First Builds

Three levels, eight starters

Starters

Small things that already work, each one useful on Monday. Pick a level, try a starter, and make it yours with your AI.

You need this page and an AI chat you can sign in to, open in another tab: Gemini with your school Google account, ChatGPT, or Claude. Running it for a group? Hosts has what to check first.

In a live session?

Your host links the Breakout Planner in the chat; your room number is next to your name.

1

In the chat

Small tools that run inside your AI chat. Play one here first, then hand it to your AI and ask for changes.

What level 1 teaches
  1. 1Guess, then playPick a starter. Before you press Play, guess what it will do. Then try it.
  2. 2Hand it to your AICopy for my AI copies a prompt with the tool's code inside. Paste it into your AI chat and send; in Gemini, choose Canvas first.
  3. 3Remix itOpen a Remix menu, copy a change, paste it into the same chat, and replace each ___ with your own words.
  4. 4Keep itThe Play window forgets your changes; your AI chat keeps them. Name the chat so you find it Monday, or copy a link to your work.
Where to paste it, tool by tool

The Meeting Timer

For anyone who runs a meeting

Your agenda on screen with a big countdown, a gentle chime when it's time to move on, and a parking lot.

Monday: run your next PLC with it on the screen.

Remix menu
Make it yours
  • Change the agenda to my meeting: ___ (10 minutes), ___ (15 minutes), ___ (5 minutes).
  • Show our team norms along the bottom: ___.
  • Use our school colors: ___ and ___.
Make it useful
  • Add a protocol mode: 5 minutes of silent writing, then 10 minutes of discussion, with a different chime for each.
  • Add a spinner that picks who takes notes and who keeps time.
  • Add a button that copies the parking lot as a list I can paste into our notes.
Make it fun
  • When time runs out, play a game-show buzzer instead of the chime.
  • If we finish the agenda early, celebrate with confetti.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find AGENDA, change the minutes for one item, and press Run my changes.

The Group Maker

For teachers, coaches, and anyone leading a workshop

Paste names, pick a size, and shuffle. It spreads your helpers out, one per group. Keeping two people apart is one remix away.

Monday: tomorrow's lab groups, made in a second.

Real names stay out of the AI. Names typed into the tool here stay in this browser window; nothing is saved or sent. Once the tool runs inside your AI chat, it runs on that company's page, so keep to made-up names there.

Remix menu
Make it yours
  • Use these group names instead: ___.
  • Make the group cards big enough to read on a projector from the back of the room.
Make it useful
  • Add a box where I can type pairs who should be kept apart.
  • Give each group roles: facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, and reporter.
  • Let me save a list of names in this browser so I don't paste it every time.
Make it fun
  • Make the shuffle dramatic: names spin and land one at a time, with a drumroll.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find GROUP_NAMES, change them to your school's mascots, and press Run my changes.

The Feedback Builder

For teachers and faculty

Choose a level for each part of a rubric, and warm, specific feedback comes together, with one clear next step.

Monday: load your own rubric and give faster, kinder feedback.

Remix menu
Make it yours
  • Replace the rubric with mine: ___.
  • Rewrite every comment in my voice: shorter, and a little funnier.
  • Add a button that switches the comments to Spanish.
Make it useful
  • Add a "glow and grow" format: one thing that's working and one thing to try.
  • Let me save rubrics for different assignments and switch between them.
Make it fun
  • Show a sticker for the strongest part of the work.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find TONES, write your own opener and closer, and press Run my changes.

The Teacher's Lounge Oracle

Just for fun

Ask a question. Get a dramatic, slightly ridiculous prophecy, with a gong.

Monday: a vocabulary oracle or a discussion-question picker, if you remix it.

Remix menu
Make it silly
  • Make the Oracle talk like an over-excited game-show host.
  • Add a drumroll before the gong, and confetti when the prophecy appears.
  • Write 10 new prophecies about my school, ___. Keep them kind.
Make it yours
  • Change the colors to my school colors: ___ and ___.
  • Add a button that reads the prophecy out loud.
  • Teach the Oracle a new topic: when I ask about ___, it should answer with prophecies about ___.
Make it useful
  • Turn it into a vocabulary oracle. Each spin reveals one of these words and what it means: ___.
  • Turn it into a discussion-question picker for my class on ___.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find SPIN_SECONDS, change the 3 to a 10, and press Run my changes.
  • In the code, find the coffee topic under TOPICS. Add your own prophecy in quotes, end it with a comma, press Run my changes, and ask about coffee.
2

On your site

Pages, not tools: each one ends up on a Google Site you can edit. Play it, hand it to your AI with your own document, and put what comes back on your Site.

What level 2 teaches
  1. 1Play itSee the page working, with made-up words.
  2. 2Add your documentCopy for my AI, paste, and send. Then copy the remix line that starts “Replace”, paste it, and paste your document's text where the ___ is.
  3. 3Copy the code outWhen it looks right, copy the finished code from your AI tool. Each tool's spot is in Where to paste it, below.
  4. 4Embed it in your SiteInsert, Embed, the Embed code tab, paste, Next, Insert. Drag the box until it all shows, and read it against your document before you publish.
Where to paste it, and where to copy the code out

The Charter Cards

For a department, a team, or a PLC

A made-up department charter as a page: the commitments as badges, each section a card that opens when you tap it.

Monday: your own charter or team norms on your site, readable on a phone.

Remix menu
Make it yours
  • Replace the charter with this document, section by section, keeping its meaning exactly: ___
  • Use our school colors: ___ and ___. Put our name at the top: ___.
  • Make the badges these five words: ___.
Make it useful
  • Add a "who to call" card at the end with made-up names and extensions.
  • Add a search box that opens only the cards that mention what I typed.
  • Add a Print button that opens every card and prints the page on one sheet.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find COMMITMENTS, change one word, and press Run my changes.

The Syllabus Page

For teachers and course leads

A made-up course as a page families actually read: the questions people ask, each with a short answer, and the year as a row per unit.

Monday: your syllabus on your class site, opening question by question.

Remix menu
Make it yours
  • Replace the course with my syllabus, keeping every policy exactly as written: ___
  • Add a question: "___?" with the answer: ___.
  • Use our school colors: ___ and ___.
Make it useful
  • Add a "this week" marker that highlights the unit for today's date.
  • Add a Spanish version of every answer, shown with a toggle at the top.
  • Add a "what to bring tomorrow" line at the very top that I can change in one place.
Look inside (no AI needed)
  • Press Play, then Show the code. Find QUESTIONS, change one answer, and press Run my changes.
What Google Sites does to pasted code

Google Sites shows it inside a frame on your page. That keeps your site safe, and it sets the limits: the page can't remember anything between visits, so saved settings and scores vanish; it can't reach the rest of your site or your visitors' accounts; sound and full screen wait for a tap; and a very long page may be refused or load slowly. It shows only as big as you drag the frame.

Cut off, or misbehaving? Hand your AI this, in the same chat:

Promptwords: paste them into the same chat

Make this one self-contained HTML file for a Google Sites embed box about 800 pixels wide: no outside libraries, fonts, or images; nothing saved between visits; no sound until a tap; large type that works on a phone; and as short as it can be while keeping everything it does.

No Site yet? Go to sites.google.com and choose Blank site. You can also put a starter on a Site as it is: press Play, then Show the code, select it all, copy, and paste it into the Embed code tab. The full steps, and what to do when Sites refuses it: Three levels, level 2.

3

Behind the scenes

Scripts: code that does a job in your Google Drive. Nothing to play. You paste a script into Apps Script, a tool built into every Google account, press Run, and approve what it may touch.

What level 3 teaches
  1. 1Copy the scriptIt's code, not a prompt. Paste your folder's or Doc's address into its settings line first, and the script carries it.
  2. 2Paste it into Apps ScriptA new project at script.google.com, or inside your Sheet with Extensions, Apps Script. Not your AI chat.
  3. 3Run it, and allowChoose its name beside Run, press Run, read what it asks to touch, and allow.
  4. 4Open what it madeThe Execution log's last line links the Sheet or folder it made.

Standalone on its own

A project of its own, started at script.google.com, that shows up among your files in Drive. It reaches a file by its ID, and it's yours alone until you share it. The Drive Inventory is one.

Bound inside a file

Started from inside a Sheet, Doc, or Slides file with Extensions, Apps Script, and saved in it, not as a file of its own. It can use the file it lives in without an ID, everyone who can edit the file can edit the script, and a copy of the file carries a copy of the script. The Doc Multiplier is one.

The Drive Inventory

For curriculum leads and anyone with a deep folder

Point it at a folder. It reads every folder inside and writes a Sheet: each document, its type, its link, and when it last changed.

Monday: a whole curriculum folder, one search away.

Standalone script · reads one folder · about an hour the first time

Remix menu

Each line copies with the script, as a request for your AI to change it.

Make it useful
  • Add a column for who owns each file.
  • Skip anything that hasn't changed in two years, and list those in a second tab instead.
  • Make the Link column a clickable "Open" instead of the whole address.
Make it careful
  • Explain exactly which permission each line needs, and whether any line could change or delete a file. (It shouldn't.)

The Doc Multiplier

For anyone who makes the same Doc many times

One template Doc and a Sheet of names. From inside the Sheet, it makes a copy of the Doc for each row, named for the row, gathers them in a folder, and writes each link back into the Sheet.

Monday: a planning doc for every team, made in one press.

Bound script, inside your Sheet · a Doc and a Sheet · about an hour the first time

Remix menu

Each line copies with the script, as a request for your AI to change it.

Make it useful
  • Replace the words TEAM and DATE inside each copy with the row's name and today's date.
  • Skip a row if column B already has a link, so I can run it again safely.
  • Add a menu to this Sheet called Multiplier, with one item that runs multiply, so I can run it from the Sheet without opening Apps Script.
Make it careful
  • Before anything is copied, show me how many copies it's about to make and stop if it's more than 30.

Before a script goes near real work: what you're allowing, student data, and when others can use it as a web app, on Three levels, level 3.

Playing a starter

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