Microsoft Corp. has named four Washington educators — including one Lake Washington School District (LWSD) teacher — as winners of the Partners in Learning U.S. Forum for their projects utilizing technology in and out of the classroom.

These winners, selected from 100 educator entries, will now go on to represent the United States at the Partners in Learning Global Forum in Prague in November and compete to be named a Microsoft Innovative Educator.

The following educators have been honored by Microsoft:

• Julie Hembree, Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School in Kirkland — She led fourth graders as they wrote storyboards and then created short movies to serve as trailers to showcase their favorite books, which the school library then used as digital advertising to entice their student peers to read.
• Robin Lowell and Sherry Hahn, Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver — They worked with their students to reinvent learning solutions to better teach and communicate with their blind and visually impaired student. Lowell instructs her students from more than 170 miles away via video conferencing.
• Jamie Ewing, Mount View Elementary School in Seattle — His school’s 600-plus students share just one computer lab and he turned an ordinary science fair virtual. His students built earth systems-based science experiments and presented them through Skype to other classrooms around the country.