Teachers are some of the most resourceful people I know. Give them a tool that genuinely saves time and fits naturally into their day, and they'll use it. Give them something clunky, login-heavy, or hard to remember, and no matter how powerful it is, it'll quietly disappear from their workflow within a fortnight.
I've seen it happen with some really impressive AI tools in schools. Great intentions, real investment, and then... low adoption. Not because teachers don't want to use AI, but because the friction is just too high. Another platform, another subscription, another password reset.
That got me thinking. What if the AI tool you needed for lesson planning was already on your device? No login. No data leaving your hands. Just a tap, a few seconds, and something genuinely useful sitting in your Notes app ready to go.
That's the idea behind this Shortcut.
Introducing the iPad Teacher Sidekick
The iPad Teacher Sidekick is the first in my new Apple Intelligence Sidekicks series, a collection of Apple Shortcuts I've built to support everyday teacher tasks using Apple Intelligence, running securely on-device on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Here's how it works. You enter your learning intention or success criteria, and Apple Intelligence draws on its inbuilt knowledge to generate practical, relevant ideas tailored to your lesson. Save the output to your clipboard or Notes app, and then use Writing Tools within Notes to refine it further. That's it. No third-party platform. No data leaving your device. Just a quiet, capable AI sidekick for teachers that's ready when you are.
Why Apple Intelligence for Teachers?
Privacy is a real and legitimate concern for schools right now, and rightly so. On-device AI processing through Apple Intelligence means your data stays exactly where it should: on your device. It goes nowhere. For schools thinking carefully about how they engage with AI tools in the classroom, that's genuinely reassuring.
But honestly, beyond the privacy piece, this is about making things easier for teachers. The best AI tools for education are the ones people actually use. An Apple Shortcut that lives on your home screen, opens in seconds, and slots into your everyday lesson planning workflow? That's something with a real chance of becoming part of your routine, not just something you try once and forget about.
Watch the iPad Teacher Sidekick in Action
I know what you're thinking. Another AI tool to learn. But what if this one was already on your device, ready to go right now, and actually removed complexity instead of adding it? Take a look.
Id love to see how you are customising this shortcut or leveraging Apple Intelligence in other useful ways!
Download the shortcut here - https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/1e36704356ef4287a8f3c36e894012ea
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.