The Best AI Tools Teachers Should Be Using in 2025

Let’s be real: in 2025, AI isn’t just for coders in hoodies or sci-fi movie villains anymore — it’s for us, the teachers juggling lesson plans, grading marathons, and finding new ways to keep 2nd period from falling asleep after lunch.

The good news? AI isn’t here to replace teachers — it’s here to empower us. To give us time back, spark creativity, and maybe even make grading slightly less soul-sucking.

Here are the AI tools I think every teacher should have in their digital toolbox this year:

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1. MagicSchool.ai – Your AI Teaching Assistant

Need a rubric in 30 seconds? A scaffolded lesson plan for your ELL students? A parent email that doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it? MagicSchool has your back.

It’s built by educators, for educators. It even has a “de-burnout” tool, which I’m pretty sure should come with a cape.

Use it for:
✔️ Lesson planning
✔️ Differentiation ideas
✔️ Email drafts and behavior reports
✔️ Sparknotes for teachers

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2. Curipod – Interactive Lessons, Instantly

Imagine Pear Deck, Canva, and ChatGPT had a baby. That’s Curipod. You type in your topic (say, “supply and demand” or “Shakespearean insults”) and it creates interactive slides, polls, and drawing prompts your students can engage with live.

Use it for:
✔️ Bell ringers and exit tickets
✔️ Live student feedback
✔️ Low-prep, high-engagement activities

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3. Diffit – The Differentiation Dream Tool

Got a killer article, but your students read at 3 different levels? Diffit automatically rewrites content at varying reading levels, adds glossaries, comprehension questions, and more. It’s like having your own personalized reading coach.

Use it for:
✔️ Special education and ELL accommodations
✔️ Content area reading
✔️ Current events in accessible formats

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4. Eduaide.ai – AI for Curriculum Creators

This one’s perfect for us teachers who love designing meaningful lessons from scratch. Eduaide.ai helps you brainstorm activities, design projects, build rubrics, and even write essential questions that don’t make your brain hurt.

Use it for:
✔️ Project-based learning
✔️ Unit design
✔️ Assessment ideas

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5. ChatGPT - Your Brainstorm Buddy

Whether you’re stuck planning a unit on entrepreneurship, writing a graduation speech, or figuring out how to explain compound interest to freshmen without them falling asleep — ChatGPT can help you think it through, write it out, and make it sound human.

Use it for:
✔️ Drafting documents
✔️ Creative brainstorming
✔️ Student feedback ideas
✔️ Personal reflection prompts

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A Few Pro Tips for Using AI Like a Pro:

• Start small. Use one tool to solve one problem.
• Keep it human. AI can help you write it, but your voice, your instincts, and your connection with students matter most.
• Stay curious. The best teachers are lifelong learners — treat AI like a new strategy in your teaching playbook.

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Final Bell: AI doesn’t make you any less of a teacher. It helps you be more of one — more creative, more present, and maybe even more rested. In a world that’s asking teachers to do more with less, these tools just might be the edge we’ve been waiting for.

So go ahead — explore, experiment, and don’t be afraid to ask your new robot friend for a hand.

The Five Day NO Cell Phone Challenge

Teenagers are spending nine hours on average consuming media according to a recent study by Common Sense Media. Research from Milan and Swansea Universities also reported that 66% of teens admit to feeling panicked without their phones.

As a high school teacher, I have noticed a huge shift over the past few years in how teenagers use and interact with each other when it comes to their cell phones. Many of them are addicted to their devices and have no awareness of how it is affecting them personally. In order to help students better understand how being "connected" all of the time isn't necessarily the best for their learning and mental health, I conducted a fun, yet challenging experiment with all of my classes this semester.

The challenge was simple with a few twists. Can you survive in school for five days without your cell phone? 

The challenge starts on a full five day week. The students can quit at any time if it gets too stressful. I do tell them the ground rules and expectations on the first day. If they successfully complete all five days and challenges, they get a pizza party and certificate along with mindfulness and awareness of what they are doing each day with their devices.

What are the challenges and what do they have to do?

Day 1: Show this video on YouTube. Go over the rules, students sign the pledge sheet, and then they put their cell phone in the back of the classroom for the entire period without checking it. HERE IS THE PLEDGE SHEET.
Days 2-3: Same as day 1.
Day 4: Students have to bring it to me before first period with it turned off and cannot get it back until the end of the day. (NOTE: I lock in my closet all day with a sticky note on the phone to avoid any confusion when picking-up). *You could even make this a two day challenge instead of one.
Day 5: Put the phone in the back of the class and complete a flipgrid video reflection answering the following three questions.

1. First name and how many hours you use your phone a day.
2. Do you feel you focus better in class with or without your cell phone next to you and why?
3. Share your thoughts on the challenge and how it can help all students in life and school. 

The party is then held on the following Monday at the end of the school day. HERE IS THE CERTIFICATE. During the party, we watch the Flipgrid videos, talk about the challenge, handout the certificates, take a team picture, and celebrate their success! I'd love to share the Flipgrid reflections, but out of respect and privacy of the students, I did not share the link to the videos in this post. 

I offered this challenge to all four of my classes totalling 95 students. On day one, we started with 50 students who wanted to take the challenge. By the end of day five, 20 students finished and completed the challenge. They did such an amazing job with their reflection videos. Here are the three biggest themes that popped-up in each reflection.

1. I focus more in school without my cell phone.
2. It forced me to be more aware of my surroundings and social with those around me.
3. I didn't feel anxious all of the time.

WOW! Proud teacher. I can't wait to do this challenge again next semester to see how others feel without their devices for a week. If you try this challenge with your students, please let me know how it goes and feel free to modify it!

DISCLAIMER: We are not a school that forces students to put their cell phones away throughout the school day. Also, I am a huge advocate of educational technology and using it for learning where and when applicable.

Episode #26: Insert Learning & Peer Evaluations

On this weeks segment of the Donatelli Edzone, learn how you can use Insert Learning to create interactive lessons from the headlines, become a better educator by using peer evaluations, and laugh/be inspired with a joke & quote!

 

If you liked this weeks video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE. Thank you!  

An Hour of Code! You Game?

December 9-15 marks computer science education week in our nation. Computer Science Education Week.org has partnered with Code.org, Scratch, Tynker, LightBot, and other successful programming and coding wizards such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and others alike to create fun, engaging, and interactive web based tutorials that teach students the basics of programming and coding. Their mission is for ALL teachers during the week to take ONE HOUR of CODE time out of their usual lessons to let students walk through the tutorials and learn how to program a game, app, holiday card, and much more! At the end of the hour, students can print a certificate that states they completed one hour of code. To learn more visit http://csedweek.org/learn OR http://code.org 

As a business & computer science teacher, I felt I had to jump on this great learning opportunity for my students for several reasons. One, programming and coding is where the jobs are in the future. Two, being able to program is an extremely valuable skill in the workforce. Three, students are very interested in their technology, yet many do not know how it works. “Every person in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.” –Steve Jobs 

For these reasons, I decided to take a day out of my classes to let the students explore and walk through the tutorials. If you are interested in what I am doing with my lessons, please click the links below. I recommend the first one if you only want to do a day or two, because it touches on the basics of programming. If you want to take more time, let the students pick an option of which tutorial they want to complete.

Many schools DO NOT teach these skills yet programmers and coders are the ROCKSTAR's of our society. They are the ones that make all of the awesome technology work. These are skills that can’t be ignored. Who knows…maybe after an hour of code, your students will want to finish the tutorials and find a passion and career path in life!  

Check out some of the following lessons: 

LESSON #1: Intro tutorial with stages

LESSON#2: Student options with different tutorials

Monthly Technology Meetups: How I Did It & Why They Matter

There are several things very true about education and technology. One, many teachers have a hard time during the year staying on-top of the latest technology trends as they get buried in planning, grading, coaching, etc. Two, administrators don't get a lot of professional development time with teachers so sharing new technology software and techniques sometimes takes a back-burner. Lastly, students using technology in school to learn is the future of our schools and if our teachers are not trained on how to use/impliment it properly, I believe we our failing our students.

This year at my school district (Northern Lebanon), I created a monthly TCOT (Teacher Collaboration On Technology) meetup with the help of the district's technology department. The goal of the monthly meetup is to bring teachers together from around the district to:

1. Create awaress of technology sites/software that can be used effectively in the classroom.
2. Share and discuss ways we can better use technology in the classroom. 
3. Collaborate and learn from each other. 

The group started out small but as the year has went on, it has continued to get more popular. I have had a blast sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers!

Each meeting, I start by sharing 3-5 technology websites/software that I think teachers can use in the classroom. Examples:

• Evernote
• Remind 101
• Quizlet
• Weebly
• Edmodo 

Next, I pick an education website of the month that teachers can visit to learn more information on their own. Examples:

• Mashable
• Edudemic
• Edutopia

Probably my favorite part of the meetings is I get to teach the teachers how to use a new software. In our early meetings we looked at how to use Twitter to build a PLN, use Edmodo as safe social media alternative, and this month I will be teaching how to use Remind 101: A software that allows you to safely text and remind your students.

Lastly, we spend several minutes sharing and discussing things that are working in the classroom and things we can improve. Overall the meetings last around 45 minutes.

I have provided a link on Google Drive to an example of my PowerPoint I use for the meetings. For those that can't make it, I send the PowerPoint out to all teachers for them to browse through when they get time.

Do you or your school district do something similar? Are you interested in starting something like this at your school? Let me know! There are just to many free and awesome resources for teachers not to be aware of. Any input, comments, and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-RD