Colleague.ai https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com AI for educators Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:00:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/favicon.png Colleague.ai https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com 32 32 Colleague AI Newsletter, January 6th https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/colleague-ai-newsletter-january-6th/ Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:00:08 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7892
Happy Winter Holidays from Colleague AI

Starting 2026 Strong with Colleague AI: Practice, Voices, and PD 🚀

See a classroom use case, join our AI implementation podcast series, and register for January PD with ESD 113.

Community Sharing

Back-to-School Tip for Educators

When educators say, “Just build a relationship with the student,” what do they actually mean?

One educator asked Colleague AI ( Brainstorm Ideas Chat with Charlie AI ) to unpack that phrase. The result: a clean, classroom-ready one-pager that turns vague advice into actionable moves you can try tomorrow, from quick recognition routines to simple ways to build trust, safety, and student voice in Week 1.

📄 Teacher handout included
✅ Practical, doable, and ready for your classroom (or PLC)

Image generated by Charlie AI on Colleague AI.

Prompt authored by Hayley Spohn (Federal Way Public Schools, WA)

Podcast Series

🎙️ Podcast Series Announcement | AI Implementation at School and District, Jan-Mar 2026

This spring, Colleague AI is launching a three-part podcast series spotlighting how AI is actually being implemented across classrooms, schools, and districts—through the voices of educators doing the work.

Each episode centers real practice, real constraints, and real decision-making around responsible AI use in education.

Series I. Classroom Teachers

📅 January 8, 2026 | ⏰ 3:30-4:30 PM PT

How are classroom teachers navigating AI on the ground?

Join Hayley Spohn (Federal Way Public Schools, WA) and guest classroom teachers as they discuss:

  • Early instructional shifts with AI
  • Student engagement and accessibility
  • Practical challenges teachers are encountering
  • Emerging opportunities to support diverse learners

This episode centers classroom reality—not hype.

Series II. Instructional Coaches

📅 February 19, 2026 | ⏰ 3:30–4:30 PM PT

What does it look like to support AI adoption at scale?

Join Ryan Fries (Bellingham Public Schools, WA) and fellow instructional coaches as they share:

  • Coaching strategies for AI integration
  • Using PLCs and coaching cycles to support adoption
  • Dedicated AI learning time and teacher readiness
  • Translating emerging tools into sustainable practice

This conversation focuses on how coaches help bridge tools and teaching.

Series III. District Administrators

📅 March 12, 2026 | ⏰ 3:30–4:30 PM PT

What does thoughtful AI implementation look like at the system level?

District and school leaders, including technology and curriculum administrators, reflect on:

  • Policy, infrastructure, and equity considerations
  • Professional learning and educator capacity
  • Family and community engagement
  • Evaluating AI’s role in strengthening instruction and learning outcomes

This episode explores what it takes to move from pilots to coherent, district-wide practice.

Our Community

Capital Region ESD 113 Online PD: Colleague AI (January 2026)

Join Capital Region ESD 113 for two online professional learning offerings focused on Colleague AI:

1) (OLAJ0086) Colleague AI: Lesson Preparation & Classroom Features (Event #194184)

🗓 Wed, Jan 14, 2026 (4:00–5:30 PM) + Wed, Jan 21, 2026 (4:00–5:30 PM)

A 2-part series covering prompting skills, ethical AI use, lesson planning, interactive games/presentations, assessment and standards-based rubrics, podcasts/slides, and classroom feature use cases.

pdEnroller 🔗 https://www.pdenroller.org/esd113/catalog/event/194184

2) (OLAJ0087) Colleague AI: Supporting System Implementation of AI (Event #194186)

🗓 Wed, Jan 28, 2026 (4:00–6:00 PM)

A hands-on session for school administrators focused on system-wide implementation: using AI for data analysis, identifying gaps, evidence-based interventions, context-aware organizational use, and instructional leadership.

pdEnroller 🔗 https://www.pdenroller.org/catalog/event/194186

💻 Online | 💲 $10 registration fee per course

]]> Colleague AI Newsletter, December 16th https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/colleague-ai-newsletter-december-16th/ Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:00:40 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7855
Happy Winter Holidays from Colleague AI

Happy Winter Holidays from the Colleague AI Team ❄️

Wishing you rest, joy, and inspiration. Thanks for growing with us in 2025. See you in the new year!

Holiday illustration

As 2025 comes to a close, we want to thank you for being part of the Colleague AI community. Your creativity, curiosity, and commitment to teaching and learning have shaped how we build and grow this platform.

Whether you used Charlie to brainstorm lessons, collaborated with Claire on student feedback, or explored new features in the Classroom, we hope Colleague AI made your teaching just a bit lighter and more joyful this year.

Enjoy a well-deserved break, recharge, and spend time with what matters most. We'll be here in 2026, ready with even more ways to support your instructional goals.

Warm wishes and see you in the new year,
The Colleague AI Team

Roadmap Ahead

Coming Soon: Enhanced AI Support for Younger Learners with Live Chat 🌱

Claire, our in-house AI agent, is already a trusted companion in many classrooms — and soon, she is getting even more interactive! Soon, students will be able to talk directly with Claire — no typing needed. This voice-based experience is designed especially for younger learners and multilingual learners, helping them share ideas, ask questions, and reflect out loud in a safe, teacher-monitored Colleague AI Classroom environment.

Through natural conversation, Claire will guide students to explain their thinking, build vocabulary, and stay curious, all while maintaining the warmth and encouragement that teachers already love.

Stay tuned for this exciting update to Colleague AI Classroom, bringing spoken AI support to your younger learners and opening new ways to make learning engaging, interactive, and fun.

Podcast Recording ✨

]]> Colleague AI Newsletter, December 9th https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/colleague-ai-newsletter-december-9th/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 10:00:01 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7791

Unlock a Smarter, More Personalized AI Assistant 💾

Turn on memory, personalize your profile, and train your AI to output your way. Rethinking EdTech investment: insights on why AI in EdTech needs funding now.

Feature Highlight

Unlock a Smarter, More Personalized AI Assistant 💾🗂️

Did you know you can turn on the Memory feature in Claire AI and Charlie AI to transform them into personalized teaching assistants? By enabling memory, your AI partner can remember key details about your educational settings, preferred instructional practices, and teaching goals —making every conversation smarter, faster, and more relevant to you.

Whether you frequently teach project-based lessons, support multilingual learners, or use specific scaffolds in your classroom, your AI will start adapting to your unique style. Want to fine-tune your assistant further? Add profile information —such as your subject area, grade level, or classroom priorities—to receive responses with even greater precision.

You remain in full control. You can view, update, or delete memories at any time to keep your experience aligned with your evolving needs.

Start training your AI the way you’d mentor a co-teacher. Turn on memory today and watch your teaching assistant grow with you.

Our Community

The EdTech Paradox: AI Is Booming—So Why Isn’t Investment in AI-Powered Learning?

Dr. Min Sun,

AI is the economic story of our time. Yet, the very engine that powers tomorrow’s AI-literate workforce—AI-powered educational innovations—remains underfunded, misunderstood, and too often overlooked by investors.

In 2025, nearly 70% of North American VC dollars and 53% of global investments funneled into AI-related companies. Meanwhile, hashtagEdTech continues to face three historic hurdles: difficulties in measuring ROI in student outcomes, navigating long sales cycles, and complying with complex policy frameworks.

AI can change the hashtagEdTech industry:

  • Better ROI measurement for individuals: Continuous, richer assessments give real-time insights into deep-thinking, problem-solving, and verbal skills.
  • Better ROI measurement for institutions: Unified platforms dissolve silos in curriculum, assessment, and analytics, freeing teachers to focus on high-leverage interactions.
  • Break down other traditional barriers: Faster pilots, automated compliance checks, and integrated workflows shorten sales cycles and make ROI visible.

We cannot build the AI-powered future without investing in the human intelligence that fuels it. Now is the moment for innovators, investors, and policymakers to seize this opportunity—and rewrite the story of EdTech.

Caption: AI for Future Classroom. Copyright @ Alexander Hensun, a 3rd grader at Bellevue Children’s Academy

This 3-minutes reading blog is my attempt to articulate what I've learned of why EdTech has historically been unattractive to investors and why AI may finally rewrite the story:

Your Professional Milestones

Colleague AI + University of Washington: The AICE Certified Educator Badge 🎓

We are excited to share an opportunity for your educators to earn the AICE (AI Competency for Educators) Badge, certified by the University of Washington College of Education.

  1. Functional – Using AI tools effectively and selecting the right tool for the right task.
  2. Content – Retrieving, adapting, and evaluating AI-generated materials for accuracy, inclusivity, and relevance.
  3. Pedagogical – Designing and delivering high-quality, AI-enhanced instruction.
  4. Ethical – Modeling responsible, fair, and transparent AI use for students.

real platform use clear and actionable for teachers growth-oriented rubric

Colleague AI – Building educator capacity for the AI era.

Interested in becoming certified?

Live Podcast

✨

]]> Colleague AI Newsletter, December 2nd https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/colleague-ai-newsletter-december-2nd/ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:00:39 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7826

Discover Colleague AI's New Advanced Image Generator 🖼

Discover our new advanced image generator, mark your calendar for the December podcast on UDL, and connect with Colleague AI at CSBA 2025.

Feature Highlights

Discover Colleague AI's New Advanced Image Generator

Unleash your creativity with Colleague AI’s new Advanced Generate Image! Whether you need

  1. a quick visualization for diverse learning needs,
  2. a fun and engaging image to capture students’ attention, or
  3. an infographic to support visual learners, it’s all just a click away.

Available now in Generate Image ( ✨ Advanced mode) and in Brainstorm Ideas ✨ chat with Charlie (not Claire 🎃) .

Try it today and see how easy it is to bring your ideas to lessons!

December Live Podcast 🎙️

Turning Misconceptions into Learning Opportunities with AI 🎙️

Nov 13th, 2025 | 3:30-4:30 PM

Hayley Spohn Ryan Fries

In this episode, we dive into how AI-powered strategies can help educators uncover common student misconceptions, make sense of classroom discourse, and design targeted instructional moves that turn misunderstandings into powerful learning moments.

You’ll discover how to:

  • Simulate Student Thinking – Explore how Colleague AI simulations surface likely misconceptions before class, giving you a window into students’ thought processes across subjects and grade levels.
  • Reframe Classroom Dialogue – Learn questioning techniques and discourse strategies that reveal what students truly understand, alongside ways to design feedback reports that address misconceptions head-on.
  • Teach Responsively – Translate insights from AI simulations and student dialogue into actionable teaching moves, from crafting high-quality follow-up questions to designing interventions that close conceptual gaps.

Whether you’re preparing lessons, facilitating discussions, or planning assessments, this conversation will show you how AI can amplify your teaching toolkit and help you guide students from confusion to clarity.

Our Commu nity

Colleague AI at CSBA Annual Education Conference & Tradeshow

December 3-5, 2025

Sacramento | SAFE CREDIT UNION Convention center

✨

Discover Colleague AI's New Advanced Image Generator

Unleash your creativity with Colleague AI’s new Advanced Generate Image! Whether you need

Generate Image ( ✨ Advanced mode) Brainstorm Ideas ✨ chat with Charlie (not Claire 🎃)

Try it today and see how easy it is to bring your ideas to lessons!

December Live Podcast 🎙️

Turning Misconceptions into Learning Opportunities with AI 🎙️

Nov 13th, 2025 | 3:30-4:30 PM

Hayley Spohn Ryan Fries

In this episode, we dive into how AI-powered strategies can help educators uncover common student misconceptions, make sense of classroom discourse, and design targeted instructional moves that turn misunderstandings into powerful learning moments.

You’ll discover how to:

  • Simulate Student Thinking – Explore how Colleague AI simulations surface likely misconceptions before class, giving you a window into students’ thought processes across subjects and grade levels.
  • Reframe Classroom Dialogue – Learn questioning techniques and discourse strategies that reveal what students truly understand, alongside ways to design feedback reports that address misconceptions head-on.
  • Teach Responsively – Translate insights from AI simulations and student dialogue into actionable teaching moves, from crafting high-quality follow-up questions to designing interventions that close conceptual gaps.

Whether you’re preparing lessons, facilitating discussions, or planning assessments, this conversation will show you how AI can amplify your teaching toolkit and help you guide students from confusion to clarity.

Our Commu

Colleague AI at CSBA Annual Education Conference & Tradeshow

December 3-5, 2025

Sacramento | SAFE CREDIT UNION Convention center

nity

Colleague AI at CSBA Annual Education Conference & Tradeshow

December 3-5, 2025

Sacramento | SAFE CREDIT UNION Convention center

💜

Colleague AI at CSBA Annual Education Conference & Tradeshow

December 3-5, 2025

Sacramento | SAFE CREDIT UNION Convention center

]]> Colleague AI Newsletter, November 25th https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/colleague-ai-newsletter-november-25th/ Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:00:47 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7818

Warm Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving 🍂✨

New podcast recording: Turning Misconceptions into Learning Opportunities. Hear how educators use AI to uncover student thinking and transform misunderstandings into learning moments.

Our Community

Podcast Recording: Turning Misconceptions into Learning Opportunities with AI 🎙️

Hayley Spohn Ryan Fries

In this episode, two innovative Washington educators share how they use AI to uncover student misconceptions, interpret classroom dialogue, and design targeted instructional moves that help students move from confusion to clarity. Through real classroom stories and practical examples, they illustrate how AI can surface patterns in student thinking, highlight points of misunderstanding, and support responsive instruction.

Whether you’re preparing lessons, facilitating discussions, or planning assessments, this conversation offers concrete strategies for using AI to strengthen learning, deepen discourse, and create more intentional support for every student.

December Live Podcast

Designing for Every Learner: AI, UDL, and Personalized Support

December 11th | 3:30-4:30 PM PT

Discover how AI can help you bring Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into everyday practice. This episode breaks down concrete, classroom-ready ways to design flexible, inclusive, and personalized learning experiences for all students.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

  • Use UDL-aligned prompt strategies. Create AI prompts that build scaffolds, differentiate learning pathways, and support a wide range of student strengths, needs, and preferences.
  • Develop UDL-informed learning materials. Transform lesson plans, podcasts, and interactive assessments with multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression built in from the start.
  • Personalize assessment and feedback. Apply AI-assisted grading and rubric design to emphasize higher-order thinking, deliver individualized feedback, and guide each student along their learning journey.

Tune in for practical strategies you can put to work immediately in any classroom setting.

]]> How to install Google Classroom Integration https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/how-to-install-google-classroom-integration/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:55:44 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7673

Instructions for installing Google Classroom integration and some tips to avoid known issues. 

Users can easily generate highly engaging learning materials such worksheets with help of Colleague AI

]]> Student Growth Insights with Research Based Analytics https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/student-growth-insights-with-research-based-analytics/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 23:19:33 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7652

Student Growth Insights: Understanding your students just got easier

With the Student Growth Insights feature in Colleague AI Classroom, you can access a comprehensive snapshot of student thinking, engagement, and performance—all in one place.

Here’s what you’ll find:

  • Teaching Aide Summary: See what questions students are grappling with, what topics interest them, and how engaged they are. Use this insight to spark timely one-on-one check-ins or adjust your in-class supports.
  • AI Tutor Summary: Get a window into students’ self-directed inquiries. Discover what they’re exploring on their own, from open-ended questions to recurring themes—plus their engagement levels and personal interests.
  • Assessment Summary: Review key trends and learning gaps across your class. Identify which concepts may need reteaching or targeted small group intervention, based on student assessment patterns.

You can also drill down into individual student profiles to generate content supporting differentiated instruction. Whether you’re planning a project-based learning unit, initiating quick student check-ins, or simply building stronger relationships, this feature helps you spend less time analyzing and more time connecting.

Human In, Human Out: Let AI do the heavy lifting—so you can focus on what matters most: being present for your students.

 

Ready to explore? Log into your Colleague AI account and navigate to Student Growth Insights from your dashboard.

]]> Streamline Student Assessment, Feedback, and Grading with Colleague AI https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/streamline-student-assessment-feedback-and-grading-with-colleague-ai/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 23:17:57 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7648

We’re excited to introduce the Assessment feature in Colleague AI—a powerful way to streamline how you create, manage, and grade student work.

With Assessments, you can:

  1. Create and customize: Add a title, description, attach documents (PDF, Word, articles, or organizers), or connect an interactive activity you’ve built.
  2. Control visibility: Choose whether your assessment is in Draft, Active, or Disabled mode.
  3. Grade with ease: Use built-in rubrics (or create new ones with Claire), upload an answer key, and toggle grading options—summative or formative, with AI-powered scoring.
  4. Support flexibility: Allow resubmissions, provide instant AI feedback, and share across multiple classes at once.
  5. Simplify reporting: Generate detailed reports to see how each student performed, whether from a traditional upload or an interactive activity.

Watch the demo video to see how easy it is to set up and start grading with Assessments. Getting Started in 5 Steps

  1. Click “Assessments” from your dashboard or top toolbar.
  2. Create New → Fill in the title, description, and attach a document or interactive.
  3. Set Options → Choose status (Draft, Active, Disabled), add rubric, upload answer key, and decide on graded vs. ungraded.
  4. Customize Settings → Select assessment type, toggle resubmissions, AI feedback, and assign to multiple classes.
  5. Click “Create” → Your assessment is ready to share, grade, and track with AI-powered reports.
]]> AI Tutor for Students, Conversation Summary for Teachers https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/ai-tutor-for-students-conversation-summary-for-teachers/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 23:15:44 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7638

Meet AI Tutor: Flexible, Personalized Support for Every Learner

AI Tutor is a feature on Colleague AI Classroom designed to offer students a freeform chat experience—a space where they can explore ideas, get homework help, engage in independent practice, or receive on-demand tutoring on topics they’re struggling with.

Teachers also stay fully informed. You’ll see each student’s chat history and get a one-click conversation summary—automatically refreshed every 24 hours or instantly upon request.

Unlike Teaching Aide where teachers set up and provide structured topics, AI Tutor lets students drive the conversation. Whether they need clarification, deeper explanations, or just a study partner, AI Tutor is ready to respond and help keep the conversation going with clickable AI suggestions built right into the chat to deepen and broaden the conversation along the learning progression.

There are additional accessibility tools:

  • Text-to-speech
  • Language translation
  • Speech-to-text via microphone

Additional features include:

  • Students can copy, save, download, or print any message
  • Students can attach files or images
  • Students can tag the teacher in message to call for help
  • Students can switch response style (extended or concise)
  • Students can view their chat history or start a new thread

And just like Teaching Aide, AI Tutor includes stress detection and safety monitoring. If our AI agent detects that a student is experiencing emotional distress, you’ll be notified immediately.

Watch our full demo to explore everything AI Tutor can do!

]]> Create AI Tools for Your Students: Teaching Aide in the Classroom https://ec2-44-251-152-201.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/teaching-aide-in-the-classroom/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 23:09:53 +0000 https://www.colleague.ai/?p=7630

Teaching Aide in the Classroom: Think of Teaching Aide as an extra set of hands in your classroom. It’s not here to replace you — it takes on the routine parts of guided practice so you can focus on high-value teaching moves. Just like you might use a personal assistant or station activity, Teaching Aide opens up opportunities for flipped classrooms, small-group rotations, and extra practice.

Because practice makes permanent, Teaching Aide, though access to all conversation, monitor dashboard, AI conversation summary, and Student Growth Insights, ensures students are reinforcing the right skills with real-time feedback to their teachers. You set the prompt and expectations, and the tool carries them out with students in real time. You always stay in control — deciding what to create, when to launch, and how to use the data afterward.

How It Works:

  1. Create – Start with a clear title and concise prompt. Add requirements like scaffolds, multilingual support, or pacing.
  2. Customize – Attach resources, preview the student view, and generate your pre-start message to set the right tone.
  3. Launch – Send the aide live to students for guided practice, and track responses with the Progress Summary.

With just a few clicks, Teaching Aide helps you deliver practice that is structured, feedback-rich, and aligned to your instructional goals.

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