The most useful AI tools for teachers handle the prep around teaching: drafting lesson plans, rewriting a text at three reading levels, building a quiz, starting feedback comments and smoothing a tricky parent email. MagicSchool, Brisk, Khanmigo, Diffit and Canva for Education are built for this, and ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft now offer education versions too. The rule that matters most: use what your district has approved, and keep student data out of everything else.
Where AI saves a teacher time, and where it doesn’t
AI tools for teachers are good at first drafts of the things you’d otherwise make from scratch at 9 p.m.:
- Lesson plans and unit outlines tied to the standards you name
- The same article rewritten at different reading levels, or translated for a newcomer
- Quiz questions, exit tickets and vocabulary lists
- Rubrics and first-pass feedback comments on student writing
- Parent emails that need to be warm, clear and short
They’re bad at knowing your kids. They don’t know that third period needs to move after lunch, or that one student shuts down at the word “test.” They also get facts wrong, science facts included, with total confidence. So the job splits neatly: the tool drafts, you decide.
The best AI tools for teachers right now
| Tool | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | A big menu of teacher tools in one place | Free teacher sign-up; district versions available |
| Brisk Teaching | Working inside the docs and pages you already use | Browser extension, free for teachers |
| Khanmigo | Lesson plans, rubrics and exit tickets | Teacher tools free for US educators |
| Diffit | Adapting existing material for different levels | Exports to Google and Microsoft tools |
| Canva for Education | Slides, worksheets and visuals | Free for verified K-12 teachers and students |
MagicSchool
MagicSchool bundles dozens of tools: lesson plans, rubrics, report card comments, writing feedback, quizzes, IEP drafts and professional emails, plus student-facing tools that teachers control. It says it’s FERPA- and COPPA-compliant and doesn’t use student or teacher data to train AI. The downside is choice overload, so pick three tools you’ll actually use and ignore the rest.
Brisk Teaching
Brisk is a browser extension, so it works on whatever you have open: a doc, a PDF, an article, a video. It drafts feedback on student writing, changes a text’s reading level, translates, builds quizzes and analyzes a submission’s structure and originality. This summer it moved to a chat-style design; the classic version stays available until December 31, 2026, if you’d rather not relearn it mid-semester.
Khanmigo
Khan Academy’s Khanmigo teacher tools are free for US educators, with support from Microsoft. They cover lesson plans, rubrics, quiz questions, exit tickets and lesson hooks tied to students’ interests. The student tutor is separate; schools get it through a district plan.
Diffit
Diffit starts from material you already have and adapts it by challenge level, language, scaffolds or standard, then exports to Google Docs, Slides, Forms and Classroom or Microsoft 365. If you only try one tool for differentiation, try this one. You can start free; check the pricing page for what continues after.
Canva for Education
Canva for Education is free for verified K-12 teachers and their students. Magic Write drafts text, and the AI photo editor can make a simple illustration for a slide. Canva says the education version is FERPA- and COPPA-compliant. Our guide to AI image generation tools covers more image options.
General assistants with education plans
The big general assistants now have school versions with stricter privacy terms than their consumer apps. If your district offers one, use it instead of a personal account.
- ChatGPT for Teachers is a workspace for verified US K-12 teachers and staff, free for a limited period. OpenAI says content isn’t used to train its models by default and that it’s built to help schools meet FERPA requirements.
- Claude for Teachers gives verified US K-12 educators free access, with teaching skills and links to state standards. Anthropic says the data isn’t used for training, and districts can manage accounts centrally.
- Gemini in Google Classroom adds tools to outline lessons, generate quizzes, write informational texts and tackle common misconceptions. Google says the Gemini app is included free in all Workspace for Education editions and the data isn’t used to train its models.
- Microsoft 365 Education is adding AI to its Teach tools, including Copilot-built unit plans and per-assignment AI guidelines for students.
Free offers change, so check how long each one runs. And because the school version looks almost identical to the regular app, confirm you’re in the school workspace before typing anything about a student. Our best AI tools for 2026 roundup compares these assistants more broadly.
Worked example: a 7th-grade science teacher’s week
Mr. Okafor teaches five sections of 7th-grade science in a district that has approved Gemini in Classroom, Brisk and Diffit. This week’s topic is food webs.
On Monday he asks Gemini in Classroom for a five-day outline on energy flow in ecosystems, plus common misconceptions. He keeps the misconceptions (“plants get their food from the soil” comes up every year) and drops a lab that needs equipment he doesn’t have.
On Tuesday he pastes the textbook section on decomposers into Diffit and gets three reading levels plus a Spanish version for two newcomers. One version calls mushrooms plants, so he fixes it before printing.
On Wednesday Brisk builds a ten-question quiz from the reading. He swaps two vocabulary questions for ones that ask what happens to the web when the hawks disappear.
On Thursday he grades lab reports with his own rubric. Brisk drafts comments; he edits each one and adds a line only he could write (“Your arrows finally point the right way!”). The tool never sets a score.
On Friday a parent emails, upset about a missing assignment. He writes the facts himself, asks the assistant to make the reply warm and brief without using the student’s name, and reads it twice before sending.
None of it replaced a decision he’d normally make. It replaced typing.
Student privacy: FERPA, COPPA and your approved list
Two federal laws come up most. FERPA protects the privacy of students’ education records, which covers grades, IEPs and much of your gradebook. COPPA is the FTC rule for online services that collect personal information from children under 13. In practice:
- Use AI tools for teachers that are on your district’s approved list, signed in with your school account.
- Keep names, ID numbers, IEP or 504 details, health information and discipline notes out of unapproved tools. “Student A” works fine.
- Check age rules before giving students access. Some tools are teacher-only, and some student features are age-limited.
- When you’re unsure, ask your tech coordinator before you paste.
The US Department of Education’s Protecting Student Privacy site explains FERPA in plain language, and the FTC publishes the COPPA rule. This is general information, not legal advice; state laws and district policies add their own rules.
Grading and feedback: keep your judgment in charge
Feedback drafts are one of the best uses of AI tools for teachers. Grading is one of the worst places to hand over control. A tool can suggest comments from your rubric, but it can’t see the student who finally wrote a full paragraph after months of one-liners.
A workable rule: AI drafts the comment, you set the score. Read every comment before a student sees it, and make sure each has at least one line that could only come from you.
Teaching students to use AI honestly
Your students are using these tools whether you talk about it or not, so talk about it. Set rules per assignment, such as “AI for brainstorming only” or “no AI on this one,” and explain why. Microsoft’s new assignment settings and MagicSchool’s teacher-controlled student tools help, but the conversation matters more.
Ask students to show their process: a brainstorm, a draft and a note on what the AI suggested and what they kept. Be careful with AI detectors. They make mistakes, and a false accusation is hard to undo; “walk me through your second paragraph” tells you more. Older students can use our guide to the best AI writing tools, which treats AI as an editor rather than a ghostwriter.
FAQ
What are the best free AI tools for teachers?
MagicSchool, Brisk and Khanmigo’s teacher tools are free for teachers, Canva for Education is free for verified K-12 teachers, and Gemini is included in Google Workspace for Education. Check your district’s approved list first.
Is ChatGPT safe for teachers to use?
ChatGPT for Teachers has stricter privacy terms than a personal account. Either way, keep identifiable student information out unless your district has approved the tool.
Can AI grade student work?
It can suggest scores and comments, but you should make the final call and review every comment first.
Do AI detectors work?
Not reliably enough to accuse a student on their own. Treat a flag as a reason to talk, not as proof.
