Lesson Objectives

• Discover how to turn end-of-year energy into meaningful project launches

• Learn practical steps to start projects that will impact next school year

• Explore two powerful AI prompts to kickstart your innovative ideas

Do Now

Before we get started, take a moment to reflect on that innovative idea you've been keeping on the back burner. You know, the one you said you'd "get to over summer break." What if you could start laying the groundwork now?

What We’re Working with Today

Today we'll explore how to launch meaningful projects in these final months of the school year, when your energy might be waning but your creative spirit is still alive. I'll share my own spring break project journey and give you actionable steps to kick off your own innovation before summer arrives.

I Do, We Do, You Do

I Do: Here’s What I Created

This week, during my spring break, I started developing an AAC Icon Generator instead of baking my traditional Easter egg cupcakes (with eggs being ridiculously expensive and the cupcakes being very time consuming—I bake them inside eggshells—I chose ‘build’ instead of ‘bake’). This project serves two purposes: building a comprehensive icon library for the AI-Powered AAC app I’m developing, and creating a more affordable alternative to commercial options like BoardMaker and Symbolstix.

Tools I used / My Process:

• Grok - ‘DeepSearch/DeeperSearch’ to get its base knowledge on the topic, then ‘Think’ to develop a plan and to write the strong prompt to build out the UI (user interface/frontend) on Lovable

• Lovable - to build out the foundation of the app and to rebuild and deploy moving forward

• Google AI Studio Gemini 2.5 Pro - my coding partner. I’ve talked about this before, my process is to upload my code as .txt files and to tell Gemini my plan and it walks me through it step-by-step. We debug any errors that pop up

• GitHub - where my code lives and where I update my code (Lovable connects directly to GitHub)

• Supabase - that my storage and how I do user authentication (Lovable connects to Supabase seamlessly)

• ChatGPT 4o - I generated my icons here. The new image generation is top tier and created some beautiful icons for me in different styles:

• Google Colab - I’m about to fine tune an LLM to generate these icons. ChatGPT’s API only accesses DALL-E at this time and DALL-E does not produce the quality or consistency I need for this icon generator. Wish me luck, this is a brand new process for me… then again, everything I’ve done with AI in the last 8-9 months has been brand new

We Do: Let’s Build This Together

Follow this step-by-step guide to launch your own end-of-year project:

1. Identify a Problem Worth Solving: What challenge have you repeatedly faced this year? For me, it was the high cost and limitations of current AAC options and icon generators (and the complaints I still get from teachers about the district moving from BoardMaker to Symbolstix three years ago—BoardMaker is also not good btw, unpopular opinion maybe, plus didn’t it use Comic Sans for a long time?)

2. Define Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP): What's the simplest version that would still provide value? My MVP is an icon generator that uses premade icons and allows users to make communication boards and visual schedules. I was able to build that in one week.

3. Use AI to Accelerate Your Process. If you’re building out an app, you can follow this to get started:

• Grok - use ‘DeepResearch’ or ‘DeeperResearch’ (free tier):

I want to build a [describe your app]. I want it to be [AI-powered and customizable]. Do extensive research on [topic] and look into what is in the market already (e.g. [examples of competitors]). Identify what is unique about each existing product and the places where we can improve. Provide a deep high-level summary.

• Grok - same conversation as above, switch to ‘Think’:

Thank you, this is quite extensive and great detail! I would like to build out [your app]. [Describe features, e.g. I want there to be custom styles that users can choose from and I want them to be able to save their created icons to their library (also save these to a common library).]

Please help me develop a strong initial prompt to build out the UI in Lovable. [Describe user interface, features, e.g. White background, clean look with a touch of bright primary colors.] [Audience, e.g. This will be used by teachers, so make it teacher-friendly.]

• Lovable - paste the prompt Grok generated and watch Lovable create a pretty good looking app in one shot. (You get 5 free credits on Lovable every day)

4. Schedule Small, Consistent Work Blocks: I dedicated just 30 minutes each day of spring break. What small window can you commit to daily or weekly?

You Do: Your Mini Task for the Week

Now it's your turn! Identify one innovation you've been postponing until "summer break" and take these steps:

1. Write down your project idea and why it matters

2. Define what success would look like by the last day of school

3. Use this planning prompt to create your roadmap:

I want to develop [your project idea] before the end of the school year. I have approximately [X weeks/hours] available to work on this. 

Please help me:
1. Break this project into 4-6 manageable phases
2. Identify the minimum viable product I could complete in the available time
3. List resources I'll need for each phase
4. Suggest 2-3 ways to measure progress
5. Recommend how to involve students in the process (if applicable)

Think-Pair-Share

• Think of 3 ideas you've been saving for "someday" that could actually begin now

• Pair up with a colleague to share your project plans and establish mutual accountability

• Share your progress with our community of educators and connect with other Edumators who are transforming their classrooms with AI and automation.

Exit Ticket

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