Google AI Educator Series: Free AI Lessons for Teachers

At this time last week I was at Google, enjoying a lovely meal on the patio of Charlie's cafe with educator colleagues from all over the country. We were there for a two day convening to learn more about the Google AI Educator Series, or GES as they call it. Full disclosure, Google paid for my travel to the event. Which is remarkable in that for the 15+ years I've been involved in Google events, the teacher academies, energizers, and champion summits, Google has never once paid for any of my travel expenses before. That alone told me this would be something different. 

So what is GES? Quite simply, it is a collection of short lessons on AI literacy, focusing on Google Gemini of course, that teachers can do independently or as part of a professional learning event. Each lesson comes with a quiz and a badge for those who demonstrate their understanding of the teaching concepts in the lesson. 

Someone once told me that the eloquence of an idea is reflected by the small number of words necessary for it to blossom in the mind of others. So here it is, lessons, quizzes, badges. That's GES. 

So why did we need two days about it? Why did Google invest in bringing all of us, (plus two other cohorts, higher ed folks and district leaders) all the way to Mountain View? I can't tell you for sure what those other groups did, but the K-12 educator leaders spent our time learning about the modules, developing plans to provide professional learning, and exploring what we can do now with Google Gemini. 

My personal plan is to offer lunch time sessions to my colleagues over the course of the school year. Twice a month on Tech Tuesday we can meet in my classroom at lunch to eat together and develop our educational technology chops. One of those days we will do one of the GES lessons and earn the badge and the other Tuesday we will look at a different tool or strategy. Normally, I would avoid giving myself extra lunch time duties, especially something I might have to prep for. But, with the GES lessons already created for me, the prep is very low. They are useable as is, or I can make a copy of the slides and modify them. 

Something else I appreciate about the GES is that they are not really a series, despite the name. Each lesson stands on its own and that means I can pick and choose the lessons my colleagues need or want. We could even make that choice together. 

Topics offered so far are: 

• Introduction to Gemini for Education
• Introduction to Google NotebookLM
• Introduction to Vibe Coding with Gemini
• Adapted (level) Materials to Meet Student Needs (PK-2)
• Create Scaffolds to Support Reading Comprehension (3-5)
• Create a Lesson Plan and Supporting Materials (6-8)
• Remixing to Gain Deeper Insights (3-5)
• Design Assessments that Capture Student Thinking (6-8)
• Build Student Inquiry Skills (9-12)
• Design Problem-Solving that Encourages Critical Thinking (9-12)
• Evaluate Resources and Claims (PK-2)
• Turning Benchmark Data into Instructional Strategies
• Build Just-In-Time Coaching
• Draft Parent Communications

If you have been asking yourself how AI can help you teach better, or wondering if Gemini can do any better than those other chatbots, then you need to check out what's in the Google AI Educator Series.