Zana Kurtishi-Rudi, a technology teacher, recently won first place in Microsoft’s Expert Educator competition for Kosovo. The award recognizes her outstanding efforts to improve learning through her school’s Technicians Club, a Kosovo-wide innovation implemented as part of FHI 360’s Basic Education Program in the country. Later this year, Zana will represent Kosovo at the Global Expert Educator competition at the Microsoft Global Education Forum in Barcelona, a high-profile event attended by more than 700 people from 75 countries in the field of education.

The Kosovo competition took place at the Regional Education Conference in Skopje and was organized by Microsoft in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Macedonia. With attendees from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo, this gathering provided an opportunity to exchange success stories and best practices in education. Zana was one of several teachers who presented compelling school projects. At the conclusion of the event, Microsoft representatives announced that Zana had won the award.

Zana believes that her project has implications for improving classroom instruction in other contexts. “The entire idea of this project is to create something for students,” she said. “I call for teachers to start looking from the student’s point of view, how it is easier for them to learn, and not just from the technology course perspective.”

This is the second consecutive year that a teacher from Zekeria Rexha, a Basic Education Program partner school, has won international recognition. In March 2012, two other teachers from the school were awarded a prize at the European Innovative Educators Forum in Lisbon.

Click here to watch interviews with Zana and her students.