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Brainstorm Ideas: Teacher Training Guide

Overview​

The Brainstorm Ideas feature helps teachers quickly generate lesson activities, warm-up tasks, or planning strategies through prompt-based interactions with Colleague AI.
It is designed to scaffold instructional design and creative thinking, giving teachers multiple entry points for lesson preparation.

Core Capabilities​

  • Generate lesson ideas aligned with your subject and grade level
  • Offer differentiated entry points (Mild, Medium, Spicy) for practicing prompting
  • Support creative activities such as:
    • Weekly lesson plan brainstorming
    • Writing effective prompts
    • Evaluating AI responses
    • Translation, download, and upload activities
    • Generating interactive lessons or podcasts

Prompting Best Practices​

When using Brainstorm Ideas, effective prompts should include:

  1. Assign a Role to AI
    Example: “You are an experienced teacher and classroom management expert.”
  2. Provide Context and Goals
    Example: “Design beginning-of-the-semester activities to build a welcoming classroom culture for 8th graders.”
  3. Specify Output Requirements
    Example: “List 10 activities that avoid clichés, include brief descriptions, and help students feel valued.”

Example Use Case​

Prompt
“Design 10 classroom activities for 8th graders who often act ‘too cool’ to participate. The strategies should build an inclusive classroom culture without being cringe.”

AI Output May Include

  • Icebreaker activities with authentic student choice
  • Low-stakes collaborative games
  • Theme-based discussions connected to student interests
  • Vocabulary-building activities integrated into fun challenges

Training Activities​

  • Mild: Try one of the pre-made prompts in Brainstorm Ideas.
  • Medium: Enter your own prompt, including role, task, and output specifications.
  • Spicy: Experiment with other features like generating interactives, podcasts, or translations.

Teacher Benefits​

  • Reduces planning time by generating multiple lesson ideas in minutes
  • Builds teacher capacity for writing effective AI prompts
  • Encourages evidence-based teaching strategies through guided outputs
  • Provides creative inspiration while leaving room for teacher customization

Takeaway​

The Brainstorm Ideas feature is a creative partner in lesson planning.
By practicing with prompts and experimenting with different levels of complexity, teachers can quickly develop engaging, student-centered activities while maintaining professional oversight.