How One District Transformed Chaos Into Effective Collaboration

When lesson plans lived everywhere and nowhere, Ontario School District could not prove what they knew was true: their teachers were doing great work.

"Our teachers were doing great work, we just could not demonstrate it to state auditors."

Teachers were working hard. Language goals were being taught across every classroom - a requirement for their fully integrated ELD program. But when the state auditors arrived, the district could not prove it.

People were going through hard copies of papers and Google Docs and slides, and all kinds of things. It was hard to show how teachers were teaching language in their classrooms. The work was happening, and it was strong, but the evidence was scattered everywhere.

The audit finding was clear: the district needed a uniform lesson planning system.

"We had 24 teachers and coaches pilot three tools. The unanimous choice was Common Planner."

After the audit, district leadership asked McKenzie Fuller and her team to evaluate digital lesson planning platforms. Teachers on the team asked to include Common Planner because several were already using it - some even paying for premium access out of pocket. Leadership approved the request, the district piloted three tools, and the unanimous choice was Common Planner.

"Common Planner helps us empower teachers to do what they have been hired to do and what we need them to do."

Teachers immediately saw how much time Common Planner could save. They could copy and paste another teacher's plan into their own plan, and they could bring last year's plan into the current year without starting from scratch.

But the biggest win for the district has been collaboration. Teachers used to plan in a bubble, often on weekends. Now they plan together in pods during the week, focusing on lesson quality instead of just documentation.

When teams sit down to plan, they talk through lesson openings, resources that worked or did not work in the past, and what formative assessment should look like. The quality of lessons has improved, and the district sees that showing up in the quality of instruction.

"The AI feature built in to Common Planner serves as an effective thought partner."

The built-in AI works for educators with different comfort levels. Some use it to save time, others to get feedback, and others as a thought partner for new ideas.

Teachers are using AI to help differentiate for English language learners. The district has also seen a dramatic increase in teachers documenting language goals, including lesson vocabulary, because they now have a standard way to do it.

And when teachers do not know how to write a language goal, they can ask Common Planner to review the lesson plan and draft one for them.