Watch a week of GES lesson notes get built

0:01What you'll end up with

This is where we’re going to end up: a complete week of lesson notes, covering every period you teach, in the proper GES layout and ready for your headteacher to review and sign. We’re starting from an empty account, and I’m going to show you the entire process in real time. You can follow along on your own screen as we go.

0:28Two things you need first

Before we start, there are two things you need. First, you need at least one class added to teache, with the subject and class level. teache uses this information to bring in the correct NaCCA curriculum. So, for example, if you teach Basic Four English, you’ll be working with the Basic Four English curriculum, not a generic template.

Second, you do not need a scheme of work before you can create a lesson note. If you already have one in teache, teache can use it, and I’ll show you how that works later. But if you don’t have one, that’s completely fine. You can still create your lesson note from scratch.

1:14Starting the lesson note

Let’s start. From the sidebar, click New. You’ll see three options: Lesson note, Scheme of work, and Record of work. For this video, we’re choosing Lesson note.

1:30One question at a time

Now, teache works a little differently from a traditional form. Instead of showing you a long page of fields to fill in, it asks you one question at a time, and only asks for information it doesn’t already know. Because of that, your screen may be slightly different from mine. For example, if you only teach one class, teache already knows which class you’re planning for, so it won’t ask you to choose one.

And if you’ve already saved a timetable for that class, it won’t ask when you teach it. Those steps haven’t disappeared. teache simply already has the answers.

2:15Which class

For me, the first question is: Which class? Choose the subject and class level you want to plan for. If you only have one class and you don’t see this screen, that’s fine. teache already knows. Next, teache asks when you teach this class.

2:33When you teach this class

This part is important because we’re not creating a lesson for just one period. We’re building your lesson note for the entire week. Add a row for every period you teach. Choose the day, the period, and how long that lesson lasts. In this example, I teach this class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I’m adding three rows.

These teaching times are what teache uses to build your week. So instead of giving you a generic Monday-to-Friday lesson plan, your note is built around the periods you actually teach. Take a moment to make sure these are correct. And the good thing is, you don’t have to keep entering this every week. Later, teache will give you the option to save this timetable for the class.

3:36Choosing from the curriculum

Next question: What are you teaching? Instead of typing in a topic manually, click Choose from curriculum. This takes you directly into the NaCCA curriculum for the subject and class level you selected. At the top level, you have your strands. Open a strand, and you’ll see the sub-strands under it. Open a sub-strand, and you’ll see the curriculum indicators, together with their official codes.

Choose the indicators you plan to cover this week. And the important word here is week. You’re not choosing an indicator separately for Monday, another one for Wednesday, and another one for Friday. You’re simply telling teache what you want to cover across the week. teache will help you organise those indicators across your actual teaching periods in the next step.

As you select them, the button at the bottom keeps count. So if I select three indicators, it changes to Use three indicators. You need to select at least one before you can continue.

4:55How the week is built

Now we get to one of the most important parts of the process. teache takes the indicators you selected and works out how they fit across the periods you actually teach. So here, I can see exactly what I’ll cover on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If an indicator needs more than one period, it can continue into the next lesson.

This is your chance to look through the week before anything is generated. If you’re happy with the structure, you can continue. If you want to remove an indicator, you can do that here, and teache will rebuild the week around what remains. And if something doesn’t fit into the available teaching time, teache tells you instead of quietly leaving it out.

At this point, notice that we still haven’t generated the lesson note. No AI-generated content has been written yet. We’re simply giving teache the information it needs to understand what the week should look like. Before we generate, there are two other things worth knowing.

6:04Changing answers, saving progress

First, you can go back and change your answers. Every question you’ve already answered stays above you with a Change option. If you change something that affects later answers, teache will ask those questions again. For example, if you change what you’re teaching, the indicators you selected before no longer apply, so teache will take you back to choose the correct ones.

Second, you don’t have to finish everything in one sitting. If you need to leave, you can close the tab. Your answers are saved on this device for this class and this week, so you can come back and continue where you stopped.

6:52Extra guidance

The final question before generation is optional: Add extra guidance. This is where you can give teache more context about how you want to teach the lesson. It doesn’t have to be long. For example, I could write: use the market. Pupils cut oranges and share among groups. That little bit of context helps make the lesson feel more connected to your actual classroom.

You can also upload a photo. That could be a textbook page, part of your scheme, a handwritten note, or anything else you want teache to consider. If you don’t have anything to add, you can simply skip this step.

7:36Generate, or build it with me

Now we’re ready to create the note. You have two options. Generate the note creates the complete draft for you at once. Build it with me takes you through the document section by section, so you can review, edit, accept, or ask for alternatives as you go. Both options create the same type of lesson note. For this walkthrough, I’m choosing Generate the note.

8:05What it costs in credits

Before I click it, look at the credit balance. A lesson note costs five credits. And that is five credits for the entire week, including every period in the lesson note. It is not five credits per lesson. I’ll click Generate the note.

8:25Watching the draft come together

And there goes the five credits. Now watch the draft come together. These are the sections your headteacher will expect to see. You have the performance indicators: what pupils should be able to do. Then your key words. Your teaching and learning resources. Phase One: the starter, where you activate what pupils already know.

Phase Two: the main teaching and learning activities, including assessment. Phase Three: the plenary and reflection. Then you have the core competencies. And finally, differentiation for approaching proficiency, proficient, and highly proficient learners. All of that is organised within the GES structure for the periods in your week.

Now, this is still your lesson note. teache has created the draft, but you can change anything.

9:47Editing the draft

If you want to edit something yourself, click into the section and type. Or you can tell teache what you want changed. Editing and redrafting the same lesson note does not charge you again. So if something isn’t right, keep refining it until you’re happy with it.

10:13The finished document

Now let’s look at the finished document. Click Preview. Here is the lesson note in the official GES layout. You have your school header and class information. Your lessons are organised by day. The Reference and Remarks fields are already in place. And at the end, you have the vetting section with the space your headteacher needs to review and sign the document.

There’s nothing else you need to reformat before submitting it. You can print the lesson note directly, or export it to Word or PDF if you need a copy. And that’s it.

10:57Where to go next

NaCCA curriculum, organised it around your actual timetable, generated the full lesson note, made our edits, and ended with a complete GES document ready for review. You start with thirty credits, which is enough to create six weekly lesson notes. So you can go through this process several times before you need to think about anything else.

If you want a full breakdown of how credits work in teache, there’s a separate short video that explains that.