"So What did I miss?" - Poof - A Five-Minute Hack to Recap Lessons

You know what really grinds my gears? When a kid strolls in after missing a day—maybe even five—and casually asks, "So, what did I miss?"

Excuse me? Do you think I can condense an entire lesson, activities, discussions, and whatever chaos ensued into a 30-second summary while simultaneously getting ready for the students who actually were here? I mean, I’m good, but I’m not that good.

But here’s the thing—these kids do need to catch up. And as much as I want to respond with, "Everything. The lesson. The fun. The meaning of life. ALL OF IT, Jacob!"…I also want to set them up for success without losing my mind in the process.

Enter AI: My New Best Friend for Recaps

Instead of spending my precious prep time rewriting the same catch-up instructions over and over, I turned to AI. I created a Google Doc system that has made my life so much easier, and I’m sharing it with you—because no teacher should have to explain the same thing 17 times a day.

Here’s how it works: I use a recap prompt every single day. It takes me about five minutes total to create recaps for both of my classes and post them. That’s it. Five minutes. Summary done. Post up. Students caught up. Sanity (mostly) intact.

The Magic Formula? Word Blurt + AI

Now, let’s talk method. You do not have to sit down and carefully type out a beautifully crafted recap. Oh no, my friend. We are participating in a full on BLURT FEST, and throwing it into a Google Doc. But here’s the twist—we’re not even typing. We’re using our voices.

That’s right. Speech-to-text. No grammar, no punctuation, no overthinking. Just spit out the messy details, and let AI clean it up! It cleans up the recap, formats it nicely, and poof, just like magic you're ready to post.

Make Your Life Easier (You Deserve It)

If you want to stop answering “What did I miss?” for the millionth time and save yourself a ridiculous amount of time, check out my Class Recap Guide. It’s free, it’s easy, and it might just keep you from yelling "You know, just a little thing called THE WHOLE CLASS, Lana!" in front of the children!