How to Use AI Tools for Teachers to Save Time, Boost Engagement, and Personalize Learning

As a teacher, you know how challenging it can be to plan, prepare, and deliver effective and engaging lessons for your students. You also know how important it is to personalize learning for each student, according to their needs, interests, and goals. But how can you do all this without spending hours of your precious time and energy?

The answer is AI tools for teachers. AI, or artificial intelligence, is the technology that enables machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing images, and solving problems. AI tools for teachers are applications that use AI to help you with various aspects of teaching and learning, such as creating content, assessing students, providing feedback, and more.

In this blog post, we will show you how to use AI tools for teachers to save time, boost engagement, and personalize learning for your students. We will show how you can get started with them, and by the end of this post, you will have a better understanding of how AI tools for teachers can transform your classroom and enhance your teaching experience.

Please note: This blog post was hand-crafted and was not created using AI.

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How to Prompt AI as a Teacher

There doesn’t sound like there’s much to launching an AI tool, entering a prompt and seeing the results. But, prompting AI is a work of art that takes us beyond our world of immediate ask and receive. As we learn more about AI, we’ve come to realize that it’s important to be specific, thorough, and challenging.

A teacher using AI to generate content needs to be specific. Try entering in a grade level, targeted standards, learning goals, and even rubrics. If you’re looking to clarify directions, try adding, “make these directions clear for students age 10.” We find it helpful to use natural language that’s easy to understand and follow. Try to use keywords or phrases that match the topic and level of your students. Teachers can also use filters or modifiers to narrow down or expand search results.

Remember, AI responses can contain biases and out-dated information, so it’s important to think and challenge what is being generated. If a generated response doesn’t look right - challenge it. For example, if you use the prompt: “Generate a lesson plan on _______,” and the lesson plan doesn’t look grade-level appropriate, respond to your current prompt with, “now make it appropriate for ______ grade.” This can help the AI narrow down the content.

Diffit

Cost: Free and paid versions available
Compatibility: web based

Diffit is an AI-based platform that helps teachers customize their teaching methods to suit students’ reading levels and needs. Diffit can help teachers differentiate their content and instruction by:

• Instantly creating leveled resources for any topic, lesson, or student

• Providing vocabulary words, multiple choice questions, and other features to enhance comprehension and retention

• Converting any content to all reading levels from 2nd to 11th grade (and higher), and in over 30 languages

Click here to sign up for a free account and watch and learn how it all works below!

Magic School AI

Cost: free and paid versions available
Compatibility: web based

Magic School AI is an AI platform for educators that offers 60+ tools to help with translation, differentiation, assessment, communication, and more. It can help teachers save time, fight burnout, promote sustainability, and build AI competencies and skills. Some of our favorite features of Magic School include their Text Leveler, Clear Directions, Custom Chatbox, Math Story Problems, and more. There’s a lot to love about Magic School AI, but another feature that has us excited is MagicStudent. MagicStudent is an AI platform designed to build AI literacy for students. It not only teaches students to use AI responsibly, it also unlocks learning opportunities not possible without generative AI. This feature is coming, so be sure to stay tuned for updates. Sign up for a Magic School AI account by clicking here and check out what it has to offer below!

School AI

Cost: free
Compatibility: web based

School AI is an AI platform that helps teachers create, personalize, and engage their students with adaptive and interactive learning experiences. It also helps students learn at their own pace, level, and style, and get instant feedback and guidance from the AI. School AI is designed for K12 students and has built-in monitoring and controls for teachers.

School AI can help both teachers and students be successful by:

• Saving teachers time and effort in planning, preparing, and delivering lessons

• Providing teachers with data and insights on student performance and progress

• Offering teachers various tools to customize and differentiate their instruction

• Enhancing student motivation, engagement, and retention with gamified and immersive content

• Supporting student autonomy, self-regulation, and metacognition with AI feedback and scaffolding

• Catering to student diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility with multilingual and multimodal options

One of our favorite parts of SchoolAI is Spaces. With Spaces, users (both students and teachers) can use AI powered chatbots in creative ways. For example, you can set up a chatbot to act as a historical figure, taking questions from the student(s). It all feels very familiar to the kids - resembling a text message thread.

You can sign up for free and start using School AI today by clicking here, and check out what it has to offer below!

Class Companion

Cost: free
Compatibility: web based

We’re not going to lie….Class Companion is one of the tools that we’re most excited about. Class Companion is a website that uses AI to help teachers give instant, personalized feedback on written assignments. It can help teachers save time, monitor student progress, and differentiate instruction. It can also help students practice their writing skills, get immediate guidance, and improve their learning outcomes. Here’s how it works:

1. Teachers start by uploading an assignment and rubric. (TIP: When creating the assignment, we HIGHLY recommend setting the maximum number of attempts to more than 1. Doing so provides an opportunity to edit their work after the AI provides feedback.)

2. This gets shared to students (student accounts are required) via a shared link or an email.

3. Students complete their writing by typing out their essay in Class Companion, then submit for AI review / grade.

4. If you’ve chosen more than one attempt for your students, the AI will coach them through the teacher’s rubric, explaining whether or not the student has met the expectations. The student then has the opportunity to edit their work and try to improve.

5. When an assignment is submitted, the teacher has the ability to edit the AI’s score to provide a final grade.

To sign up for your FREE account, click here and check out our video below. You can also check out ouf full blog post on Class Companion by clicking here!

Curipod

Cost: free and paid versions available
Compatibility: web based

Curipod is a website that helps teachers create and deliver interactive lessons on any topic, with the help of artificial intelligence. Teachers can use Curipod to:

• Generate lessons with AI: Curipod can suggest content, questions, and activities based on the topic and learning objectives that the teacher inputs. The teacher can then customize the lesson according to their preferences and needs.

• Engage students with curiosity: Curipod’s lessons are designed to spark students’ curiosity and interest in learning, by using multimedia, gamification, and social learning features. Students can share their voices, opinions, and creations with their classmates and teachers.

• Save time and resources: Curipod reduces the workload and stress of lesson planning and delivery, by providing ready-to-play lessons from verified educators and authors, as well as a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other platforms.

To sign up for a free account, click here. Check out our video for more information below!

Eduaide.AI

Cost: free and paid versions available
Compatibility: web based

Eduaide.AI is a website that helps teachers create lesson plans, teaching resources, and assessments using artificial intelligence. Teachers can use Eduaide.AI in the classroom in the following ways:

• Generate teaching resources: Teachers can choose from over 100 resource types and learning objects, such as worksheets, quizzes, slides, videos, etc. and use AI to generate content based on their topics and objectives.

• Personalize instruction: Teachers can use the “transform” tool to modify the generated content to suit their students’ needs and preferences. They can also use the “feedback bot” to provide instant and customized feedback to students.

• Collaborate with AI and other teachers: Teachers can use the “Eduaide chat” to ask questions and brainstorm ideas with the AI model. They can also share their resources with other teachers and access a community of practice.

To sign up for your account, click here and check out our video below!

CoPilot

Cost: free
Compatibility: web and mobile

Microsoft CoPilot is an AI companion that can help teachers and students with various tasks and projects, such as:

• Writing and editing: CoPilot can assist with writing essays, reports, summaries, poems, stories, and more. It can also help with editing, proofreading, and improving the quality and clarity of the text.

• Researching and learning: CoPilot can provide information, facts, definitions, examples, and explanations on any topic. It can also help with finding and citing sources, creating bibliographies, and checking plagiarism.

• Coding and creating: CoPilot can help with coding in different languages, such as Python, Java, C#, etc. It can also help with creating apps, games, websites, graphics, and more.

• Teaching and assessing: CoPilot can help teachers with creating lesson plans, teaching resources, and assessments. It can also help with providing feedback, grading, and tracking student progress.

• Generating images: CoPilot paired with Microsoft Designer is able to produce images that may be used for presentations, lessons, etc.

To use CoPilot in the classroom, teachers and students need to sign in to their Microsoft account or Entra ID account and access CoPilot through the Microsoft Edge or Chrome browser, on Windows or Mac OS. They can also use CoPilot in select Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Teams. They can chat with CoPilot by typing or speaking their requests, and CoPilot will respond with relevant and useful information, suggestions, or content. They can also ask CoPilot to show examples, explain how it works, or give feedback. Check out our video below for more info!

Gemini (formely Bard)

Cost: free
Compatibility: web and mobile

Google's Gemini (formerly Bard) is a tool designed that can assist teachers in various ways, primarily by providing them with access to educational resources, streamlining administrative tasks, and facilitating communication and collaboration among teachers, students, and parents. Here are several ways Gemini can help teachers:

• Resource Access: Gemini provides teachers with access to a wide range of educational resources, including lesson plans, teaching materials, videos, and interactive activities. These resources can help teachers enhance their lessons and engage students more effectively.

• Curriculum Planning: Gemini offers tools for curriculum planning, allowing teachers to create, organize, and share lesson plans, unit outlines, and assessments. This helps teachers align their curriculum with educational standards and goals.

• Assessment and Feedback: Gemini enables teachers to create and administer assessments, quizzes, and assignments digitally. Teachers can track student progress, provide timely feedback, and analyze assessment data to inform instruction and support student learning.

Teachers are able to access Gemini by clicking right here and accepting the terms. Educators can find Gemini in Google apps such as: Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and more.

Canva Magic Suite

Cost: free
Compatibility: web and mobile

Canva's Magic suite tools are a set of features designed to enhance the design process and make it easier for users to create visually appealing graphics and designs. These tools leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to assist users in various aspects of design, including layout, color selection, and image editing. Here are some of the key features included in Canva's Magic suite:

• Background Remover: This tool automatically removes the background from images, allowing users to create transparent or custom backgrounds for their designs. It simplifies the process of isolating subjects from their backgrounds, which is useful for creating product images, profile pictures, and design elements.

• Color Palette Generator: Canva's Color Palette Generator analyzes an image and generates a complementary color palette based on the colors present in the image. This tool helps users create cohesive and visually appealing designs by providing color inspiration and ensuring color harmony.

• Font Pairing: Font Pairing suggests font combinations that work well together, helping users choose complementary fonts for their designs. It takes into account factors such as font style, weight, and contrast to ensure readability and aesthetic appeal.

• Layout Suggestions: Canva's Layout Suggestions feature analyzes the content of a design and provides suggestions for layout options. It helps users quickly explore different layout possibilities and find the best arrangement for their content, saving time and effort in the design process.

• Smart Resize: Smart Resize automatically adjusts the dimensions of a design to fit different aspect ratios and sizes, making it easy to create variations of the same design for different platforms and devices. This feature saves time by eliminating the need to manually resize and reformat designs for different purposes.

• Image Cropping: Canva's Image Cropping tool provides intelligent cropping suggestions based on the composition of the image and the aspect ratio of the design. It helps users crop images to fit specific dimensions or aspect ratios while preserving the most important parts of the image.

Overall, Canva's Magic suite tools leverage AI and automation to simplify the design process, provide creative inspiration, and assist users in creating professional-looking designs with ease. These features are valuable for students and teachers looking to create high-quality graphics and visual content for academic purposes. To learn more about how Canva can be used in the classroom, check out our blog posts and video tutorials below:

• How to Use Canva’s Magic Suite in the Classroom

• Canva Features To Use in the Elementary Classroom

• 20 Ways for Students to Use Canva in the Classroom

• 10 Ways for Teachers to Use Canva in the Classroom

-- Please follow us on social media and tag us with how you’re using AI tools in your classroom! 👓👗

For more tips, tricks and lesson ideas for making learning more interACTIVE, check out our books The InterACTIVE Class and Flipgrid in the InterACTIVE Class on Amazon!

How to Use AI in the Classroom

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a hot topic in education in recent years. It has the potential to transform the way teachers teach and students learn in the classroom. By using AI, teachers can create a more personalized learning experience for each student, and help them to achieve their full potential. Here are five AI tools that can be easily integrated into our classrooms.

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CoPilot:
Generate Lesson Plans & Other Educational Materials in Seconds

Education CoPilot streamlines your planning and prep with AI generated templates for lesson plans, writing prompts, educational handouts, student reports, project outlines and lots more.

This is an incredibly efficient way to gather content for those pesky units where you’re scrambling to find resources for. In our example, we were working on a unit covering this standard: SC.1.E.6.2 Describe the need for water and how to be safe around water. After entering some information (including the standard), we were provided five lessons all covering the content!

There are also workshop tools that can help generate educational handouts, writing prompts, parent emails, and quiz builder. All are easy to use and require just a few clicks to generate! Check out how it all works below!

Curipod:
Make interactive lessons filled with creativity, reflection and critical thinking.

Curipod is an interactive presentations software for education, meetings and workshops, sparking curiosity and engaging everyone. Create your own presentations, or find premade templates and inspiration.

Enter the topic of your lesson, followed by learning objectives and standards. Give it a few seconds and Curipod will generate an interactive presentation that is fully editable! In our example, we were looking to create content on this standard: ELA.1.R.1.1: Identify and describe the main story elements in a story.

Curipod also features a Discovery library where users can access content created by other educators. The content can be narrowed down by subject, or by searching for what you’re looking for! Check out the video below to see how it all works!

Canva: Text to Image:
Automatically Create the Images You’re Looking For

Now, whenever you can't find the perfect images, you only need to find the right words instead – then watch them magically come to life. Once you’ve entered your words, rather than combining existing images, Text to Image creates entirely new ones from scratch. From practical descriptions to whimsical concepts, Text to Image can create one-of-a-kind images, with the click of a button.

Canva is free for all educators, and “Text to Speech” is available in all Canva accounts now! Here’s a quick overview / tutorial!

Deep Nostalgia:
Video reenactment technology to animate
the faces in still photos

Deep Nostalgia is a video reenactment tool that will animate the faces in still photos. This feature uses deep learning technology to create animated, lifelike movements in static images, bringing old family photos to life.

Deep Nostalgia uses an artificial neural network to apply pre-recorded facial movements to a still photo. When a user uploads a photo, the AI analyzes the face in the photo and applies movements based on a library of pre-recorded facial expressions. These expressions are created by actors and used to simulate realistic movements such as blinking, smiling, and head tilting.

The result is a short video of a still image, where the subject's face appears to be moving and reacting to the environment around them. The effect can be striking, as it creates the impression of bringing a historical figure back to life. Check out the video below to see it in action!

Murf.ai:
Turn Text into Speech

Murf is a tool that allows users to turn typed text into speech. It offers a selection of 100% natural sounding AI voices in 20 languages to make professional voice over for your videos and presentations. Users can easily toggle the different voices to select a voice that is appropriate for the content.

Check out the video below to see how it all works!

Synthesia:
AI video creation platform

Synthesia AI is a video production software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create lifelike videos of people speaking in different languages or using different gestures, facial expressions, and body language. This technology allows users to create videos that appear to feature real people speaking and moving, even if those people never actually appeared on camera.

Synthesia AI works by analyzing a script, recording a voiceover, and then mapping the speech to a 3D model of a person's face and body. The AI algorithms then use this information to generate a video of the person speaking, complete with realistic facial expressions and body movements. The resulting videos can be customized in a variety of ways, including adding different backgrounds, changing the clothing or hairstyles of the virtual person, and altering the tone and speed of the voiceover. See it in action below!

-- Please follow us on social media and tag us with how you’re using these ideas in your classroom! 👓👗

For more tips, tricks and lesson ideas for making learning more interACTIVE, check out our books The InterACTIVE Class and Flipgrid in the InterACTIVE Class on Amazon!