Teachers are drowning. Not in students—in everything around teaching. Lesson planning, grading, paperwork, differentiation, parent communication. The actual teaching part? That’s maybe 40% of the job.

AI tools are starting to address this imbalance. Not by replacing teachers—nothing replaces human connection in education—but by handling the administrative weight that burns teachers out.

Here’s what actually helps.

Lesson Planning: From Hours to Minutes

Curipod generates entire interactive lesson plans from topics. Type “French Revolution for 9th grade” and get a complete lesson with slides, discussion questions, and formative assessment activities. You’ll customize it, but starting at 70% done instead of zero changes everything.

MagicSchool is built specifically for K-12 teachers. It generates lesson plans, worksheets, rubrics, and assignments aligned to standards. The standards alignment is crucial—it matches what you’re creating to learning objectives automatically.

Eduaide.AI has dozens of specific generators: quiz questions, vocabulary lists, project ideas, differentiated versions of assignments. It’s more modular than Curipod—better if you want components rather than complete lessons.

ChatGPT and Claude with good prompts can generate lesson materials surprisingly well. The key is specificity: “Create a lesson plan for teaching quadratic equations to 10th graders, including three practice problems at different difficulty levels and a real-world application example.”

The catch: AI doesn’t know your specific students. It can generate materials; you still need to adapt them for your classroom dynamics.

Grading and Feedback

This is where teachers lose weekends.

Gradescope uses AI to grade handwritten and typed assignments. For math and science, it can recognize solutions and provide consistent scoring. You review and adjust, but the heavy lifting is automated.

Turnitin now does more than plagiarism detection. Its feedback tools suggest comments and identify patterns in student writing. It won’t replace your feedback, but it can draft first-pass comments that you refine.

Brisk integrates with Google Docs and provides AI-assisted feedback on student writing. It suggests comments based on the rubric you provide. Students get faster feedback; you spend less time on routine comments.

Formative has AI features that analyze student responses in real-time during class. You can see who’s struggling and who’s got it without waiting for formal grading.

For coding classes, CodeGrade auto-grades programming assignments against test cases. Students get immediate feedback; teachers see aggregate results.

Differentiation and IEPs

Every class has students at different levels. Creating multiple versions of materials manually is unsustainable.

MagicSchool has specific tools for creating differentiated versions of assignments—same content, adjusted reading levels or complexity.

Diffit generates reading passages at different Lexile levels on the same topic. All students engage with the same material; each gets a version they can access.

Khanmigo (from Khan Academy) provides personalized tutoring for students. It guides them through problems at their own pace, giving you data on where each student struggles.

For IEPs, GoalBook uses AI to suggest appropriate goals based on student data and standards. It doesn’t replace the judgment of specialists but provides research-backed starting points.

Student Engagement

Nearpod and Pear Deck create interactive lessons with AI-generated content. Real-time polls, quizzes, and discussion prompts keep students engaged.

Curipod (mentioned above) specializes in creative engagement strategies—word clouds, drawings, debates—built into lessons.

Canva for Education with AI features lets students create presentations and projects with AI assistance. They’re learning while creating; the AI scaffolds the design work.

Quizizz generates quiz questions from topics automatically. Gamified learning keeps students engaged while generating assessment data for you.

Communication

ChatGPT or Claude can draft parent emails, progress reports, and newsletters. “Write a parent email explaining that their child is struggling with fractions but showing effort” gets you a professional, empathetic first draft.

Otter.ai can transcribe parent-teacher conferences. You focus on the conversation; the transcript captures details for follow-up.

Remind integrates AI for suggested messages and translation. Reaching parents in their language without manual translation removes a significant barrier.

For students with different communication needs, AI translation and text-to-speech tools make content accessible. Microsoft Immersive Reader is built into many platforms and uses AI to support reading comprehension.

Administrative Tasks

Claude or ChatGPT can draft:

• Recommendation letters (you add personal details)
• Classroom newsletters
• Field trip permission forms
• Behavior documentation
• Meeting agendas

Notion AI can organize curriculum planning, track standards coverage, and generate meeting notes from your bullet points.

Calendly or Picktime automates parent conference scheduling. No more back-and-forth emails.

Professional Development

Synthesis and Edthena use AI to analyze teaching videos and provide feedback. It’s like having a coach available anytime.

Khanmigo can role-play as a student, letting you practice explanations and anticipate misconceptions.

Perplexity AI helps with research when you’re planning new units or exploring pedagogical approaches.

The Ethical Conversation

Students are using AI. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help.

The productive approach: Teach students to use AI ethically and effectively. Create assignments that leverage AI rather than fighting it. Focus assessment on what AI can’t do—discussion, presentation, application.

Many teachers are shifting toward:

• More in-class writing and assessment
• Process-focused assignments (drafts, revisions, explanations)
• Projects requiring personal experience or local knowledge
• Oral examinations and discussions

AI doesn’t mean learning is obsolete. It means rote work is obsolete. That’s potentially better for education—more focus on thinking, less on mere reproduction.

The Teacher Stack

Free tools that help immediately:

• ChatGPT/Claude free tiers: Drafting and brainstorming
• Canva for Education: Free for teachers
• Diffit: Free tier available
• MagicSchool: Free tier available
• Microsoft Immersive Reader: Free in MS products

Worth the investment:

• Curipod (~$8/month): Full lesson generation
• Gradescope: Institutional licensing often available
• MagicSchool Pro (~$10/month): Full feature access

The Realistic Picture

AI tools won’t solve the teacher crisis. They won’t fix funding or class sizes or respect for the profession.

What they will do: Reclaim maybe 5-10 hours per week of administrative work. That’s significant. It’s the difference between spending Sunday planning lessons and spending Sunday resting.

The teachers I know who use these tools aren’t doing less. They’re doing more of what matters—actual teaching, relationship building, creative instruction—because the busy work handles itself.

Teaching is irreplaceable human work. Everything around teaching? Much of that can be automated. AI makes that distinction visible and actionable.

---

Educational AI tools are improving rapidly. I’ll update this as better options become available.