Professional Learning Newsletter

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This Weeks Topic

Summer Series Recordings and Resources

Better AI That Is Actually Helpful (NotebookLM) 
 Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 
If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

Simplifying Classroom Workflows with Smart Browser Hacks

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 
If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

Maximizing Formative Assessment with Existing Google Tools

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 
If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

Transforming Slide Decks into Active Learning

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 
If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

Getting Started with Gemini for Everyday Classroom Tasks

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 
If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

Navigating Gemini Integration in Google Classroom

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 

If you participated, please submit for your certificate.

➡️ Teaching Digital Literacy and Fact Checking in the AI Era

Click Here for the recording.

View the presentation slides: Click Here. 

If you participated, please submit for your certificate.




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Can Teachers Be Replaced by AI?

Before we jump in and scream of course not.... there are already schools where students do not receive their instruction from a teacher, but rather from a computer or from AI. At Orion Education & Training we believe that education is more than simply the transfer of knowledge. Educating students includes making great citizens and people. Empathy, critical thinking, social interactions, considering oneself as part of a larger community, and more.

5 Ways AI Can Replace Teachers

To be clear, at Orion Education & Training we do NOT think teachers are replaceable.

In a Gemini Notebook we loaded up research articles and other resources around critical thinking. We asked the notebook, what are ways teachers can be replaced with AI? Here are some potential areas:

1. Factual Information Delivery (DOK 1)

If the primary function of a teacher is to deliver information, students memorize the information, and are assessed on recall of exactly this information then AI could replace this function. One of the many challenges with this is "factual." AI is not always accurate and an expert is needed to counter potential hallucinations.

2. Routine Procedural Instruction (DOK 2)

AI can provide step-by-step instructions to help teach concepts. However, life is rarely highly procedural and students need to know how to troubleshoot and make decisions when the situation is not linear.

3. Acting as a Universal "Answer Key"

When a question or activity has a single right answer, AI can excel at providing fast answer checking. The problem is, when faced with more complex questions or responses that are highly personalized to the community or current events AI can lack the knowledge to provide effective answer checking.

4. Providing "Fact Lists" for Inquiry

AI can act as the external resource or list of facts students use to avoid the "drill and kill" of memorization during higher-order inquiry tasks. However, these facts may not be accurate or not relevant to the task. A highly qualified teacher is better able to focus the content for students.

5. Generating Finished Exemplars

AI can create "perfect" examples of essays or projects. However, thinking and learning is not a polished exemplar. Teachers can demonstrate the messy thinking that is actually required in synthesizing information and going from rough ideas to a finished product.

Teaching Critical Thinking

Value Beyond AI

5 Ways Teachers Will NOT Be Replaced by AI

Teachers are not robots and their value in developing students into educated and responsible citizens can not be understated.

1. Replace "Immersion" with the "Mixed Method"

Research shows that students do not develop thinking skills automatically just by being exposed to challenging content. Teachers must explicitly teach reasoning skills (like how to identify bias or evaluate evidence) alongside subject matter, making the thinking process an overt subject of the lesson.

2. Model the "Think-Aloud" Processp

AI can provide a polished final answer, but it cannot show the "messy" internal moves of a human expert. Teachers can act as a guide, not an answer key, by verbally walking students through how they personally question assumptions or check the credibility of a source.

3. Facilitate Socratic Seminars

Focus on the deeply human skills that AI cannot simulate: reading nonverbal cues, listening with empathy, and building upon the ideas of peers in real-time. In a Socratic Seminar, the teacher moves from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side," facilitating a democratic dialogue where human connection is the primary currency.

4. Assess the Process, Not Just the Product

AI has made traditional writing assignments easy to outsource. Teachers can shift evaluation toward subjective, process-oriented tools like "assignment wrappers". Require students to submit planning notes, provide an oral defense of their reasoning, and reflect on why their specific evidence is more trustworthy than an AI's output

5. Foster Metacognitive Reflection

Teach students to interrogate their own minds using routines like "I used to think... now I think". Helping students track their conceptual changes and understand how they learned a topic is a powerful way to build independent analytical capacity that does not rely on automated tools.

For the summer, Alice Keeler is creating our PL Newsletter. As an Educational Technology and Math expert the summer newsletter will skew towards her expertise. Coming this fall we will feature segments from all of the Professional Learning Consultants at Orion. Stay tuned!

Summer 2026

Join Orion for Professional Learning

In Person, Virtual, Asynchronous, and Credit Earning

Ready to learn more? This summer we have a lot of options for you. Please reach out to akeeler@orioneducation.org for more details.

INSTRUCTOR: 
Alice Keeler

DATE: 
All Summer

TIME: 
Varies, see website


LOCATION:

Online or Asynchronous

IN PERSON:

ORION SERVICE CENTER

13939 Diagonal Rd, Clearwater, KS 67026

More to Come! Please share this newsletter with other educators and let us know what you'd like us to cover in the future.

For more information, contact Alice Keeler at akeeler@orioneducation.org.

Orion Education & Training offers a variety of onsite and online professional learning opportunities with new workshops available monthly.

To learn more, visit us at orioneducation.org and click WORKSHOPS,

or give us a call at 620-584-3300.