Microsoft Certified Educator study plan
Microsoft Certified Educator · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Facilitate student collaboration & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT)
Map the collaboration domain blueprint: list every sub-skill (group norms, role assignment, peer feedback, shared artefact creation) and rate your current confidence 1-5
Draft a 3-lesson collaboration sequence that assigns interdependent roles and a shared digital workspace for a class you actually teach
Configure one collaboration tool (shared document, wiki, or discussion board) end-to-end, including permissions and version history
Write a one-page rubric that scores both the group process and the individual contribution
Your checkpoint
A 3-lesson collaboration unit plan with role cards, tool setup screenshots, and a dual group/individual rubric
Facilitate student collaboration & Facilitate self-regulation
Design a structured peer-feedback protocol (sentence starters, two rounds, revision log) and script the teacher modelling of it
Build a student self-monitoring checklist that tracks goal setting, progress checks, and revision decisions during collaborative work
Identify three failure points in group work (social loafing, dominance, off-task drift) and write the intervention you would use for each
Run the collaboration lesson with a real class or peer group and capture observation notes
Your checkpoint
A post-lesson reflection log with observation evidence, plus a revised peer-feedback protocol
Facilitate skilled communication & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT)
Analyse the skilled-communication domain: distinguish disciplinary discourse, audience awareness, and multimodal representation as separate assessable skills
Design a communication task where students must choose and justify a format (written report, infographic, short video, podcast) for a named audience
Create a communication rubric with observable descriptors for clarity, evidence use, structure, and audience fit
Set up a digital publishing or sharing channel so student work reaches an audience beyond the teacher
Your checkpoint
A communication task brief, matching analytic rubric, and a working link to a student publishing channel
Facilitate real-world problem solving and innovation & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT)
Deconstruct the real-world problem-solving domain into problem framing, evidence gathering, solution design, and iteration cycles
Write one authentic problem scenario grounded in local or community data that has no single correct answer
Sequence a design-cycle scaffold with checkpoints where students must justify a decision before proceeding
Select two ICT tools that support data collection or modelling and test them against the scenario
Your checkpoint
A complete problem-based unit outline with scenario, design-cycle scaffold, checkpoint prompts, and tool test notes
Facilitate self-regulation & Use ICT to be an effective educator
Build a self-regulation lesson sequence: goal setting, strategy selection, self-monitoring, and structured reflection
Design a student-facing progress dashboard or learning log template that students populate themselves
Audit your own educator workflow and document how you use ICT for planning, assessment records, and feedback turnaround
Write three formative feedback templates that prompt student self-assessment rather than restating the answer
Your checkpoint
A self-regulation toolkit (learning log template, feedback templates, dashboard mock-up) with a written rationale for each component
Use ICT to be an effective educator & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT)
Map your full ICT educator toolkit against the domain: planning, communication with families, assessment, data analysis, and professional learning
Build a reusable data workflow that turns assessment results into a visual summary you can act on within one class period
Draft a digital citizenship and tool-use agreement for students that covers data privacy, acceptable use, and source attribution
Evaluate two new tools against a stated pedagogical need and record a keep/reject decision with reasons
Your checkpoint
An annotated ICT toolkit inventory with a data-workflow demo and a signed-off student tool-use agreement
Facilitate student collaboration & Facilitate skilled communication & Facilitate self-regulation & Facilitate real-world problem solving and innovation & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT) & Use ICT to be an effective educator
Synthesise all six domains into one integrated 2-week project that evidences collaboration, communication, self-regulation, problem solving, and ICT use
Write scenario-style practice items for each domain and answer them under timed conditions
Review every wrong answer and tag the underlying sub-skill gap
Re-run one lesson from weeks 1-6 with the revisions you identified and compare outcomes
Your checkpoint
An integrated project plan plus a scored practice set with a tagged error analysis
Facilitate student collaboration & Facilitate skilled communication & Facilitate self-regulation & Facilitate real-world problem solving and innovation & Facilitate student use of Information and Communication Tools (ICT) & Use ICT to be an effective educator
Condense each domain into a one-page decision guide you can recall under exam pressure
Complete two full timed practice runs and record your score trend by domain
Close remaining sub-skill gaps flagged in week 7 with targeted re-study
Assemble a portfolio index linking every deliverable to the domain it evidences
Your checkpoint
A six-page domain decision guide, a score-trend chart, and a portfolio index mapping deliverables to domains
Milestones
Week 2: You can explain, without notes, how role interdependence and a peer-feedback protocol jointly reduce social loafing, and you have observation evidence from a real lesson
Week 4: You have a complete problem-based unit with an authentic scenario and design-cycle checkpoints, and you can articulate how ICT tools serve the problem rather than decorate it
Week 6: Your ICT toolkit inventory is complete across planning, assessment, family communication, and professional learning, and your data workflow produces an actionable summary in under one class period
Week 8: Practice scores are stable across two timed runs, every week-7 error is tagged and closed, and all six domains have a matching portfolio deliverable