find an activity that will make Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2025 memorable and inspiring for your students. Start inspiring the next generation of leaders in your classroom today!

The post 6 ways to inspire future leaders during Women’s History Month appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

SEL helps create an inclusive environment where every student can feel valued and respected, playing a crucial role in promoting equity in education. Microsoft Education is committed to helping educators build experiences that support SEL. Discover SEL activities, curriculum, and professional learning opportunities that offer innovative ways to help students develop a growth mindset, understand their emotions, and build a foundation for success.

Essential academic and career skills

SEL is proven to favorably impact academic outcomes and provide several life-long benefits to individuals, communities, and economies. When students engage in SEL, they not only improve academically but also build essential life skills like resilience, empathy, and collaboration. This helps create learning environments where all students feel seen, heard, and supported—laying the groundwork for equitable access for educational success.

Social-emotional skills are crucial to ensuring students are set up for success—both in the classroom and in their future careers. Our emotions act as gatekeepers to cognition, motivation, and attention, and [they] impact how we navigate our own thoughts and actions and interact with the world around us.

Paige Johnson, Vice President Public Sector, Financial Services and Media, Microsoft

School leaders and educators recognize SEL’s transformative power in enhancing communication, managing emotions, and navigating complex thoughts. These concepts extend beyond the classroom into the workplace. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) identifies self-control, stress resistance, cooperation, sociability, and curiosity as skills that support academic achievement, well-being, and job performance. It’s clear that from the classroom to the workplace, SEL serves as a foundation for equitable opportunities and lifelong achievement.

To learn more about integrating SEL into your classroom, take the learning path in the Microsoft Learn Educator Center.

Explore SEL in your classroom with Reflect

Support your students in developing essential social, emotional, and academic skills using Reflect. This Learning Accelerator offers opportunities for every student to feel heard while developing skills to identify, understand, and manage emotions. Reflect provides access to:

• Intentional emotional check-ins: Quickly survey students about their feelings and help them develop their emotional vocabulary with age-appropriate reflection.
• Ready-to-use activities: Explore a variety of fun activities for you and your students to practice well-being skills.
• Data-driven insights: Understand the emotional patterns and needs for each student and the whole class so you can better support their well-being and academic success.
• Easy access and seamless integration: Access Reflect through your web browser (sign in required), via the Windows app, Microsoft Teams for Education, and through integrations into learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Blackboard Learn, and more.

Easily set up regular check-ins and access a wide range of activities to support SEL with Reflect. Engage students in a series of mindful movements that help them unwind, uplift, and reconnect during stressful times. Explore SEL themes and skills through engaging stories with nature-themed art activities. Play curated classical music focus timers designed to support a calm learning environment. Get started with Reflect today!

Supporting SEL with innovative solutions

Reflect regularly introduces features and tools to help support SEL skills development, promote equity, and enhance academic success. Reflect Compass is one of the latest tools to help you navigate student check-in results by targeting evidence-based strategies to enhance well-being, engagement, and a sense of belonging. It’s built on the expertise of Challenge Success and grounded in over 20 years of research at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

Reflect Compass provides a framework to help you understand recurring themes and patterns in student responses to Reflect check-in questions. You can use it to identify areas of focus for SEL based on student feedback data. Reflect Compasses are designed to work across different types of schools and age groups. They help build SEL into the school community whether you have a formal program you’re using or just beginning your SEL journey.  

To further enhance the understanding and application of SEL data, use the Microsoft Graph API for Reflect. You can create a centralized system for both analyzing and taking action on SEL assessment data from students across your educational organization. Use these data-driven insights to analyze trends and identify gaps, inform district-wide strategies, and design impactful professional development that fosters inclusive, emotionally supportive classrooms.

Explore more ways to use Reflect in your classroom in the learning module in the Microsoft Learn Educator Center.

Foster SEL skills with Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education is a game-based learning platform that promotes skill building, teamwork, and problem-solving. It provides students with a safe space to express themselves, collaborate and practice empathy, and navigate their emotions in a low-stress environment.

The Minecraft Education Social and Emotional learning pathway brings together experiences and challenges designed to help your students develop their SEL skills. Use these activities and worlds as they are, or as a starting point to adapt to your students’ needs.

Get started with Reflect World where your students can practice emotional processing strategies, encourage teamwork, and visualize the representation of emotions to develop empathy and self-awareness.

Explore more SEL experiences in these Minecraft Education lessons:

• Welcome to the community: Build valuable social and emotional skills by processing emotions, sharing, and supporting others through a shared experience. 
• The Mindful Knight: Understand the benefits and basic concepts of mindfulness and encourage students to set aside a few minutes each day to practice. 
• The mystery of the Budokan: Embark on quests to build a better future based on judo’s core values: courage, friendship, self-control, modesty, sincerity, respect, politeness, and honor.

SEL is more than a classroom strategy, it’s a foundation for equitable student opportunities. International SEL Day 2025 is the perfect moment to consider the role of SEL in your classroom and explore activities and curriculum from Microsoft Education. Together, we can foster equitable learning environments that prioritize student well-being and academic success.

The post Social-emotional learning for student success appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Math Progress helps educators tailor instruction to support individual student needs by identifying opportunities for improvement. Educators can adjust teaching strategies and differentiate instruction—supporting student success and helping boost confidence in math learning. Get started in Math Progress, now generally available through Microsoft Teams for Education.

Simplify assignment creation and enhance learning

Math Progress helps students build their foundational math skills with educator-led assignments, activities, and insights. An easy-to-use problem generator helps you to create sets of math problems based on a specified topic or create your own math problems. And, Math Progress is available in over 80 languages, making it an inclusive tool for math fluency development. To start using Math Progress, educators can sign in with school-issued credentials (Microsoft Entra ID) and access it in Microsoft Teams for Education.

Save educators’ time

Math Progress automates the generation of practice assignments based on educator input. With an intelligent question generator, it’s easy to create a robust set of relevant math problems, including distractors based on common mistakes to help students think more critically as they build their knowledge. And, assignments can be customized by choosing options such as “Show your work,” which requests students to upload images of their work or share links to OneNote pages to demonstrate their work.

Address mistakes and misconceptions

Math Progress makes it easy to keep students on track by addressing mistakes or common misconceptions to accelerate learning. With real-time feedback, grading work, and generated questions, Math Progress helps to free up your time to focus on individualized instruction. By identifying which concepts students need more practice with, Math Progress helps you quickly pinpoint areas of opportunity for individual students and your entire class.

Track progress and performance

Math Progress offers powerful performance insights that identify course trends at both the student and class level. These insights include the overall grade, number of points, most frequent question difficulty rating, and mistakes and misconceptions identified in this and other assignments to help better understand learning trends. You can easily track challenging concepts for individual students, helping to quickly identify areas of progression. And since it’s available in over 80 languages, Math Progress is easily accessible to a diverse population of learners.

Use Math Progress to assess your students’ abilities to accurately and efficiently perform mathematical procedures—such as arithmetic calculations, solving equations, and applying algorithms. When learners demonstrate misconceptions or gaps in understanding, Math Progress identifies these areas and offers targeted solution steps. Educators can then use these steps to guide students toward better comprehension. It also helps students track their learning, evaluate their own performance, and set realistic goals.

Get started with Math Progress

Engage your students in deliberate practice with real-time coaching on math concepts. Use Math Progress to free up your time with tools that streamline assignment creation, review, and analysis. Collect insights and visualize data to track progress and help improve your students’ learning outcomes.

It’s easy to get started with Math Progress:

1. Log into your Microsoft Teams for Education account and click “Assignments.”   
2. Next, click the “Create” button. 
3. Then click, “Learning Accelerators > Math Progress.” 
4. Create a math assignment with the help of a problem generator. 
5. Extend an assignment to your students, then review with automatic grading.  
6. Students will review their assignments to understand their math knowledge and areas for improvement.  
7. Educators will gain insights into each class or students’ performance to consider the future course path to support learning and build retention.

Help build math proficiency for students with Math Progress—while streamlining and simplifying lesson planning for yourself. Integrate it into your classroom to help your students improve math fluency, build confidence, and celebrate their progress.

Support foundational and future-ready skills acquisition with Math Progress and all the Learning Accelerators. Browse training modules, learning paths, and interactive demos to learn more about how Learning Accelerators can help you and your students.

The post Transform math assignments and boost learning with Math Progress appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

As AI technologies advance, a new world of possibilities emerges in K-12 and higher education. Educators and administrators around the world who attended Bett UK in London this year learned firsthand about these advancements, particularly the transformative power of agents. Designed to work alongside you, agents will have a particular expertise in areas such as instructional design or individual student preferences. And they can leverage institutional data to offer relevant insights for educators and administrators in real-time.

At Microsoft, we’re excited to help faculty, staff, and students achieve greater impact with AI and agents through our recently announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat—the chat experience you can use every day—powered by broad knowledge from the web, built on the latest AI models, and designed to be safe and secure.

Understanding the impact of AI in education to empower educators and students

Understanding how the use of generative AI impacts learning outcomes is key to creating effective guidelines for and usage of AI in education. Our latest insights emphasize the need to position AI as a complement, not a substitute for established practices that are essential for learning. By integrating AI thoughtfully with traditional methods, we may achieve enhanced learning outcomes that neither approach can deliver alone.

A study conducted by the World Bank with students using AI at Edo Boys High School in Nigeria saw remarkable learning gains in their after-school program with preliminary findings improving learning by “about 0.3 standard deviations, equivalent to nearly two years of typical learning in just six weeks,” illustrating the potential for AI. We look forward to sharing the full report and continuing to understand the long-term effects, role of educators, benefits extended to other disciplines, and more.

Microsoft Research and Cambridge University Press & Assessment conducted one of the first large-scale investigations into the impact of large language models (LLMs) on the foundations of learning: understanding and retaining information. The preliminary research findings reveal the continued importance of traditional learning approaches. They also demonstrate the benefits of combining AI with traditional learning resources over AI alone and point to the AI skills that students need to maximize those benefits.

Through a “snapshot in time” study of AI in higher education, Microsoft Research sought to understand how practices and norms are developing around practical and policy realities. Both students and educators prefer AI to be further integrated as a complement to other learning methods, but to do so they need training. The study suggests involving students and educators in guidance and development, empowering students to use AI to support learning, providing training with exposures to errors in AI output, and encouraging collaboration between students and educators.

Defending at the speed of AI

As educational institutions harness the power of AI, it’s essential campus environments remain secure, reliable, and compliant. Designing a strategy that balances innovation and security with policies and practices to support AI is critical. Microsoft principles of Responsible AI—fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability—help institutions prepare for AI implementation. A robust framework of tools from Microsoft can guide you through successful implementation. World class security tools like Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Intune, can play an important role in protecting sensitive data and securing AI applications.

Planning your implementation with the AI Toolkit

Start your AI journey with the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit, a comprehensive guide for educational organizations to plan AI implementations. The toolkit introduces a variety of technologies—Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and more—and showcases successful implementations through AI Navigators—institutions leading the way with research, experimentation, testing, and deployment of generative AI solutions. It’s easy to implement these tools with step-by-step instructions to offer educators, technology coordinators, and policy makers practical guidance to support deployment, usage, and best practices.

Teaming up with Pearson on AI workforce skilling

The demand for training in AI-based skills has never been higher according to a global IDC study. To help meet this demand, Microsoft is teaming up with Pearson to bring world-class learning and assessment expertise with cutting-edge AI and cloud technologies. Microsoft Cloud and Office certifications are now more accessible to help organizations realize the full value of AI through reskilling.

Learn more about the advancements in AI

Don’t miss out on the latest announcements to learn about new AI-powered products and features designed to support your educational organization. We’re thrilled to announce these new AI solutions:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – a new offering that adds pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 education customers.
• Copilot+ PCs – the fastest, most intelligent and secure Windows PCs ever, featuring enhanced security, optimized performance, and AI-integrated experiences. Now with code name Project Spark—our first education-focused Windows 11 app for Copilot+ PC—to bring on-device intelligence to your classroom.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – designed for education leaders, access these updated tools and support you need for your institution’s AI implementation.
• Khanmigo for Teachers – offers over 20 free, AI-powered tools to help streamline class prep with no prompting required. Learn how to get started.
• Khanmigo Writing Coach – designed by educators, using AI to make essay writing dynamic, interactive experience and provide students with step-by-step guidance from outline to final draft without ever writing a word for them. 
• Learning Accelerators – new tools like Reading Coach and Math Progress bring personalized learning to students and are available in over 80 languages.
• Minecraft Education – the newly expanded AI skills program, AI Foundations, offers a new student credentialing pathway in AI offered through Prodigy Learning. Educators can also use the free AI-powered Lesson Crafter tool to build new Minecraft lessons and practice prompting.²

Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up to date with new ways to use Copilot Chat in education through my “Prompt of the Week”.

¹ IDC InfoBrief: Sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024

² Requires sign in with a faculty account from your school.

The post Advancing education with AI to prepare the workforce of tomorrow appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Reading aloud nurtures literacy, cognitive growth, and emotional well-being in children. In addition to helping to boost academic learning, reading aloud can reduce stress and strengthen bonds between children and caregivers. Explore how Reading Coach and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat help you transform classroom reading activities and inspire lifelong learners.

Bring reading to life for every student

Reading Coach, a Learning Accelerator, helps students discover the joy of reading while improving literacy skills—whether practicing challenging words or co-creating stories with responsible AI. Reading Coach makes reading fun for everyone. 

By providing real-time feedback and personalized tips, it helps students improve reading skills at their own pace by tracking their progress over various time periods, ensuring they remain engaged and continue to build their reading fluency.

Reading Coach is designed to support independent reading practice, making it an ideal tool to use throughout the school year—and to celebrate occasions like WRAD. To keep learners motivated, it offers encouragement through digital badges and rewards. Readers can earn streak badges for completing reading practice and they can also unlock new characters and story settings for every 20 minutes they spend reading. Rewards can even be traded with friends, gamifying the reading experience and inspiring curiosity for what comes next!

Reading Coach empowers students to build fluency at their own pace to:

• Improve literacy with engaging AI-generated stories featuring customizable characters and settings.
• Focus on specific words to overcome fluency challenges.
• Practice passages in 81 languages with multilingual support.

Whether at school or home, students can engage in personalized, AI-powered reading practice that keeps them motivated and on track. Bookmark and download the Reading Coach Quick Guide PDF to learn how to get started. Check out our “Educator’s guide to Reading Coach” blog post to learn how to use the tool.

From practice to progress, keep students engaged

Reading Coach offers three easy ways for students to get more involved in their reading. By providing helpful and interactive formats, it helps students build confidence, improve comprehension, and strengthen fluency. Explore these three engaging modes to make reading experiences personalized and unique:

• Create a story: Generate interactive, AI-powered stories by choosing characters, settings, and reading levels in 14 languages. Students decide what happens in each chapter, exploring practice words tailored to their needs.
• Read a passage: Access a digital library from ReadWorks, featuring over 110-leveled texts organized by Lexile level, genre, and word count. A variety of topics provide engaging, educational content that aligns with students’ interests.
• Add a passage: Upload custom passages, like assigned articles, textbook excerpts, or the student’s own writing. This mode supports individual learning needs and specific objectives, making practice more targeted and meaningful.

With Reading Coach, every practice session becomes an opportunity for students to progress their reading level and build their creativity. Take the Reading Coach training module on Microsoft Learn to learn how to integrate this tool into your classroom and lessons.

Create immersive read-aloud sessions

WRAD is the perfect opportunity to introduce inclusive and engaging reading activities using Reading Coach. Try these ideas to celebrate literacy in your classroom:

• Build confidence with reading practice: Use Reading Coach to help students prepare for group read-alouds. Real-time feedback on pronunciation and fluency can help them feel more confident.
• Create read-aloud challenges: Motivate students by tracking progress and rewarding reading streaks. Celebrate achievements with class-wide recognition or small prizes.
• Collaborative storytelling: Use the story-generating capabilities in Reading Coach to inspire students to co-write stories using AI. Encourage group sharing to make storytelling an interactive and fun experience.
• Host multilingual reading sessions: Incorporate stories in various languages, encouraging students to explore diverse perspectives and cultures.

In addition to WRAD, classrooms and families across the US will celebrate the joy of reading during Read Across America Day on March 3, 2025. Mark these events and join each movement by transforming your classroom into a hub of literary exploration and skill building. Use Reading Coach to create immersive read-aloud sessions that highlight stories from your classroom, your community, and around the world.

Design engaging activities with Copilot Chat

Celebrate the power of stories and literacy by using Copilot Chat to plan your WRAD and Read Across America Day activities. Copy and paste these prompts into Copilot Chat to generate book recommendations, fluency strategies, engagement ideas, and event plans tailored to your grade level or audience.

Adjust the prompts as needed to make them uniquely yours and inspire a love of reading in your students:

• Generate a list of culturally appropriate books suitable to read aloud to [grade level] students on World Read Aloud Day. For each, include 3-5 comprehension questions designed to spark age-appropriate discussions.
• Create a detailed set of read-aloud strategies specific to [book title] to help [grade level] students improve their reading fluency, such as modeling expressive reading, echo reading, or choral reading. Include tips on how to scaffold for varying reading and language abilities.
• Suggest creative strategies to keep [grade level] students engaged during the read-aloud of [book title]. Ensure strategies are culturally appropriate, promote active participation and comprehension, and include options for differentiation to support diverse learners.
• Design an engaging event for Read Across America Day aimed at [specific audience, e.g., K-12 students or families] that takes place in [location, e.g. the school library or classroom]. Incorporate creative ways to build a love of reading and suggest culturally inclusive books for different grade levels. Include promotional ideas and a timeline for planning.

Keep refining responses by exploring questions suggested by Copilot Chat or by following up with more specific prompts to further personalize the activities.

Events like World Read Aloud Day and Read Across America Day are more than just celebrations of stories—they’re movements that highlight the vital role of literacy in building inclusive communities. By using Copilot Chat to design creative and engaging activities and empowering your students with innovative tools like Reading Coach, you can inspire a lifelong love of reading, amplify voices, and create a brighter, more equitable future.

As we approach these celebrations, make them occasions to remember and carry the spirit of each into every day of the year.

The post Inspire lifelong readers with the power of reading aloud appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Reading Coach, a standalone Learning Accelerator, helps students improve reading skills through personalized learning practice. Designed to support both independent and guided learning, Reading Coach uses AI-generated stories with customizable characters to engage students and focus them on reading practice to strengthen reading fluency. Follow this guide to learn how to use Reading Coach to help build literacy skills.

With tools for tailoring reading instruction and extending learning beyond the classroom, Reading Coach empowers students to practice reading at their own pace. Explore how you can integrate Reading Coach into your classroom or have students use it at home. 

Educator benefits:

• Personalize reading practice to meet individual student needs.
• Create an inclusive learning experience with Immersive Reader—a feature that helps to improve reading skills for people of nearly all ages and abilities—with practice passages in 81 languages.

Student benefits:

• Improve literacy with engaging AI-generated stories featuring customizable characters and settings.
• Focus on specific words to overcome fluency challenges.
• Celebrate progress with badges and motivational rewards.
• Independent practice and learn at their own pace.
• Easy access for students at school or home.

How to access Reading Coach

Reading Coach is available for free and can be accessed with school-issued credentials (Microsoft Entra ID) or any personal Microsoft account. To use the web app, follow these steps:

1. Go to coach.microsoft.com
2. Select Get started.
3. Sign in with your Microsoft school account or with your personal Microsoft account.
4. Choose a reading passage mode, then explore, practice, and enjoy!

You can also find the Reading Coach app in Microsoft 365 or download the Windows app.

If this is the first time using Reading Coach on a device, a pop-up will appear asking for microphone access so you may need to enable your web pop-up blocker. Select Allow to continue. After reading, students can easily review results, including pronunciation accuracy, reading time, and words to practice.

Tip: When students finish a reading passage, they’ll see the option to Keep reading or Read something else on their results page. If they don’t finish the passage, they’ll see the option to Read again.

Explore reading modes

Reading Coach offers three flexible ways for students to engage more deeply with their reading. By providing supportive, interactive formats, it helps students build confidence, improve comprehension, and strengthen fluency. Explore these three engaging modes to personalize their reading experience.

“Create a story” mode

With “Create a Story” mode, students can generate interactive, AI-powered stories by choosing characters, settings, and reading levels in 14 languages. Students decide what happens in each chapter, exploring practice words tailored to their needs to keep learning focused on each student’s interests and abilities. This mode fosters creativity and personalized learning, making reading engaging and fun. It also ensures AI-generated story content is moderated for age appropriateness and aligns with the Microsoft Responsible AI Standard.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Select Create a story using AI.
2. Choose a main character and a setting for the story.
3. Select a reading level.
4. Select Create my story!
5. Select Start reading to begin and select the red Stop reading button to end the recording.

When students finish reading, a pop-up will appear with choices for the next chapter of the story. They can select a choice to continue or See results to finish reading.

“Read a passage” mode

“Read a passage” mode provides students with a digital library from ReadWorks, featuring over 110-leveled texts organized by Lexile level, genre, and word count. This digital library supports students’ diverse reading abilities with topics including science, famous figures, nature, and more to provide engaging, educational content that aligns with students’ interests.

To get started in this mode:

1. Select Read a passage.
2. Choose a reading level and select a passage.
3. Select Start reading to begin and select the red Stop reading button to end the recording.

When students finish reading, a results page will appear and they can choose to read the passage again, read something else, or practice more challenging words.

“Add a passage” mode

“Add a passage” mode allows students to personalize their reading by uploading custom passages, like assigned articles, textbook excerpts, or their own writing. This mode supports individual learning needs and specific objectives, making practice more targeted and meaningful.

To upload your own passage:

1. Select Add a passage.
2. Enter a title in the text field.
3. Paste or type the passage into the text field.
4. Select Start reading to begin and select the red Stop reading button to end the recording.

When students finish reading, the results page will appear and they can choose to read the passage again, read something else, or practice more challenging words.

Tip: Encourage students to keep a reading log with their reading materials or device to track their reading level and progress, helping them stay motivated and see their improvement over time.

Support accessibility

Immersive Reader is embedded in Reading Coach to support inclusive learning for all students. When students select “Start reading,” they unlock a set of powerful accessibility tools that can help boost comprehension and keep them engaged.

• Text preferences: Adjust text size, spacing, font, and colors for easier reading.
• Grammar support: Break down syllables and highlight parts of speech to improve understanding.
• Reading scaffolds: Focus on one line at a time or use the Picture Dictionary in Immersive Reader for extra support.
• Word pronunciation: Select a word to hear its pronunciation and practice saying it correctly.

Tip: Before students dive in, take a moment to show them how Immersive Reader works. Let them explore the tools to figure out what works best for them to give them time to help them feel confident and maintain their focus.

Student progress and practicing challenging words

Each time students read a passage, they can see insights on their progress like accuracy, time spent reading, and words they should practice. They can also track progress toward unlocking new story elements or earning badges. Over time, the Achievements page gives a summary of their total reading time, number of reading sessions, average pronunciation accuracy, and average words per minute as well as any badges earned and characters or story settings they’ve unlocked.

After reading, students can focus on the words they found most challenging with the Word Practice feature. It’s personalized based on their progress, so they’re working on exactly what they need to improve their reading skills.

Here’s how it works:

1. After reading a passage, select Practice words in the results box.
2. Reading Coach will highlight five challenging words. Choose one to practice.
3. Break the word in syllables or listen to it being read aloud to hear the pronunciation.
4. Select the microphone to practice reading the word aloud.
5. The word and star fill level will change based on improvement. Keep practicing until both turn green.
6. Select Next word to practice the others.

When all the words are correct, a pop-up will appear. Select Close to continue or select I’m done to finish practicing.

Tip: Encourage students to take ownership of their learning by celebrating small wins. After practicing challenging words, have them reflect on their progress—what words were tricky, what strategies helped, and how their accuracy improved. This builds confidence and reinforces a growth mindset.

Earn badges and unlock story elements

Reading Coach motivates and rewards students throughout their reading journey. They can celebrate their progress by earning badges and unlocking characters or settings, providing a tangible representation of their hard work and accomplishments.

• Badges: As students progress, they earn badges for reaching milestones and accomplishments. These badges are visual symbols of success, such as reading with high accuracy or maintaining a consistent reading habit.
• Story elements: Each time a student spends 20 minutes reading with Reading Coach, they unlock a new character or story setting to use in AI-powered stories. They can choose to keep the unlocked element or swap it for another. And they can see all their story elements in “Create a story” mode or on their Achievements page.

Reading Coach is a free, powerful Learning Accelerator that supports personalized, engaging, and inclusive reading practice for students. Integrate it into your classroom or encourage families to use it at home to help students improve fluency, build confidence, and celebrate progress.

The post An educator’s guide to Reading Coach appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Dr. King’s legacy inspires generations to strive for a more just and equitable world through reflection, education, and service. This day isn’t just about remembering—it’s about taking action. It’s an opportunity for students and educators to reflect on his impact and engage in meaningful service to their communities. Learn how you can create impactful learning experiences by connecting reflection and action with help from Microsoft Education. 

Design inspiring experiences with Microsoft Copilot

You have the unique ability to connect ideas, themes, and resources to spark lifelong learning while honoring your students’ interests and passions. With Copilot, you can enhance the process of designing these experiences, saving time and effort. In minutes, you can refresh lessons or begin to develop new activities.

Use these prompts in Copilot to create more impactful lessons to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day at school:

• Foundational resource curation – Create a multimedia text set for [grade/age level] students that explores the theme of community through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work. Include a brief description of 2-3 sentences summarizing its content and connection to the theme of community. Include external links to speeches, letters, images, and videos. Also include 1-2 reflection questions per item for students to use. Put this text set into an easy-to-read table.
• Skill-building activity design – Create an activity based on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speeches for [grade/age level] students to practice analyzing themes across texts, synthesizing ideas through writing, and constructing arguments. Include speech excerpts that are at least 5 sentences long each, with accompanying themes and guiding questions for reflection. Also include links for where students can access the full original speeches.
• Innovative mini-unit development – Create a mini-unit for secondary school students that explores lesser-known aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s activism, including his stance on economic justice, labor rights, global human rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War. For each lesson, provide open-ended questions to encourage student reflection and discussion. Additionally, include project ideas and multimedia resources to enhance engagement.

Use this prompt to spark ideas for impactful service projects:

• Empower changemakers – Design a [grade/age level] activity that encourages students to create or join a community movement focused on civil rights, social justice, or community service in their communities. Encourage creativity, collaboration, and actionable planning. Keep the activity age-appropriate, engaging, and inspiring, ensuring students feel empowered to make a difference. Provide clear steps, examples, or frameworks to help them succeed.

Use these follow-up prompts with Copilot to delve deeper into other perspectives or adapt the activity to better fit your classroom needs:

• Make it manageable – How can I structure this activity into manageable steps or sessions that fit within a [length of time] over the course of a [set time period: week/month/semester]?
• Provide inspirational guidance – Can you provide examples of successful youth-led community movements that might inspire my students?
• Help build momentum – What are some examples of small, actionable steps students can take to start their movement and build momentum?

Copilot can offer you tools and flexibility to adapt activities for your unique classroom, ensuring your students feel empowered and equipped to make a difference.

Explore how Copilot can help you design learning experiences:

• Read our blog post “Meet your AI assistant for education.”
• Download the Copilot Quick Guide.
• Take the “Enhance teaching and learning with Copilot” training module on Microsoft Learn.

Bring Learning Accelerators to your classroom to enhance information literacy

Help your students explore Dr. King’s life with Search Progress and Search Coach.

• Search Progress is a powerful tool designed to build next generation information literacy skills. Educators can gain visibility into each student’s progress by evaluating how they search, assess sources, and collect citations with Microsoft Teams and Search Progress.
• Search Coach builds next generation information literacy skills to help students find reputable, timely, and relevant sources for assignments.

Get started by creating a Search Progress assignment in Microsoft Teams for Education. After giving your assignment a title, you can add details like specific learning objectives and instructions. You might consider asking students to reflect on Dr. King’s social justice work by having them research historical or contemporary examples of civil disobedience.

With Search Progress, you can customize the assignment by including:

• Sources – Set the number of sources you’d like your students to collect.
• Explanation – Ask students to describe why they chose and saved a particular source.
• Reflection – Ask students to reflect on all of their sources and which ones were most helpful.

Then, once your students start their assignments in Search Coach, encourage them to share their search tips and as a class discuss why those tips are key for finding reliable results. This will help reinforce their learning around information literacy and Dr. King’s life.

Learn how you can expand students’ information literacy skills with these resources:

• Read our blog posts “A guide to Search Progress for educators” and “A guide to Search Coach for educators.”
• Download the Search Progress Quick Guide and our Search Coach Quick Guide.
• Take the training module on Search Progress and Search Coach on Microsoft Learn.

Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day at school by honoring his leadership

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of unity and equality continues to inspire us. With innovative tools like Copilot and skill-building Learning Accelerators, you and your students can explore and honor Dr. King’s visionary leadership. By incorporating Dr. King’s teachings into your curriculum, you can create a meaningful learning experience that resonates with students and encourages them to take positive action in their communities.

Join us in celebrating Dr. King’s legacy, and commit to building a more just, inclusive world.

The post Commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2025 with Microsoft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Learners can discover the joy of reading and improve their literacy skills, whether practicing challenging words or co-creating stories with responsible AI. With support for multiple languages, reading streak rewards, and the ability to track progress over time, Reading Coach is designed to help learners get the most out of independent reading practice. Your students can keep up with their reading skills and stay on track, even during breaks, with Reading Coach.

What is Reading Coach?

Reading Coach is a free, standalone Learning Accelerator that builds reading fluency through personalized reading practice to engage learners of all abilities. As students read aloud, it offers real-time feedback on pronunciation, syllabification accuracy, and reading progress. Independent practice allows learners to focus on building skills at their own pace.

Reading Coach empowers students by providing instant feedback and access to inclusive tools. Learners can choose from three engaging reading modes:

• Create a story: Pick a character, setting, and reading level to generate a chaptered story where learners choose what comes next.
• Read a passage: Explore over 110-leveled passages from ReadWorks—either fiction or non-fiction.
• Add your own passage: Students can read custom passages from an educator, a favorite article, or even a story they wrote themselves.

It’s easy to bring Reading Coach to your school through zero-touch deployment with Microsoft 365 Education. It can also be used by learners with any personal Microsoft account to practice on their own at home.

An inclusive tool for multiple languages

Extensive language support makes Reading Coach a valuable tool for enhancing language development. Its user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are now available in 81 different languages. And, Reading Coach supports 14 different English dialects, aligning real-time coaching to regional variations in pronunciation and usage. 

Learners can create AI-generated stories in 14 different languages with consistent coaching and practice activities in each language. This helps ensure learners receive personalized, encouraging feedback privately on their device.

This personalized approach has shown to be effective. For example, in Ha Tran’s fifth grade classrooms at THCS Hải Vân in Vietnam, 150 multilingual learner of English (MLE) students with limited exposure to English speakers have shown remarkable improvement in their English language skills. After using Reading Coach for three months, the students have gained confidence in their abilities. They have even created videos to teach their peers how to use the tool!

The enthusiasm for Reading Coach is evident as the students not only use it in the classroom but also at home. Their love for the tool showcases their dedication and the effectiveness of Reading Coach in enhancing their learning experience.

Similarly, Kimberly Niebauer’s third graders at Loretto Elementary in Florida, US, no longer see reading as a chore. One student gained two reading levels after using Reading Coach alongside other interventions, and another MLE student improved their reading proficiency by two years since starting to use the tool. Additionally, the students love Immersive Reader in Reading Coach because it enables them to personalize their reading practice.

The benefits extend beyond English learners—educators can also use Reading Coach to support foreign language learners. Reading Coach helps students build fluency when learning a new language. Since its coaching isn’t language dependent, learners receive guidance to improve their fluency in Reading Coach’s supported languages.

Engaging practice keeps readers interested and excited

Reading Coach is designed to support independent reading practice, making it an ideal tool to use throughout the school year and during school breaks. By providing real-time feedback and personalized tips, it helps learners improve their reading skills at their own pace. The new ability to track progress over various time periods ensures that students remain engaged and continue to build their reading fluency.

To keep learners motivated, Reading Coach offers encouragement through digital badges and rewards. Readers can now earn streak badges for completing three, five, and seven days of reading. They can also unlock new characters and story settings for every 20 minutes they spend reading. Rewards can be used in AI-generated stories or even traded with friends, gamifying the reading experience and inspiring curiosity for what comes next.

As readers progress, Reading Coach displays their growth in a dashboard that they can easily understand. They’ll see information on reading time, accuracy rate, and mispronunciations, as well as goals to reach the next achievement.

Learners can also track their growth over a week, a 30-day period, and all-time with summary statistics:

• Total reading days and time
• Stories started and completed
• Average accuracy and words per minute
• Badges earned and characters unlocked

By highlighting what learners have accomplished, Reading Coach encourages consistent practice and further reading even during school breaks or when students are at home.

Get started with Reading Coach

Keep up with reading practice and maintain proficiency with Reading Coach. It’s easy to find, access, and use:

• Visit coach.microsoft.com, find the app in Microsoft 365, or download the Reading Coach Windows app.
• Sign in with your school-issued credentials (Microsoft Entra ID) or any personal Microsoft account.
• Select “Get started” to begin.

Reading Coach helps build fluency skills with personalized, AI-powered reading practice. Get started with Reading Coach and make the most of independent reading practice!

The post Support independent, AI-powered reading practice with Reading Coach appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Recognized in over 100 countries, World Mental Health Day is more than just a date. It’s a call to action that resonates with communities, schools, and individuals worldwide. In recent years, the spotlight on mental health—especially for young people—has grown brighter. As educators, parents, and community members, we’ve seen firsthand how important it is to address student mental health needs.

The good news? Our efforts are starting to make a difference. Kathleen Ethier, Director of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, positively notes, “There is still a great deal of work to be done to address the crisis in youth mental health, but the data can really give us some hope that when we come together, we put young people first, we do what is needed, we can see positive change.”

Let’s keep the momentum going. Together, we can make a lasting impact on students’ well-being.

Get started with SEL training

Help students develop a growth mindset, navigate their emotions, and build a foundation for their future success by starting with some of our SEL training paths and modules. Learn more about instructional strategies to support SEL and wellness tips for educators, so you can start making an impact right away.

Explore our SEL training for educators:

• SEL skills learning path: Learn how to create student-centered classrooms that foster emotional intelligence, equipping your students with skills they need to thrive in the future.
• Teach SEL with Reflect: Learn how to seamlessly integrate SEL into your teaching practice with Reflect, a Learning Accelerator that supports student engagement and well-being.
• Developing wellness skills: Take your knowledge to the next level. Enroll in a variety of Microsoft Learn modules and explore supporting resources, designed to help you cultivate wellness skills in your students.

Support student well-being with Reflect

Guide your students as they build important social, emotional, and academic skills with Reflect. Reflect is a Learning Accelerator that offers quick check-ins, age-appropriate reflections, intentional brain breaks, and actionable data in the Reflect web app or Microsoft 365 learning apps.

One-on-one attention has an enormous impact on students’ engagement, learning, and well-being. Make Reflect part of your routine to give each of your students a place to share their feelings and give yourself data to track their status, progress, and needs.

Explore engaging activities in Reflect

Reflect offers a variety of fun activities for you and your students to practice well-being skills.  Incorporate SEL into your classroom with ready-to-use activities and materials:

• Stories: A library of engaging stories that help students explore social-emotional skills and offer AI-powered reading fluency practice.
• Inside Out 2 collection: Reflect brain breaks celebrating Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2, including stories, coloring pages, and games.
• Memory game: Players can identify emotions while matching the Feeling Monster cards.
• Kindness balloons: Students can explore a range of emotions and feelings as they share kind words about each other.

Check out the entire collection of short, inclusive activities in Reflect designed to promote SEL and help you gain well-being insights. Note that some activities may require authentication with your Microsoft school or institution account.

Navigate student emotions with Reflect Compass

Reflect Compass is a tool that helps you navigate student check-in results with evidence-based strategies to enhance well-being, engagement, and a sense of belonging. It’s built on the expertise of Challenge Success and grounded in over 20 years of research at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

 Explore these Reflect Compass features and resources:

• Ask follow-up questions to better understand students’ emotions during Reflect check-ins.
• Explore a variety of evidence-based strategies to help process emotions, all neatly categorized by type.
• Play the Compass podcast for episodes dedicated to specific feelings and strategies to help students navigate their emotions.

Use Reflect to foster a happier, healthier, and more balanced school community with age-appropriate reflections, intentional brain breaks, and actionable data. If you’d like more help getting started, check out Reflect Teacher’s Guide PDF.

Introduce mental health concepts with Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education is an excellent platform for introducing mental health concepts to students and building social-emotional skills like self-awareness and communication. Through immersive, inclusive, and engaging learning experiences, Minecraft provides a safe space where students can express themselves, collaborate with their peers, and navigate their emotions in a low-stress environment.

Ready to help your students practice essential mental health skills? Explore these exciting Minecraft Education challenges:

• Build Your Joy in Minecraft: Join Joy and Anxiety from Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 in this creative challenge. Students will solve a puzzle using Microsoft MakeCode then use Minecraft as a canvas to build a representation of something that brings joy to their lives.
• The Mindful Knight: Introduce students to the basics of mindfulness with this engaging quest. The interactive environment encourages students to make responsible choices during social interactions, guiding them towards becoming mindful social participants.
• Reflect World: Students will build SEL skills through a creative experience involving collaboration, problem-solving, and communication. After playing, discuss each emotion, the adventure it leads to, and ways to regulate emotions in real life.
• Minecraft Social and Emotional Kit: These specially designed worlds and activities support SEL. Your students will explore emotional well-being, empathy, and responsible decision-making through interactive gameplay.

Join us as we celebrate World Mental Health Day 2024 with resources designed to support student well-being and foster a positive learning environment. With tools like Reflect and Minecraft Education, you can prioritize mental health and help students practice empathy, strengthen emotional resilience, and create a more supportive classroom experience.

The post Support and celebrate student well-being on World Mental Health Day appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.