27 ChatGPT “Hacks” for Educators and Education Leaders

When ChatGPT exploded into the world’s awareness in November 2022, it immediately became a game-changer in many fields, including education. This artificial intelligence (AI) language generator is already providing invaluable help to many teachers at all grade levels, boosting efficiency, saving time, and opening creative doors for students.

Using ChatGPT can aid educators in several ways, from creating lesson plans to acting as an individualized digital tutor for students and easing communication with parents. 

In a world where teachers often find themselves overburdened with many responsibilities, ChatGPT is a welcome resource that can help instructors prioritize what matters while still getting everything done.

Let’s take a look at some top hacks you can use to incorporate ChatGPT as a tool in your educational strategies and activities.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a large language model tool developed by OpenAI. It’s meticulously trained on massive amounts of text from vast sources to grasp human language and replicate it effectively. This tool is versatile and can answer questions, generate content, write code, and chat with human beings. 

When you input text into ChatGPT, it analyzes what you’ve said through statistical analysis and pattern recognition and generates a relevant, human-like response. Think of it as an advanced version of the predictive text feature on your phone that suggests the next word when you’re writing a text message.

Essential ChatGPT plugins for educators

ChatGPT has already started to transform the classroom, with a multitude of plug-ins available to enhance your teaching toolbox. Among the most useful plug-ins are:

• Wolfram: This STEM plug-in provides access to math and science data for K-12 instructors, with the ability to generate math problems up to calculus, and it offers plenty of science information for planning lessons.
• ScholarAI: This plug-in offers access to peer-reviewed studies across all science fields.
• ChatGPT Writer: This tool helps you generate messages and emails quickly and clearly.
• EdX: This ChatGPT plug-in acts as a personal librarian, connecting you to university-level class content from institutions around the world, including videos and quizzes.
• ABCMouse: K-3 teachers can make great use of this plug-in, which provides age-appropriate lessons and activities.

How educators can use ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a versatile ally in creating assignments, quizzes, and lesson plans. It can help with classroom management and give you the mental boost you need when your week is overly stressed. When you rely on ChatGPT to help with prep work and follow-up tasks, you can devote your time and energy to your students. 

Explore these practical hacks to use ChatGPT to its fullest potential across your workload, covering everything from lesson planning to creating writing prompts.

Lesson plans

ChatGPT can turn out a basic lesson plan on virtually any subject in less than a minute. To tailor these plans for optimal effectiveness in your classroom, consider these tips: 

• Ask ChatGPT to include essential elements such as objectives, activities, materials required for activities, homework ideas, and follow-up/recapitulation material to make sure students understood the lesson.
• Tweak the lesson plan ChatGPT delivers to suit your classroom, using the generated plan as a jumping-off point.
• Employ ChatGPT for creating lesson plans for substitute teachers when you’re going to be absent, ensuring continuity.

Assessments and tests

Pop quizzes and other assessments can become easy when you put ChatGPT to work.

• Provide ChatGPT with the assessment topic, the number of questions and their difficulty level, and the targeted grade level when creating tests.
• Use ChatGPT for developing reading assessments, including the content to be read and the corresponding questions.
• Ask ChatGPT to vary question types to keep assessments engaging and cater to different learning strategies.
• Encourage students to use ChatGPT as a resource for reviewing materials before a test.
• Save time by using ChatGPT to grade multiple-choice tests and quizzes.

Classroom activities

Whether you’re building learning stations or creating activities for specific student groups, ChatGPT can deliver a wealth of ideas. Follow these tips for best results:

• Identify any special needs in your classroom, such as physical disabilities, to tailor   activities accordingly.
• Tell ChatGPT about your students’ existing knowledge, so it can design appropriate activities.
• Request hands-on learning activity ideas, and ask ChatGPT to provide a materials list.

Research use

While ChatGPT has shown some flaws in its early research reliability, it’s still of value for educators because of its ability to synthesize information in a way that a search engine can’t. 

• Use ChatGPT to amalgamate and synthesize information on complex topics.
• Teach students verification skills by having them source the research provided by ChatGPT.

Writing prompts

One of the most popular uses of ChatGPT in the classroom is the generation of writing prompts. No matter how often you’ve taught a topic, offering new writing prompts can bring a fresh perspective. Use these tips to make ChatGPT stimulate your students’ minds and improve their writing.

• Use essay question prompts to help students generate their own essay topics.
• Ask ChatGPT to generate essay outlines, then students can expand them into full essays.
• Help students get past the fear of writer’s block by having ChatGPT write opening sentences or paragraphs, sparking creativity.

Letter-writing

While it’s not directly classroom related, the task of letter-writing can pile up on your desk. Let ChatGPT streamline this process, so you can focus on what matters.

• Request ChatGPT to write routine or difficult letters or emails to parents that you can then tweak appropriately.
• Use ChatGPT to write first drafts of recommendation letters for seniors applying to college.
• Ask ChatGPT for help when writing those lengthy comments required on report cards.
• Have ChatGPT compose the first draft of your classroom newsletter.

Digital tutor

You may not have enough time in your day to provide students with the individualized help and tutoring they need. ChatGPT can step in to help students move forward.

• Ask ChatGPT for concrete ideas of goals and actions to meet students’ IEPs, which you can then personalize further.
• Enable students to engage with ChatGPT to conduct research and explore innovative ideas.
• Use ChatGPT to emulate the styles of well-known writers, then have students analyze the results to see what ChatGPT got right and wrong.
• For questions beyond students’ current understanding, use ChatGPT to provide age-appropriate answers.

Feedback

ChatGPT is effective in providing feedback on student-generated writing. You can also use it to help students learn critiquing skills by following these tips.

• Use ChatGPT for initial copy editing of student assignments, and have the students review and rewrite accordingly.
• Have ChatGPT generate an essay on a given topic, then ask students to critique its work to practice for peer reviews.
• Ask ChatGPT for feedback on your own lesson plans and assessments, so you can make appropriate changes.

To read more helpful tips for ChatGPT, check out our ChatGPT for Teachers Guide.