“Lesson Planning is Killing Me!” – 5 Tips so this DOESN’T happen to you

Talk to any teacher for more than five minutes, and you’ll notice a common theme: lesson planning is slowly destroying us all.

Tell me if this sounds familiar—

Teacher 1: How was your weekend?
Teacher 2: Oh, it was good... I guess.😑
Teacher 1: Do anything fun?
Teacher 2: Oh, you know just… lesson planning.

(Cue the dramatic pause… and then the real venting begins)

"Lesson planning is F-🤬 KILLING me!!"
"I spent four hours on Saturday just putting a PowerPoint together! 😤 "
"My entire weekend? Gone! 😭 "

Sound familiar? Well there’s good news - whether you’re a new or experienced teacher, here are five tips to make sure lesson planning doesn’t take over your life.

Tip #1 – Make Your Students Do the Work (Seriously)

You know that thing where you do all the heavy lifting while your students sit there like passive sponges? Yeah, stop doing that.

Instead of YOU coming up with discussion questions, let them brainstorm. Instead of YOU creating every presentation, have them do it. You’re there to facilitate learning, not to spoon-feed everything.

For grammar, this could be as simple as:
✅ Displaying a handful of sentences that showcase the target grammar point.
✅ Asking students to write down their observations.
✅ Guiding them to deduce the rules themselves.

And now, for specific examples on how this approach could change your life:

❌ “Ugh - we’re learning [insert topic here] on Monday - it’ll take me FOREVER to research it myself and create a presentation to explain it to the class!” 

✅ “Good morning, class! Today, our topic is [insert topic here]. Please get into small groups, research the topic, and create a presentation sharing 5 of your findings with the class.”

❌ “Our textbook’s next unit on [insert topic here] doesn’t come with ANY vocabulary - guess I’ll have to compile the list myself… again.”

✅ “Hi everyone! Today we’re going to be talking about [insert topic here]. Please write down 3 words that come to mind when you think about it, and put them on the board with their definition and a sentence example.”

TL;DR - your students should be doing the bulk of the work. And this isn’t just for intermediate and advanced classes! Even beginners can be trained to take more responsibility. Here’s how:

• Make group projects a regular thing—put them in teams and assign them tasks to complete with clear instructions on how to work together.

• Turn error correction into a team effort – Instead of correcting mistakes for them, write common errors on the board (anonymously, of course) and have students work in pairs to spot and fix them. They’ll learn more by analyzing mistakes themselves rather than just listening to you explain the corrections.

• Use guided discovery – Instead of giving students grammar rules upfront, provide a few example sentences and ask them questions like, “What do you notice about these sentences?” or “Why do you think this word goes here?” Guide them toward figuring out the rules themselves instead of just handing them the answers.

The more responsibility you shift onto your students, the less prep you have to do—while actually improving their learning experience! 🚀

Tip #2 – Prep DURING Class (Yes, Really)

Before you come for my throat, hear me out.

After teaching the main part of your lesson, give students a structured, timed in-class assignment. It could be:

📝 A worksheet (or two) with grammar exercises
✍ A writing prompt about that day’s topic
🎭 A role-play activity (where they have to write a dialogue and perform it for their peers)

Tell them: “You have 15 minutes to complete this. We’ll review it together after.”

And then? Use that time to prep your next lesson.

Ta-da. ✨

Tip #3 – Stay Organized (Your Future Self Will Thank You)

If you’re constantly reinventing the wheel because you can’t find that one worksheet you made six months ago and you figure you might as well make it again…STOP DOING THAT.

Get organized! Start a digital folder (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox—pick your poison) and start categorizing every single lesson plan, worksheet, and video link by grammar topic or lesson type.

You might think, Oh, I’ll just remember where I put it! No, you won’t. Future You will be digging through a mess of files, cursing Past You for not getting it together.

Another pro-tip? Don’t EVER delete your old lesson plans! I made this mistake once, thinking, Oh, I’ll never use this again. Then, a few months later, I needed it. Learn from my suffering.

Tip #4 – Review Should Take Up At Least 25% of Class Time

A major mistake teachers make? Thinking that they have to introduce new grammar concepts in every single lesson.

But actually - your students need more time to absorb and reinforce what they’ve learned, or they’ll forget it all.

If you have a two-hour class, at least 30 minutes should be dedicated to reviewing previous material. And guess what - that’s 30 minutes of your lesson plan that’s already built-in. You don’t need to prep something brand new—just revisit what you’ve already taught!

Not only does this cut down your prep time, but it also helps your students actually retain the information instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other.

Tip #5 – Create One Really Good Grammar Lesson & Reuse It Forever

If you teach the same grammar points year after year, why are you constantly creating new materials? Instead, put the effort into making one incredible grammar lesson that you can use over and over again, so that you can prep it once and be done for good.

This is exactly why the ESL Grammar Gallery was created (hi!) — so that teachers could have a library of ready-made grammar presentations without having to waste hours making them themselves.

Instead of spending your weekend hunched over a PowerPoint, you could just grab a done-for-you lesson and actually enjoy your time off. Imagine that! 

And the best part? We’re launching this spring 🌼 Which means your days of endlessly prepping grammar lessons are coming to an end. (And you can even sign up on our waitlist to be the first to know when we launch. Just saying. 👀)

Final Thoughts

In summary, lesson planning doesn’t have to take over your life. Put the burden of learning on your students, prep during class, stay organized, build review time into your lessons, and create one solid grammar lesson instead of a hundred half-baked ones.

Now, tell us—what are YOUR best tips for reducing your lesson prep time? ⬇️ Drop them in the comments below!