Issue 42 • September 3, 2025

I’m presenting a free webinar and you’re invited! Join me for “The Curiosity Effect: Irresistible FigJam Activities” Tuesday, September 16 at 3pm CDT. Learn about FigJam while exploring how surprise, anticipation, and prediction can help students stay focused and excited to learn. Register right now!

While I’d love for you to join live, the webinar will be recorded so you can watch later.

And, yes, FigJam is free for teachers and students!

Now, stay curious and keep scrolling for more of this irresistible issue of Learning in Hand!

Directional Differences 🔀

I often use the arrow keys on my keyboard to move objects in Google Slides. They let me precisely position items by nudging them exactly where I want them.

But now the shortcut behavior has flipped.

Pressing an arrow key moves the selected object by a single pixel, while holding Shift moves it in larger 5-pixel steps. That’s the opposite of how it used to work. My muscle memory keeps kicking in, so this change is taking some time to adjust to.

In Shapegrams, I’ve created a series of posters about digital drawing tools and techniques in Google Slides. I’ve updated this poster to reflect the new arrow key behavior.

Next-Level Teaching with Brisk 🌟

Thanks to Brisk Teacher for sponsoring this issue!

Over the summer I’ve led quite a few AI workshops and trainings. The tool teachers consistently respond to and often call their favorite is Brisk Teaching.

Brisk offers a browser extension for Chrome and Edge that streamlines many AI tasks by working with whatever is open in your tab. One of my favorite features is the ability to generate a Google Forms quiz directly from a YouTube video.

Brisk Teaching has 6 core tools:

• Create instructional materials such as podcasts, quizzes, slide presentations, and more.

• Give Feedback on student work, tailored to your rubric or focus.

• Inspect Writing with a step-by-step playback of a student’s revision history.

• Change Level of any online text or PDF and translate to 58+ languages.

• Brisk Boost transforms any online resource into an AI-powered chat experience.

• Brisk Next serves as a central hub for insights, resources, activity management, and next instructional moves.

Brisk Next is the newest addition, and it’s your one-stop AI hub on the web for teaching. You can find your recent work, view student learning insights, generate multiple resources, and manage activities —all in one place. It even provides personalized recommendations based on your classroom needs and standards. Think of it like a teacher’s For You page! You can access Brisk Next anytime by heading to app.briskteaching.com or clicking the Home button in the Brisk menu.

If you’re new to Brisk, Brisk Bites are short video tutorials that help you learn the platform quickly. A recent Brisk Bite shows off Brisk Next: watch on YouTube.

Brisk’s Forever Free plan gives you access to 30+ AI tools. Premium access, available through Schools & Districts, adds features like unlimited use, images in Google Slides, advanced student insights, and turbo AI.

Most teachers begin with 14 days of Premium access, but you can extend that to 3 months free with my link:
brisk-teaching.com/tony-vincent.

Privacy note: Brisk protects all district, school, teacher, and student data. Data is never for sale, never used to train AI, and always kept secure. Brisk Teaching complies with FERPA, COPPA, GDPR, and state privacy laws.

Calendar of Curiosity & Creativity 🗓️

The free 2025-2026 teacher calendar from We Are Teachers is ready for you to save and print. The calendar features quotes, jokes, learning opportunities, writing prompts, and more.

• August → Classroom Icebreakers

• September → Hispanic Heritage Quotes

• October → Halloween Jokes

• November → Gratitude Challenge

• December → Acts of Kindness Challenge

• January → New Year’s Goals

• February → Read About Black History

• March → Facts About Women’s History

• April → Poetry Month Prompts

• May → Asian-American & Pacific Islander Heroes

• June → Summer Reading Challenge

• July → Have a Relaxing Summer

Just a heads up that you are required to give your email address before downloading the calendar.

Cord-free Confidence 📺

As I work in classrooms, meeting rooms, and conference centers, I’ve learned the hard way to carry every cord and adapter I could possibly need. Recently, I added a wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver to the gear I carry in my backpack, and it has quickly become one of my most useful tools.

The setup is simple: the transmitter plugs into the HDMI port on my laptop, and the receiver plugs into the display or projector. I also keep a female-to-female HDMI connector handy so I can attach the receiver to the end of an HDMI cable if needed.

What makes this so valuable is that it works without WiFi, AirPlay, or Chromecast. Those options are often unreliable in locked-down school networks or conference centers. This transmitter and receiver pair creates a direct wireless HDMI connection, so it works anywhere.

Both devices need power since HDMI does not supply it. The transmitter connects to my laptop’s HDMI port and uses a USB cable for power. For the receiver, I often plug into a portable USB power bank, but if the screen or projector has a USB port, that works too.

I was especially glad to have this setup recently when presenting in a very large ballroom to a small group. Instead of being tethered to the podium, I sat at a table with the attendees. I could advance my slides and run demos comfortably, while the display across the room mirrored my laptop perfectly.

I’m using the FIGEBNY Wireless HDMI Transmitter and Receiver, which is currently about $67 on Amazon. If you purchase through my link, I earn a small commission that helps cover the cost of the one I bought.

So-so Stories 📖

Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot, recently gained the ability to create storybooks. These storybooks include both illustrations and text on each page. You can flip through them like a digital book and even listen to an audio narration.

You can prompt Gemini to make a storybook about anything. For example, I uploaded a photo of myself and entered a short prompt. Uploading an image is optional, and it does not have to be a photo. It could be a drawing. For privacy, avoid uploading student photos and think carefully before uploading your own.

Read Mr. Vincent’s Pun-tastic Stickers storybook

I clicked to get the shareable link to the storybook Gemini produced. The first draft was not amazing, but it did produce a complete story with pictures. You can always follow up with Gemini to adjust the storyline, refine the illustrations, or change the tone.

One issue I noticed is that characters do not always look the same from page to page. This inconsistency in art style is common right now, though it will likely improve over time.

Sharing storybooks depends on your account type:

• Personal Google accounts: You can generate and share a storybook link.

• Google for Education accounts: Teachers can create storybooks, but they cannot share them directly for privacy reasons. They can download the storybook as a PDF. This works, but the PDF loses the page flip animations and narration.

• Student accounts: Students cannot create storybooks.

To experiment, I asked Gemini to create a storybook using text from my piece about the wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver. The result was interesting, although the devices in the illustrations were not drawn accurately. With more prompting, the artwork might have matched reality better.

Picture books written by human authors are way better than what Gemini can produce. However, Gemini can generate simple, customized storybooks quickly. This could be useful for:

• Social stories that teach routines and expectations

• Classroom rules explained in a student-friendly way

• Real-world scenarios that connect content to daily life

• Word problems brought to life in story form

Helpful Handout 💁🏼‍♂️

NotebookLM is a Google tool that lets you upload documents and sources, then uses AI to help you summarize, ask questions, and generate ideas directly from that material. For teachers and students, it’s helpful for pulling out key points, checking understanding, and sparking new ideas from class readings or research.

NotebookLM was one of 5 AI tools I showcased in my AI for Differentiation presentation at Arizona’s IDEA Conference in August.

I uploaded an audio recording of my presentation, my slides, and my handout document to NotebookLM. I also pasted in a handful of related web links. The result? An interactive remix of my presentation!

The notebook is shareable, and you can click here to open it. Inside, you’ll find:

1. Sources: a listing of everything I uploaded

2. Chat: an AI chatbot that answers questions about the sources

3. Studio: in-depth overviews generated by AI

The Studio section might be the most exciting piece of NotebookLM. There you’ll find an AI-generated video overview, which is a narrated slideshow. There’s also an AI-generated audio overview, which is a discussion between two AI podcast hosts. Additionally, the Studio has a briefing doc, FAQ, and mind map.

Several attendees told me they appreciated having this notebook to revisit after the presentation. With Sources, Chat, and Studio, NotebookLM offers a powerful way to review and dig deeper into a topic. I plan to curate and share more AI-powered notebooks with future audiences.

Ditch That Textbook Delivers 🗑️

If you want more clever teaching tips, tricks, and tools, I highly recommend subscribing to Matt Miller’s Ditch That Textbook newsletter. He publishes it multiple times per week, and I always gain new insights, ideas, and inspiration for the classroom.

Check out the Ditch That Textbook Archive, where you can read issues going back two years!

The FigJam webinar I mentioned in the opening of this newsletter isn’t the only online event where you can catch me. I’m presenting From Prompt to Pictures: Creative Illustration with AI on Wednesday, September 10th, at 10:40 AM Central. It’s part of the Back to School AI Summit. Registration is free!

Smiles from Iowa,

P.S. It was fun celebrating my birthday last week. I asked educators on Facebook and X to post photos they had with me. So many great memories of conferences and workshops over the years! Check out the replies on Facebook and on X.com. And a special thanks to Erika Sandstrom for producing a 60 second video!

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AI gave me a hand with brainstorming, drafting, and polishing this issue. Of course, I reviewed and adjusted everything before sharing it with you.