A K-12 teacher's week with Claude: planning, differentiation and checks for understanding
Publicado em 2026-10-12
Most of what Claude can take off your plate sits around the lesson rather than inside it: turning a standard into a plan, rewriting one task for three readiness levels, writing a quick check that shows who got it, getting handouts and announcements into Google Classroom or Canvas, and making sense of Friday's exit tickets. This guide walks through one week, one job per day, with the tools in this directory that handle each step. The running example is a 7th grade math lesson planned on Monday, differentiated on Tuesday and taught on Wednesday.
Two survey numbers set the scene. In a 2025 Walton Family Foundation and Gallup survey, teachers who used AI at least weekly estimated they saved 5.9 hours a week. In the 2026 round, just 18% of US public K-12 teachers said they had received any formal guidance from school administrators on how to use AI. Most of you are setting your own rules. The rules in this guide: no identifiable student data goes in, you check everything students will see, and you do the grading.
Where to start
| Your situation | Start with | What you need first |
|---|---|---|
| US K-12 teacher with no time for setup | Claude for Teachers (the K-12 skills come pre-installed) | Teacher verification; sign up by June 30, 2027 |
| Claude Code on another plan | K-12 Education plugin (all four K-12 skills in one install) | Claude Code; Python 3 for the Word files |
| Codex | The four K-12 skills, with the Codex command on each card | Node.js (for npx); Python 3 for the Word files |
| Math teacher who wants misconception checks | K-12 Check for Understanding, then ASSISTments Math | Claude Code for ASSISTments Math; an ASSISTments account only to save problems there |
| Posting the same materials to several Google Classroom sections | gws-classroom | Your own Google Cloud project, OAuth, IT approval |
| Posting the same materials to several Canvas courses | Canvas MCP Server | Canvas API token (may need IT); Python 3.11+, also for the Claude Desktop extension |
Before Monday: the account and the setup
Claude for Teachers launched on July 14, 2026. According to Anthropic's announcement, verified US K-12 educators get premium Claude features free; sign up by June 30, 2027 for a full year of access. It includes Claude Code and Cowork, connects to Learning Commons for academic standards across all 50 states, and Anthropic says it never trains its models on Claude for Teachers conversations. Student information is covered by Anthropic's K-12 Data Processing Addendum, which includes FERPA-aligned protections.
That is not permission to paste student records. In an August 28, 2026 update to the announcement, Anthropic added that using identifiable student information requires authorization from the school or district; schools and districts that want to give it set that up through Anthropic's separate school and district offering. A July 21 note says district and state policies decide whether and how educational data may be used. The plan is for educators only, in line with Claude's 18-and-over policy, so it is not something to hand to students.
With that account, the four K-12 teaching skills below are already installed and the Learning Commons connector is included, so you can skip every install step in this section and on the four skill cards. Those steps are for teachers on another plan. Pick one route:
- Claude Code: install the K-12 Education plugin below, once. It contains all four skills, so skip the install commands on the four skill cards, or you end up with two copies of each.
- Codex: the plugin has no Codex version. Use the Codex command on each skill's card instead.
claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/k12-teacher-skills && claude plugin install k12-education@k12-teacher-skills
The plugin also lists connections to nine third-party teacher tools you can switch on: ASSISTments, Brisk Teaching, Canva, Coteach, Diffit, Eedi, MagicSchool, Snorkl and TeachFX. Each is a separate company's service, so check that your district has approved it before connecting.
On either route you also need Python 3 on your computer for the Word files that Monday's and Tuesday's skills produce. Their bundled script installs the python-docx library itself; if that install fails, you get HTML previews but no Word documents.
The skills do better with a standards lookup. Without one, they work from general knowledge: the lesson-plan and differentiation skills add a footer saying so (for example, "Generated without the Learning Commons Knowledge Graph"), and the check for understanding only notes that its standards and common errors reflect general best practice. Either way, check the standard codes yourself.
On another Claude plan, you can add Learning Commons from Claude's connector directory; Learning Commons says the connector is free and available to all Claude users. For Claude Code or Codex, create an API key on the Learning Commons Platform and run the command below (the card has a Codex command too).
claude mcp add --transport http --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LC_API_KEY" learning-commons-kg https://kg.mcp.learningcommons.org/mcp
The MCP server docs warn that tool names and parameter schemas may change in future releases. Its three tools look up a standard, break it into learning components (available for math and ELA) and trace learning progressions (math only).
What never goes into a prompt
The FERPA regulations define personally identifiable information broadly: student and family names, addresses, student ID numbers, date of birth, and any other information that, alone or combined, would let someone in the school community identify a student with reasonable certainty. Since its August update, Anthropic's own examples use de-identified classroom data, and it asks you to bring "de-identified diagnostics, exit tickets, and notes."
In practice:
- Replace names with codes (S01, S02) and keep the key in your gradebook, not in the chat.
- Describe needs instead of pasting documents: "two newcomer English learners at WIDA level 2, three students with extended time" rather than an IEP or 504 plan.
- Remove names, ID numbers and anything distinctive from student work before you upload a sample.
- Remember that tools connected to your LMS read real data: listing a roster or submissions sends student names into the chat (more on Thursday).
- If your district has an approved-tools list or its own data agreement, it overrides anything in this guide.
Monday: plan the lesson
Hand Claude the grade, subject, standard or topic, class length, the day you will teach it, and what you know about where the class is.
If you are on Claude for Teachers or installed the plugin, this skill and the three that follow are already there; on Codex, use the Codex command on each card.
It covers math, English language arts, science and social studies. It asks at most two clarifying questions, then offers a choice between the full packet (editable Word documents) and a quick draft in chat. Take the draft: changes are faster there. It writes original material rather than copying curriculum text, and it is deliberately not for grading, rubrics or quizzes.
I teach 7th grade math, 50-minute periods, Common Core. Build a lesson on 7.RP.A.2 (recognizing proportional relationships) that I'll teach on Wednesday. About a third of the class still compares ratios by adding instead of multiplying. Show me the quick draft first.
Before you teach it, rehearse the key task:
It hands you the lesson's key task, asks you to solve it and name where an almost-right student answer would go wrong, and only then adds what it saw. It says so plainly if you get the content wrong, and finishes with a 200 to 300 word prep note.
Tuesday: differentiate
Continue in Monday's chat, attach Monday's Word file, or upload or link another lesson, and add your groups' needs without names. You can also name an Illustrative Mathematics or OpenSciEd lesson, but only when the Learning Commons connector can fetch it: the skill relies on a curriculum lookup that the public MCP server's three documented tools don't include, so if the named lesson doesn't come through, upload or link it instead.
You get a teacher plan and three student documents (Groups A, B and C) that keep the same context and core tasks, so the class can come back together. It looks for any mention of English-learner levels, IEP goal areas or 504 accommodations and builds them into the tiers; if you give none, it applies Universal Design for Learning defaults and tells you. Without a state, it anchors math and ELA to Common Core and science to NGSS; for social studies it asks which state you teach in. Like Monday's skill, it needs Python 3 for the Word files outside Claude for Teachers.
Differentiate the lesson we built on Monday, before I teach it on Wednesday. No names: six students still add instead of multiply in ratio tables; two are newcomer English learners at WIDA level 2; five finish early and need an extension that stays on 7.RP.A.2.
Wednesday: teach it, then check for understanding (math only, for now)
For the last five minutes of the lesson, hand over the standard and what you want to find out.
It picks one learning component inside the standard and waits for you to confirm it. Then it writes one to three items whose distractors come from documented student errors, a student page, and a teacher guide saying what each answer reveals and what to teach next. The skill calls it "a five-minute read of where a class is, not an assessment event": it is read, not scored. For ELA, science or social studies, Claude helps as it normally would, without the skill.
Use the K-12 Check for Understanding skill. I need a check on 7.RP.A.2 for the last five minutes of today's lesson. I want to see who still thinks proportional just means both quantities go up.
For practice sets rather than a quick check:
claude plugin marketplace add ASSISTments/ClaudePlugins && claude plugin install math@assistments
It splits a standard into three to six "I can" sub-skills, then offers Skill Practice (four to six problems per chosen skill) or a Standard Mastery Quiz (one item per skill). Drafting works on its own; saving problems into ASSISTments needs ASSISTments' separate MCP server, connected in your Claude client, and an account. It is a Claude Code plugin, with no Codex version listed.
One catch if you install both: the ASSISTments skill also picks up requests that sound like plain problem generation, such as "give me a quiz on 7.RP.A.2" or "quick check on this standard", and runs its standard breakdown first. Name the skill you want: start Wednesday's prompt with "Use the K-12 Check for Understanding skill", as above, and type /math:math-standard-unpacker when you want a practice set.
Thursday: materials into the LMS
Posting by hand is still the fastest way to get one assignment up. These connections pay off for repeated work, such as the same post in several sections, start-of-term course setup or a week of announcements, and only once your IT team has approved them. If you use one, hand over the final documents, say exactly what goes where, and ask to see every post before it goes live.
Anything a connection reads comes into the chat. Listing a roster, submissions or grades sends identifiable student information to Claude, which, as above, needs your school's or district's authorization. Stick to posting unless they have given it.
Google Classroom.
npm install -g @googleworkspace/cli && gws auth setup
npx skills add googleworkspace/cli --skill gws-shared --skill gws-classroom -a claude-code -y
This is the heaviest setup of the week. gws is not an officially supported Google product, it needs OAuth credentials from your own Google Cloud project, and gws auth setup relies on Google's gcloud tool (otherwise you set things up by hand in the Cloud Console). The skill works in Claude Code and Codex. On a school-managed Google account, talk to your IT team first.
Two traps the gws README warns about:
- On the OAuth consent screen, add your own Google account under Test users, or the login is blocked.
- An unverified app, which your own project is, can ask for only about 25 permission scopes, so the recommended preset (85+ scopes) fails. Log in with only the scopes you need (
gws auth login --scopesfollowed by a short list).
In my Google Classroom courses "Math 7 Period 1", "Math 7 Period 3" and "Math 7 Period 5", prepare the same assignment "Ratio tables practice" under each course's Unit 2 topic, due Friday at 3:00 pm, with the instructions below, plus a short announcement for each. Show me everything and wait for my OK before posting.
Canvas.
Either way you install it, you need a Canvas API token (in Canvas: Account, Settings, New Access Token; some districts turn off self-service tokens and issue them through IT) and Python 3.11+ on your computer, including for the Claude Desktop extension.
- Claude Desktop, no terminal: download
canvas-mcp.mcpbfrom the project's latest release and double-click it; it asks for your Canvas URL and token. Its settings stop there (plus an accessibility-checker option), so you can't turn on name masking or limit write tools: every write tool stays on, including bulk grading and messaging students. - Claude Code or Codex: first clone the repository and install it into a Python virtual environment (the README's Local Installation section), then point the command at that folder. The command below turns on name masking and allows only four posting tools.
git clone https://github.com/vishalsachdev/canvas-mcp && cd canvas-mcp
python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate && pip install -e .
claude mcp add -e CANVAS_API_TOKEN=YOUR_CANVAS_API_TOKEN -e CANVAS_API_URL=https://YOUR_SCHOOL.instructure.com/api/v1 -e ENABLE_DATA_ANONYMIZATION=true -e ALLOWED_WRITE_TOOLS=create_assignment,create_announcement,create_page,add_module_item canvas-api -- /path/to/canvas-mcp/.venv/bin/canvas-mcp-server
ENABLE_DATA_ANONYMIZATION=true makes supported student identity fields reach Claude as anonymous IDs. ALLOWED_WRITE_TOOLS matters because of a warning in the project's September 2026 release notes: "Instructions a student plants in course content can steer an instructor's assistant." Write tools you don't list are removed when the server starts. Left unset on a local install, every write tool is on, including bulk grading and messaging students. Messages to students always show a preview first, but the notes say a confirmation step alone cannot stop a planted instruction, because the assistant can approve its own request. It cannot create or delete courses.
Friday: reflect and plan next week
Hand over de-identified results: answer counts from Wednesday's check, exit-ticket tallies, and notes from the observation template in Monday's packet. Claude can read numbers like these on its own; the two skills below add structure.
The library has 165 skills, and installing all of them adds its own differentiation, formative-assessment and checking-for-understanding skills. Those overlap with the K-12 skills, and Claude may pick one of them instead when you ask for a differentiated lesson next week. The library also includes student-facing skills meant to run during a student's study session, which don't belong in a teacher's planning setup. For Friday, add just two:
npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill gap-analysis-from-student-work --skill reflective-practice-prompt-generator -a claude-code -y
Use -a codex instead for Codex. Gap Analysis from Student Work looks for gaps between where students are and the learning objective; Reflective Practice Prompt Generator writes structured prompts for debriefing a lesson. No terminal? The library's README has a manual route that works in any Claude chat: open the skill's file on GitHub, copy its prompt block, paste it into Claude and fill in your class details. The author is upfront that the prompts are research-grounded but "have not been empirically validated as AI interventions."
Use the gap analysis from student work skill. No names. Objective: 7.RP.A.2, recognizing proportional relationships. Wednesday's check: 12 students chose A (correct), 9 chose B (both quantities go up, so proportional), 5 C, 2 D. Exit tickets: Wednesday 18 of 28 correct, Thursday 23 of 28. My observation notes are below. Ask me two questions first, then suggest what Monday's warm-up should reteach.
Use the reflective practice prompt generator. In Wednesday's lesson, nine students treated any two quantities that both go up as proportional. I want to understand why my examples didn't head that off. I have 15 minutes.
In Claude for Teachers you can also schedule a repeated task, such as reviewing each day's de-identified exit tickets and adapting tomorrow's plan, to run every school day at 4pm.
Why the grading stays with you
The K-12 skills draw this line themselves: the lesson-plan, differentiation and prep skills each say they are not for grading, rubrics or assessment feedback, and the check for understanding is "read for what it reveals, not scored." Grading is also where school guidance most often discourages AI use. In Gallup's 2026 survey, 58% of teachers had no guidance at all on using AI for grading and student feedback. Among those who did have guidance on it, 10% were discouraged from using AI for grading, the highest rate for any task measured, though 36% were encouraged. Canvas MCP can bulk-grade, which is one more reason to set ALLOWED_WRITE_TOOLS, but a grade is a judgment about a student that you answer for. Use Claude to tighten rubric wording, or to suggest comments on de-identified work that you then rewrite; decide the scores yourself.
Limits and risks
- Skeptics are watching. Chalkbeat's launch coverage noted that student-facing AI has raised concerns about cheating and "cognitive offloading" (handing the thinking itself to the tool), raised student privacy questions, and cited American Enterprise Institute research fellow Daniel Buck's warning that if teachers outsource their work to AI, classroom community and academic outcomes could deteriorate. Anthropic's own announcement says early evidence on AI tools for students is mixed. Work every item yourself before students see it; one wrong answer key costs more trust than the time it saved.
- US only. The standards, curricula and free plan are for US K-12. Nothing here covers GCSE, IB or other national systems.
- Standards can be wrong. Without the Learning Commons connector, the skills work from general knowledge; check codes against your state's documents.
- Every connection has its own terms. Anthropic's K-12 addendum covers Anthropic only. The nine partner tools and Google have their own terms. Canvas MCP runs on your computer with your own token, but Canvas and your AI client may keep their own activity records.
- No policy is not the same as permission. With only 18% of teachers holding formal guidance, ask your administrator, and tell students and families how you use AI. Anthropic's announcement also points to its AI Fluency for PK-12 Teachers course, co-created with Teach For America, if you want a structured place to start.