Generative AI (GenAI) is becoming a normal part of school life. Many teachers already meet it through students, colleagues, or simple tools that can write, summarise, translate, or suggest ideas. In lesson preparation, GenAI can be a very useful helper – especially on days when time is short and energy is low. It does not “do teaching” for you. But it can reduce the boring parts of preparation and give you a better starting point, so you can focus on what matters: your students, your goals, and the classroom moment.
The best way to think about GenAI is as a junior assistant. It can draft and propose, but it cannot fully understand your class like you do. It does not know which student is shy, which student needs more support, or which example will make your group smile. That is your expertise. GenAI becomes valuable when you guide it clearly and then review the output with a teacher’s eye. If you treat it like a first draft machine, you will save time and often get creative ideas you might not have considered.
For many teachers, the first struggle is simply: “Where do I start?” You have a topic, but the lesson feels empty. GenAI is great for this moment. You can ask for three possible lesson angles, five real-life examples, or a short list of misconceptions students often have. When you see a few options, your brain starts working again. Even if you reject half of the suggestions, the process is still helpful because it breaks the blank-page effect.
GenAI can also help you shape a clear lesson goal. Teachers often have a big theme, like “photosynthesis” or “critical reading”, but the lesson needs something more concrete. You can ask GenAI to rewrite your goal into student-friendly language: “By the end of the lesson, students can…”. This sounds small, but it changes your planning. When the goal is clear, you can more easily decide what to include and what to skip. It also helps you communicate expectations to students.
Once you have a goal, the next challenge is structure. A lesson needs rhythm: start, middle, end. GenAI can propose a simple flow, like a short warm-up, explanation, practice, and a closing check. What I like here is not the exact structure – teachers already know many structures – but the speed. In one minute you can get three different lesson outlines. One might be more discussion-based, another more hands-on, another more reflective. You choose the one that matches your class and your teaching style.
Openings are important because they set the mood. Sometimes you want a calm start, sometimes a surprising question, sometimes a short “hook.” GenAI can generate warm-up ideas quickly: a question connected to real life, a mini story, a quick poll, a short scenario for “What would you do?”. For example, if you teach about misinformation, GenAI can propose a realistic social-media post and ask students how they would check it. If you teach about programming, it can suggest a funny bug story or a small puzzle to wake up the class.
A big part of lesson preparation is creating examples. Students learn from examples, but creating them takes time, and you usually need more than one. GenAI can produce a set of examples at different levels: easy, medium, and challenge. This is very useful in mixed-ability groups. You can take the easiest version for students who need support and keep the challenge version for fast finishers. The key is that you do not have to create everything alone. You can edit and adjust, but you start from a draft.
From examples, it is a short step to practice tasks. Teachers often need “just five exercises” or “a quick group task”. GenAI can draft worksheets, small tasks, and even short project ideas. It can also vary the task types: multiple choice, short answer, matching, error correction, mini debate prompts. The teacher’s job is to check quality. Sometimes GenAI makes mistakes, especially in facts, numbers, or definitions. But as a starting point, it can be a time-saver—especially when you need variety and speed.
Differentiation is one area where GenAI can feel like a real gift. If you already have a task, you can ask GenAI to simplify it without changing the learning goal. Or you can ask it to add scaffolding: step-by-step hints, sentence starters, or a checklist students can follow. At the same time, you can ask for an extension task for advanced students. This is not about making the class “easier” or “harder”. It is about creating more paths to success. In practice, it means fewer students get lost, and more students stay engaged.
Another quiet time-saver is rewriting instructions. Many classroom problems come from unclear instructions, not from difficult content. GenAI can rewrite your task instructions in simpler language, in shorter sentences, or in a more friendly tone. It can also create a “student version” and a “teacher version.” In the student version, it can list steps: “1) Read… 2) Discuss… 3) Write…” This kind of clarity reduces confusion and helps students work more independently.
Questions are the heart of teaching. We ask questions to start thinking, to guide practice, and to check understanding. GenAI can help you prepare question sets: opening questions, deeper discussion questions, and quick checks. You can ask for questions that target common misunderstandings. You can also ask for follow-up questions for students who answer too quickly. This helps when you want to run a discussion with better flow and less improvisation stress.
Short assessments are another good use. Many teachers use exit tickets, mini quizzes, or reflection prompts. GenAI can generate a simple exit ticket in seconds: one factual question, one “explain in your own words”, and one confidence check. It can also suggest rubrics or simple criteria for a small task. Again, you review it, but the drafting is fast, and you can adapt the wording to your class.
Feedback is one of the biggest time challenges in education. GenAI can help by drafting feedback templates with placeholders: “Your main strength is…”, “Next time, focus on…”, “A good next step is…”. This does not mean you give students “robot feedback”. It means you save time on repetitive phrasing and keep your feedback structured and supportive. You can then personalise the key sentence that matters most for each student.
GenAI is also useful for language support. If you work in Slovak and English, it can translate short materials, check grammar, or help you simplify complex text for beginners. This can be helpful for international students, bilingual courses, or when you want to share materials with partners. The important habit is to review meaning, because translation can sometimes change tone or introduce small errors.
Of course, there is a responsibility side. GenAI can sound confident even when it is wrong. If you use it for facts – definitions, dates, numbers – you should verify them. A healthy classroom practice is to treat GenAI output as a draft that requires human checking. In a way, this is also a good lesson for students: GenAI is powerful, but it is not a source of truth. When teachers model verification, students learn better habits too.
In the end, GenAI helps most when it supports your real teaching decisions. It can give you ideas, drafts, examples, tasks, and wording options. But you choose what fits your students, your subject, and your values. Used this way, GenAI becomes a practical companion for lesson preparation – a tool that reduces workload and gives you more space for creativity, reflection, and the human side of teaching.