The Buzz

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.

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:

1. Design for the big screen → Keep everything on one screen. No scrolling.
2. Take up the whole display → Include a full screen button.
3. 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.
4. Make turns obvious → Add an arrow above the active team and gray out the other side so everyone can see whose turn it is.
5. Plan for learning moments → If a fraction is incorrect, don’t cover up what the student entered. Let us see and talk about it.
6. Include a celebration → Show a message for the winning team and add a glowing border in their color.
7. 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.

My district join a student data privacy consortium this year and we have them vet all of our approved tools to get signed Data Privacy Agreements. I recently submitted GitHub Education as a means to host files to use in Vibe Coding projects. They (GitHub) refused to sign an agreement. Does anyone know of another education platform where files (audio, video, & image) can be stored for free and retrieved in Vibe Coding projects?

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.

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.

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:

1. Teacher Hive website
2. Browser tab (favicon)
3. Social media previews
4. 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:

1. Open your app in Safari
2. Tap Share
3. Tap Add to Home Screen
4. Tap Add

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.

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?

You can follow other teachers on Teacher Hive!

Find teachers to follow a few different ways:

1. Look for the Featured Teachers section on the Teacher Hive home page. Each has a follow button.
2. Click the teacher's name on an app you like to view their profile. Profiles have a Follow button.
3. 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 on your Buzz page when they publish a new app.

Follow a few teachers and keep up with what they share!

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!

The Buzz is where you'll find Teacher Hive announcements, how-tos, and inspiration. It’s also where you can keep up with teachers you follow and see when they add new apps.

Discover new apps, get tips, and follow educators whose creations you enjoy.

When there’s something new, you’ll see a purple dot on your profile picture at the top of Teacher Hive.

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