How teachers can save time and make lessons more engaging

Every teacher knows that planning and preparing lessons takes a lot of time. Between finding the right resources, creating activities for different levels, and ensuring every student stays engaged, it’s easy to spend more hours preparing than actually teaching.

But what if you could save time while still being creative in your lesson planning?

This is where AI can become your ally, helping you reduce the time spent on thinking, planning, and preparation. When used the right way, AI can be a powerful companion to your lesson plans and the books you use in the classroom, expanding them with new, dynamic ways for students to practice, reflect, and get involved.

Let's explore how.

1. From 'lesson planning' to co-designing with AI

Think of AI as a teaching assistant that helps you organize ideas faster.

You can ask it to create a lesson outline or adapt a plan you already have:

“Create a three-session lesson plan about the water cycle for 10-year-olds, including a hands-on activity and one reflective exercise.”

You get a ready-made structure you can adjust in minutes.

That means more time to focus on what's most important: your students and their learning experience.

2. Expand on what's in the book

Books remain at the core of education, but AI helps you go beyond the page.

Use it to create new ways for students to practice what they read:

• Turn a chapter into a quiz or mini escape room.
• Ask students to rewrite a scene with AI from another character’s perspective.
• Use it to generate open-ended questions that spark classroom discussions.

It's not about replacing the book, it's about keeping the story alive in different formats.

You can do this by adding a document or an image of the pages in the book you are working with, in the chatbot and request to retrieve the information from there. In SchoolHub you can do this when creating a new chatbot or generating any other type of material (quizzes, crosswords, flashcards…).

3. Create activities in minutes

We all know that creating varied exercises takes time.

With AI, you can quickly design interactive materials:

“Create a vocabulary game based on Chapter 5 of Matilda, with three levels of difficulty.”

or

“Give me three quick activities to practice fractions using everyday examples.”

Once you have them, you can reuse or adapt them anytime.

4. Customize materials for all levels

Instead of rewriting content for different students, ask AI to simplify, enrich, or reformat it.

“Simplify this paragraph about energy for younger students.”

or

“Turn this science explanation into a dialogue between two friends.”

It makes it faster to adapt your lessons to different levels, so every student can follow along and feel included.

5. Save hours on grading

AI can help you review short texts or assignments, providing constructive feedback that highlights patterns or areas for improvement.

“Review this student paragraph and suggest three ways to improve clarity and vocabulary.”

It's not about letting AI grade for you, it's about using it as a first reader that helps you spot what to focus on.

You still provide the final feedback, the nuances, and the understanding that only a teacher can offer. Once you've set up your own custom chatbot with clear instructions, all you need to do is drop your content in and begin creating.

6. Make evaluations easier

Designing evaluation criteria often takes time and focus. AI can help you create a first draft with clear indicators and descriptions for each level of performance.

“Create simple evaluation criteria for a brief oral presentation on endangered species.”

You can then adjust it to match your goals, print it, and reuse it in future lessons. In SchoolHub you can make your own chatbot ready to use with the terms that are important to you.

7. Use AI to inspire creativity

Sometimes you just need a spark.

Ask AI for creative classroom ideas that connect the topic of the book with activities students can engage in:

• Write a diary entry from a character's point of view.
• Create a class debate inspired by a moral dilemma in the story.
• Design a mini-project that connects the book to a real-world problem.

Students stay engaged because they get to explore, create, and make learning their own.

8. Allow students to co-create with you

AI can also empower students to design their own activities:

a quiz for classmates, a comic summarizing a chapter, or a short video script explaining a topic.

By creating, they learn twice, once by doing, and again by teaching others.

In the end, it's about more time for what matters

AI won’t replace the teacher’s intuition, empathy, or creativity.

What it does is reduce the repetitive workload so you can focus on connection, curiosity, and learning that lasts.

When used intentionally, AI becomes a partner in creativity, one that helps teachers bring books, ideas, and students’ imaginations to life.

Ready to try it?

Explore SchoolHub's chatbots designed for teachers and start creating your own lesson assistants in just a few clicks.