Connected Educators
Virtual PD Series with Kiker Learning
From Teacher to Trailblazer: Navigating AI with Confidence!
Winter 2025 Session Descriptions
All Kiker Learning Sessions will take place on Wednesdays from 4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Please note that select sessions may focus more towards specific grade levels and are indicated below. However, educators are welcome to register and attend any session(s) that would best meet their needs.
The deadline to register for three (3) Act 48 hours through Wisdomwhere for the Winter Series
is Friday, January 16th. After this date, you may still register for individual sessions without Act 48 hours.
Please note that select sessions may focus more towards specific grade levels and are indicated below. However, educators are welcome to register and attend any session(s) that would best meet their needs.
The deadline to register for three (3) Act 48 hours through Wisdomwhere for the Winter Series
is Friday, January 16th. After this date, you may still register for individual sessions without Act 48 hours.
Gemini Certification for Educators
Hey, Google Gurus and AI Aficionados! Are you ready to take your tech-savvy skills to the next dimension? We are moving beyond the "wow" factor of AI and into the "how" of instructional leadership. This three-part series is designed to take you from curious explorer to Gemini Certified Educator. We will cover every domain of the exam, from the alphabet soup of technical terms to the nitty-gritty of prompt engineering and the crucial conversations around ethics.
Who is this for? Everyone!
While this series provides everything you need to ace the certification, taking the exam is completely optional! Whether you are gunning for the badge or simply want to sharpen your skills for daily classroom use, you will walk away with practical strategies to empower your teaching immediately.
Hey, Google Gurus and AI Aficionados! Are you ready to take your tech-savvy skills to the next dimension? We are moving beyond the "wow" factor of AI and into the "how" of instructional leadership. This three-part series is designed to take you from curious explorer to Gemini Certified Educator. We will cover every domain of the exam, from the alphabet soup of technical terms to the nitty-gritty of prompt engineering and the crucial conversations around ethics.
Who is this for? Everyone!
While this series provides everything you need to ace the certification, taking the exam is completely optional! Whether you are gunning for the badge or simply want to sharpen your skills for daily classroom use, you will walk away with practical strategies to empower your teaching immediately.
January 21st
The Gemini Jumpstart – Decoding the AI Alphabet Soup & Establishing Foundations with Ashley Shanley
Domain 1 (Understanding Generative AI) & Basic Navigation
Let’s be honest: the terminology around AI can sometimes feel like reading a dictionary from the future. In this kickoff session, we are going to demystify the jargon and lay the groundwork. We will define what Generative AI actually is (and what it isn’t), explore how it fits into the Google Workspace ecosystem, and tackle the #1 question on every teacher’s mind: privacy.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
February 11th
Work Smarter, Not Harder – The Art of Prompting & Workflow Wizardry with Ashley Shanley
Domain 2 (Implementing Gemini in Educational Practice)
Grab your lab coats (or just your comfortable cardigan), because this is the hands-on laboratory session. It’s time to stop doing busy work and start letting Gemini do the heavy lifting. We will move beyond "chatting" with a bot and learn to engineer prompts that generate high-quality quizzes, rubrics, and lesson plans in seconds. We are talking about grading, planning, and emailing faster than ever before.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
February 25th
The Ethical Educator – Navigating Integrity, Bias, and Acing the Exam with Ashley Shanley
Domain 3 (Responsible AI Use) & Exam Prep
With great power comes... well, you know the rest. In our final session, we tackle the elephant in the room: Academic Integrity. How do we teach students to use this tool without losing their ability to think? We will look at the ethical implications, spotting "hallucinations" (no, not the fun kind), and preparing our students for an AI-integrated future. We will wrap up with specific tips for taking the certification exam.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
The Gemini Jumpstart – Decoding the AI Alphabet Soup & Establishing Foundations with Ashley Shanley
Domain 1 (Understanding Generative AI) & Basic Navigation
Let’s be honest: the terminology around AI can sometimes feel like reading a dictionary from the future. In this kickoff session, we are going to demystify the jargon and lay the groundwork. We will define what Generative AI actually is (and what it isn’t), explore how it fits into the Google Workspace ecosystem, and tackle the #1 question on every teacher’s mind: privacy.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
- Defining the Beast: We will clearly define "Generative AI," "Large Language Models (LLM)," and distinguish how GenAI differs from the other forms of AI you’ve been using for years.
- The Privacy Shield: A deep dive into Google’s data policy—understanding how your school data is protected is non-negotiable for a certified educator.
- The Ecosystem Tour: We will identify which Google Workspace for Education tools now have Gemini superpowers and differentiate between the "Gemini App" and "Gemini for Workspace”.
- Augment, Don’t Replace: We’ll explore the philosophy that AI is here to be your co-pilot, not the captain, ensuring you can differentiate between AI augmenting your role versus replacing it.
February 11th
Work Smarter, Not Harder – The Art of Prompting & Workflow Wizardry with Ashley Shanley
Domain 2 (Implementing Gemini in Educational Practice)
Grab your lab coats (or just your comfortable cardigan), because this is the hands-on laboratory session. It’s time to stop doing busy work and start letting Gemini do the heavy lifting. We will move beyond "chatting" with a bot and learn to engineer prompts that generate high-quality quizzes, rubrics, and lesson plans in seconds. We are talking about grading, planning, and emailing faster than ever before.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
- Prompt Engineering 101: We will master the art of the "effective prompt," distinguishing between a lazy request and a structured command that gets results..
- Meet Your Research Assistant: We will upload source documents into NotebookLM to ground AI responses, ensuring your research is based on your curriculum, not the wild web.
- Creating "Gems": We will build custom, recurring AI assistants (Gems) to handle specific tasks like bell-ringer generation or providing feedback frameworks.
February 25th
The Ethical Educator – Navigating Integrity, Bias, and Acing the Exam with Ashley Shanley
Domain 3 (Responsible AI Use) & Exam Prep
With great power comes... well, you know the rest. In our final session, we tackle the elephant in the room: Academic Integrity. How do we teach students to use this tool without losing their ability to think? We will look at the ethical implications, spotting "hallucinations" (no, not the fun kind), and preparing our students for an AI-integrated future. We will wrap up with specific tips for taking the certification exam.
What We’ll Tackle (Exam Objectives):
- The Hallucination Problem: We will explain what AI hallucinations are, why they happen, and how to spot factual inaccuracies in Gemini’s output.
- Bias & Ethics: We’ll analyze AI outputs for hidden biases and discuss the concepts of transparency and digital responsibility.
- The Cheating Chat: We will move beyond "gotcha" plagiarism checkers and discuss strategies for assessment design that encourage critical thinking and responsible AI use.
- Student Literacy: How to develop classroom guidelines and teach metacognition so students understand the limitations of the tools they are using.