Today, Microsoft is shining a spotlight on 72 creative school leaders who have been selected as the best at integrating technology into their classrooms and curricula to inspire their students to learn.

These second round finalists announced today will join the previously announced educators  at the 2011 U.S. Innovative Education Forum (IEF) presented by Microsoft Partners in Learning on July 28-29 on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA.

This year’s educator projects address relevant real-life issues that students face, such as blended learning, service learning and civic engagement, working with social media in education, creating entrepreneurship opportunities, assistive technologies, and the application of gaming as it relates to learning. Teachers were selected to attend the event based on the learning philosophy/goals of their project submission, their use of technology in the project, and their ability to demonstrate examples of student work and achievement connected with the project. A full list of the remaining project descriptions selected for the U.S. Innovative Education Forum can be found on the Teach Tech blog <http://bit.ly/2011IEF> .