Welcome to Flint! This guide will walk you through the essential setup steps and help you create your first AI-powered activity. Whether you're new to AI in education or just new to Flint, we'll get you up and running in no time.

📋 What You'll Accomplish

By the end of this checklist, you'll have:

✅ Logged into your school's Flint workspace
✅ Set up your class groups (or confirmed they're synced from your LMS/SIS)
✅ Understood the power of groups and configured them
✅ Created and shared your first AI activity
✅ Explored Flint chats for your own teaching tasks

🎓 Learning Flint

There are many ways to learn how to use Flint. Here's your learning pathway:

Start Here: Overview Video

Watch this walkthrough from Jacob Edington, Head of Customer Success, to see advanced techniques and get inspired:

Video

Additional Learning Resources

Flint 101 Course - Foundational, self-paced learning covering activity creation, customizing Sparky, analytics, collaboration, and best practices.
Quick YouTube Videos - Quick tutorials on specific features and use cases
Help Center Articles - Detailed guides on any topic you need
AI Teacher Literacy Program - Deep dive into AI pedagogy, ethics, and implementation.

Step 1: Log Into Flint 🔐

Access Flint by visiting app.flintk12.com and signing in with your school email address. You'll be brought to your homepage where you can start new chats and activities.

NOTE: If you see {your name}'s Workspace in the top left corner, this means you are not affiliated with your schools paid account. Click on {your name}'s Workspace and then switch to your schools workspace - as seen below.

Step 2: Understand the Basics 🧠

Before diving in, it's helpful to understand how Flint is organized:

Key Terms

Workspace: Your school's Flint environment containing all teachers, students, and content
Terms: Academic time periods like semesters or quarters (usually managed by admins)
Groups: Classes, clubs, or other organizations you create or are assigned to
Activities: AI-powered learning experiences you design for students (assignments, practice, tutoring, etc.)
Sessions: Individual student interactions with an activity
Chats: Your personal conversations with Sparky (Flint's AI) for teacher tasks

Learn more: [Groups, activities, and sessions in Flint](help_center_article/9049618)

Step 3: Set Up Your Groups 👥

Groups are one of the most powerful tools in Flint. They centralize your class, reduce repetitive prompting, and provide insights into student progress.

Why Groups Matter

Learning Goals and Background: Set once in Group Settings—Sparky remembers it for every activity in that group. Reduces time typing context repeatedly.
Gradebook: Centralized view of all student grades across activities. Filter by student or activity, download as CSV.
Group Analytics: Comprehensive analysis of all activities. Ask Sparky custom questions like "Give me strengths and growth areas for parent-teacher conferences."
Moderation Settings: Customize which categories trigger email alerts. Add colleagues as moderators to receive notifications.
Subgroups: Create nested groups for differentiation. Example: A subgroup for English language learners with specialized learning goals.
Centralized Hub: Single location where students access all class activities and track progress throughout the term.

Option A: Groups Already Synced (LMS/SIS Integration)

If your school admin has set up an LMS or SIS integration, your class rosters may already be in Flint. Check the sidebar on your homepage under "Groups" to see if your classes appear.

If you see your classes: Skip to Step 4!

Option B: Create Groups Manually

If you don't see your classes, you'll need to create them:

Click the "+ Add" button next to "Groups" in the sidebar
Click "Create in workspace" (or select a parent group if creating a subgroup)
Add your group's name and description
Go to "Group settings" and add Learning Goals and Background (up to 1,000 characters). Include: grade level, subject, learning objectives, student demographics, special considerations. Example: "10th grade IB World History, 5 English language learners who need strong visuals"
Configure Moderation Settings to customize which categories trigger email alerts and add colleagues as moderators
Click "Create"
Share the group by copying the link or adding student emails directly

Learn more: [Making a new group in Flint](help_center_article/8965526) | [Inputting group-level background info](help_center_article/11802822) | [How To: Customize Moderation Categories](help_center_article/12644872)

Setting up Groups

Groups: Learning Goals and Background

What is it?

The Learning Goals Background feature helps educators provide context for their class groups, allowing Flint to better understand and meet student needs. Once set, this information automatically applies to all activities within the group, ensuring consistency across your content.

Why is it important?

It provides context for how Flint should respond to and prompt students within activity sessions in the group.

How to do it -

If you're creating a new group, scroll down to see the "Learning goals and Background" blurb
If you're updating an already existing group - navigate into the group
Click on the group settings
Insert your class's learning goals and background
Click update

Groups: Setting Moderations

What is it?

Gives teachers the ability to determine which moderation categories should be flagged. All categories are automatically checked off; however, teachers can update them at their own discretion.

Why's it important?

Moderation settings are important to flag any inappropriate situations or any instances of self-harm.

How to do it-

Navigate to your group settings
Scroll down beneath the learning goals and background
Ensure the moderation categories you want included are checked off

Step 4: Create Your First Activity ✨

Now for the fun part! Activities are customized AI experiences for your students—think tutoring, practice, assessments, or creative projects.

Two Ways to Create Activities:

Option A: Explore the Library, Duplicate, and Customize (Recommended for First-Timers)

This approach helps you understand what's possible and avoid reinventing the wheel:

Browse the Public Library or your school's library for activities in your subject area
Experience the activity as a student to understand the student experience and identify what you like and don't like
Click the three dots and select "Duplicate" to make a copy you can edit
Customize the activity by telling Sparky what you want to change. Example: "Turn this Spanish restaurant roleplay into a French café conversation"
Preview your changes and iterate until it's perfect
Click "Create" when ready

Benefits: See what's possible, learn from others' designs, avoid common mistakes, understand different activity capabilities

Option B: Create a Custom Activity from Scratch

Click "Create custom activity" on your homepage
Tell Sparky what you want to create (be specific!)
Upload any materials (PDFs, links, rubrics, etc.) to guide the AI
Preview the activity using the automated or manual preview
Ask Sparky to make revisions as needed
Click "Create" when ready

Tips for Great Activities:

Be specific: Clear learning objectives lead to better AI responses
Upload materials: Especially important for obscure topics, specific viewpoints, or current events
Test thoroughly: Use the preview feature to see how students will experience it
Iterate: Your first activity won't be perfect—that's okay! Revise based on student feedback

🎉 You're Ready to Go!

Congratulations! You've completed the essential setup. Now it's time to take your Flint skills to the next level.

Additional Resources

🚀 Advanced Techniques to Transform Your Flint Usage

Video

Connect with the Flint Community:

Join the Teacher Facebook Group to share ideas and get support
Attend Campfire Sessions (live webinars on Flint use cases)
Explore Subject-Specific Use Cases
Check out the Activity Idea Board

Stay Updated:

Read the Flint Blog for tips and case studies
Review Help Center articles for detailed guides

Need Help?

Click the support chat icon in the bottom-right corner of Flint to reach our team anytime. We're here to help!

Welcome to Flint! You've probably landed on this page because you've just joined Flint as a teacher. Before you dive into creating activities and chats, there are a few things, like creating your groups or setting your moderation categories, that need to be set up.

If you've already done this, take a look at our Flint 101 course to explore our exciting features, creating activities, and using chats. Just make sure you're part of the Flint community to access the course!

Let's Begin!

The first few things that we need to ensure is that you hav groups created and moderations set up.

Groups in Flint can be classes, clubs, or other organizations. There are a couple of ways groups are created. They're either created manually by the teacher, or through SIS/LMS sync through your school admin.

If you already have groups in your workspace, the next thing you want to do is ensure your group's learning goals and background is written. This will help Sparky, our AI bot, better respond to the students in your group. Furthermore, you want to make sure that the moderation categories you want email notification for are checked off.

Take a look below on how to do all of these things!

Creating Groups (Skip this step if your school has already synced your classrooms with Flint)

For New Teachers

Creating A New Group

What is it?

Groups are your classes. Groups are used to organize your students and content within the class.

Why is it important?

Groups keep everything in your workspace organized. This is especially important if you teach more than one class. Within your group, you can create and manage activities, track progress, and view analytics.

How to do it-

Login to your Flint account
Navigate to your groups on the left side of your screen
Click "Add"
Go to "Create in workspace"
Name your group

For Returning Teachers

Groups: Moving activities from your personal workspace to your school's workspace

For returning teachers, you will have the ability to move activities you've created from a different workspace to your school's workspace. This allows you to store all of your activities in one place without losing track of any of them, especially if you used a personal workspace before.

How to do it -

Navigate to the group you want to import activities to
Click on the three dots at the top of the group page to "import activities."
Select your personal workspace and term
Choose the activities that you want to move to your new group
Choose "Move activities."
Click "Next"

Enter Your Group Learning Goals and Background

Groups: Learning Goals and Background

What is it?

Why is it important?

It provides context for how Flint should respond to and prompt students within activity sessions in the group.

How to do it -

If you're creating a new group, scroll down to see the "Learning goals and Background" blurb
If you're updating an already existing group - navigate into the group
Click on the group settings
Insert your class's learning goals and background
Click update

Ensure All Moderations Are Set

Groups: Moderations

What is it?

Gives teachers the ability to determine which moderation categories should be flagged. All categories are automatically checked off; however, teachers can update them at their own discretion.

Why's it important?

Moderation settings are important to flag any inappropriate situations or any instances of self-harm.

How to do it-