Introduction
Every day, new AI-assisted teaching websites are being created, promising to be great time savers. Currently a lot of them are free but it is very likely that soon most of them will start charging for subscriptions, and I am therefore wary of getting to reliant on any of them in the new school year. Instead, I have started creating my own database of prompts using a Notion database that includes the types of exercises that I often use in my languages classroom. Having them ready in an easy to use library means that I don't have to repeatedly type out long, complex prompts that include a title, instructions and an answer sheet. It also means that I can quickly change a prompt if I need to make improvements to it and I can easily share it with my colleagues.
This is what my prompt library looks like: MFL prompts Library
It is a public website that can be used by anyone and it can also be duplicated and adapted for their own needs – feel free to do so.
This was the first time I used Notion and after working out some of the basics, it is quite easy to get started. I found the YouTube videos by Thomas Frank very useful, you can find a collection here.
I have also made my own instruction on this YouTube video that should get your basic library set up in a few minutes. If you prefer to read the instructions, here are the steps to build a simple database like my example.
Creating a Notion page
Notion allows you to create unlimited pages which can all link to each other. A page can contain text, pictures, calendars and other items, but the main feature we are going to use are databases, which are basically tables that can be easily filtered and sorted. Each item in the table will automatically be its own page, which in our case will contain a title, a prompt and some tags or categories to find items quicker.
Setting up the homepage
Start on notion.so and create a free account.
You will start on an example page
On the left hand side, select “Add a page”. This is the new homepage of your project. Give it a name, e.g. Prompt Library
When you hover over the title, you get the option to add an icon and a cover picture (either your own or from the Unsplash library). This is purely for decoration, but makes it look more like a proper website.
Click “Empty page” in the slightly grey list at the bottom or click into the empty space underneath all the different options.
Now type “/gallery” (with the forward slash) and select “Gallery view”.
In the list on right, select “New database” at the bottom of the list
It will create an unnamed gallery with 3 more or less empty pages, these are going to be the categories for your prompts
Rename the untitled database e.g. Categories or click the three dots next to “unnamed” and select “hide database title”
You can change the view settings of your gallery, by clicking on the three dots next to "New", then "Layout". I have chosen the following settings:
show database title - off
card preview: page cover
card size: small
open pages in full page
Creating the first category page
Click onto “Page 1”/ "untitled page" and change the title to the first category, e.g. “Starter activities”. If you hover over the title, you get the option to add an icon and a cover picture
Make the page full screen by clicking the double arrow in the top left.
Delete the example to-do list on the page by clicking into the space below it and deleting everything.
Add another database on this page. Now type “/data” (with the forward slash) and select “Database - inline”
You can now add a name for your first prompt, e.g. “Fact of the day”
Creating tags
If you want to keep the “tags” column, you can click into the empty cell and write the name of your tag, e.g. “beginners” or “warm-ups”.
When you press enter, the tag is created and can now be selected easily in any cell in this column.
You can add as many tags as you like.
You can also filter your table by tags – simply hover over the title and the “filter” option will appear.
Now you get a drop down option underneath the database title where you can select different options.
Click the three dots in the corner of the drop-down option list to delete the filter and see all items again.
Adding prompts
Hover over the third column and click the plus to add another column. Give it a name, e.g. “Prompts” and select “Text”.
Enter the text of your prompt e.g. “Give me 3 interesting facts about [topic] that are unusual, surprising or amusing and would appeal to 14-year olds”. More about prompt writing below.
If you want to keep your table to one row, no matter how long the prompt is, click on the column header and turn off “wrap column”
Add more text or tag columns if you like, e.g. you could tag the year group that the prompt is most suitable for, the AI platform that it works best with or the unit or text book it applies to.
Continue filling in more prompts for the category.
To see a prompt that you have created, hover over the name and click the “open” icon . By default, it will open it in a smaller side window to the right. To change it so it appears as a full page, click the half coloured square icon at the top and select “edit default view” and then “full page”
Adding more pages or text
To get back to a previous page or the homepage, use the navigation at the very top of your page that might look like this:
Prompt Library/Categories/Starter Activities…
Return to the main page. It should show your first category now.
Click on page 2 and repeat the process with your next category.
If you want to add notes, text or a link, e.g. to your favourite AI website, click underneath the gallery and start typing. If you hover over the text, you will see 6 dots, grab them to move the text to a different place.
Sharing your page
If you want to share your page, click the share option in the top right and choose “share” or “publish”.
The published site looks a bit cleaner and less cluttered because it doesn’t show any editing options, so you might want to use this link in your day-to-day use of your prompt library, if you are not making any changes to it.
Advice on prompt writing
Here is an example for a more complex prompt that would be worth adding to the library:
Create a worksheet. The title is “Match up”. The instructions are “Connect the matching items by writing the correct number and letter.”. Create a table with 4 columns labelled “Number”, “English”, “Letter” and “German”. Fill the “Numbers” column with numbers 1-10. Fill the “letters” column with letters A-J. Fill the “English” column 10 words in English based on this vocabulary list {{vocab list}}. Fill the “German” column with the German translations, but not in the same order as the English. Do not indicated which words match. Create an separate answer sheet for the teacher that shows the correct pairs of numbers and letters.Some advice on writing prompts:
Make your prompts as general as possible, e.g. don’t put in a specific topic or age group but add place holders like [age] or [unit]. This means that you can use the same prompt in lots of lessons, you just have to replace the items in the brackets and you don’t even need to bother deleting the brackets, ChatGPT is quite good at ignoring them.
In my database I have used placeholders with {{double brackets}} because I am using the Chrome extension called “GPT superpowers” which, among other things, searches all prompts for this kind of bracket and provides a pop-up window where the variable can be entered. See my blog on Chrome extensions.
Include lots of these placeholders – the more information the AI gets about the target group, skill level and aim of the lesson, the better the output will be. The placeholders will remind you to add this information for the specific case you are using them for.
Include information about the title and instructions to your prompt, it saves you having to add it yourself. It seems, however, very difficult to stop ChatGPT from writing “Title:” and “Instructions:” in front of it, even if you tell it not to!
End each prompt with “add a separate answer sheet for the teacher”. You will need to check it with the task to make sure it is correct, especially if you are using the free version of ChatGPT, but at least it saves you writing it out.
If you are creating multiple-choice or match-up activities, you need to specify that the correct answer should not always be the first one and not to indicate the correct answers in the question.
If you create any prompt libraries for your subject, it would be great if you could share a link in the comments. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could connect them all and create a massive Teaching Prompt Wikipedia? But maybe that is too big a dream…
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