• Evaluated Figjam and Chrome Canvas as alternative whiteboard tools for an intervention teacher due to the upcoming sunset of Microsoft Whiteboard.
• Created a custom Gemini Gem to provide students with fast feedback on narrative drafts while preserving academic integrity by restricting it from writing for them.

Every day brings unexpected challenges and exciting opportunities for an educational technology coach. Recently I met with an intervention teacher who had mastered using a Newline interactive display alongside Microsoft Whiteboard. She had built a wonderful workflow for her and her students, but she learned that Microsoft Whiteboard will sunset in a few weeks and reached out for help finding an alternative. After some light research we landed on two options. One was Figjam by Figma which has a free education version doing virtually everything she did previously. The other was Chrome Canvas, an often overlooked Google tool offering similar capabilities to Jamboard and Microsoft Whiteboard.

Later that day I walked into an eighth grade classroom to prepare for a meeting the following morning. The room was empty, but I noticed an instructional prompt for a narrative writing assignment displayed on the screen. Inspired by what I saw, I decided to build a custom Gem in Gemini that the teacher could deploy to her students for expedited feedback on their drafts.

I sent the Gem to her and she was excited to try it. Afterward I walked her through the process of deploying the tool through Google Classroom. We carefully configured the Gem so that it only provides constructive feedback and will never write or revise anything for the students, ensuring complete academic integrity. Moments like these remind us how adaptability and creative problem solving keep classrooms moving forward.

This blog post was drafted with the help of Google Gemini to help organize and flesh out my thoughts and ideas regarding my day as an edtech coach. I also used Gemini Notebook to generate a brief audio overview, perfect for those who want to listen and learn on the go.

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