More Than Feedback: Templates as Creative Engines for Teaching

At first glance, Starlight looks like a coaching tool. And yes — it does that brilliantly. Structured feedback, clear analysis, insight at pace. But if that’s all you’re using it for, you’re only scratching the surface.

Because here’s the truth: a lesson transcript is a goldmine — not just a record of what happened, but a launchpad for exploring who you are as a teacher, how you think, what your students experience, and where your craft could go next.

The secret to unlocking that depth?

Templates.

Starlight templates aren’t fixed routes — they’re prompts, provocations, creative tools. They don’t just evaluate. They reinterpret, reimagine, and reframe your teaching from fresh perspectives. Here’s just a glimpse of what’s possible:

🎙 Mic’d Up – Turn Your Lesson into a Podcast

Rework your lesson as a full standalone podcast episode — a 5–7 minute script with storytelling, key content, rhetorical flair, and even student questions. It’s not a summary, it’s a show. Perfect for students or fellow educators.

👤 Who Are You in the Classroom? – Teaching Style & Personality Decoder

What’s your classroom persona? The Calm Conductor? The Charismatic Coach? This template analyses your tone, questioning, and delivery style to paint a picture of you in action — and how you might refine or extend it.

😂 Laugh & Learn – Opportunities for Humour

Explore moments in your lesson where a touch of humour could have sparked deeper engagement or joy. From playful analogies to light quips, this template helps you bring more human warmth into your teaching.

🎬 The Movie Trailer Template

Turn your lesson into the voiceover script for a blockbuster trailer. Dramatic? Yes. Silly? Maybe. Insightful about pacing, clarity, and engagement? Definitely.

👟 From the Student’s Shoes

Reimagine the lesson from the perspective of a thoughtful, quiet student. What do they hear? What confuses them? What excites them? A powerful way to reflect on accessibility and connection.

🎧 The Director’s Commentary

Overlay your transcript with reflective insights — as if recording a DVD commentary on your own teaching. Pause moments. Unpack decisions. See yourself as both performer and analyst.

⏮ The Coaching Time Machine

Zoom in on a key moment. What if you’d done it differently? This template helps you rehearse alternate choices and reflect on subtle shifts in questioning, tone, or scaffolding.

🧠 Your Lesson as a TED Talk

Distil the central idea of your lesson into a 5-minute TED-style talk. Structured, intentional, compelling — this template helps clarify your teaching message with global-level polish.

🤖 The AI Co-Teacher’s Feedback

Imagine you had a helpful, observant co-teacher powered by AI. What feedback would they give after the lesson? This friendly, fictional template adds a touch of novelty and surprise.

⭐ The “Greatest Hits” Compilation

Extract 3–5 standout moments or lines from the transcript. Build confidence by spotlighting what really worked — and why.

✍️ Lesson in Six Words

Can you summarise the soul of your lesson in just six words? A deceptively simple template that surfaces clarity and coherence.

🎤 The Stand-Up Set

Rewrite your lesson as a stand-up routine. Go on — try it. Play with timing, tone, and rhythm. Teaching is performance, after all.

Customise, Share, and Inspire

Every template in Starlight is editable, cloneable, and shareable. Just click the share icon on any template to:

• Send it to a colleague

• Post it to your department workspace

• Or save a custom version for your own coaching or CPD focus

And there’s more coming.

We’re building a Public Templates Library, where you’ll be able to:

• Browse templates created by other teachers and schools

• Clone and customise templates to suit your needs

• See creator credits and rankings by popularity

• And — in the near future — we’re exploring options for rewarding the most popular templates with recognition and even payments to creators

It’s Not the Tool — It’s the Mind That Wields It

Starlight isn’t limited by code. It’s limited only by imagination.

The transcript is your material. The template is your lens. What you do with it — how far you stretch it, question it, remix it — that’s up to you.

So experiment. Remix. Play.

And if you invent something brilliant?

Share it.

The next teacher might just need it.

The Insight Engine is written by Adam Sturdee, co-founder of Starlight—the UK’s first AI-powered coaching platform—and Assistant Headteacher at St Augustine’s Catholic College. This blog is part of a wider mission to support educators through meaningful reflection, not performance metrics. It documents the journey of building Starlight from the ground up, and explores how AI, when shaped with care, can reduce workload, surface insight, and help teachers think more deeply about their practice. Rooted in the belief that growth should be private, professional, and purposeful, The Insight Engine offers ideas and stories that put insight—not judgment—at the centre of development.