Participants will explore how to use AI to help their students or staff set goals, direct their own learning paths, and become empowered and capable.
Starting September 16, 2026, you can earn this badge on sideby.
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Learning Activities:
Four sideby sessions: All four are Paired Sessions with a different peer each time (~20 minutes each)
Build background knowledge about Deeper Learning and identify evidence-based connections to your context
Define what success looks like in today’s technology-rich world, and articulate a long-range vision for student learning
Identify a persistent problem of practice getting in the way of your vision, and set an overarching learning goal
(Optionally) Post related Small Win stories about your practice to the sideby community
(Optionally) Attend Office Hours with course facilitators
The Fostering Agency with AI learning experience runs from September 16 - December 2, 2026.
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Session 1: Thriving in Today's World
Educators will reflect on their current relationship with AI by examining their own AI engagement and knowledge, and that of their students’. They’ll consider the skills students will need to thrive in today’s technology-rich world. They’ll decipher which skills are technical versus uniquely human, and make connections to Deeper Learning. They’ll also note which skills educators need to thrive, too.
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Session 2: Deeper Learning in Your Setting
Educators will delve into what Deeper Learning really looks like by reviewing a framework and pinpointing evidence to illuminate where and how Deeper Learning currently happens in their context. To do so, they’ll reflect on their Small Wins with Deeper Learning, both successes and lessons learned. They’ll also make connections to the skills learners need to thrive in today’s technology-rich world that they identified in the first session.
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Session 3: Your Vision for Deeper Learning
Building on the prior sessions in which educators identified the skills needed in a world influenced by emerging technologies and the current state of Deeper Learning in their settings, educators will articulate their long-range vision for their students and school. They will define what success looks like by identifying observable, positive behaviors or Success Signs.
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Session 4: Your Problem of Practice & AI Learning Goal
Educators will reflect on the challenges getting in the way of the long-range vision for student learning that they articulated in the previous session. They’ll pinpoint a key problem of practice to focus on solving. They’ll develop a hypothesis about how AI might help or hinder progress toward their big vision, and will identify an overarching learning goal connected to their hypothesis. After this final session, sideby will generate a personalized learning plan for each educator containing a recommended sideby learning pathway and a summary of their long-range vision, problem of practice, and overarching AI learning goal.
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Guiding Question & Learning Targets
How might I use AI to foster greater learner agency, helping students or staff set meaningful goals, direct their own learning, and take ownership of their growth?
This self-paced, independent learning experience helps educators explore how AI can strengthen learner agency by supporting goal setting, self-directed learning, reflection, and ownership. Participants will examine instructional strategies that empower students or staff to make informed decisions, monitor their progress, and use AI responsibly as a tool that enhances—not replaces—their thinking and learning.
Learning Targets:
1. I can identify ways AI can support learners in setting goals, making choices, and directing their own learning.
2. I can design learning experiences that help students or staff take responsibility and accountability for their learning and work products while using AI effectively.
3. I can reflect on my current practice and identify opportunities to use AI to build greater learner agency, independence, and empowerment.
AI for Deeper Learning Framework:
All our open community badges are aligned to AI for Deeper Learning.
What past participants in badging have to say
Real educators, real results from sideby’s 2025 Impact Report
Your Learning Facilitators
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Erica Crane, EdD
Erica is a former teacher and high school founding principal. She is a current ceo and co-founder at sideby, a platform that connects educators for guided conversations along learning pathways to accelerate community-driven innovation at scale. She is also a faculty associate and course designer in Ed Leadership at ASU where she currently coaches principal interns. With an emphasis on liberatory practices, she has taught, coached, consulted, and led in schools and supported school systems across the United States since 2006, from the South Bronx to rural Northern California.
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Mike Mendelson
Mike brings deep experience at the intersection of teaching, learning design, and applied AI in education. He began his career as a high school math and technology educator and later served in a district-level role supporting the implementation of personalized, competency-based learning systems. Across these roles, he focused on designing structures that support educator practice, student agency, and coherent learning pathways at scale.
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Kippy Smith
Over the last 20 years, Kippy has held roles on all sides of professional learning—from classroom teacher, to programs designer and facilitator, leadership coach, and organizational leader. Kippy has spent her career at the intersection of school design, edtech innovation, and educator collaboration. Her work is grounded in the belief that transformational learning isn’t top-down — it’s co-created in schools, classrooms, and teams. As SVP of Learning at sideby, Kippy continues to lead SWD while influencing how we grow sideby’s learning network.
✺ Frequently Asked Questions ✺
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No. This learning experience involves reading and engaging with resources as you reflect on your practice. On sideby, we design learning to fit into the real work of education professionals. We have peer to peer learning experiences, with this reflection-based badge as an opportunity to engage solo. You’ll spend short, focused time learning. Then, you’ll apply what you’re learning directly to your practice through authentic challenges and reflection.
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You can engage in 20-minute guided reflection sessions as it works for your schedule. Asynchronous work is flexible and embedded in your day-to-day work — not through extra homework or long written assignments. The total time spent on this course is equivalent to 3 hours all together.
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Although this badge is focused on deep solo reflection, you’ll have the opportunity to exchange ideas and Small Wins with peers. We have educators and education leaders from across the United States who engage in our sideby badges. We are also growing our international community members. Past badge participants have appreciated the chance to engage in learning with peers who understand the real work in schools and educational organizations.
Why sideby?
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We’re real educators too who designed sideby for transformational professional learning. We’ve taught, led, and facilitated great PD in real schools. We’re constantly listening and learning from our open community and organizational partners too.
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Our learning experiences offer an opportunity for collaboration and cross-pollination across contexts through the sharing of ideas and Small Wins.
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Educators should learn how they teach. Our approach to more personalized, reflection-centered, peer-driven, application-based experiences models deeper learning in action. Educators deserve the best learning, just like students do.
✺ Contact Information ✺
For questions about the learning experience or technical support within sideby, reach out to: team@sideby.ai