The “10-Minute Prep” Challenge: AI Helping Your Plan & Brainsorm
Build A Better Tribe with AI
Can 10-minutes really make a difference?
And what does running have to do with implementing AI?
When I talk to my neighbors, friends, and the educators I know, I hear a common theme in their explanation about why they don’t use AI: they don’t have time.
I fear that in our minds, we’ve made using AI more complicated and time-consuming than it needs to be.
When I started on my current fitness journey, over a year ago, I really didn’t know where to start. We bought a walking pad, and I started walking a little bit whenever we were watching TV or when I was on the phone with someone.
I work from home most days, unless I’m presenting live (not virtually), so I had gotten into a bad habit of not moving my body much.
Anyway, little by litte, 5-minutes of walking became 10.
Then 10 minutes became an hour-long show.
And 65 pounds lighter, I can truly say, starting with something is better than thinking yourself out of the solution.
Start small.
Start somewhere.
Start today.
But How Do I Start?
That’s a great question, and one I’ve dedicated hours to studying so I can teach it well.
The quickest answer is this: just start.
If you are a burned-out teacher, AI can serve as a great “thought” partner, brainstormer, and idea machine.
“Uh-Oh, AI is Gross!”
Ok, time to talk about the elephant in the room.
In a future blog, I will further address the very real dangers that exist in using AI.
This is exactly why I train teachers not only how to use AI ethically and appropriately, but also how to teach their students to be good digital citizens.
Years ago, I attended a tech conference where the author & educator George Couros said something like this (forgive me George for the paraphrase – it’s been years!),
“When we don’t teach our children how to use social media and technology appropriately, it doesn’t erase the problem. It’s like us throwing them in the ocean, and expecting them to magically know how to swim.
And our kids are drowning.”
Here’s the thing.
AI is here.
It’s growing exponentially,
it’s transforming everything around us, and if we’re not using it, ask yourself, how will we have a voice when laws and structure is being built around it?
Ok, I’ll get off my pulpit.
Let’s get more granular.
Below, I give you 3 real-life examples of “Sunday Scary” situations that I have experienced as a teacher or when I was a principal, and an AI prompt that you can personalize and stick into your favorite platform, perhaps Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
But whichever you choose doesn’t matter!
Just see what you get.
The 10-Minute Challenge: Three Ways to Begin
Just like those first five minutes on the walking pad, you don’t need to overhaul your entire curriculum today. You just need ten minutes and one specific task. Here is how you can use AI to win back your prep period:
1. The “Hook” Generator (3 Minutes) Struggling to find a way to get your 9th graders excited about Shakespeare or your 3rd graders interested in long division? Open your AI tool of choice and type: “I am teaching [topic] to [grade level]. Give me five creative, high-energy lesson hooks that relate this topic to [current pop culture trend or student interest].” Suddenly, you have five ideas. Pick one, tweak it, and you’re done.
2. The Differentiation Assistant (5 Minutes) We all have those lessons that are perfect for the “middle,” but leave our advanced learners bored and our struggling readers overwhelmed. Take a paragraph from your upcoming lesson and ask AI to: “Rewrite this text at a 5th-grade reading level and a 10th-grade reading level, and provide three scaffolded comprehension questions for each.” You’ve just differentiated a lesson in less time than it takes to walk to the office copier.
3. The Email “Softener” (2 Minutes) We’ve all been there—you need to send an update to a parent about a difficult situation, but you’re tired and worried your tone might come off the wrong way. Paste your draft into the AI and ask: “Rephrase this email to be more collaborative and supportive while maintaining the necessary boundaries.” It takes the emotional labor off your plate so you can hit “send” with confidence.
Better Together
The goal isn’t to let a machine take over your classroom; it’s to let technology handle the heavy lifting so you can get back to the part of the job you actually love: the students.
When we save ten minutes here and ten minutes there, we aren’t just saving time. We are saving our energy. We are protecting our peace. We are building a sustainable career that doesn’t require us to run ourselves into the ground.
Your Homework (The Easy Kind!)
I want to challenge you this week. Pick one small task—maybe it’s drafting a rubric, generating a list of vocabulary sentences, or creating a newsletter template—and give yourself ten minutes to do it with AI.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about being an expert. Just get on the “walking pad” and see where those ten minutes take you.
You’ve got this. I am rooting for you!!!
Let’s build a better tribe, one ten-minute win at a time.
Your friend,
Vimbo
P.S. If you found any of this helpful, email our team at hello@vimbowatson.com and let us know how you used my advice!
Join a community of educators using AI to protect their peace. Every week, you’ll receive:
The Classroom Edge: Quick AI wins for your students.
The Leadership Lift: Smart systems for school leaders.
The Personal Reset: An AI shortcut to help you head home on time.
All designed to be implemented in 10 minutes or less!
