AI Blocks › Teach and train people
Hard topic teaching guide
Name a topic you find hard to teach. Get common learner mistakes and the examples that clear them up.
Hard topic teaching guide is a free AI skill for the job "Teach and train people". Give the instructions to an AI assistant that supports the required files and tools, then review its output.
Free · No account · CC BY SA 4.0 licence · Made by Gareth Manning
Made by Gareth Manning. See the original on GitHub; we copied it as it is, with its licence.
What it does
A topic guide for the lesson you feel least ready to teach. Knowing a subject is one thing. Knowing where learners get stuck, and which example clears it up, is another skill, and it is the one this guide builds. You name the topic, the age group and your own background. The skill then maps the mistakes learners commonly make, why they make them, and what each mistake tells you. It suggests the best analogies, models, examples and demonstrations, and explains which suits which type of confusion. It also checks your likely strengths and gaps with this topic, based on your training. The ideas come from research on pedagogical content knowledge, in plain language.
You give it
- The topic or unit you will teach
- The age group or year
- Your background with this topic
- Mistakes you already see (optional)
- Your curriculum framework (optional)
You get
- A list of common learner mistakes and causes
- Best examples, models and analogies
- A read on your likely strengths and gaps
- Questions to check understanding mid-lesson
Use it when
- You are teaching a topic outside your main subject and feel unsure.
- Students keep making the same mistake and you are not sure how to fix it.
- You want better examples for a concept that never lands.
- You are preparing a new unit and want to plan for confusion before it happens.
How to use it
- Add it to your AI once: download it and add the folder to Claude, ChatGPT or Codex as a skill.
- Ask for the job in your own words. Your AI opens the skill when it fits.