User manual

Your launching pad. Teachers see upcoming assignments, recently visited pages, and shortcut cards to every tool in the app.

Upcoming

Shows your next assignments that have a due date, sorted by soonest first. Click any item to jump straight to the assignment. The Calendar link at the top right opens the full calendar view.

Recent

Shows the last few decks, classes, check-ins, learning paths, dialogues, and presentations you opened. Recent pages are stored in your browser, so they only appear on the browser you used.

Shortcut cards

Below the panels, cards are grouped into Classroom (classes, students, calendar), Content (decks, learning paths, check-ins, dialogues, presentations), AI Tools, and Discover.

Search across your library

The search box in the top nav finds anything you've made: classes, decks, assignments, learning paths, check-ins, dialogues, and students. Press Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows) from any page.

Join a class your teacher set up. Once you join, the class's assignments show up on your Assignments page.

Get a class code

Ask your teacher for the class code. It is a short code unique to that class.

Enter the code

Tap Join a class in the top right, paste the code into the input, and submit. If the code is valid, you join the class straight away.

Your classes

Every class you've joined shows up as a card on this page with its teacher, how many assignments it has, and when you joined. Tap a card to jump straight to that class's assignments.

Find your work

Open Assignments from the menu to see what your teacher has assigned. Items appear here as soon as the teacher publishes them to your class.

Settings is where you manage your profile, app preferences, and a few account-level details. Sign-in credentials themselves (password, multi-factor, sessions) live with the auth provider, not on this page.

Profile

Update your display name and avatar. Some changes (like email) may need re-verification by the auth provider. The card also shows a six-tile stats overview (classes, students, decks, flashcards, learning paths, assignments), plus how long you've had the account and when you last signed in.

Account type

Switch between Teacher (classrooms, students, assignments) and User (just flashcards, AI chat, and your own progress). Student accounts created by a teacher can't switch type.

Default deck languages

Pre-fill the question and answer languages when you create a new deck, so you aren't setting them every time.

Notifications

Toggle which in-app notifications you receive: new assignments, class announcements, student responses, forum replies, and more. Each category has its own toggle so you can turn off what you don't need.

Email digest

Choose how often Teacher Elf emails you a summary of missed notifications: off, instant, daily, or weekly. For daily and weekly digests you can also pick the hour of day you prefer to receive them.

Appearance

Pick a color theme: light, dark, or system.

Danger Zone

Permanently delete your account and all data. Irreversible.

Updates from your classes, the forum, and Teacher Elf land here. The bell in the navbar shows a count when something new is waiting, and the count clears once you open this page.

What you'll see

New assignments, class announcements, student responses, forum replies, and occasional product announcements. Anything you can act on links straight to the page it's about.

Marking things read

Opening the Notifications page marks everything visible as read. You can also dismiss individual items with the × on the right of each row, or use the Mark all as read button at the top.

Preferences and email digest

In Settings → Notifications, toggle each notification category on or off. You can also set up an email digest (daily or weekly) so you catch anything you missed when you were away from the app. Per-thread forum subscriptions are managed from the forum itself: open a post and use Subscribe or Unsubscribe.

Every shipped change to Teacher Elf, newest first. A good place to skim after time away from the app, and the canonical answer to “wait, when did that become a thing?”

Reading the list

Entries are grouped by date and tagged so you can scan the categories you care about: Feature, Fix, UX, Mobile, and a few others. Where a change has a visible surface, there's a screenshot alongside.

Getting here

Click your avatar in the top-right and choose What's new. The same page is reachable at /changelog if you want to bookmark it.

What isn't here

Internal-only work (admin tooling, performance and security hardening, infrastructure) doesn't land on this page. For privacy and data-handling commitments, see the Privacy Policy link in the avatar menu footer.

Where you create classrooms, add students to them, and assign work. A class is the unit everything else in the app targets: decks, learning paths, check-ins, dialogues, and topics all get assigned to a class, not to individual students. So setting up at least one class is the first step before you can assign anything.

1. Create a class

Click New to create a classroom. Each class gets a unique code students can use to join.

2. Add students

Create student accounts with usernames and passwords, or share the class code so students can join themselves. See students for managing access and passwords later.

3. Assign work

Send flashcard decks, learning paths, check-ins, or dialogues as assignments. Students see them on their Assignments page. Set an optional due date when you assign so the work shows up on Calendar for both you and your students.

Each class has its own workspace that ties together everything that matters for the group: who's in it, what they've been assigned, how they're doing, and what's coming up.

Class code and quick actions

The class code at the top is what students enter on Join a class to enroll. Copy it or open the QR code for the projector. Share, Assign, and Announce on the right kick off the most common workflows without leaving the page.

Stats at a glance

Three tiles summarize the last week. Active this week is how many enrolled students opened the app. Avg completion is the average share of due work students have finished. Due this week is the count of assignments with deadlines in the next seven days. Click any tile to drill into the underlying list.

Recent activity

The latest completions and submissions, newest first. Handy for spotting who's on a roll and who hasn't touched anything this week.

Workspace rails

• Students – roster, with passwords, login info, and the ability to add or remove members. See Students.
• Assignments – everything you've assigned to the class, with due dates and current completion. See Assignments.
• Grades – per-student progress on each assignment.
• Calendar – due dates plotted by day. See Calendar.
• Insights – trends and engagement charts across the term, useful when you're trying to spot patterns rather than check on one assignment.

Two ways to get students into Teacher Elf: create accounts yourself (you keep the passwords) or share a class join code so they sign themselves up. This page is where you do either, and where you go later to reset a password, leave a note, or remove someone.

Create or add students

Use New Student to create accounts, or add existing managed students to a class.

Filter by class

The class dropdown at the top of the list filters students by class. Choose All to see everyone, or pick a specific class to narrow the list. No Class shows students not yet assigned to any class.

Select mode and bulk actions

Tap Select to enter select mode, then check the students you want to act on. From there you can add them to a class, remove them from a class, or delete them in bulk. Tap Done to exit select mode.

Manage access

Reset passwords, update notes, and remove individual students when needed.

Everything about one student in one place: who they are, how they're doing across their classes, and the assignments they've completed or missed.

Header

Name, avatar, classes they're enrolled in, and the account-management actions (reset password, leave a note, remove from class). The login info is here when you need to copy a managed student's username and password for them.

Progress

Completion across assignments, with a per-class breakdown when the student is in more than one. Newest activity at the top so you can spot who's been showing up and who hasn't.

Assignments

Every assignment the student has touched. Click any row to jump into the check-in response, dialogue recording, or learning-path step they submitted. See Assignments for the broader assignment model.

Use this to spot the patterns you'd otherwise miss: which students haven't started yet, which assignment the whole class is stuck on, who finished early. The grid is one row per student, one column per assignment.

Per-student view

Each row is a student; each column is an assignment. A green dot means that student finished it. Hover or click a cell to see when they completed it, or open their profile for the full breakdown.

Filter by class

Switch between classes to focus on one cohort at a time. The view scopes to whatever you have assigned to that class.

Spot patterns

Empty cells flag students who have not started; old completion dates flag work that may need a reminder. Use the data to plan your next lesson.

Useful for catching the week where you accidentally piled three things onto Friday before your students do. Every assignment with a due date shows up here, color-coded by class, and you can drag any chip to a different day to reschedule it.

Month and week views

Toggle between Month (a wide overview of upcoming workload) and Week (a denser, day-by-day view). The current date is highlighted; use the arrows to step forward and back, or Today to jump back to now.

Move an assignment

In either month or week view, drag any assignment chip onto another day to reschedule its due date. The time of day is preserved. Cells before today or before the assignment's release date are dimmed and won't accept a drop. The change saves immediately; a confirmation toast offers an Undo if you dropped it on the wrong day. For assignments hidden inside +N more in month view, click the cell to open the day's detail panel and use each row's calendar-icon button to pick a new date.

Unscheduled work

The sidebar on the right lists assignments that have no due date yet. Drag any item from the sidebar onto a calendar day to schedule it. You can also click the + button on any day cell or use the Assign button in the day panel to search for existing content and assign it to that date.

Day details

Click any day cell to see every assignment due that day with completion counts. Hover over an assignment in week view to see a quick preview with class name and completion progress. Each row links to the full assignment page where you can edit details, view per-student progress, or delete it.

Multiple classes

Each class is color-coded; the same color appears on every assignment chip on the calendar. Tap a class chip above the grid to hide that class's assignments. Useful when you want to focus on one or two classes at a time. Open the calendar from inside a single class (Overview, then Calendar) to skip the multi-class view entirely.

On mobile

The grid views need real cell space, so on phones the calendar falls back to a date-grouped agenda list of upcoming work. Each row has a small calendar-icon button on the right that opens a date picker, so you can reschedule without leaving the agenda. The month/week toggle returns on tablet-sized screens and up.

This is where you build, organize, and edit your own decks. The decks you keep here are reused everywhere else: they're the cards in every game, the vocabulary the AI tutor anchors to, and the building blocks for learning paths, topics, and Live Quizzes. A deck you put effort into once pays off across the whole app.

1. Create a deck

Type a name in the sidebar and press Enter or click +. Use the icon to switch between a deck and a folder for grouping related decks.

2. Add cards

Type a question and answer in the bottom row of the table. Press Tab to move between fields and Enter to save the row.

3. Study and share

Click Preview to flip through cards, or toggle Public to share your deck with students.

Three ways to actually use a deck: spaced-repetition study for long-term retention, games for variety, or an AI conversation that draws on the cards as context. Pick whichever fits the time you have and how you learn best.

Study

Start session runs a spaced-repetition session. Flip each card, then rate how well you remembered it (Again, Hard, Good, or Easy). Cards you struggle with come back sooner; cards you know well are spaced further apart. A card is considered mastered once you can consistently recall it over several weeks. Use Browse cards to flip through the deck manually without scoring.

Games

A few game formats built around the deck's cards (multiple choice, matching pairs, anagrams, listening, and more). Good for variety, or when you want quick reps without the spaced-repetition discipline.

AI Tutor

Open a chat anchored to this deck's vocabulary. The tutor draws on the cards as context, useful for targeted practice on a specific topic.

Edit or share

If you own the deck, edit it from Decks. Toggle Public from the deck's settings menu to share it with students or the wider community.

If you teach the same unit every term, a topic saves you the per-item assigning. Build one once with everything that belongs together (the deck, the presentation, the check-in) and assign the whole bundle to whichever class is up next.

1. Group your content

Make a topic per unit you teach (e.g. Spanish verbs), then add the decks, paths, presentations, check-ins, and dialogues that belong together.

2. Write an intro for students

Use the description to explain the topic. Students see this on their workspace when they click the topic name in the sidebar.

3. Assign to a class

Link the topic to a class and every item in it becomes an assignment for those students at once.

An ordered sequence of lessons that students work through one at a time. Each path holds a mix of materials (decks, check-ins, slideshows, speaking exercises) and you can see who's where. Use one when the order matters, like a unit on past tense where the presentation should come before the check-in.

1. Create a path

Click New to create a learning path: an ordered sequence of lessons for your students.

2. Add lessons

Open your path and add lessons. Mix flashcard decks, presentations, check-ins, and dialogues. Drag to reorder them into the perfect sequence.

3. Share or assign

Share the link with students directly, or assign the path to a classroom to track their progress.

The single-path workspace. Pick a path from the list on the left and build it out: add lessons, drag them into order, set a title and cover, and assign or share when it's ready.

Toolbar

Share copies a public preview link. Assign sends the path to a class so progress is tracked. The kebab menu holds rename, duplicate, and delete.

Lessons rail

Each step is one piece of content: a flashcard deck, a slide deck, a check-in, or a dialogue. Drag steps to reorder. The student walks through them top to bottom.

Progress tab

Once you've assigned the path, the progress tab shows how far each student has made it through the sequence and where they stalled.

This is where you build slide-based presentations: a sequence of slides with text, images, and audio that you can present in class or hand to students to work through on their own. Each presentation lives in your library and can be reused across classes and topics.

1. Create a presentation

Click New, give it a title, and pick a starting template. Templates seed the first slide with a layout you can keep editing.

2. Build your slides

Add slides from the thumbnail rail. On each slide you can drop in text, images, and audio, and reorder slides by dragging. The properties panel on the right edits the selected object; the template chooser swaps the whole slide layout.

3. Assign or present

Use Assign to send the presentation to a class so students can work through it themselves, or open it in the player to run it live. Student progress shows up under the kebab menu.

Short forms with multiple-choice, checkbox, and free-text questions. Assign one to a class so each response is tied to a student (and counts toward their progress), or share the link openly when you just want an anonymous read of the room: exit tickets, comprehension checks after a lesson, that kind of thing.

1. Create

Click the + button in the rail to build a quiz or feedback form with multiple choice, checkboxes, short answer, and more. You can also choose Generate from Deck to auto-create a quiz from any flashcard deck with 4 or more flashcards. Pick which question types to include (multiple choice, true/false, written answer), set the number of questions and direction (which side of each flashcard becomes the question), and the check-in is ready to review and edit before you share it. You can also generate directly from a deck page using the Generate Check-in button.

2. Share

Click Share in the editor toolbar to copy the link, or assign the check-in to a class so it shows up in their Assignments.

3. Review

View responses in real time. See summary charts or check individual answers and scores.

The single check-in workspace. Build the form on the Edit tab, see what students will see on Preview, and watch answers land on Responses.

Edit tab

Add questions of different types (multiple choice, checkboxes, short answer, long answer), drag to reorder, mark a question required, and pick a correct answer if you want the form auto-graded. The header lets you rename the check-in and set a cover image.

Preview tab

Renders the check-in exactly as a student sees it, so you can sanity-check wording and flow before you share. Doesn't record responses.

Responses tab

Summary charts for every question plus a heatmap that flags trouble spots at a glance. Drill into a single response to see one student's full submission with scores.

Sharing

Share in the toolbar copies a public link. Assign hands the check-in to a class so each response is tied to a student and counts toward their progress.

A way to assign speaking practice without needing one-on-one class time. Students see your scripted dialogue, record their own lines in the browser, and submit when they're happy with the take. You see which students are still working through which lines.

1. Create a script

Write a dialogue with teacher and student lines. Set the target language so the example audio uses the right voice.

2. Assign

Send the dialogue to a classroom. Students practice at their own pace, directly in the browser. No app needed.

3. Track progress

Open View progress from the dialogue toolbar to see a per-student, per-line completion grid. (Audio playback and per-line teacher feedback aren't built yet.)

The single-dialogue workspace. Write the script, set the target language, and assign it to a class. The progress tab shows you who's recorded which lines.

Script

Add lines with a speaker label (typically Teacher and Student, or whatever the scenario calls for). The student records their own lines; the others play back as example audio in the target language.

Languages

Set the target language at the top so the example audio uses the right voice. Switch the voice from the menu when more than one is available.

Progress tab

A per-student, per-line completion grid for whichever class you assigned the dialogue to. Empty until students start recording.

Share or assign

Share in the toolbar copies a public link. Assign sends the dialogue to a class so progress is tracked per student.

Already have a deck somewhere else? Don't retype it. Pick the tab that matches your source: Anki for .apkg exports, CSV for a spreadsheet, or OCR for a photo of a word list. Teacher Elf reads it into a new deck.

Anki

Upload an .apkg file you exported from Anki. Teacher Elf reads each deck inside the file, lets you pick which one to import, and tries to detect the question/answer languages. Confirm the languages, give the new deck a title, and import.

CSV

Upload a CSV that Teacher Elf exported (File → Export as CSV on any deck). The first row carries a metadata header that pins the source and target languages; row two is the literal Question,Answer header; everything after that is card data.

OCR

Upload a photo of a vocabulary list (a textbook page, a handout, a whiteboard). Teacher Elf scans the image, pulls each line out as a card, and you confirm before importing.

After import

The new deck appears in Decks, ready to study, edit, or assign to a class.

Generates a draft flashcard deck from a topic prompt. Pick a language pair or switch to a general study deck, type a short description, and the model writes the cards. Useful when you don't have a word list handy. Treat the output as a starting point and edit anything that looks off before importing.

Describe the deck

Pick the source and target languages, then write a short prompt, for example “Common Spanish verbs in the present tense”.

From Notes mode

You can also switch to From Notes to paste text from your notes, articles, or textbooks, or upload a PDF. The AI extracts the key vocabulary or concepts and creates flashcards automatically. Choose Language or General deck type depending on whether you want translation pairs or Q&A cards.

Language or General deck?

Switch to General in the type selector at the top to generate a single-side study deck instead of a language pair. Pick the deck's language (the cards are written in that language) and a card shape: Definition for vocabulary-style decks (biology terms, historical figures), or Q&A for quiz-style decks (Shakespeare's plays, capital cities).

Review the draft

The generated cards appear before they are saved. Edit anything that is off, or regenerate if you want a different angle.

Save to your library

Click Import to save the deck. From there you can study it, share it, or assign it to a class.

AI Lesson generates a complete language-learning path from a single topic: a vocabulary deck, a dialogue, and a check-in quiz, with a cover image. You pick the student's native language and the target language; the output drops into your library as a new learning path, ready to assign to a class or share publicly.

Describe the lesson

Type a short topic prompt (for example, “Ordering at a restaurant in Spain”), pick the student's native language and the target language, and choose a level. The same languages persist across visits so you can iterate quickly.

Pick what to include

Check the artifacts you want and dial in how many cards, lines, and questions to generate. Uncheck anything you don't need; the wizard still works if you only want a vocabulary deck, for example.

Review the preview

The preview pane fills in as each piece generates, so you can spot a weird flashcard or off-tone dialogue line before saving. If one of the pieces fails, use the Retry button in the progress strip. The rest of the lesson stays intact and you only re-run what broke.

Save and tweak

Save Lesson drops the path into your library. From there you can edit individual cards, lines, or questions; reorder lessons; add more content; or assign the path to a class. The cover image comes from a stock-photo search for the lesson's scenario and can be swapped from the learning-path editor.

Generation limits

Generations are rate-limited per teacher (about five to seven full lessons per hour, depending on retries). If you hit the cap, the banner says so. Wait a few minutes and try again.

The work assigned to you by your teachers. Each item your teacher has published shows up in the list on the left; click one to open it on the right and do the work without leaving this page. If you're in more than one class, switch between them from the selector at the top.

1. Pick an assignment

Once your teacher has published work, choose one from the list on the left to open it in the work area.

2. Do the work here

Study, answer questions, or record your speaking practice without leaving this page.

3. Track your progress

Assignments tick themselves off when you finish the work. Study the whole deck, watch the presentation, submit your check-in or recording.

Each piece of content you make has two share modes that live side by side in the same Share popover. Use the student link when you want per-student progress; use the public link when you want anyone to be able to open the content. The two modes are independent: turning one on or off doesn't affect the other.

Share with students

The top URL in the popover. Anyone who opens it has to log in. If the student is on a class roster you've assigned this content to, their work is recorded against them: check-in responses, lesson completions, audio practice attempts, scores. Use this link when you want per-student tracking.

Share publicly (no sign-in)

The bottom URL, only visible after you click Generate public link. Anyone with this link can open the content without an account. The link contains a random secret, so it's not guessable from the asset id. Use this for marketing, parent newsletters, polls open to the public, or a quick share with someone outside the school.

What anonymous visitors can do

The public link is read-and-interact for most content. The exception is check-ins: an anonymous visitor can submit responses, which is what makes the public link useful for polls and exit tickets sent to a wider audience. Responses include the optional name field they type in; no email or account is required.

• Check-ins: view the form and submit a response. Submissions land in your responses tab with the visitor's name (if they filled it in) and no student record.
• Learning paths: view the path and every lesson inside it. The path's public link vouches for all of its lessons, even private decks, so you don't have to mint a token per lesson.
• Presentations: watch from start to finish. Nothing recorded.
• Dialogues: read the script and practice speaking. Recordings aren't saved for anyone, signed in or not.
• Decks: study the flashcards and play the games. The public link works for private decks too, for as long as it's active.

Regenerate and Stop sharing

Once a public link is active, the popover shows two extra buttons. Regenerate mints a fresh secret and invalidates the old link immediately. Use it if the link leaked outside its intended audience. Stop sharing turns the public link off entirely; the popover returns to the "Generate public link" empty state, and the old URL stops working. You can generate a brand-new link any time.

Sharing a path that contains private content

Generating a public link on a learning path automatically extends access to the lessons inside it for the duration of that link. You don't need to mint a separate token for each embedded deck or check-in. When you Stop sharing the path, the lessons go back to being private to the path.

When a public link is too open

Public links are unguessable but not gated. Anyone the link reaches can open it. Treat the public link like an unlisted URL: fine for a wider but trusted audience, not where you want strict access control. For classroom data you actually care about tracking, use the top student link and assign the content to a class.

Where the link can show up

Once you copy or send a public link, it lives wherever it landed: chat logs, email archives, browser history on the recipient's machine, server access logs that record full URLs, and the "Referer" header sent when someone clicks a link from inside the shared page to another site. The link itself is the capability, so anyone who reaches it (forwarded, screenshotted with the URL bar visible, fished out of a log) can use it.

If you suspect a link has spread further than intended, Regenerate mints a fresh one and stops the old URL from working. That's the only way to take the link back. Send the new link to the original audience the same way you sent the first.

Tap a deck to preview the cards, then study with spaced repetition, play a game, or copy it into your own library to edit.

Search and filter

Search by title, or filter by Type (Language or General) and by Language flags to narrow the list to decks relevant to what you teach or learn.

Switch the view

On phones, tap the sliders icon next to the search box to reveal the sort and view-mode controls. Choose Grid, Tiles (shows a preview of the first few cards), or List (densest, best for scanning many decks at once).

Share your own decks

In your own library, open a deck and toggle Public from its settings menu (the three-dot kebab). It shows up here so other people can find and use it. Toggle it off any time to remove it.

Threaded discussions with the rest of the Teacher Elf community and the team. Posts are organized by category. Subscribe to a thread and a notification lands in the navbar bell when someone replies, handy when you've asked a question and don't want to keep refreshing.

Read and reply

Click any post to read the full thread and reply. Use the category tabs at the top to narrow the list.

Start a new post

Click New post, choose a category, and write your message. Use this for questions, feature requests, and bug reports.

Subscribe

Subscribe to a post to be notified when someone replies. Manage what you follow on the My subscriptions page (linked from the forum index). New replies show up in the notification bell in the navbar.

A chat surface for open-ended language practice. Type or speak; the tutor replies in the same language. Link one of your decks from the sidebar and the tutor anchors its examples, corrections, and follow-up questions to that vocabulary, so the practice here reinforces the deck you're working on instead of drifting into generic conversation.

Quick start

Tap one of the topic chips at the top of the setup screen (Shopping, Travel, Family…) to jump straight into a conversation with that theme. Or tap Surprise me for a random pick from the catalog.

Start a chat

For more control, scroll down to customize languages, deck, mode, and difficulty before tapping Start Conversation. Once a chat is running, type a message in the composer and press Enter. The tutor responds in the same language.

Link a deck

Pick a deck from the sidebar to anchor the conversation around its vocabulary. Useful for spaced practice on a specific topic.

Voice input

Click the microphone button to start dictation; click again to stop. The tutor transcribes your speech and replies in text.

Real-time multiple-choice quizzes for a whole class. One person hosts on the projector; everyone else joins on their phone with the 6-digit code on screen. Players answer at their own pace and the host's screen tracks the leaderboard. Handy for the last fifteen minutes of class.

Join a game

Enter the 6-digit game code the host shared, pick a nickname, and wait for the host to start the game.

Host a game

Open any deck and choose Live Quiz. Share the game code with players, wait for them to join, then start the round.

Play and review

Players answer questions on their own devices; the host screen shows the leaderboard. After the game, both sides see a summary of the round.