​Middle school technology students who default to using AI as a basic, one-shot search tool.

​Their need — what our system was not giving them:

​The opportunity to experience struggle as a valuable part of the design process, changing their objective from getting a fast answer to co-authoring a deeper solution.

​What I need to provide them:

​Daily lab workflows and rubrics that actively grade the visible history of their critical thinking, prompt iterations, and pushback against the tool, rather than grading the final machine output.

No explicit instructions or win conditions are provided. The application is designed to be experienced rather than solved.

Teachers using AI on their own

Their need

A fast, trustworthy verdict on whether a tool is safe to use

What I need to provide

• A clear status for every tool

• One sentence on why and what they can't do with it

• An answer that's there on Sunday night, not just Tuesday morning

• A place to send tools you haven't reviewed yet

• Confidence that if they follow the verdict, they're covered

Phase 1: Discovery- low stakes tool for students to help map their out of school world.

Phase 2: Alignment- teachers align standards to identified skills and experiences.

Phase 3: Demonstration- students submit artifact rooted in an actual experience.

The Original Unmet Need: English teachers facing heavy writing classes want to ensure all students are learning to effectively create a thesis statement and craft a structured argument.

The Chosen HMW Question: How might we use verbal storytelling protocols to help reluctant writers speak their argument aloud before translating it into a written thesis?

The Core Prototype Idea: A hybrid system combining a Silent Partner Audio-Recording Protocol (where verbal processors dictate their ideas to a partner for transcription) with a department-wide Verbal Assessment Rubric that counts the spoken defense as 20% of the initial writing grade.

The Primary Assumption & Risk Named: The strategy assumes that moving from writing to speaking genuinely unlocks logical reasoning rather than just shifting the bottleneck to a microphone, and it risks causing logistical chaos or unsustainable grading time for teachers reviewing audio files.

Design Anchor: By anchoring your prototype in verbal expression, you have built a powerful bridge for striving writers and English language learners to demonstrate critical literacy without getting blocked by a blank page.

The tool is a laminated card with options to opt in/out of 3 AI leveraged practices: AI audio recording of session, synthesis of coaching data/notes for district reports, and anonymized use for team learning.

We need to provide mini-PD around a centralized library of pre-approved district compliant Outlook CoPilot prompt templates built directly inside Outlook for common tasks like email responses, event reminders and calendar invites