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teacher:smarter - How a Terrible AI Training Session Inspired a New Tool for Educators

teacher:smarter was born out of pure dissatisfaction.

It all started with a four-hour long, "self-paced," mandatory Professional Development session on AI my district rolled out this past spring. While the second half was pure district slop, the first half was a surprisingly interesting, if very canned, “Google Gemini for Educators” course.

The training hit all the usual notes on ethics and privacy. But then it got to prompt writing, and a lightbulb went on. A strong prompt isn't just typing a question into a box. It requires a thinking process. It demands precise writing and editing. It involves adaptation, experimentation, and yes, failure. It requires a teacher.

My Revelation: AI is Just a Word Calculator

 From that perspective, my view of AI completely shifted. I stopped seeing it as a Studio Ghibli meme generator. I stopped seeing it as the boogeyman that lets my students cheat or threatens my job. (Frankly, I have serious doubts about AI’s ability to replace me. I’m too dang good at my job.)

Instead, I started seeing AI as a calculator.

As far as I can tell, all Large Language Models (OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude) are just word calculators. Like a graphing calculator, an LLM takes your input and designs an output that follows the given parameters. But instead of numbers, lines, and shading, you get words. Beautiful, glorious words! In sequences that actually make sense!

For this skills-based English teacher, it was a revelation. I've always been envious of math teachers with their perfect worksheets, where the numbers just work without any messy remainders in the long division. Suddenly, I had a tool that could do the same for language.

From a Simple Idea to a Web App

The free version of Gemini we were given after the training had its limits, so I migrated to Google's AI Studio and started to play. I found the system instructions box and built a basic tool to generate "Answer, Cite, Explain" questions from any text I dropped in. It worked so well, I had it generate the answers, too.

On a whim, I clicked the "get code" button just to see what was what. Before I knew it, I had a web app on my hands.

Introducing teacher:smarter: AI Tools, Built by a Teacher for Teachers

 teacher:smarter leverages Google’s Gemini API to provide customizable, AI-generated classroom materials. Each tool uses custom instructions I've written to tailor the output based on your text input, document upload, and specified grade level.

Here’s how it works:

  • Premium Users: Get access to the latest and most powerful version of Gemini for the highest quality results. (No paid service implemented yet, e-mail me for premium access.)

  • Free Users (Logged In): Can use the fast and efficient Gemini 2.0 Flash lite model.

Feel free to experiment with the tools! Please send any suggestions, feedback, or tool ideas to mrgroover@teachersmarter.com.

Why I'm Sharing This (And How to Keep It Going)

Ultimately, I have no idea how to pay for this. The Gemini API costs money. I could have self-hosted the tools and just used them for myself. I could have converted them into private "Gems" in Gemini Advanced.

But I've spent my whole career using free resource websites like eReadingWorksheets to find practice materials for my students. I want to pay it forward. I want to put out my shingle and let other educators use the AI tools I'm finding success with in my own classroom. Maybe I'll keep developing silly educational games for you to block on student Chromebooks. Who knows.

If you find teacher:smarter useful, maybe you could buy me a cup of coffee. More tools and features are coming soon. Thanks for stopping by.


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