Schools

Classroom usage guide

This is the day-to-day guide for teachers and students. Thoughtlane puts AI on the worksheet, reading, or lesson this class was assigned. The teacher sees the proposed score and a source they can open. A student can say they are stuck on the question they are on. Weekly review then shows that sheet, that step, and the hint already given. While a score waits, the student sees “Your teacher will look at this before you see a mark.” It is not a chatbot, and it is not a second gradebook.

If you are setting up the stack, OIDC, or backups, that lives in the ops docs. This page assumes you can already open the school portal and land inside an app.

Start here

Thoughtlane is one sign-in that opens a few classroom apps. You pick an app from the portal home page. You can jump between apps; your school account follows you.

• Mathwise for worksheets, step-by-step solutions, and guided practice.
• Knowledge Hub for the school library, cited search, quizzes, and courses.
• Socratic Dialogue for level-based lessons where students write answers in their own words.

Classes and sections are shared. When a teacher assigns work to “Period 3,” that same section shows up wherever the product needs a class list. Students do not manage that. Teachers usually do not either, unless your school gave them permission. Rosters are maintained under Administration → Classes.

Who sees what

What you see depends on your role. Schools map emails to roles like student, teacher, or admin. If a tab is missing, it is almost always permissions, not a bug.

Teachers Students Both can open the portal. Teachers get more tabs inside each product.

Home portal

After sign-in you land on the Thoughtlane home page. Cards open each app. There is also Management (Administration) and Analytics if your role allows them.

Students also see a Continue strip and Due this week list when they have open work. Example: Continue opens “Grade 9 Algebra — Week 3 Linear equations” in Mathwise Cognitive Booster; Due this week might list that same practice plus “Fractions reading quiz” (Knowledge Hub) due Friday. Open Class calendar for a printable month or list of deadlines and school events (paste emoji marks on days if you like). Teachers Admins can Add event for the whole school, a grade, or a section (teachers: sections they teach). Students see school-wide events plus those for their grade or section.

Content Manager appears on the portal under School tools as an optional ops browser for school drives. Teachers still use Open from drive inside each product once an admin has registered the drive under Administration → External drives.

Thoughtlane sits beside your LMS. Pilots use school SSO and Administration → Classes. Canvas is the launch path the product is written for. It stays off until your school turns it on. A score can land in that gradebook only after a teacher releases it, and only if a line item and a token exist. Until then the official grade stays here. This is not an LTI or SIS certification.

One-time school setup (someone has to do this first)

Teachers cannot assign to a section that does not exist. Before the first real class:

1. An admin opens Administration → Classes.
2. Create a class such as Grade 9 Algebra, then add sections (for example Period 1, Period 2).
3. Set the section teacher email.
4. Enroll student emails on each section.

Optional but useful: register school drives under External drives, and post a short welcome notice under Announcements so it shows up as a banner in the apps.

For teachers (the loops that matter)

Most weeks you will do one of three things: assign math practice, assign a Hub course, or publish a Socratic lesson. You do not need every product every week.

Mid-week, open Administration → Weekly review to see who has not finished “Week 3 Linear equations” or who tapped I’m stuck. Each stuck row says why: the sheet or lesson, the last step, and the hint or score the model proposed. It does not use the student’s history or a SIS record. On that row you can open the answer, leave a one-line note the student sees, release or send it back, and copy a conference paragraph. There is no parent login. A principal uses Staff meeting for three counts: classes that assigned work this week, students stuck, and marks still waiting. That is not a dropout predictor. Use Progress board on Period 1 to compare Hub / Mathwise / Socratic status in one grid. Email or Slack digests stay off until an admin turns delivery on.

Assign math practice for a section

1. Open Mathwise.
2. Upload a worksheet (image or PDF), open one from File Manager, or use Open from drive.
3. Let extraction finish so questions appear. When it completes, a Assign to class shortcut appears for teachers.
4. Go to Assign to class (or use that shortcut).
5. Title students will recognize, for example Grade 9 Algebra — Week 3 Linear equations.
6. Pick the worksheet or a generated question sheet from the dropdown. To assign the sheet you are looking at, use Generated questions → Assign to section instead.
7. Check one or more sections (Period 1 and Period 2), or use All my sections.
8. Due defaults to Friday 5:00 PM; change it if you need another deadline.
9. Optional: Copy last week to reuse the previous worksheet and title pattern, then tweak the week number.
10. Assign. Later, open Progress on that assignment to see who finished Cognitive questions.

File Manager is for files and folders. Assign to class is for sending practice to people. Mixing those two up is the most common teacher confusion, so we say it plainly here.

Assign a class quiz or lesson

1. Knowledge Hub is self-study chat only. Do not generate a quiz there.
2. Open Teacher's Assistant (Socratic Dialogue) → Files and upload the class file.
3. From that file, use Make a lesson, Multiple choice, or Fill-in, then Assign to section.
4. Students open the assigned lesson in Socratic Dialogue and answer there.

Publish a Socratic lesson

1. On Courses, import or open the course catalog. If you import, wait for the job to finish, then save only the courses you want. You do not have to keep every extracted line.
2. Upload the class file in Socratic Dialogue → Files. Make a lesson, multiple choice, or fill-in, then assign the section. Knowledge Hub is only for chatting with a file.
3. Review the plan on Lesson (Socratic levels, multiple choice, fill-in), then publish.
4. Assign the lesson on Assignments to a class section. The lesson list includes every published lesson, not only ones already on a course. Enrolled students can open it. Who it’s for uses that same lesson list and is optional — it only sets which level completes the class. You do not type a new grade name.
5. On the Dashboard, release scores when students finish. We suggest you look at an AI mark before it counts. An organization can turn on fully automated marking; that switch is off unless an admin turns it on. A lesson can still auto-release keyed questions. Use Release keyed scores for a whole set.

Catalog import and “Make a lesson” keep running if you reload the page. Watch the job strip at the top. You can cancel if you started the wrong file.

Learning paths (optional)

In Knowledge Hub, create a path such as Grade 9 Algebra — Linear equations unit: Hub course “Linear equations reading” → Mathwise worksheet “linear-eq-worksheet.pdf” → Socratic lesson “Discuss slope from a graph”. Pick each step by name (leave None until that piece exists). Teachers can click Assign path to class to push every step into the student inbox for Period 1 / Period 2 in one action.

For students

You mostly open work that was assigned to you. You do not need to know how teachers set sections up.

Finding your work

• Portal home — Continue / Due this week for the next thing (for example Week 3 Linear equations).
• Mathwise → My assignments for Cognitive practice and other inbox items.
• Knowledge Hub → My assignments for courses and quizzes assigned to you.
• Socratic Dialogue → Assignments for a mixed inbox (math, Hub, lessons).
• Socratic Dialogue → Lessons for dialogue work your teacher published to your grade/level.

If the same assignment shows up in more than one place, that is normal. The shared inbox is trying to give you one place to look, while each product also keeps its own list.

On a hard question, tap I’m stuck. Your teacher sees that sheet, that step, and the hint already given. Your history is not sent. If a score is waiting, you will see “Your teacher will look at this before you see a mark.” A teacher note, if they leave one, shows on that assignment.

Doing Cognitive practice (Mathwise)

1. Open the assignment.
2. Pick a question.
3. Write one step at a time in the work area.
4. Use Hint when you are stuck. It should give the next step, not dump the whole answer. Use I’m stuck if you want the teacher to see this question and that hint.
5. Check as you go. Progress is saved when you come back later.

Doing a Hub course

1. Open the course from My assignments.
2. Take the quizzes or practice tags your teacher included.
3. Watch attempt limits and due dates. If you are locked out, talk to your teacher; the software will not invent extra attempts.

Socratic lessons

1. Read the concept material for the level.
2. Answer in your own words. Paste is discouraged on purpose.
3. Finish the level. You will not see a score until your teacher releases it, including multiple-choice, unless that lesson was set to auto-release.
4. Study is private practice from your own notes. Teachers do not see Study sets.

Search in Knowledge Hub

Ask a question in Search when you need help from school materials. Read the citations. If the answer looks off, open the source passage. The point of Hub search is that you can check where it came from.

Mathwise in depth

Tabs you will actually use

Upload and extract

Drop a PNG, JPG, or PDF. Wait for questions to appear. If a page is messy (scans, handwriting, weird layouts), try re-extract from File Manager. Alternate PDF extractors show up in advanced mode if your school turned that on.

New uploads keep the original file name in the list. Older files that were stored under long id-looking names may still show that way until you re-upload. Internally the system still uses ids. You should not have to type them.

Solve vs practice

Solve All (or solve one question) is for getting a worked solution with clear steps you can review and export. Cognitive Booster is for students writing steps themselves. Same worksheet can feed both.

File Manager habits that help

• Put contest or unit sheets in folders with names people understand (for example PascalContest).
• Use search and sort when the list gets long.
• Open from drive when the school already has the PDF in Google Drive, OneDrive, or S3.
• ReExtract if the question list looks incomplete after a first pass.

Assign to class (teachers)

Fill title, worksheet name, section, optional due. Refresh roster if the section list looks stale. Progress is per student Cognitive outcomes, not a gradebook for Solve All.

Knowledge Hub in depth

Tabs

Teacher workflow that usually works

1. Upload a reading under Documents. The row says Waiting, then Reading, Splitting into chunks, and Saving. Chat or search only after it says Ready to search. You can leave the page.
2. Class lessons, multiple choice, and fill-in are in Teacher's Assistant, not on this page.

Knowledge Hub does not generate class quizzes. Review those in Teacher's Assistant before students see them.

Search tips

• Ask in plain language about what the school uploaded.
• Always glance at the cited passage.
• If Search is empty or nonsense, the row may still say Waiting, Reading, or Saving. It is not searchable until Ready to search.

Socratic Dialogue in depth

Teacher side

Think of it as: course exists → files attached → lesson generated and edited → published → students mapped by grade/level → you release scores. Nothing counts until you do, unless that lesson opts keyed questions out of review.

• Courses: import catalogs carefully. Save selected courses. Reopen drafts if you left mid-import.
• Class files: Socratic Dialogue → Files. Lesson, multiple choice, fill-in, then assign. Knowledge Hub is chat only.
• Lesson plan: edit levels and questions before students see them.
• Who it’s for: optional. Assigning a section already opens the lesson. This page only records which level completes an Administration class. You do not type a grade name.
• Dashboard: pending scores. Release one, or release a keyed set in one action. Students do not see the mark until then.
• Assignments: assign a lesson to an Administration section. The list below is work assigned to you (same inbox as Mathwise and Knowledge Hub).

Student side

• Lessons: the main path.
• Assignments: open linked work in other products.
• Study: private. Good for extra practice without teacher eyes on it.

Optional Hear lesson / Hear question only run when the student asks. Nothing should autoplay at them.

School drives

Admins register connectors (Google Drive, OneDrive, S3, and similar) under Administration. Teachers then use Open from drive inside Mathwise, Knowledge Hub, or Socratic Dialogue. The product keeps a reference and fetches the file when it needs to process it. This is not a live shared disk between products, and it is not “copy everything into Knowledge Hub forever.”

If Open from drive fails for everyone, Content Manager is probably not running, or the connector was never registered. That is an IT fix, not something students can solve.

Announcements

School notices are scheduled in Administration. When one is active for a product, you see a banner at the top. Dismiss if you have read it; new notices can still appear later. You can leave targeting open to everyone, or narrow by role, class tags, grade (for example Grade 9), and/or section (for example Grade 9 Algebra / Period 1). Students and teachers tied to that class or section see the banner; others do not.

Help, accessibility, and feedback

• Help opens a coach for the current screen. In the first week you may see a soft tip inviting you to open Help; dismiss anytime.
• Status messages stay on screen. Important results are not sound-only.
• Use Feedback in the header when something is wrong or confusing. Replies show under your name when support answers.
• Skip links jump to main content for keyboard users.

Cheat sheet

If something breaks

I do not see Assign to class

Your account is probably missing teacher permissions. Ask an admin to check roles.

Section dropdown is empty or says Forbidden

Roster issue. Confirm the section exists, has a teacher email that matches you, and that students are enrolled. Hit Refresh roster after the admin saves.

Students do not see the assignment

Check that you assigned the right section, that their email is enrolled there, and that they are looking in My assignments / Assignments (not File Manager). Due dates do not hide the row in most cases, but expired attempt limits can block taking a Hub quiz again.

Extraction or lesson generation seems stuck

In Socratic Dialogue, catalog import and Make a lesson are background jobs. Reload and look at the job strip; use Cancel if needed. Mathwise extraction progress is more tied to the open page today, so keep that tab open until questions appear, or re-run from File Manager.

Search cannot find a document I just uploaded

Look at the file row in Documents. Ready to search means chunking finished. Waiting, Reading, Splitting into chunks, or Saving means it is not searchable yet. Large PDFs stay on Saving longer. You can leave the page; the row keeps updating.

Open from drive errors

Admin: confirm External drives entry and that Content Manager is up. Teacher: try another file; if every file fails, escalate to IT.

I still see weird id-looking file names in Mathwise

Those are older uploads from before friendly names. Re-upload the PDF, or live with the old label on that one file. New uploads should show the real name.