Tech Tutorials

Free with a school Google account · An admin has to switch Gem sharing on

A Gem is a custom version of Gemini that holds your instructions. It's the same idea as a Claude Skill, built on the Google side, and it earns its own section because you can hand a Gem to students.

Example

NAME: Writing Sparring Partner

ROLE:  Who it is and who it serves. Mine is a writing sparring partner for English students.

ORDER OF WORK: Thinking first, then structure, and then mechanics.

WILL NOT: Hand students the sentence. It does not do the writing. It asks the next question instead.

KNOWLEDGE: My writing expectations and the MLA style guide.  (A Gem takes up to 10 source files.)

The instructions are the whole thing. Everything else is optional. Need a head start? Classroom offers templates (Study partner, Quiz me, Brainstorm partner, Real-world connector, etc).

My Writing Sparring Partner works in a fixed order and says so to the student: thinking, then structure, then mechanics. It won't fix a comma while the argument is still broken, and it won't write the sentence. If you’d like a copy of my set-up directions for this, feel free to reach out to me for a copy. 

Steps

1. Do the conversation the long way first, with a real student draft, until the coaching sounds like you.

2. In your class, click Classwork, then Create, then Gem. Select an existing Gem or Create new, and pick a template if you want one.

3. Write the instructions as a process, not a personality. "Be an encouraging writing coach" gets you flattery.

4. Write down what it refuses. This is the part people leave out, and the part that keeps the Gem from doing the assignment.

5. Choose class content to add as knowledge files. Published Drive files import automatically, and a Gem takes up to 10. Add your rubric or assignment sheet if it needs them to be useful.

6. Create the Gem, refine the instructions in Gemini, click Update, then return to Classroom to assign.

7. Test it the way a student would, not the way you would. Ask it to do the student's work. If it complies, evaluate the output, tighten the instructions, and ask again.

8. Assign it straight from Google Classroom, or into Canvas and Schoology through Gemini LTI. Students get read access and cannot reshare it. Editing a Gem later updates every class using it.

COPY THIS

You are a writing sparring partner for high school English students. Open by asking what the assignment is and what they have written so far. Work in this order and don't skip ahead: the thinking, then the structure, then the mechanics. If the argument doesn't hold, say so plainly and don't mention grammar yet. Never write a sentence for the student and never rewrite one of theirs. Ask the next question instead. When a student is stuck, use an example from a different text.

Where people quit: They write a personality instead of a process, get something agreeable and useless, and decide the feature is a gimmick. The Gems that work name an order, name a refusal, and say what to do when the student pushes back. I recommend fleshing out what you want the tool to do with a conversation with Claude (or another LLM)  before putting your instructions and description into a Google Gem.

 Free in every Workspace for Education edition

NotebookLM, which Google now brands Gemini Notebook, answers only from the sources you load. It only knows what you give it, and every answer cites the source. That constraint is what makes it usable with students, because it can't wander off into something you didn't assign.

One upload session and every modality a kid needs is built.

YOU PUT IN: PDFs, Docs, Slides, Word files, websites, YouTube links, pasted text.

YOU GET BACK: Audio overview, video overview, slide deck, mind map, report, flashcards, quiz, infographic, data table.

STUDENTS GET: A link inside Google Classroom. No account, no setup, no sign-in on their end.

Steps

1. Make one notebook per unit, not one per class. A semester's worth of sources in one place dilutes the presentation of the content.

2. In your class, click Classwork, then Create, then Gemini Notebook. Select an existing notebook or Create new, and optionally pick published class materials to load as sources.

3. Load the sources before you do anything. A notebook takes up to 50 sources.

Two notes: Scanned worksheets and photographed handouts don't read reliably, and spreadsheets need to be exported to CSV first.

4. Ask a question in the chat and review the answer. You can click a citation to review its accuracy..

5. Generate from the Studio panel. Start with one flashcard set and one mind map or infographic.

6. Return to Classroom and assign it. Attaching it to a post shares it with your students automatically. 

Students can chat and use your Studio items, with read-only sources. 

Check the Opened by column to see who engaged.

Try it on: your unit's core texts plus the study guide. Generate a mind map and a quiz.

COPY THIS

Here are the four sources for our unit, all loaded. Build a study guide that uses only these, with the vocabulary from the glossary I uploaded rather than dictionary definitions. Then, make a twenty-question quiz at two levels, and tell me which skill each question is testing, so I can teach the misses.

NOTE: In higher ed, individuals who are 18+ can build their own Gemini Notebook from your posted materials. Students do not otherwise have access to the build model. 

How:

1. Open the Gemini tab and choose Outline a lesson plan.

2. Give it your course, grade, topic, class length, and what students should be able to do.

3. Edit before you use it. Check the draft against your standards and your actual students.

Try it On:

Grade 11 American Lit. Puritan sermons. One 50-minute class. Students explain how Edwards uses imagery to persuade.

How:

1. Open the Gemini tab and choose Re-level text.

2. Paste the text and name the grade or reading level you are aiming for.

3. Compare to the original. Make sure the key terms and the argument survived.

Same tab, computer only: create a vocabulary list, translate text (100+ languages), build a choice board.

Try it On:

A primary-source excerpt for grade 11. Re-level it for a 7th-grade reader and keep the key vocabulary.

Generate or Convert a Rubric

How:

1. Create the assignment first. Give it a title.

2. Click Rubric, then choose Generate new to draft one, or Convert from file to import one.

3. Describe it or upload it: set grade level and levels, add a Drive file, or upload a photo (.jpeg or .png).

4. Review, edit, and save. Once grading starts, you cannot edit or delete the rubric.

English only. Follows the Gemini in Classroom admin setting. Export rubrics to Sheets to share them.

Try it On:

Grade 10 argument essay, four levels: claim, evidence, analysis, MLA. Or photograph your department's paper rubric.

How:

1. Open the Gemini tab and choose Generate a quiz.

2. Say what to check: topic, grade, question types, and how many.

3. Verify every answer key. Copy what you keep into your quiz assignment or a Google Form.

Also in the Classroom mobile app. Drafts can contain wrong keys.

Try it On:

10th grade. Five questions on thesis statements: three multiple choice, one short answer, one revise-this-thesis.

A question for your admin and counsel, not legal advice

WHAT GOOGLE SAYS

1. Classroom, the Gemini app, and NotebookLM are Core Services. 

2. Google says student data is not used to train its models, and chats are not human-reviewed.

WHAT STAYS ON US

1. Google says its services support compliance. 

2. A school's agreement and settings decide whether it is compliant.

3.  FERPA covers schools that get federal Education funds, so ask if it binds yours.

THE SCARY PARTS

1. On by default.

2. It reads real grades and work.

3. Chat history is kept by default, reportedly 18 months.

4. Teachers cannot read student chats.

FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a 1974 U.S. federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. 

Free  ·  No setup

This is the skill the other four sit on top of. A weak prompt with a great feature set still gives you garbage, which is why most people who try this once decide it isn't for them.

A prompt that works has four parts. Most people only ever type the third one (the task).

Material: “Here's my pacing guide and the story, both attached.”

Constraint: “43-minute period, eighth-grade reading level, text only.”

Task: “Write eight comprehension questions.”

Formatting: “Answer key with a one-sentence rationale each.”

The material and the constraint are the parts that make the output yours.

Steps

1. Open a new chat and paste or upload your material first, before you ask for anything.

2. Name your constraints in plain sentences. Be specific about the boring stuff: minutes, grade level, number of questions, which standard.

3. State the task.

4. Say what format you want back, including anything you will need to hand to a student.

5. Read the draft against your constraints, not against your taste. Did it respect the period length? Did it stay inside the text you gave it?

6. Tell it what's wrong and run it again. This is the step people skip, and it's the step that makes the difference.

COPY THIS

Here's my pacing guide for the next two weeks and the story we're reading, both attached. Write eight comprehension questions for a 43-minute period, all of them answerable from the text itself, no outside knowledge required. Four at literal recall, four at inference. Include an answer key with a one-sentence rationale for each so I can teach the misses. Keep the reading level at eighth grade even though these are tenth graders.

Then, on the second pass:

“Questions 3 and 6 are really the same question. Replace 6 with something about how the paragraph is structured. Question 8 needs outside knowledge, so cut it.”

Where people quit: They accept the first draft, decide the output is mediocre, and conclude the tool is mediocre. The first draft is always mediocre. The second one is usable, and the third one is yours.

Works on free accounts, capped at five currently

A Project is a workspace that holds context, so you stop re-explaining yourself. It has two things a normal chat doesn't: standing instructions, and a file library. Every chat you start inside it inherits both.

This is what kept the retreat on theme. Rosters, team pages, games, and flyers all lived in one Project, so nothing drifted. It’s where I put my detailed instructions for restructuring the Spanish Curriculum.

Project Name: Examples:  U.S. History, Unit 4 · Grade 3 Reading - Fluency & Comprehension

Instructions:  Who you are (History teacher, etc), what this is for, your format rules, your limits

Files:  The chapter, the standards, your rubric, last year's version

Every chat below starts already knowing the foundation: Build the unit slides · Write the vocabulary quiz · Draft the parent overview

One unit, one Project. Not one Project called “school stuff.”

Steps

1. Click Projects in the left sidebar, then New project.

2. Name it for one real thing: “Spanish I, Chapter 3” or “American History, Unit 2.” You will have several, and vague names cost you time later.

3. Set the custom instructions, the way you'd onboard a capable student teacher who starts Monday. Cover four things: who you are and what you teach, what this Project is for, the format you want output in, and the rules that always apply.

4. Upload your files: the chapter, the standards document, your rubric, the style guide, last year's version.

5. Start a chat inside the Project and go straight to the task.

What to put in the instructions:

COPY THIS, THEN EDIT IT TO BE TRUE OF YOU.

This is for 11/12 grade general American Literature. Many of my students read at or below grade level and make considerations for 504 plans for attention. When you build anything student-facing, keep the reading level accessible and never print the reading level on the page, because students read those covers. Ask me before assuming a pacing decision. Nothing you produce is final. I review and revise everything before it goes out.

Gotchas that catch everybody:

• Chats inside a Project don't remember each other. This doesn’t mean the information is lt. Context just isn't shared between them unless the information is in the project files. If chat two needs to know what you decided in chat one, put that decision in a file or say: Access previous chat about X.

• Files don't sync. Update a document on your computer and you have to replace it in the Project by hand (uploading your recent copy). 

• Free accounts get five Projects. Save them for units you'll work on for weeks, not for one-off questions. Claude for Teachers gives more access.

Requires code execution turned on (automatically turned on with Claude for Teachers)

A Skill is your process, saved. You describe how you do a task once, and from then on it runs that way without you retyping the instructions. It fires on its own when the task matches, so you don't have to remember it exists.

I have four: parent emails, student emails, first-pass feedback on student writing, and personal writing procedures. 

Name: parent-email-drafting

Description, which is what decides whether it fires: “Use when drafting any email to a parent or guardian about missing work or behavior.”

Instructions: Your actual process, written the way you'd explain it to a colleague.

Claude reads the description to decide whether to use the Skill.

 If a Skill never fires, that's the field to fix.

Steps

1. Confirm Code execution and file creation is on, in Settings, then Capabilities.

2. Do the task the long way first, in a normal chat, until the output is genuinely how you'd want it. This is the important part. You cannot describe a process you haven't performed.

3. When satisfied, in that same chat, say: “Turn this into a skill so you do it this way every time.” It will ask you questions about your process, build the instruction file, and package it up.

4. Answer with more detail than feels necessary, enough that a capable stranger could follow your process without you in the room.

5. Save it. Your Skills live in Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills, where you can switch each one on or off.

6. Test it by describing a task it should catch. If it doesn't fire, ask Claude to sharpen the description.

7. 
   

COPY THIS

I want a skill for the emails I send parents about missing work. Here's how I do it. I open with something specific and true that the student does well. I describe the pattern, not the single incident, with dates. I state what I've already tried in class. I ask for one concrete thing instead of a vague partnership. I never use a student's real name; X stands in for it. I close warmly, and I never use the word "concerned." Ask me whatever you need, then build it.

Where people quit: The description is everything. If it's fuzzy, the Skill slips in executing the exact task you built it for, and you assume the feature is broken. Keep each one narrow, because three small Skills beat one that tries to do your whole job. A Skill you build is private to your account, so sharing one means handing a colleague the file.

Free, though school-managed accounts may need an administrator

Connectors plug Claude into where your work already lives, so you can stop copying things between tabs.

The four worth having are Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Slides.

Read this part twice: it can search your email and write drafts into your Gmail, and it cannot send anything at this time. (I want to highlight at this time because technology is rapidly changing. Things could change.) The draft sits in your drafts folder until you press send. Every action it takes on your behalf needs your approval first.

Drive: Searches and reads your documents. Can save files back.

Gmail: Searches the inbox &can write drafts if you choose. Cannot open attachments or send emails. It drafts. You tweak & send. Every time.

Calendar:  Reads your schedule, and can create or update events.

Slides: Reads your slides and can edit them based upon your input.

Steps

1. Click the plus sign in the chat box.

2. Choose Connectors, then switch on Google Drive, Gmail, or Calendar. You can take one and leave the others.

3. Sign in with your Google account and approve the permissions. The Google screen mentions sending email, which is standard Google wording and not a thing Claude can do.

4. Ask a question that needs it. Claude works out which one to reach for.

5. Approve each action as it asks, and read what it's about to do before you click.

6. Manage or disconnect any of them later under Connectors in your settings.

7. 
   

COPY THIS

Find the unit overview doc in my Drive for the poetry unit, then draft a short email to families explaining what we're doing and why, about 150 words, warm and plain. Put it in my drafts. Don't send it.

BEFORE YOU CONNECT ANYTHING

• Do not connect anything that holds student records. Your gradebook and your student information system stay out of this entirely. 

• Note: It only reaches your data when a question requires it. It isn't reading your inbox in the background.

Free · Requires Code execution and file creation turned on

An Artifact is something Claude builds instead of describes. It opens in a panel beside the chat, and you revise it there. The kind that pays off fastest for teachers is a small HTML tool: one file that opens in any browser, works offline, and does one boring job. Examples: Mine are a locker assignment generator and a table-wiping schedule.

Describe the job  →  It opens in the side panel  → Tell it what to change → Download the file

Steps

1. Describe the job and ask for one HTML file. Say what it does, who uses it, and what a finished result looks like.

2. Build it with fake names. Use "Student A, Student B" while you're in the chat. Real names never go into Claude.

3. Test it in the panel and say what's wrong. The first version is close, and the second is usable.

4. Ask for the finishing touches. Examples are a Print button, a clean one-page print layout, a Shuffle button, or a Copy button.

5. Download it and save it to your computer. Open it by clicking the downloaded file on your computer. Double-click to open it. It will open in a browser.

6. Paste your real roster into the tool in your browser. Your names stay on your computer and never reach Claude or an outside entity.

COPY THIS

Build a locker assignment tool as a single HTML file I can open in a browser. I'll paste a list of student names, one per line. Let me type the first and last locker number, and a box for any locker numbers to skip. Assign one locker per student, either in alphabetical order or randomly, with a toggle to choose. Let me list pairs of students who should not be next to each other, and keep those pairs apart. Show the result as a table with a Print button and a clean one-page layout. Everything runs in the page: no saving, no sign-in, no internet connection. Use made-up names like Student A for now.

An important note:

KEEP REAL NAMES OUT OF THE CHAT. Build the tool with made-up names like "Student A." The finished file runs in your browser and saves nothing, so you paste the real roster into it on your own computer, and the names never reach Claude. Keep the file on your computer or school Drive, don't share it as a link, and follow your school's student-privacy policy for anywhere the roster ends up.