A Coach’s Guide to NotebookLM and Google Gemini

Jeff Bradbury is an author, podcaster, public speaker, creator of the TeacherCast Educational Network and father of the world famous #EduTriplets.

Latest posts by Jeffrey D. Bradbury (see all)

You know the feeling. You’re sitting in your office, surrounded by a digital and physical whirlwind of information. You have dozens of browser tabs open with research, a pile of notes from your last three teacher meetings, the district’s 80-page curriculum guide, and the looming pressure to create a high-quality professional development session for next week. You have all the information you could ever need, but you feel overwhelmed, and you don’t know where to start.

This is the modern coach’s dilemma. The problem isn’t a lack of resources; it’s the lack of an effective system to manage them. But what if you had a team to help you? I’d like to introduce you to your two new assistants: NotebookLM, your personal research expert, and Google Gemini, your creative partner. Together, these AI tools can help you turn information overload into actionable insight.

Your Research Assistant: Organizing Your Universe with NotebookLM

Think of NotebookLM as a personalized AI that you can train on your own documents. It’s not about searching the entire internet; it’s about becoming a deep expert in the content that matters most to you and your school district. You upload your sources, and NotebookLM becomes your private research assistant, ready to answer your questions based only on the information you’ve provided.

Here are a few ways a coach can put NotebookLM to work immediately:

• The “Book Study” Assistant: Upload an entire professional development book (like my book, Impact Standards) and instantly ask it questions. You can ask for a summary of a specific chapter, to find all the quotes related to “student agency,” or to generate a list of key vocabulary.
• The “Curriculum Expert”: Upload your district’s curriculum documents for a specific grade level. You can then ask NotebookLM to find every instance of a particular standard or to create a list of “I Can” statements for an upcoming unit, saving you hours of manual searching.
• The “Meeting Synthesizer”: After a coaching conversation, upload the transcript of your meeting. You can then ask NotebookLM to pull out the key themes, identify the teacher’s primary goals, and generate a bulleted list of the agreed-upon action items.

Your Creative Partner: Generating Ideas with Gemini

While NotebookLM is your expert on the content you already have, Google Gemini is your creative partner for generating something new. It’s a collaborative AI that is excellent for brainstorming, drafting, and refining content from scratch.

Here are a few ways a coach can partner with Gemini:

• The “PD Session Designer”: Ask Gemini to create a complete outline for a 60-minute workshop on a topic like “differentiated instruction.” It can generate everything from an engaging icebreaker and hands-on activities to thoughtful discussion prompts and exit ticket questions.
• The “Newsletter Ghostwriter”: Give Gemini a few bullet points about the upcoming week’s focus, and ask it to draft a friendly, engaging weekly newsletter for your staff.
• The “Difficult Conversation” Scriptwriter: If you’re struggling to find the right words, you can ask Gemini to brainstorm different ways to phrase supportive, non-judgmental feedback for a reluctant teacher, helping you prepare for a more productive conversation.