Every week, teachers spend hours preparing lessons, often outside of school hours, and often without much support. For many school leaders, it’s easy to see that planning is part of the job. But what’s harder to see is what that time might be costing your team.
In energy and alignment.
Most planning happens behind the scenes. A teacher at their desk at 7:00 a.m. Or at their kitchen table at night. Over time, that invisible load adds up.
Manual planning often means teachers are building from scratch—writing objectives, formatting slides, finding examples, and creating materials without a shared system. And when everyone is doing it differently, it becomes harder to support collaboration, coaching, or even a sense of collective progress.
When planning is stored, it’s harder to build consistency. Instruction varies not because teachers aren’t aligned in purpose, but because they’re operating without a common starting point. That variability affects pacing, expectations, and how supported new teachers feel.
It also makes coaching harder. Leaders don’t always know what’s being planned, what’s being taught, or where to focus their support.
Teachers care deeply about their craft. But without time, structure, or shared tools, even great teachers can feel stuck. When planning becomes the most draining part of the job, it limits energy for everything else: connecting with students, improving instruction, or simply getting home at a reasonable hour.
Small shifts in how planning is supported can change that, without overhauling everything.
Schools that approach planning as a shared responsibility—not an individual burden—tend to see better alignment, higher morale, and more sustainable systems. It doesn’t mean removing creativity. It means removing the guesswork.
Support can look like many things: shared frameworks, clearer expectations, more flexible tools.
The point isn’t to control how teachers plan. It’s to give them back the time and clarity to do their best work.
We put together a quick audit to help school leaders reflect on how planning works across their team—and where small shifts could make a big difference.
Speakable gives teachers a faster way to create, deliver, and manage speaking-focused assignments—so they can spend less time formatting and more time teaching.
For school leaders, it’s one way to simplify planning while supporting real instruction.