Try it now

Three rounds, in pairs, then two templates to keep. Use the Claude or Gemini app; the free version is fine. No app? Open claude.ai or gemini.google.com in your browser.

One rule: nothing that identifies a child goes into a public tool.No names, no admission numbers, no photos of named work, no reports, nothing about family or health.

The page

This is your ground truth. In Round 1 you photograph it: use the printed seat card, or take a screenshot of the passage below. The seat card as a PDF.

Chapter 6 · The Kandyan Kingdom · 6.3 Why the kingdom lasted so long · p.50

The Kandyan Kingdom kept its independence for more than two centuries after the coastal areas came under European control. Three things helped it survive.

First, the land. The kingdom lay in the central hills. Thick forests covered the slopes, and the monsoon rains turned paths into mud for months at a time. An army marching from the coast had to climb, cut its way through, and wait for the weather.

Second, the roads. There were none that a large army could use. Soldiers carried their own food and supplies on their backs, so every column moved slowly and could not stay in the hills for long.

Third, the way the Kandyans fought. They rarely met an invading army in open battle. Instead they let it advance, then attacked its supply lines and struck the tired columns as they retreated. Several invasions reached the city of Kandy and still failed.

The kingdom came to an end in 1815, when the British and the Kandyan chiefs signed an agreement.

Think about it: which of the three reasons mattered most? Why?

Original passage written for this session in the style of a Grade 7 textbook. Not from any published book.

1 Photograph the page. Get a worksheet.

At 9:05 on Ms Perera's day.

  1. Open your app. Tap + or the camera.
  2. Photograph the page on your seat card.
  3. Paste this, then send:

From this page only, write a 6-question worksheet for Grade 7 with the answers. Q1–3 basic, Q4–5 harder, Q6 a challenge. Give a page reference for every answer.

When the worksheet appears, send one more line:

Make a version for a student who finds reading difficult. Keep the same learning goal.

Then check, with your neighbour. Everyone photographed the same page.

  1. Compare your Q3 with theirs. Same page, different worksheet.
  2. Did it add a name or a date that is not on the page? Circle it.
  3. Look at the second version. What improved? What was lost?

2 Same tool, different instruction

Part 2. Now you are the student. One phone: one of you types, the other watches.

  1. Open a new chat. Paste this, then send:

I’m in Grade 8. Don’t give me the answer, even if I ask for it. Ask me one question at a time until I find my mistake. Question: School shoes cost Rs. 5,000. The sale takes 20% off. Paying by card takes off another 20%. How much do I pay? My answer: Rs. 3,000. My teacher marked it wrong.

  1. Answer its first question.
  2. When it asks again, send:

Just tell me the answer. I have a test tomorrow.

  1. Keep going until you find the mistake.

Watcher: did it ever give the answer away?

Did it hold? That’s the line: “Don’t give me the answer, even if I ask for it.” The version for your students is in For your students.

3 Test your task before they do

Write one homework task you set last week in the Round 3 space on your card. Photograph your handwriting, then paste. Not to catch anyone: to see what the finished work still tells you.

Do this homework the way a good student in that grade would. The task is in the photo.

Then ask yourself two things.

  1. What learning did I want to see?
  2. What else would show me it? A conversation, a first draft, a question in class.

If the finished work no longer shows the learning, change the task: no AI, AI-assisted, or AI-required. Say which, before they start.

Should students use AI?

Yes, to help them think.
No, to think for them.

WHOFrom 13, with the habits. Younger children: you use it for them, not on their own. Check the tool's own age terms and your school's policy.
WHENTask by task, said out loud before they start: no AI, AI-assisted, or AI-required.
HOWBrain first, bot second. Hints, not answers. Explain it back, tool closed. Say when AI helped.

Not a ban: it stops at the school gate, and children with help at home pull further ahead. Not a free-for-all: in one study, students who practised with a chatbot that gave answers did 17% worse in the test without it than students who never had it; those with a chatbot built to give hints did no worse.

Based on UNESCO's Guidance for generative AI in education and research (2023), which sets an age limit of 13 for AI tools in the classroom and puts human agency first, and UNESCO's AI competency framework for students (2024). Study: Bastani et al., PNAS, 2025.

Two templates to keep

For any subject and grade. Fill in the boxes once and both templates fill themselves in. Then photograph or attach your pages, paste one, and send. Nothing that identifies a child.

Give it the PAGE

PPage. Your textbook, syllabus or notes. Photograph it. Never a child’s name or work.
AAudience. Subject, grade, the class, how long.
GGoal. What they should be able to do. The mistake you expect.
EExactly. What you want back: the parts, the marks, the format.
Two more, for a better lesson plan

1. Lesson preparation

2. Worksheet, answers and marking scheme

Both end by asking it to check itself against your pages. Then you check it: TRACE.

TRACE it before you use it

Fluent isn’t the same as right. Five checks before anything reaches a child.

  1. TTry it yourself. Do the hardest questions before you read its answers. For a lesson, walk through the timings: does it fit your period and your room?
  2. RReferences. Open the page for every page number. Is it really there?
  3. AAnswers and marks. Does each answer match the page? Does the marking scheme match the answers? Do the marks add up?
  4. CClass. Right level, right words, examples your children know? Does the easier version still ask the same thing?
  5. EExtras. Anything that isn’t in your pages: names, dates, quotes, numbers? Cross it out, or check it somewhere you trust.

Fluent isn’t the same as right. TRACE it, then sign it.

For your students

For students 13 and over. Copy it into the front of the exercise book, the class group, or the wall.

  1. Brain first, bot second. Ten minutes alone with the problem before you open anything.
  2. Hints, not answers. Start every chat with the coach line below.
  3. Explain it back. Tool closed. If you can't explain it, you haven't got it yet.
  4. Say when AI helped. A habit, not a confession.

The coach line

I’m a student. Don’t give me the answer, even if I ask for it. Give me one hint at a time, and ask me a question after each hint, until I can explain it myself.

Five rules for your classroom, from tomorrow

  1. Nothing that identifies a child goes into a public tool.
  2. AI drafts. You decide. Every claim checked. You sign it.
  3. Declare the version: no-AI, AI-assisted or AI-required.
  4. Younger children: you hold the tool. They get it through you.
  5. Say when it helped. Expect the same from students.

Your first month

One familiar task a week. Your own pace. A colleague to compare with helps.

  1. Week 1. The worksheet template, on next week’s topic. TRACE it.
  2. Week 2. The lesson template, for one lesson. Improve one line of your PAGE after you see the answer.
  3. Week 3. Swap with a colleague and TRACE each other’s. Test one task you are about to set.
  4. Week 4. Teach one class the four habits. Hand out the coach line.

More prompts

These use the subject, grade and topic you filled in under Templates. Always: nothing identifying, and TRACE it before you use it.

Self-check: twelve habits

Private. For you only, not a test. Tick what is true today. Save it, and look again in four weeks. It stays on this phone.