From Awareness to Agency: Equipping Educators to Lead AI Integration in K–12

K-12 schools have shifted from whether to how AI will shape teaching, learning and assessment, yet most professional learning is either tool-driven or abstractly conceptual. This poster presentation walks through the architecture of the Graduate Certificate in AI for Teaching and Learning from the USF College of Education, a fully online program designed by educators for educators. Its four courses form a developmental sequence: foundational AI literacy, applied classroom implementation, educator-built AI solutions and systematic evaluation through classroom-based inquiry. The program emphasizes agency, not just awareness: evaluating AI tools and claims, protecting student data and privacy under FERPA and COPPA, ensuring inclusion and aligning practice to instructional goals, drawing on frameworks such as UNESCO's AI Competency Framework for Teachers. Explore field-tested artifacts, including tool evaluation portfolios, implementation roadmaps, custom educational tools and action-research studies. No prior AI experience is required. Teachers, coaches, curriculum directors, school leaders and PD coordinators will leave with a practical model for ethically responsible AI integration.