00:00 Introduction

Teddy Lane welcomes attendees and introduces the session, inviting participants to share where they are joining from, what grade level they teach, and which digital math tools they currently use in their classrooms.

The session is framed around helping teachers integrate platforms like Desmos and GeoGebra with Flint, allowing students to receive support using the tools while teachers spend more time facilitating mathematical thinking rather than troubleshooting technology.

Teddy explains that the demonstrations will focus on Desmos and GeoGebra but encourages attendees to think broadly about other digital math tools and simulations they already use in their own instruction.

The agenda previews two live demonstrations followed by a discussion of how Sparky can serve as a teaching assistant for digital tools before concluding with an open Q&A session.

03:26 Sparky's role as a TA

Teddy introduces the core concept of using Sparky as a tool-specific teaching assistant rather than a math tutor, helping students learn how to navigate software while leaving mathematical reasoning and problem-solving to the students themselves.

Drawing from his experience teaching high school mathematics, he explains how teachers often lose valuable instructional time answering procedural questions about software instead of discussing mathematical concepts and student reasoning.

He demonstrates how teachers can clearly instruct Sparky to answer questions only about the interface and functionality of a digital tool while refusing to provide hints or solutions related to lesson content.

Teddy emphasizes that this approach shifts classroom conversations away from technical troubleshooting and toward exploration, inquiry, and conceptual understanding as students work with interactive mathematical tools.

05:35 Using Desmos with Flint walkthrough

Teddy demonstrates a standards-aligned Algebra lesson where students manipulate parabolas in Desmos using sliders to compare vertex form and standard form equations.

He begins by showing how the lesson aligns with a Common Core mathematics standard and explains how standards can now be attached directly to Flint activities using Common Core, AP, IB, or custom curriculum frameworks.

A worksheet generated with Sparky is introduced as the instructional foundation for the lesson, illustrating how teachers can create printable resources that guide students through Desmos activities before building complementary Flint support.

Teddy walks through creating a new Flint activity, showing how to begin with Build with Sparky before refining activity behavior using the Build Manually interface.

He demonstrates how to prompt Sparky to become a Desmos tool assistant by supplying official Desmos Help Center documentation and explicitly defining which questions Sparky should answer and which it should avoid.

The importance of providing concrete examples of acceptable and prohibited student questions is highlighted as a way to reinforce activity behavior and prevent Sparky from revealing mathematical solutions.

Using a live Desmos activity, Teddy role-plays as a student asking procedural questions such as how to insert exponents, create sliders, and adjust slider increments to whole-number steps.

Sparky demonstrates its ability to reference Desmos documentation to guide students through interface settings while leaving students responsible for interpreting the mathematics themselves.

Teddy explains how removing technical barriers allows students to devote more cognitive effort toward analyzing functions, identifying patterns, and comparing different mathematical representations rather than struggling with the software itself.

21:03 Using GeoGebra with Flint walkthrough

The second demonstration focuses on GeoGebra, using a lesson on rigid transformations where students construct triangles, perform reflections, and investigate invariant geometric properties.

Teddy introduces the corresponding Common Core geometry standard and explains how the activity helps students discover which measurements remain unchanged after geometric transformations.

A Flint-generated worksheet is presented that guides students through constructing figures, reflecting shapes, and measuring angles and side lengths within GeoGebra.

He shows how Sparky is configured using the GeoGebra documentation so it can answer questions about locating tools, navigating menus, and using specific interface features without explaining the mathematics behind the lesson.

Teddy discusses practical considerations when using external documentation, including websites that restrict automated access, and demonstrates alternative workflows such as uploading downloaded documentation or copying help articles directly into Flint.

Working through a live GeoGebra example, Teddy asks Sparky how to reflect a shape across a line, locate transformation tools, and troubleshoot incomplete reflections when only points—not polygons—have been reflected.

The demonstration illustrates how Sparky helps students overcome technical obstacles while preserving the investigative nature of the lesson, allowing teachers to focus on conceptual discussions about transformations and geometric relationships.

Before concluding the walkthrough, Teddy highlights additional mathematical features within Flint, including the LaTeX equation builder, whiteboard, handwriting support, image uploads, and worksheet generation for creating richer mathematics activities.

33:59 Q&A Session

The discussion begins with questions about Flint's built-in mathematics tools, prompting Teddy to demonstrate the equation builder, LaTeX support, whiteboard, handwriting recognition, and image upload features available for math classrooms.

He explains how teachers can generate worksheets containing properly formatted mathematical notation directly within Flint and export them for classroom use.

Lakshmi Saravanan shares a year-long stock market modeling project where students progressively build mathematical models using Desmos, raising concerns about balancing AI assistance with authentic student reasoning.

Teddy recommends breaking long-term projects into checkpoint activities where students upload screenshots of their work and Sparky provides support appropriate to each stage of the project rather than attempting to guide an entire year-long assignment in a single activity.

The conversation explores strategies for preventing students from relying on AI to complete mathematical work, including writing highly specific activity instructions, providing examples of prohibited questions, and reinforcing boundaries within Sparky's behavior.

Lakshmi shares her own classroom approach of requiring students to explain how they derived equations, interpret variables, and justify mathematical reasoning rather than simply producing correct answers, acknowledging that AI use is becoming an unavoidable part of education.

Teddy reinforces the importance of designing learning experiences that prioritize reasoning, explanation, and productive struggle over answer generation, encouraging teachers to continue experimenting with Flint as a collaborative instructional partner.

The session concludes with an invitation for educators to reach out with questions, share additional use cases, and attend future S'more Info Sessions and Campfire webinars focused on new Flint features and classroom strategies.