Teacher Bui Xuan Phong and students in a lesson on digital transformation.

Graduated with a BA in History Pedagogy from Hanoi National University of Education in 2013, Mr. Bui Xuan Phong worked at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted. In 2024, he completed his Master's degree in History Teaching Theory and Methodology. At the school, he was assigned to teach History, local education activities and career guidance experience activities. He always seeks effective teaching methods, so many students are very interested in learning History, local education activities and career guidance experience activities.

He actively participates in professional activities of History teachers of the Department of Education and Training, of the school and of the subject group; participates in learning community groups on Facebook, Zalo of History, local educational activities, career guidance experience activities; participates in workshops, online mini-talks on teaching and assessment of Vietnamese experts studying abroad and foreign experts. He also participates in a number of online learning communities for teachers such as "Microsoft Vietnam Creative Teacher Community" (MEC), "Pioneer Educator Network" (PEN), Vietnam Learning Design group, Educator Empowerment Forum...; participates in research groups on educational science; participates in creative teaching competitions of the Ministry of Education and Training, writes experience initiatives; guides students in scientific research... In particular, he has actively used artificial intelligence (AI) to design digital learning materials in teaching History; Apply the evaluation framework of the Microsoft Education Innovation Forum in self-assessing the effectiveness of digital transformation in teaching; apply research results on blended learning models in your teaching work.

Mr. Phong shared: Because the output of the profession is a "new person", teaching requires the understanding of families, teachers, the support of parents and the support of local authorities, while the current digital transformation only meets a small part of the needs of the teaching profession. Therefore, he is very interested in finding learning opportunities on the application of digital technology in the education sector to achieve good results for both teachers and students, meeting the requirements of the times. Since the 2016-2017 school year, he has officially joined the Vietnamese Creative Teachers Community after participating in the final round of the Creative Teachers Competition on IT platform (the predecessor of the Innovative Education Forum on IT platform - Education Exchange) with the desire to learn about the application of ICT in education, thereby spreading it to colleagues and contributing to the educational environment in which he is working. He confided: “Joining the Vietnamese Creative Teachers Community has helped me grow a lot in terms of expertise, especially digital capacity, forming a mindset of transformation in the digital age, proactively approaching many other innovative educational forums to further improve my knowledge and capacity, to be ready to move to the 2018 general education program.”

In the early days of participating in the forum, although mainly following the Community, it brought Mr. Phong and his colleagues a passion for technology, a desire to apply the most advanced teaching software to innovate lectures for their traditional subjects, bringing attractive and lively lectures every class hour. From a member following the Community to look forward to sharing content from other members, in 2020, he and a number of teachers actively determined to break through to support the Department of Education and Training in training IT for managers and key teachers of high schools and middle schools on the Office 365 platform. In the 2021-2022 school year, he was trusted by the Board of Directors of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted to be assigned the task of Head of the IT Department. This is an opportunity for him to spread the spirit of innovation on the IT platform to teachers and students of the school. As Head of the school's IT Department, during the two school years 2021-2022 and 2024-2025, Mr. Bui Xuan Phong advised the school's leaders on building a roadmap and digital transformation plan for the 2021-2025 period. Participated in supporting the maintenance of school education activities during the COVID-19 pandemic on the Microsoft Office 365 platform. He grasped the IT application capacity of teachers in the school, proposed personnel to organize workshops and internal sharing sessions in the school; at the same time, participated in setting up and maintaining a cloud storage system for digital learning materials, documents on school activities, and other documents on the Office 365 platform; coordinated the implementation of Project 06 on piloting online exams and piloting digital transcripts. In recognition of those contributions, three times (2016-2017 school year, 2017-2018 school year, 2021-2022 school year), Mr. Bui Xuan Phong was honored as a Microsoft Global Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE).

During his 12 years of work, Mr. Phong has achieved outstanding achievements: Encouragement Prize in the Creative Teacher Competition on IT platform organized by the Ministry of Education and Training in collaboration with Microsoft in 2016; guiding a group of students to participate in the National Science and Technology Competition in the 2017-2018 school year; 1 student achieved a score of 10 in History in the High School Graduation Exam in the 2020-2021 school year; 10/10 students won prizes (including two First prizes) in History in the Math and Science Competition in English in the 2022-2023 school year.

Mr. Bui Xuan Phong is one of many outstanding young teachers of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted who are good at their profession, dedicated to their profession, always proactive in creating, applying IT to innovate teaching methods, actively participating in the Creative Teacher Community, promoting the capacity of learners in accordance with the spirit of the 2018 general education program, towards a modern, integrated and sustainable education.

Article and photos: Minh Thuan