Teacher turnover remains a persistent concern for districts, often tied to the time and energy teachers spend planning and preparing each day. At the same time, AI is steadily becoming part of teachers’ workflows as they look for practical ways to simplify their work. With most K–12 educators now experimenting with AI tools on their own, district leaders have an opportunity to provide guidance—and to choose solutions that genuinely ease teachers’ workload rather than complicate it.
Thoughtfully designed AI tools can help streamline the more routine parts of lesson planning. When used intentionally, these tools can draft standards-aligned assignments and rubrics, bring relevant student data forward, suggest evidence-informed strategies, and help teachers adjust instruction to meet the needs of their classrooms. In this approach, teachers stay in the driver’s seat. Their professional judgment, relationships with students, and responsive decisions remain central.
With the right balance, AI becomes a supportive layer that helps teachers move through planning more efficiently. The work feels more manageable, the cognitive load lightens, and teachers reclaim time for the part of the job that matters most: supporting students.
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How AI Can Support Lesson Planning
Many districts rely on traditional lesson plan templates to create consistency, but these templates weren’t designed to reflect every complexity teachers navigate in a given week. They offer structure but don’t always capture the full picture, like which students might benefit from a bit more scaffolding on an upcoming standard, who’s ready for extended work, or how attendance patterns might influence grouping choices.
Certain AI tools for K–12, such as Panorama Solara with Class Companion, can help fill in some of those gaps by bringing more context into the planning process. Rather than starting from a blank template, teachers can receive drafts that align to state standards, pacing guides, and the needs they’re seeing in their classrooms. With educators still leading the instructional decisions, AI becomes a supportive layer that helps make planning more manageable and more responsive to real student needs.
Faster Planning for Core Tasks
For many teachers, the first steps of planning take the most time: drafting objectives, outlining assessments, and gathering materials from different sources. Platforms like Panorama Solara can help ease some of that lift by generating initial drafts aligned to district-approved resources. Teachers then shape those drafts based on their knowledge of the class and the way the lesson needs to unfold.
The goal isn’t to automate planning, but to give teachers a starting point so they can focus more on the nuances of instruction.
Tools Built on District Materials
Generic AI tools often rely on broad internet sources, which means their suggestions may not align with a district’s frameworks, terminology, or instructional approach. That can lead to lesson ideas that feel out of step with how a district teaches literacy, math, or other subjects.
Panorama Solara avoids that mismatch by working from the materials and guidance a district chooses to provide—things like local frameworks, approved curricula, and preferred language. When teachers request support, the drafts reflect the district’s expectations rather than pulling from unrelated or unfamiliar resources.
Plans Informed by Student Data
Teachers already juggle many sources of information when planning: attendance, recent assessments, IEP accommodations, and more. The challenge is bringing those pieces together quickly enough to inform tomorrow’s lesson.
Panorama Solara can help surface relevant information during planning, making it easier to think about which students might need vocabulary supports, who could benefit from a visual model, or where an extension task might fit. Solara securely connects with your district’s SIS and Panorama data, grounding every response in real student information. The insights come from data teachers already use; Solara simply helps them see it in context, without extra steps or cross-referencing across systems.
Alignment With District Priorities
Every district has an instructional vision that guides lesson design. Whether the focus is project-based learning, a structured literacy framework, or more opportunities for students to talk through their thinking, teachers work hard to bring those priorities into their classrooms.
Solara supports that effort by incorporating the frameworks, terminology, and expectations a district chooses to define. When teachers request planning help, the drafts reflect that local guidance, making it easier to stay aligned without starting from scratch.
The result isn’t a different way of planning; just a smoother path toward the district’s goals.
Support That Carries Into Instruction
When teachers have the time to build thoughtful lessons, the impact naturally extends into what happens in the classroom.
Solara with Class Companion help by making planning more manageable upfront, so teachers walk into class with clearer scaffolds, stronger materials, and a deeper understanding of where students might need support. The result: stronger preparation that makes in-the-moment decisions easier.
Flexible Materials Teachers Can Use Throughout the Lesson
Differentiation often requires preparing multiple versions of a task or anticipating where students may need support. Solara helps teachers create these materials during planning, making it easier to embed scaffolds, prompts, extensions, and models before class begins.
Teachers enter the room with options ready to go, rather than having to create them on the spot.
Feedback Students Act on Quickly
Class Companion offers students instant, rubric-aligned feedback on their writing, helping them revise and improve with clear, targeted guidance. Teachers remain in full control—they can adjust feedback, override scores, and personalize comments. Students can also dispute feedback to spark deeper conversations about their thinking.
This approach helps students build confidence, see writing as a process, and stay engaged in their progress.
Insight into Student Writing
As students submit writing, Class Companion surfaces assignment-level insights that help teachers see how students are progressing—such as strengths, growth areas, and patterns across attempts. These insights don’t replace formative assessment, but they help teachers prioritize where to spend time during conferences, small groups, or follow-up lessons.
Teachers decide what actions to take; Class Companion simply provides clearer visibility into the work students are producing.
Support for Targeted Follow-Up
After reviewing assignment-level insights, teachers can identify which students might benefit from additional practice, who may need a different kind of prompt or model, or where a classwide review could be helpful. Solara can help generate adapted materials—such as alternative prompts, sentence starters, or enrichment tasks—aligned with district materials and expectations.
These supports strengthen what teachers already do, making it easier to plan purposeful next steps.
The Path Forward for Lesson Planning
Planning will always involve care, judgment, and creativity. Panorama Solara and Class Companion help protect that time by easing the repetitive parts: drafting materials, surfacing relevant data during planning, and giving students feedback they can use right away. These tools don’t change the heart of teaching; they simply make it easier for teachers to bring their best thinking into the classroom each day.
With more flexible materials and clearer insight into student work, teachers can focus more on their students and less on the administrative tasks that often crowd their time. The work becomes more manageable, and the planning process feels less isolating and more sustainable.
As AI becomes a more familiar part of teachers’ daily routines, district leaders have an opportunity to guide that shift with clarity and care. Helping educators build confidence with AI—while keeping instruction at the center—sets the foundation for thoughtful, sustainable use.
If you’re looking for a place to start, explore our 15 AI Literacy Strategies for Educators. This resource offers practical, educator-ready ideas to help your teams use AI with purpose and support teachers where they need it most.
Download 15 AI Literacy Strategies for Educators to take the next step.
