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Announcements, tips, and stories from Teacher Hive.

Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jul 11, 2026

Why Build an App That Already Exists?

There's a psychological phenomenon called the IKEA Effect . We tend to value something more when we helped create it ourselves. When I taught 5th grade, I enjoyed designing my own classroom materials, like worksheets, posters, and games. My classroom was full of resources I had created. Looking back, I don't think my materials were necessarily better than what someone else could have made. But they were mine. The same was true of lessons. If I had a hand in creating the lesson, I taught it better. I knew why each part was there. I was more invested. More excited. More willing to tweak it until it worked. The same thing happens with vibe coding. Teacher Hive is full of apps you can use right away. If you need a timer, randomizer, spinner, or hundreds of other tools, someone has likely already built one, ready for you to use immediately. So if everything you need already exists, why bother building anything yourself? Whether you're creating your own version of an existing tool or bringing a completely original idea to life, you're far more likely to value and appreciate something you helped build. Building an app can be fun, frustrating, and incredibly satisfying. When AI doesn't quite understand your prompt, you revise it. When something breaks, you figure it out. When it finally works, it feels like an accomplishment because you pushed through the struggle. Then comes the best part: using it. One app I've built is The Reverse Card . It's a goofy brain break with a colorful card game theme. Players draw a random word or phrase, try to say it backwards, and then the app reverses the recording so everyone can hear how close they came. The results are equal parts creepy and hilarious. Teachers can even enter their own words or phrases, making it work with any subject. Could I have found an existing app to play recordings backwards? Yes. AI helped me build The Reverse Card, but the concept, the gameplay, and the little details are mine. Every time I use it with students, I get a little extra satisfaction because I remember everything that went into creating it. There's a moment during my workshops that never gets old. I'll use one of my own apps without mentioning that I made it. After everyone has used it for a while, I'll casually reveal that I built it. There's usually a pause. Then someone says, "Wait... you made this?" The app stops being just a tool and becomes something they can imagine creating themselves. I've seen that same shift happen with participants in my vibe coding workshops. They finish an app and just stare at it for a while, almost like they don't quite believe it. Not because it's completely unique. But because it's theirs. This sense of ownership also motivates me to keep improving my apps. If I think of a small tweak or a big new feature, I can paste the code into an AI chat and keep building. The app evolves as my ideas evolve. Developing your own app is more than creating a utility. It's a craft. You're combining your ideas, your classroom expertise, your knowledge of pedagogy, and your creativity with AI's coding ability to bring something to life. Whether your idea is brand new or your own take on an existing one, you'll probably value it more because you helped build it. That's the IKEA Effect.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jul 5, 2026

Vibing Vocabulary

As you build apps with AI through vibe coding, you'll start seeing words and phrases that may be unfamiliar. These terms often appear in an AI's explanations or chat responses. Knowing what they mean will help you better understand the AI and write more effective prompts and follow-up requests. Want to describe your app to AI with more precision? Check out Shana Ramin's User Interface Elements Interactive Gallery . It introduces dozens of common interface elements, such as accordions, breadcrumbs, cards, dialogs, tabs, and tooltips. Learning these names can make your prompts much more specific, helping AI create an app that's closer to what you have in mind. What terms have you run into while vibe coding? Leave a comment and share any vocabulary you'd add to the list.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jun 29, 2026

What's Up, Dock?

Do you find yourself opening the same Teacher Hive apps over and over? Now you can keep your favorites just a click away. Pin apps to create a row of shortcuts at the top of your Home and My Apps pages. I like to call it the dock . It's a handy way to keep your most-used timers, randomizers, classroom tools, and other go-to apps within easy reach. Here's how: Click an app's  Bookmark  icon. Open the  Save to List  menu. If the app wasn't already saved, click  Manage lists  on the popup that appears. Check  Pinned . That's it! Once you've pinned at least one app, your dock will appear. Want to change the order? Simply drag an icon to a new spot in the row. You can also choose whether to show app names or just the icons. I prefer icons only for a clean look. Go to  My Bookmarks  and open your  Pinned  list. Uncheck Show app names on Home page . Need to remove an app? Just click its pin badge in the dock and uncheck Pinned. I love having my frequently apps waiting for me every time I open Teacher Hive. It saves a few clicks, and those little time savers add up throughout the day.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jun 22, 2026

Presenting about Teacher Hive?

Planning to present about Teacher Hive or vibe coding with AI? Whether you're leading a workshop, presenting at a conference, creating professional learning materials, recording a video, or building a website, feel free to use the logos and images below. Click an image to download. If you're running a hands-on session, I can also help participants get started faster. Just email me a list of participant email addresses at least a day before your session, and I'll add them to the Builders invite list . Then, when they sign up, they'll immediately have Builder status and can start creating right away. Without advance notice, Builder requests may take a few hours for me to approve. That's usually fine, but not ideal when you're in the middle of a workshop. And if there's anything else I can do to support your session, just let me know. I'm always happy to help more educators explore what's possible with AI-powered app creation.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jun 18, 2026

Protecting Progress in Your Apps

Have you ever filled out a form, typed a long response, or customized settings in an app only to accidentally leave the page? Many websites try to prevent this with an unsaved changes warning . If you attempt to close a tab, refresh the page, or navigate elsewhere, the browser asks if you're sure you want to leave. These warnings can save users from losing work, but they're only part of the solution. What Happens When Users Leave? An unsaved changes warning helps users avoid mistakes before they happen. Imagine a student spends fifteen minutes typing a beautiful poem and accidentally refreshes the page. Instead of losing everything, they see a warning and can choose to stay. When vibe coding, try this prompt: Add an unsaved changes warning whenever the user has entered or modified data that has not been saved. This feature is especially useful for writing activities, surveys, reflection journals, and data-entry tools. However, warnings only work if users notice them and choose to stay. What Happens When They Come Back? This is where local storage shines. Local storage saves information directly in the user's browser and restores it when they return. This protects against accidental refreshes and browser crashes, but it also makes it easy for users to continue their work later. A student can start writing today and return tomorrow to finish, as long as they're using the same browser on the same device. A teacher can customize a randomizer during planning time and find those settings waiting the next time they open the tool. Try prompting AI with: Automatically save all user-entered data to local storage as it changes. Restore saved data when the page loads so users can continue where they left off, even after closing the browser or returning days later. For many educational apps, this feature is just as valuable as protecting against accidental loss. Why Use Both? The strongest apps use both approaches: The warning helps users before they leave. Local storage helps them after they return. Understanding the Limits of Local Storage Local storage is helpful, but it isn't a backup system. It's tied to a specific browser and device. If a student saves work on one Chromebook and later signs into a different Chromebook, the saved information usually won't be there. It can be cleared by users, browser settings, extensions, or school device resets. Because of these limitations, local storage should be viewed as a convenience feature rather than permanent storage. If your app saves data automatically, consider adding a reset option: Add a Clear Saved Data button that removes all locally stored information after asking for confirmation. This is especially helpful when devices are shared or users want to start over. A Small Feature That Makes a Big Difference When vibe coding, it's easy to focus on features. It's just as important to think about what happens when something goes wrong. A student closes a tab. A teacher refreshes the page. A Chromebook crashes. Or maybe they simply run out of time and come back tomorrow. Will their work still be there? A few extra prompts can help users recover from mistakes, pick up where they left off, and create a smoother, less frustrating experience for everyone who uses your app.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jun 13, 2026

Show Creators Some Love

We’ve got a talented and generous educator community here on Teacher Hive, and there are several ways to connect with fellow teachers. ❤️ Love their apps See an app that’s useful, inspiring, or simply adorable? Give it a like . Clicking the heart adds to the app’s tally and lets the creator know you appreciate their work through a notification. 💬 Comment on their apps Every app’s Info page includes a comments section. It’s a great place to share public praise, point out clever features, ask questions, or offer encouragement. ✉️ Message them Visit a creator’s profile page and click Message to send a private direct message through Teacher Hive. It’s perfect for sharing thanks, compliments, questions, or suggestions. A private message is also a courteous way to let a creator know if something in their app isn’t working as expected. 🚩 Report an app If you can’t contact the creator directly, or would rather not, you can use Report This App on the app’s Info page. Use this option when an app is broken, contains incorrect information, raises a privacy concern, or has another issue that needs attention. Reports come to me for review. I can take action when needed or anonymously pass feedback along to the app’s creator. Every app on Teacher Hive represents a teacher who took the time to create something useful and share it with others. A little feedback, encouragement, or helpful reporting goes a long way. Thanks for helping make Teacher Hive a supportive hive of activity.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Jun 9, 2026

Sticky Hive: A Collaborative Board Built with the Connected Superpower

What if every student in your classroom could instantly share ideas, photos, links, recordings, and reflections on a collaborative digital board without creating accounts or remembering passwords? Meet Sticky Hive, a free app that's a little different from most Teacher Hive apps. It uses the Connected Superpower to sync data between the teacher and students. Because Sticky Hive stores data, teachers begin by making their own copy of the app. This keeps boards, notes, and settings organized within their personal version of Sticky Hive. Inside your copy, you can create more than 100 boards. To see what a board looks like, view the Sample Board as a student. Or, click the Preview button and toggle between Guest and Teacher views. A Digital Board That Comes Alive Create a board, share a code, and watch student contributions appear instantly. Students can post: Text responses Links Photos PDFs and other files Voice recordings As notes appear, everyone sees them immediately without refreshing the page. Whether you're gathering exit tickets, brainstorming ideas, collecting research, sharing examples, or running a gallery walk, Sticky Hive gives every student a place to contribute. No Accounts. No Logins. No Hassles. One of Sticky Hive's biggest advantages is its simplicity. Students never create accounts, sign in, or provide names or email addresses. Instead, each participant receives a fun randomized screen name like BraveOtter or SunnyFox for the session. This keeps participation easy while protecting student privacy. Designed for Classroom Flexibility Sticky Hive can adapt to almost any learning activity. Create sections to organize responses into columns such as: Agree / Disagree Warm-Up / Main Activity / Exit Ticket Station 1 / Station 2 / Station 3 Research Topics Small Groups You can also choose exactly what students are allowed to add. Want only written reflections? Require text and disable everything else. Want multimedia responses? Allow photos, recordings, links, and files. Additional classroom-friendly features include: Commenting Likes One-post-per-student mode Moderation and approval queues Board freezing for "pencils down" moments Slideshow mode for reviewing responses together Connected Superpower Sticky Hive taps into Teacher Hive's Connected Superpower . Apps with this Superpower include a brown teacher toolbar along the bottom of the screen. From there, you can switch between Teacher View and Guest View. Students only see Guest View. Teacher View is where you add boards, manage settings, review submissions, and control what students can do. Students only see the  Guest View . They join a board by URL, QR code, or board code. The Connected Superpower means that everything stays synchronized in real time between Teacher View and Guest View, so responses, updates, and changes appear instantly for everyone. Classroom Ideas to Try Need inspiration? Here are a few ways teachers are already using digital sticky note boards: Exit Tickets Ask students to share one thing they learned, one question they still have, or one connection they made. Brainstorming Collect ideas before writing, problem-solving, or project planning. Gallery Walks Students post work samples, then leave comments on classmates' notes. Check for Understanding Gather quick responses during a lesson and adjust instruction in real time. Multimedia Reflections Have students submit photos, recordings, or links to demonstrate learning in different ways. Student Questions Create a parking lot where students can anonymously post questions throughout a unit. Teachers Can Build Apps Like Sticky Hive One of the most exciting parts of the Connected Superpower is that teachers can create their own collaborative apps. By providing your AI chatbot with Teacher Hive's Connected Superpower instructions, it can build activities that connect directly to Teacher Hive's backend, making features like real-time syncing, student participation, and teacher management possible, transforming simple AI-generated apps into dynamic classroom tools. Read the Help page, Building an app with the Connected Superpower .
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 30, 2026

Build Apps with Your Favorite Chatbot. Give Them Superpowers with Teacher Hive.

Building apps with your favorite chatbot, whether that's ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or something else, gives you a ton of freedom. Just describe what you want in plain English, make a few tweaks, and start building. You don't need to learn a complicated programming workflow to create useful classroom tools. This is called vibe coding. Unlike many AI app-building platforms that require their own subscription or usage fees, you can vibe code with a free chatbot account or use a subscription you already have. Since your code isn't tied to one platform, you can jump between AI tools, compare results, and keep going if you run into limits on one service. Use whatever works best for you, and then bring that code to Teacher Hive for hosting. The Missing Pieces These chatbots are great at creating single-page web apps, but there are still things that are difficult or impossible for them to do on their own. Saving information, sharing data between users, sending emails, connecting to AI models securely, storing files, and monitoring views usually require servers, databases, and services running behind the scenes. I've built a way for apps hosted on Teacher Hive to tap into those capabilities while still being created with your favorite chatbot. I'm calling them Superpowers. What Superpowers Make Possible With Teacher Hive Superpowers, you can transform a simple app into an interactive classroom experience. Turn on features that make apps collaborative, intelligent, and engaging. Think live game shows, student-vs-student challenges, shared class boards, real-time word clouds, audience Q&A displays, global leaderboards, daily puzzles, and more. What excites me most is that these aren't features built into a specific app. They're building blocks you can combine in whatever way makes sense for your idea. A live trivia game. A classroom discussion board. A daily challenge with a leaderboard. An AI-powered study buddy. A gallery walk where students upload and share photos. If you've ever thought, "I wish there was an app that could..." there's a good chance you can build it. And when you're done, it's your app. You can modify it, remix it, and keep improving it whenever inspiration strikes. How It Works To tap into a Superpower, you simply copy instructions from Teacher Hive that tell your chatbot how to write code that integrates with Teacher Hive's server. Your chatbot codes the app, and when the code is hosted on Teacher Hive, it just works. Meet the Lineup Six Superpowers bring handy functionality to your teacher-made apps. Connected Superpower Build a database-backed app that has two views: Teacher and Guest. The teacher view is what you see and control. The guest view is what students can see and do. This opens the door to apps that simply weren't possible before. Run live polls and see results appear instantly. Create classroom games where students compete against one another. Build collaborative boards, audience participation activities, classroom challenges, and apps where you can update content from the Teacher view without touching the code. AI Superpower Add AI capabilities to your app. Bring your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini, and your app can generate text, classify responses, recognize images, or create new images. Teacher Hive stores your key securely behind the scenes, so it isn't exposed in your app's code where someone else could access it and generate charges on your AI account. Additionally, you set your daily AI spending limit so you don't get any surprisingly large bills from your AI provider. File Locker Superpower Chatbots can generate the HTML for your app, but they can't host files. Teacher Hive fills that gap by hosting your images, recordings, PDFs, and other resources. Upload files to the File Locker and use the generated URLs in your chatbot prompts so they can be included in your app. Short Link Superpower Let your app turn long web addresses into short, easy-to-share links right inside the app. Instead of sharing a long, messy URL, it can instantly generate something like link.apphive.us/abc2p7 , making links easier to read aloud, type on a phone, or write on a whiteboard. Email Superpower Your app can automatically send you an email based on triggers you define, such as when a guest completes an activity or submits a form. Guests never need to enter an email address because the app is preconfigured to deliver responses directly to the inbox of the teacher who published it. Stats Superpower Curious which apps students are actually using? The Stats Superpower gives you a clear view of how your apps are performing across Teacher Hive. Track daily views, spot trends over time, and see which activities are catching on. On the My Apps page, each app displays a badge showing its total number of launches. Click the badge to open a detailed App Stats page with deeper insights and metrics. About Hive Superpowers Usage Superpowers do real computing work behind the scenes. Setting up databases, storing files, syncing data, sending emails, and processing AI requests all require cloud resources. Teacher Hive relies on services like Firebase, Google Cloud, Resend, and Cloudflare to power these features, and each operates on a usage-based pricing model. As usage increases, so does the bill. To keep costs manageable, your account includes a Hive Superpowers Usage meter that you can view anytime in My Settings . Only apps using Superpowers register activity on the meter. Data reads, writes, and AI calls count toward the cap, and most teachers will never come close to it. About Hive Pro Teacher Hive is free for students, guests, and anyone who follows a link to a teacher's app. No ads, no signups, no surprises. Hive Pro is how you can help keep it that way. The free Hive Builder gives you everything you need to create and publish apps. Hive Pro unlocks the Superpowers that help those apps do even more. Subscribing helps cover the hosting costs that keep Teacher Hive running for everyone. In return, you get every Superpower, generous Hive Usage limits, and my sincere gratitude. To see the breakdown between the free Hive Builder and paid Hive Pro membership tiers, visit the Plans page. I hope you'll consider supporting Teacher Hive by signing up for Hive Pro. Ready to Build? I've written a Help page for each Superpower and you can search the Help pages using Teacher Hive's Search page . Also know that I am just an email away. I'm here to help, and I'm here to listen to your ideas for improving Teacher Hive. I've already been having a blast building with Superpowers. Honestly, that's why Superpowers exist: because I wanted to add these abilities to my own apps. Build something super this week. I can't wait to see what you create!
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 26, 2026

Vibe Coding Reel Fast

Last week, a preschool teacher had a folder full of photos and needed a quick way to turn them into a slideshow video with music for the last day of school. No time to resize and arrange dozens of images in a video editor. She asked if I had a solution, so I vibe coded Reel Fast . Before I started building with Gemini, I asked AI if it was even possible for a single-page HTML web app to turn images into a video. I assumed the answer would be no, but modern browsers are surprisingly powerful! They can handle image processing, transitions, music, and video export right inside the browser window. The really important part is that everything happens locally on the device. Photos never need to be uploaded to a server, which means private student images stay on the teacher’s computer. This is what continues to amaze me about vibe coding. You can start with a real classroom problem in the morning and end up with a working solution before lunch, even if you’ve never built something like it before. And, I just love having the Teacher Hive platform there to easily publish the HTML.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 19, 2026

Turn Your Bookmarks Into a Shareable Collection

Teacher Hive has hundreds of apps, and bookmarks are how you keep track of the ones you'll want to come back to. While logged into Teacher Hive, tap the bookmark icon on any app and it lands in your Saved list, which gets created automatically the first time you bookmark something. Once you've saved a few, bookmark lists are the next move. You can make up to 20 of them, named however you want, like "End-of-year activities," "Brain breaks," or "Sub-day favorites." When you bookmark an app, the pop up message lets you drop it straight into the right list instead of always defaulting to Saved. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of Teacher Hive and choose My Bookmarks . This is where you can add, rename, reorder, and delete lists. Lists can be public , too. Flip the toggle on any of your lists and you'll get a URL like teacherhive.app/user/tony/randomizers . Send it to a colleague and they can browse the whole collection, which is a much nicer way to share than copying and pasting ten app links one by one. Publics lists are also displayed on your Profile page. Bookmark something this week, and if a list of yours is worth sharing, flip it public and pass the URL along. Feel free to share through email, newsletters, and social media.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 11, 2026

Join Me for an Online Workshop About Vibe Coding

You are cordially invited to join my summer online workshop. Classy Vibing with AI is all about helping teachers build their own apps. You bring the ideas, and AI writes the code. It's about useful, creative, clever tools made by educators who know exactly what students and teachers need. June is the perfect month for this kind of work. Your brain finally has room to wander a little. To experiment. To make weird stuff. To build something just because you’re curious what would happen. In this workshop, we’ll take your ideas and turn them into classroom-ready tools with polish, personality, and purpose. We’ll explore things like: Giving AI a better game plan. Learn how to create a simple Product Requirements Document (PRD) so the AI isn’t just guessing what you want. Making apps feel legit. Add splash screens, pop-ups, notifications, animations, and other details that make an app feel smooth and intentional. Adding fun without adding chaos. Points. Progress bars. Sound effects. Tiny celebrations. Retro game vibes. The little things that bring moments of delight. Building for joy. Most projects solve real classroom problems. Others are just playful excuses to practice. Both are worth making. One of the coolest parts of these workshops is seeing teachers build alongside each other. Someone shares an idea, someone else remixes it, and suddenly an entire school has a growing collection of custom-made tools. If you’ve already been experimenting on Teacher Hive, this workshop will help you level up. If you haven’t built anything yet, that’s fine too. You’ll fit right in. Groups of 5 or more receive discounted pricing. Purchase orders are welcome. Ready to build something? Register here: learninginhand.com/classyvibing Tony Vincent I love to make things! One of my creations is Teacher Hive. 🍯 View Profile See what’s possible on Teacher Hive. Check out my apps. teacherhive.app/user/tony
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 7, 2026

When Vibe Coding Needs a Second Opinion

I needed a quick way to blur student faces in photos, so I vibe coded an app called Secure Obscure . The selection and blurring all happen directly in the browser, so images never leave your device or get uploaded to a website. When you’re working with student photos, that kind of privacy matters. I vibe coded my Secure Obscure app with Gemini. My initial prompt was: I would like to build an HTML app where I upload an image. Then I'm given a lasso tool, circle tool, and rectangle select tool used to blur parts of a photo, mostly faces in a photo. The user can control the level of blur. When done, the photo can be downloaded. I also used my App-ily Ever After Gemini Gem to brainstorm names for this app. I’ve trained the Gem to suggest playful app names using alliteration, rhymes, portmanteaus, and phrase swaps. After generating several ideas, I landed on a rhyming name. Like most vibe coding projects, the Secure Obscure took several rounds of revisions. I hit a wall when Gemini just could not get the blur feature working correctly on my iPhone. We went through about 10 iterations, and the selected parts of the image still wouldn’t blur on mobile devices. So I copied the HTML code into Claude and explained the issue. Claude reviewed the code, spotted the problem, and fixed it after two more iterations. That experience reminded me that building with AI is often less about finding the perfect chatbot and more about knowing when to switch tools. One AI helped me name the app. Another helped me debug it. Sometimes the fastest path forward is a second opinion from a different chatbot.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent May 2, 2026

Prompt Like a Teacher for Big Screen Learning

This week I subbed in a fourth grade classroom. The plans had me teaching Bridges Math Unit 7, Module 1, Session 4: Equivalent Fraction Fill . I’ve taught Bridges before, so I know the routine. This lesson uses paper fraction bars and a spinner for a whole-class game. Instead of juggling all that under a document camera, I asked Google Gemini to turn the paper game into a full-screen digital activity for the classroom touchscreen. I named it Fraction Fill. Along with the game rules, here are some of the prompts that made a difference: Design for the big screen → Keep everything on one screen. No scrolling. Take up the whole display → Include a full screen button. Add a Start button → Don’t begin or assign teams automatically. Use a big Start button so I can kick things off when I’m ready. Make turns obvious → Add an arrow above the active team and gray out the other side so everyone can see whose turn it is. Plan for learning moments → If a fraction is incorrect, don’t cover up what the student entered. Let us see and talk about it. Include a celebration → Show a message for the winning team and add a glowing border in their color. Show the board at the end → Keep the final board visible so we can review and discuss. So much of vibe coding is about anticipating actual classroom use. If you picture the lesson playing out, you’ll write better prompts. For Fraction Fill's second game, teams were already strategizing about which fractions were easier to place.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Apr 22, 2026

Give Yourself (and Your AI) Some Credit

When you build an app for Teacher Hive, it’s easy to move on as soon as it works. Before you do, add your name somewhere in the app. I usually include a simple line like: Developed by Tony Vincent . Coded with Gemini. I link my name to my website so people have a way to contact me if they have a question, an idea, or even a bug to report. Even though your app might show your name inside Teacher Hive, every app can also be opened directly using its apphive.us link. That means people can land in your app without ever seeing Teacher Hive, so they won’t see your name unless you’ve built it into the app. It doesn’t have to be complicated. A small footer on the main screen works. An About page is another easy option. You could also tuck it into a menu, a help section, or a quick splash screen when the app loads. I also include the AI I used because it reflects how the app was actually made. It’s a simple way to be transparent, especially if students are using what you’ve built. You vibe coded it, but you still made it, so take credit for your ideas and the experience you created.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Apr 17, 2026

You know UI. You just haven't named it yet.

You know that little “Saved!” message that pops up? Or the box that makes you confirm before deleting something? Those have names. Most of us just never learned them. They’re all part of the user interface, or UI. The pieces of an app that respond when you click, tap, or type. You’ve used them forever. You just haven’t needed to talk about them… until now. With vibe coding, the words you use matter. If you tell AI “make something pop up,” you’ll get a result, but it might not match what you pictured. When you know the name for it, you can be specific, and the output gets a whole lot better. That’s why Shana Ramin made UI Elements . It’s a place to click around, see these pieces in action, and finally put names to the things you’ve been using all along.
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Apr 14, 2026

Icons for Your Apps

An icon is like a book cover or movie poster for your app. It shows up small, so keep it simple. Bold, unique, and easy to recognize works best. When you add an app to Teacher Hive, you can upload a custom square icon. Aim for 512 × 512 pixels. If you skip this step, Teacher Hive creates a simple default icon. You can always update it later. Your app’s icon appears in several places: Teacher Hive website Browser tab (favicon) Social media previews Phone or tablet Home Screen Try adding your app to your device’s Home Screen. It’s pretty satisfying to see it alongside your other apps. Add your app to an iPhone or iPad Home Screen: Open your app in Safari Tap Share Tap Add to Home Screen Tap Add
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Apr 7, 2026

Generate an Icon That Matches Your App

You can upload a custom icon for each app you add to Teacher Hive. Chad Behnke shared a prompt he uses to generate app icons with Gemini. His structure is simple, so just swap in your own details where indicated in bold. Below is the code for an app that AI coded for me called [Name] , designed to [purpose] . Can you make a profile picture for it? Paste your code here. Thanks for the tip, Chad! Head over to his profile to see his app icons in action, and give him a follow. Mr. Chad Behnke G8 math teacher | M.S. Ed. Educational Design and Technology | G8 math teacher | Aspiring EdTech Coach | L1 & L2 Google & Gemini Certified Educator | he/him/his | View Profile
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Apr 5, 2026

What do you wish you knew earlier about vibe coding?

Building an app by describing it to AI and having it generate the code is pretty amazing. This approach, often called vibe coding , is all about having ideas, communicating them clearly, and iterating. It’s also a learning process. I’m constantly discovering new strategies through trial and error, experimentation, and curiosity. If you’ve been building apps with AI, what’s something you wish you had known sooner in your vibe-coding journey?
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Mar 31, 2026

Follow Teachers. See What They Build.

You can follow other teachers on Teacher Hive! Find teachers to follow a few different ways: Look for the Featured Teachers section on the Teacher Hive home page . Each has a follow button. Click the teacher's name on an app you like to view their profile. Profiles have a Follow button. Go to the Search page , choose the Teacher tab , and search for teachers by keyword or grade level. Each result has a Follow button. When you follow a teacher, you’ll get a notification when they publish a new app. Follow a few teachers and keep up with what they share!
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Tony Vincent Tony Vincent Mar 25, 2026

Quick Image Hosting for Your Apps

Images need to be hosted somewhere so your app can use them. GitHub is one option, but uploading files and getting the URL can be confusing. That’s why I made Gitty Up . When you're building with AI, you often need to provide a direct URL to an image. The AI uses that link to display icons, backgrounds, and other visuals in your app. Gitty Up simplifies this. Add your GitHub token, drag in an image, and instantly get a ready-to-use URL. This is especially helpful when you want custom icons, buttons, backgrounds, or illustrations. Upload the image, grab the link, and paste it into your prompt. No digging through GitHub or figuring out file paths! Update: Teacher Hive now has a File Locker where you can upload files and get URLs to give your coding AI chatbot. Gitty Up is still a good option, but now you have another.
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