Teacher’s Guide to AI “Gems”: Slashing Your Workload in Minutes
As a teacher, your to-do list is endless: lesson planning, differentiation, marking, report writing, and generating resource after resource.
If you are using AI to help manage this workload, you might find yourself typing the same long explanations over and over again to get the quality you need. That is where Gems come in.
A “Gem” is essentially a custom, reusable version of an AI assistant that you program once with specific instructions, templates, and your unique teaching context. Instead of re-typing “Act as a Year 4 primary teacher in England…” every single day, you just click your custom Gem, and it’s ready to work exactly how you want.
Here is how you can build and use Gems to claw back hours of your planning and administrative time.
4 Essential Gems Every Teacher Needs
You can create different Gems for different areas of your workload.
Here are four highly effective templates to get you started:
1. The Differentiation Ally
- The Purpose: Takes a core text, lesson concept, or worksheet and instantly adapts it for different attainment levels or SEN requirements.
- What you tell it: “You are an expert in educational differentiation. I will provide a topic or text, and you will rewrite it at three different reading levels (Working Towards, Expected, and Greater Depth), keeping the core learning objective identical.”
2. The Report Writer
- The Purpose: Turns rough bullet points about a student into a polished, professional, and warm school report.
- What you tell it: “You are a supportive school teacher writing end-of-term reports. I will give you a student’s name, pronouns, and 3-4 rough bullet points. You will transform this into a professional, 150-word report paragraph that highlights a strength, an area for growth, and follows our school policy of positive reinforcement.”
3. The Resource & Quiz Generator
- The Purpose: Instantly creates low-stakes retrieval quizzes, comprehension questions, or exam-style prompts.
- What you tell it: “You are a curriculum design expert. I will give you a topic or age group, and you will generate a 5-question multiple-choice retrieval quiz, complete with an answer key and explanations for common misconceptions.”
4. The Parent Email Diplomat
- The Purpose: Drafts clear, professional, and tactful emails to parents regarding behavior, attendance, or praise, saving you from worrying over the perfect wording.
- What you tell it: “You are a tactful, professional, and empathetic school teacher. I will give you the raw details of an issue or praise regarding a student, and you will draft a polite email to their parents that invites collaboration and maintains a positive school-home relationship.”
Step-by-Step: How to Create Your First Gem
Building a Gem takes less than five minutes. Follow this blueprint to ensure it gives you high-quality results every single time.
Step 1: Open the Gem Creator
Look at your AI interface (like Gemini Advanced) and look for the Gems section or “Create a Gem” option in the sidebar.
Step 2: Give it a Clear Name and Persona
Name your Gem something obvious (e.g., Year 6 Math Planner or Report Assistant). In the instructions box, start by defining its role.
- Example: “You are a seasoned Primary School Teacher specialising in the UK National Curriculum.”
Step 3: Set the Rules and Guardrails
Tell the Gem exactly what to do -and what not to do. Be specific about tone, formatting, and constraints.
- Example: “Always use UK English spelling. Avoid overly complex educational jargon. Structure your outputs with clear bullet points and bold headers so they are easy to skim.”
Step 4: Define the Input and Output
Tell the Gem what you will give it, and what you expect back.
- Example: “I will provide you with a learning objective. You will output a 3-part lesson structure: a 5-minute starter hook, a 15-minute main activity, and a 5-minute plenary.”
Step 5: Save and Test
Click create! Test it by feeding it a quick topic. If the output isn’t quite right, you can edit the Gem’s instructions at any time to fine-tune it.
💡 Top Tips for Teachers Using Gems
🔒 Data Privacy First: Never paste sensitive student data, full names, or confidential school details into an AI tool. Use placeholders like [Student Name] or [Child X] and fill the real details in later.
- Upload Your School Policies: If your school has a specific marking policy, feedback framework, or writing style guide, you can paste that text directly into the Gem’s instructions. The AI will then align all of its outputs with your school’s official expectations.
- Keep Refining: Treat your Gems like a student teacher. If they make a mistake or give you something too wordy, click “Edit Gem” and add a rule like: “Keep all responses under 300 words.”
Which area of your workload takes up the most time right now? Gemini can help you draft the exact prompt instructions to build a custom Gem for it.