Your Secret Weapon for Efficiency
Think you’re too experienced to bother with lesson plans? Think again. A well-crafted plan isn’t just nice to have—it’s the key to turbocharging your workflow and cutting down on wasted time. Lesson planning isn’t just for new teachers; it’s the ultimate tool that allows you to focus on what matters most: effective teaching and creating meaningful learning experiences for your students. Even the most experienced teachers can benefit from having a structured guide that helps make every lesson impactful.
solid lesson plan sets the foundation for everything. It gives you clarity, direction, and ensures your time is spent on teaching rather than scrambling for resources or
thinking on your feet. Investing a little time up front means you get it all back (and more) when you see how smoothly the rest of your workload falls into place. A wellprepared lesson plan allows you to anticipate challenges, allocate time efficiently, and differentiate for the varied needs of your learners, all of which can significantly reduce your stress levels.
I’ve been exploring NotebookLM and ChatGPT Canvas to see whether these could be useful to teachers, and I can say 100% yes. Recently, I built an entire unit, complete with resources, in just a couple of hours. Normally, this would take up a whole week. The reason I was able to do it so efficiently? The power of well-organised planning combined with the right AI tools. Want to know how? Here’s how you can do it too:
- Start with a Comprehensive Lesson Plan If you don’t have one, use ChatGPT to get started. Outline the main objectives, key activities, and assessments. Include tier 3 vocabulary and make sure it’s detailed enough to support you throughout the unit. A solid lesson plan isn’t just a guide—it’s a launchpad for everything else. Think about what skills you want your students to master, what questions they might ask, and how you can pre-emptively address misconceptions.Spending time here means you can easily build extensions for advanced learners or scaffolding for those who need more support. This flexibility will save you time in the long run, and keep students engaged, no matter where they are in their learning journey.
- Upload to Notebook LM Notebook LM is an AI tool by Google that lets you search within your own content—so you can get the information you need instantly.Once your lesson plan is ready, upload PDFs, articles, and related documents to Notebook LM. This AI tool allows you to pull out key insights, answer questions, and generate summaries. Think of it as a research assistant that works round the clock for you, delivering the exact details you need in seconds.
- Notebook LM helps you generate resources like:
- Quick Answers: Upload content and get direct, efficient answers—such as definitions, steps in a process, or practical examples—without digging through notes. For example, if a student asks about a specific process, you can find the answer instantly, saving precious class time.
- Summaries and Simplified Resources: Boil down key points and create simpler versions of your documents. Whether you’re condensing an article for your students or simplifying a research paper to suit their level, this tool does the heavy lifting.
- Audio Summary: Generate podcast-style audio summaries to help learners with visual impairments or those who experience fatigue from reading large amounts of text. This feature is also great for auditory learners who absorb information better by listening.
- Study Guides and FAQs: Create study guides complete with questions, glossaries, and FAQs. This feature allows you to anticipate and answer the most common student questions before they arise, creating a more proactive teaching environment.
- Expert Chat: Chat with your sources to get quick insights or identify gaps. Need more context about a topic? Use Notebook LM to interact with your content like you’re having a conversation with an expert.
- Notebook LM helps you generate resources like:
- Generate Custom Resources with ChatGPT Canvas The next step is taking the lesson plan and resources overview into ChatGPT Canvas to customise them for specific class or learner needs, such as adapting activities or modifying vocabulary levels. ChatGPT Canvas is your secret weapon for creating structured educational content, giving you the freedom of an in-line editor, similar to a word processor, with advanced features such as adjusting length, reading level, and customising content for your learners.
Unlike the standard model, which is designed for general use and needs extensive prompt engineering to make changes, Canvas provides educators with tools to quickly generate resources like:- Worksheets: Customisable to different learning levels, such as simplifying tasks for lower abilities or adding extension questions for advanced learners. With Canvas, you can also quickly add visual aids or adjust the content to suit your students’ diverse needs.
- Rubrics: Clear criteria for assessments. Rubrics help set expectations for students and make grading easier and more consistent. You can adjust these rubrics to focus on specific skills or outcomes, providing targeted feedback that helps students grow.
- Quizzes: Tailored to your lesson objectives. Quizzes can be generated in minutes, and they can be as simple or as challenging as you need them to be, depending on the learning objectives.
- Advanced Challenges: Adjust complexity—simplify vocabulary or add higher-order questions to suit your learners. This is particularly useful when you need to cater to students at different stages of understanding within the same classroom.
- Review and Adapt Take what’s been generated and tweak it to fit your style. Always verify the validity and accuracy of AI-generated content to ensure it aligns with your learning objectives. It’s essential to review the resources to ensure they align with your curriculum and your teaching philosophy. Make sure the examples and exercises are relevant to your students’ experiences. Maximise the impact by making sure it fits your class perfectly.
The best part about using AI tools like Canvas and Notebook LM is that they allow you to be flexible. If something doesn’t quite fit, you can adjust it instantly. No more rewriting from scratch—just make the tweaks you need and move on to the next task. This adaptability is crucial when dealing with unexpected changes in student needs or curriculum adjustments. - Maximise Efficiency with AI Tools Use Notebook LM and ChatGPT Canvas to automate the creation of resources like summaries, FAQs, and “deep dives” for students who want more. These tools help you take the repetitive, time-consuming parts of teaching off your plate, freeing you to focus on engaging with students and refining your lessons. When students need more information, you can generate a “deep dive” into specific topics, making advanced content accessible without needing hours of preparation.
Focus on what matters—teaching—while letting AI handle the heavy lifting. The ability to automate these tasks doesn’t just save time; it also means you can provide a richer educational experience for your students without burning out. Imagine having the time to actually sit with students who need extra help, or developing a new project that excites them, instead of staying late to write yet another worksheet.
Lesson plans aren’t just for beginners. For experienced teachers, they’re the key to unlocking tech-driven efficiency and making your classroom unstoppable. When you combine well-thought-out plans with the power of AI, you’re not just teaching—you’re transforming the way learning happens. Lesson planning doesn’t have to be old school—it could be your best productivity hack yet.
Still skipping lesson plans? Consider revisiting them—they might just be the key to making your workload more manageable and efficient. Embrace AI, adapt your approach, and see how much of a difference it can make.
Your time is precious—use it wisely.