AI School Leadership Minute: The Time-Saving AI Prompt Guide

AI School Leadership Minute: The Time-Saving AI Prompt Guide 
If you’ve ever typed something into ChatGPT and thought:

“Well, that wasn’t helpful...” 

This AI skill will change everything for you.

🎥 Prefer a video tutorial? Watch: How School Leaders Can Create AI Prompts That Save Hours

How to Write AI Prompts That Work
If your AI responses are vague, confusing, or flat-out wrong, the problem isn’t ChatGPT.

The problem is the prompt.

An excellent AI prompt has four parts:
✅ Role – Who should ChatGPT become?
✅ Action – What do you need it to do?
✅ Format – How should the response be structured?
✅ Context – What details does it need to do the job well?

Let’s build a real school leadership prompt using this framework.

Step 1: Set the Role
First, tell ChatGPT who it should act as. This improves the quality of the response and changes how it processes information.

📌 Example:
“Act as a school leader with world-class coaching skills for teachers and staff."

ChatGPT will now generate insights through a world-class coaching lens.

Step 2: Define the Action
Now, be specific about what you need ChatGPT to do. Vague prompts lead to vague answers.

📌 Example:
“Act as a school leader with world-class coaching skills for teachers and staff. Write an improvement plan."

At this stage, ChatGPT knows who it is (a coaching-focused school leader) and what it needs to do (write an improvement plan).

Step 3: Choose the Format
How should ChatGPT structure the response? A detailed report? A list? A table? Defining the format makes the output clear and usable.

📌 Example:
"Act as a school leader with world-class coaching skills for teachers and staff. Write an improvement plan. The improvement plan should include actionable steps and a way to track progress."

Now, you won’t get something generic. ChatGPT will provide a practical plan. It will include clear action steps and a method to track progress.

Step 4: Add Context
Finally, give real-world details so ChatGPT understands the situation. The more context you provide, the better the response.

📌 Example:
"Act as a school leader with world-class coaching skills for teachers and staff. Write an improvement plan. The improvement plan should include actionable steps and a way to track progress. You are struggling with your instructional coach. They have a sarcastic and off-putting personality. They do not treat teachers with respect in coaching conversations." 

Now, ChatGPT will tailor the plan specifically to your situation.

Why This Matters
Most people type one-sentence prompts. Then, they wonder why AI gives them useless answers.

The better your prompt, the better your results.

Weekend Challenge:
Watch “How School Leaders Can Create AI Prompts That Save Hours” for a detailed explanation. I break down five prompts using this framework.

Use this to save time without sacrificing the quality of your work.

To more AI wins,
William Grube

P.S. - Here’s a Google Doc that builds 5 different prompts using this framework.