Annotate Once, Reuse Next Year: A Marked-Up Lesson Workflow

If you teach the same syllabus year after year, you know what it is like to rebuild lessons you have taught before. With live PDF annotation in ClassKite, the marks you make on a page are saved with the lesson, so the worked example you annotated this year is still there next year. This guide shows how to build marked-up lessons and reusable practices once, then re-run them with a new class instead of starting again.

Why a saved annotation changes how you plan

Upload a PDF and teach from it on the smart board with pen annotation: pressure-sensitive and calligraphy ink, continuous scroll, follow-me page sync and present mode. The important part for reuse is that your annotations persist: they are saved with the lesson and example, so they do not vanish when you close the tab. A page you marked up with a worked solution or a colour-coded diagram is waiting for you when you come back to it. You annotate a page once and teach from it again whenever the unit comes round.

Because the ink is stored with the content, you can reuse annotated PDF lessons for years: re-open the marked-up page and teach from it exactly as you left it.

A workflow for lessons you re-run, not rebuild

ClassKite organises your material into classes, then topics, sections and practices. Building along that structure is what makes a lesson easy to find and re-run later:

Create a class and a topic, then add sections for each part of the unit.
Upload your PDF and annotate the key pages on the board as you teach. The marks are saved automatically with the section.
Build a practice to go with it: write questions by hand, bulk import them, or AI-draft questions you review before use.
Run the practice live or self-paced; objective answers auto-mark on submit, so you are not collecting books afterwards.
Next year, copy the class with its reusable question bank, ticking your annotations if you want them, and run it again.

To roll a class over, use Copy class. It brings the topics, PDFs, practices and questions (and, if you tick it, your own annotations) into next year's class, without the students or their scores. The new class gets its own join code, and the original stays ready to copy again the next time you teach the unit. For more on getting your structure right the first time, see our notes on best practices for teachers, and how this approach saves planning time over a year.

Start building reusable lessons in ClassKite: annotate a PDF today and re-run it next year.

Frequently asked questions

Do my annotations stay saved between years?

Yes. Pen annotations are saved with the lesson and example, so a marked-up page persists and is there when you re-open it. To start a new year with your marks in place, use Copy class with your annotations ticked, or re-run the saved content with a new class. If your school closes the year in ClassKite, last year’s classes stay readable under Previous years, and Carry classes into … copies their content into the new year. It does not bring your handwriting, so copy the class with annotations first if you want them.

Can I reuse the same questions with a different class?

Yes. Your question banks and practices are reusable, so you can run the same questions with a new class. Students join the new class free with its join code.

Can I do all of this on the free plan?

Teacher Basic is free and lets you teach with annotation, write questions by hand, run practice and have students join free. It limits the number of topics per class and the size of each PDF. Teacher Plus and the School plan add AI generation, unlimited bulk import and class analytics, with unlimited topics and larger PDFs. See the limits on each plan.