Pathway 3 — Using daily

Try this week

Three specific challenges, each taking under ten minutes, each producing something genuinely useful for your teaching. Do one this week.

The prompts on this page are ready to copy and paste. Fill in the parts in square brackets, paste into any AI tool, and see what comes back. The first real use is always the most instructive.

Challenge 1 of 3

Turn this week's lesson into a retrieval starter

Take a lesson you taught this week and generate a five-question retrieval starter for next class — in about three minutes.

⏰ About 3 minutes

Copy the prompt below. Replace the brackets with your own subject, topic, and year group. Paste it into Claude (opens in new tab), Gemini (opens in new tab), or any AI tool you have access to.

Create a 5-question retrieval practice starter for a [SUBJECT] class in [YEAR GROUP e.g. 2nd Year / 5th Year]. The questions should test knowledge from last week's topic: [TOPIC]. Include: — Two recall questions (straightforward knowledge retrieval) — Two application questions (using the knowledge in a slightly different context) — One "explain why" question that requires a full sentence answer Provide an answer key at the end. Keep language accessible for secondary school students. Do not include any student names.

What to do with the output: Read it, fix anything that is factually off or doesn't match your version of the topic, then use it. That is the whole workflow — three minutes of AI, thirty seconds of your review, done.

🎯 Once you have done this once, try it before every class for a week. Notice how much time it saves — and how much better the starters are when they are actually tailored to your topic.

Challenge 2 of 3

Draft a parent email you have been putting off

That email you keep meaning to write — the progress update, the upcoming event, the concern you need to raise. Draft it in under five minutes.

⏰ About 5 minutes

This prompt works for any parent communication. Remember: fill in the name yourself after you have the draft — never put a student's or parent's real name into the AI prompt.

Write a professional but warm parent email about the following situation: [describe the situation in general terms — e.g. "a student who has made excellent progress this term and whose effort in class has been noticeably strong"]. Tone: professional, warm, and specific. Avoid jargon. Length: under 150 words. Opening: "Dear Parent or Guardian," (I will add the name myself before sending.) End with a clear next step or invitation to be in touch if they have questions. Do not include any personal details, student names, or identifiable information — I will personalise the email myself after I have the draft.

What to do with the output: Read the draft. Add the parent's name, personalise one or two sentences to reflect what you actually know about the student, and send. The AI handles the structure and tone — you add the human touch.

🎯 If this saves you 20 minutes this week, imagine what it saves across a year. Most teachers who try this once use it regularly for all their parent communications.

Challenge 3 of 3

Ask AI to explain something you will be teaching next week

Even experienced teachers find that asking AI to explain a topic surfaces angles and common misconceptions they had not considered.

⏰ About 5 minutes

This one is for your own professional knowledge — not for producing a student resource. Paste the prompt below and read what comes back with a critical eye. What surprises you? What does it get wrong for your curriculum? What student questions does it surface?

I am a secondary school teacher preparing to teach [TOPIC] to [YEAR GROUP e.g. 3rd Year / Leaving Certificate] [SUBJECT] students next week. Please do the following: 1. Explain [TOPIC] clearly, as if to a teacher who knows the subject but wants a fresh explanation to use as a basis for planning. 2. List the five most common misconceptions students have about this topic. 3. Suggest two analogies or real-world examples that tend to make this topic click for secondary school students. 4. Flag anything in this topic where textbook explanations are often oversimplified or potentially misleading. I am using this to prepare my own teaching — not to create a student resource directly.

What to do with the output: Read it critically. AI can and does make factual errors — especially in specialist or exam-specific contexts. Use this as a thinking tool, not as a source of facts. Check anything you are not certain about against a reliable text or curriculum document.

🎯 This is one of the highest-value uses of AI for experienced teachers — not producing resources, but sharpening your own thinking before you walk into the room.

What next?

If you completed one of these challenges, you have now used AI for a real teaching task. The Prompt Lab has 45 more ready-to-use prompts across lessons, assessment, feedback, and more.

Go to the Prompt Lab See worked examples