The exact prompts and moves I use to plan faster, differentiate without losing my mind, and get my evenings back. Copy, paste, done.
@Middle_Teacher_Syndrome
Start here
You do not need to be techy. Just Claude open in one tab and about ten minutes. Here is how this page works: start at the top with the beginner moves — copy-paste prompts you can use today. Keep scrolling and it levels up to the advanced stuff at the bottom: Projects, Skills, and Cowork. I've linked a guide at almost every step if you want the done-for-you version, and every one of them lives in my Back to School Google Drive. Top to bottom, grab what you need.
1. Grab it free
Verified K-12 US teachers get premium Claude free for a year. Click here, then hit “Get Verified.” Once you're in, come back.
2. Copy a prompt
Hit copy on any prompt below. Paste it into Claude. Swap the [brackets] for your stuff.
3. Watch me do it
Every section links to a real demo on my Instagram so you can see it in action.
Level 1 · Start Here
Claude for Beginners
Open one tab, copy a prompt, get your night back. These are the four things I tell every teacher to try first. No setup, no learning curve.
Watch me do it
See it before you build it
Short, no-fluff demos straight from my classroom. Tap one, then come back and copy the matching prompt.
Start from the end and work backward. Claude drafts the plan, you keep the judgment. Build faster so you can teach better.
Backwards-design a unit
When you have a text or topic and a blank calendar staring at you.
You are helping me plan a unit using backwards design. I teach [grade] [subject]. The unit is on [text or topic] and I have [number] class periods of [length] minutes.
Start with the end: give me 3 possible summative assessments students could do to show mastery. For each, tell me what standard or skill it proves.
Then, once I pick one, we will map the daily lessons backward from it. Ask me which assessment I want before you build the calendar.
Keep it real for middle schoolers. No busywork.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
I teach [grade] [subject]. Build me a single [length]-minute lesson that hits this standard: [paste standard].
Give me: a hook that takes 5 minutes or less, the main activity, one check for understanding, and an exit ticket. Tell me exactly what I say and what students do.
Assume I have zero prep time and a class that talks a lot.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Want to see how I plan lessons using project-based learning? Peek inside my Project Based Learning Google Drive to see what's inside.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Prompt 02
Differentiation
One lesson, three readiness levels, five minutes. This is the one that saves your prep period.
Scaffolds for the kids who need them
When you have IEPs, ELLs, and everyone in between.
I am teaching this assignment to [grade]: [paste assignment].
Give me a support version for: (1) students who need reading support, (2) English language learners, and (3) students who finish early and need a challenge.
For each, give me the actual modified directions and any sentence stems or word banks. Keep the learning goal identical for all of them.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
When one reading is too hard for half the room and too easy for the other half.
Here is a reading passage for my [grade] [subject] class: [paste passage].
Rewrite it at 3 readiness levels while keeping the same key ideas and vocabulary goals:
1. Below grade level (shorter sentences, more scaffolding)
2. On grade level
3. Above grade level (more complex text, a stretch question)
For each version, add 2 comprehension questions and 1 discussion question. Do not water down the thinking, just the reading load.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Prompt 03
Parent & admin emails
The email you have been avoiding since Tuesday. Draft it in your voice, kind but firm, in 30 seconds.
The tricky parent email
When you need to be honest without starting a war.
Help me write an email to a parent. Here is the situation: [describe what happened, plain and honest].
Tone: warm, professional, and clear. I am not apologizing for holding a standard, but I want the parent on my team. Keep it short. Lead with something positive about their kid if there is one. End with a specific next step.
Give me two versions: one softer, one more direct.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
When you have to write it and would rather do literally anything else.
Write a [class newsletter / update to my admin] covering these points: [dump your bullet points here, messy is fine].
My voice: real, warm, a little dry, no corporate buzzwords, no exclamation-point overload. Short paragraphs. Make it skimmable. Then give me a subject line that people will actually open.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Prompt 04
PBL & creative projects
This is my whole thing. Take any text or topic and turn it into a project kids actually want to do.
Remix a lesson into a pop-culture project
Shark Tank, Mythbusters, a newscast, a meme. Same standards, way more buy-in.
I teach [grade] [subject]. We are studying [text or topic]. I want to turn it into a project modeled on [Shark Tank / Mythbusters / a news broadcast / a social media takeover / your idea].
Give me: the project pitch in kid-friendly language, the steps students follow, what they produce, and a simple rubric tied to [standard or skill]. Keep it doable in [number] class periods.
Make it fun but rigorous. I do not do busywork projects.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Speeches, primary sources, song lyrics, a chapter. Close reading with a purpose.
Here is a text I want my [grade] students to annotate closely: [paste text or name it].
Give me 6 to 8 annotation prompts that push real thinking (tone, word choice, author's purpose, connections to now). Write them as questions students answer in the margins.
Then give me one short project they do after annotating to show they got it. Balance matters to me, so make at least part of this something they do on paper, by hand.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
The move that made me go viral: build the content once with Claude, then let Canva's Bulk Create spin up a whole year of slides in one go. This is how you make 180 things without making 180 things.
Fill a Canva Bulk Create template
Agenda slides, vocab cards, bell ringers, task cards. Anything you'd make one at a time.
I want to mass-produce [180 daily agenda slides / vocab cards / bell ringers] in Canva using Bulk Create. First ask me what fields my template has (like Date, Day, Objective, Agenda, Homework).
Then generate a clean table I can paste straight into Canva Bulk Create: one row per slide, columns matching my fields exactly. Fill it with [my topics and pacing], keep it [grade] appropriate, and do not skip days.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Want it done for you?
My guides & resources
The prompts up top are free and yours to keep. When you want the finished, classroom-ready versions — already built, already pretty — here they are.
★ Best value · everything I make
Back to School GROWING Drive
My whole library in one link: AI & Canva prompt guides, a full year of agenda slides, annotation templates, projects, decor, sub plans, and more. Always growing, lifetime access.
Ready to stop copying prompts one at a time? This is where Claude goes from a helper to a system that knows your classroom. Three features, three unfair advantages: Projects, Skills, and Cowork.
★ See one I actually built
The Outsiders study tool — for my real students
I had Claude build a student-facing website for our Outsiders unit. It coaches kids through theme, motif, conflict, plot diagram, and symbolism — giving sentence stems and fill-in-the-blanks, then rewriting their attempts when they are close. I uploaded our actual class materials and gave it rules for how to talk to them, so they are not pulling random stuff off the internet. It refuses anything off-topic, and yes, it has a 1960s vibe. This is the per-novel project idea, made real.
Build me an AI study tool for my students for the novel [The Outsiders]. Cover five sections: theme, motif, conflict, plot diagram, and symbolism.
Students are middle school (6th to 8th grade). Give partial answers with sentence stems and blanks to fill in, and offer a rewrite when they are a little off. Every section requires students to include a quote as support, then write their own analysis, symbolism, or conflict statement.
THEME: Guide them to a universal, non-cliche theme statement (no character names, no plot summary) using the "the author wants us to know..." frame, landing on the big lesson. Focus the theme on being true to yourself and knowing your true identity, inspired by Johnny's line "stay gold." Model statement: The innocence of youth is something we should cherish because nothing stays gold forever, and staying true to yourself as you grow and change helps guide your identity and choices.
MOTIF: Focus on the motif of literature and how it recurs to build the identity theme, using three moments: the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," Johnny and Ponyboy reading Gone with the Wind in the church, and the reveal that Ponyboy is the author. Model statement: The motif of literature is present when Ponyboy recites Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay," when Ponyboy and Johnny read Gone with the Wind together in the church, and when Ponyboy reveals he is the author telling the story. These moments remind me that embracing your true identity instead of the labels society gives you helps guide your choices and lets you stay true to yourself.
CONFLICT: Main conflict should be person vs. self or person vs. society.
RULES: Refuse to answer anything not related to The Outsiders. Fun, engaging, student-friendly design with a 1960s Outsiders vibe.
Advanced 01 Projects
Build a Claude that already knows your classroom
New to Projects? A Project is a saved workspace where you upload your files and set your instructions once. Everything you do inside it remembers your grade, your standards, and your voice. Set it up on a Sunday, save hours every week after.
Your "Classroom HQ" project
Why it's powerful: Stop re-typing your grade, standards, and style every single time. Set it once and every lesson comes out aligned and sounding like you.
Starter setup
Create a new Project called "Classroom HQ." Upload your pacing guide, your standards, one rubric, and one lesson that sounds like you. Then paste this into the project's custom instructions:
You are my teaching assistant for [grade] [subject]. Everything you make should align to the standards and pacing guide I uploaded and match the voice in my sample lesson: real, clear, a little dry, no busywork. Default to middle school reading levels. When I ask for a lesson or activity, tie it to a standard and keep prep low. Ask me the topic and how many days I have, then build.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: Reuse everything you built for The Outsiders, Poe, or Night without rebuilding it. The project becomes your unit's memory.
Starter setup
Make a Project named for the text (e.g. "The Outsiders Unit"). Upload the reading, your annotation sets, and past projects. Paste into custom instructions:
This project holds everything for my [text] unit with [grade]. Treat the uploaded reading, annotations, and projects as the source of truth. When I ask for something new (a quiz, a bell ringer, a differentiated version, a project), match the style and rigor of what's already here and keep it aligned to [standard].
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: Feedback that matches your rubric and still sounds like you, in a fraction of the time. You stay the teacher, it drafts the words.
Starter setup
Create a Project called "Feedback." Upload your rubric and 2 to 3 samples of feedback you have written. Paste into custom instructions:
You help me draft feedback on student work for [grade] [subject]. Always score against the uploaded rubric and explain it in kid-friendly language. Match the tone of my samples: warm, specific, honest, growth-focused. Give 2 glows and 1 grow. Never rewrite the student's work for them.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Keep it FERPA-safe: strip student names or use initials before you paste any work.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Advanced 02 Skills
Teach Claude your signature moves
New to Skills? A Skill is a set of instructions you save once and trigger by name. It is how you teach Claude a move you make all the time, so you never re-type the directions again. Build the skill once, call it forever.
The PBL Remix Machine
Why it's powerful: Turn any text or topic into a project kids beg to do, on command. This is my whole brand in one saved skill.
Skill instructions to save
When I give you a text or topic and a format (Shark Tank, Mythbusters, a newscast, a social media takeover, a meme), turn it into a student project. Always output: a kid-friendly pitch, numbered student steps, what they turn in, and a simple 4-row rubric tied to the standard I name. Middle school level. Fun but rigorous. No busywork. If I do not give a format, suggest three.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: Your exact annotation format from any text in seconds, every time, without re-explaining it.
Skill instructions to save
When I give you a text, create an annotation set in my format: 6 to 8 numbered margin questions that push thinking about tone, word choice, author's purpose, and connections to today. Then add one short after-reading task, and make at least part of it something students do on paper by hand. Keep it [grade] level.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: One passage, three readiness levels, same thinking, on demand. The skill that quietly saves your prep period.
Skill instructions to save
When I paste a passage, rewrite it at 3 readiness levels (below, on, and above grade level) while keeping the same key ideas and vocabulary goals. For each level add 2 comprehension questions and 1 discussion question. Water down the reading load, never the thinking. Label each level clearly.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
Advanced 03 Cowork
Put Claude to work on your actual desktop
New to Cowork? Cowork is Claude on your computer. It can open your files, organize folders, build things, and even run tasks on a schedule. This is where Claude stops giving advice and starts doing the work.
Clean up my Drive
Why it's powerful: Turn a chaotic resource folder into something you can actually find things in. I did exactly this with my whole PBL Drive.
Say this in Cowork
Connect to my Google Drive and audit my [folder name] folder. Give me a full inventory organized by subfolder, flag duplicates and misfiled items, and suggest a cleaner structure. Do not move anything until I approve it.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: Interactive resources built for you, not bought. This whole hub was made in Cowork.
Say this in Cowork
Build me an interactive [choice board / review game / student hub] for [grade] on [topic]. Make it a single web page, mobile-friendly, in my brand colors. Include [what you want on it]. Then give me the file so I can share or host it.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
Why it's powerful: Start the week already organized without lifting a finger. Set it once and it runs itself.
Say this in Cowork
Every Monday at 6am, pull my calendar for the week and my to-do list, and send me a short "week ahead" brief: what is coming, what I need to prep, and the top 3 things to knock out first. Keep it skimmable.
Ask me some questions to make sure I get the best output possible.
This one runs as a scheduled task, so it keeps working every week on its own.
All my guides and activities to set up in your classroom, in one place.Back to School Drive ↗
This is just the start
I post new prompts, demos, and classroom moves every week. Scan to follow, then come hang out. That is where all the good stuff lives.
