8 AI Tools That Can Help Generate Ideas for Your Classroom

We’ve all been there, sitting down to plan a lesson and finding nothing but an empty screen. The cursor blinks, the clock ticks, and suddenly that spark you were counting on feels completely out of reach. For that moment, it’s like your creative well has run dry; some of you reading this might even be feeling that exact way right now. It’s frustrating, but those dry spells don’t last forever. Creativity can come in waves, and even when the tide is low, there are always ways to bring it back.

Perhaps for you, it’s exercise, scrolling through social media, or simply stepping away for a while. For me, it’s usually a long walk along the water, getting lost in a paperback thriller, or listening to a podcast. Over time, though, generative AI has become a resource for me as well.

This is the moment when the right tech tool, used strategically, can earn its place in your planning process. On some occasions, you may walk away with a fully ready-to-use lesson; other times, you’re just looking for the missing piece that brings your vision into focus: a creative hook you hadn’t thought of, a different way to introduce students to new material, or that one idea that unlocks the rest of your planning. If you think of lesson planning as building blocks—the outline, practice materials, activities, slides, and student support—wherever you’re stuck, there’s likely a tech tool that can help with that specific piece.

The key is finding the right tool that works for you in the moment, and that choice is entirely yours to make based on what you need. Large language models can offer incredible value, but they may feel intimidating at first. That’s where what I call “AI with training wheels” comes in. Platforms like Curipod, Brisk, and SchoolAI are designed with teachers in mind: easy to navigate with simple features that don’t require any AI expertise or tech savviness.

If you’re in a time crunch, these tools are often the best place to start; they deliver classroom-ready results without the learning curve of prompting. On the other hand, if you have time to experiment, large language models can offer more flexibility and creative control.

ChatGPT, Claude, and Other Conversational AI Tools

Sometimes the hardest part is getting started. AI can help you break through that initial block, whether you need an idea to get started with or a complete outline with objectives, standards alignment, activities, and assessments. Often, seeing a structure on the page can be the push you need to imagine (or reimagine) tomorrow’s lesson.

If your district uses Google, you may already have access to Gemini; if you’re in a Microsoft district, the equivalent is Copilot. You can also use ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude. What makes these tools useful (and worth exploring) is their range. Personally, I find ChatGPT best when I’m stuck on big-picture planning, like rethinking how I introduce a unit. When I’m working on a task I’ve done before, Gemini or Copilot can be more effective, since they can pull directly from documents already in my workspace. With a well-crafted prompt, you can ask these tools to do the following:

• Draft lesson outlines tailored to your grade level.
• Brainstorm discussion questions aligned to standards.
• Create exit tickets or quick formative checks.
• Suggest multiple ways to differentiate a single activity.
• Tap into the collective wisdom of teachers from near and far.

To give you a sense of what effective prompting looks like, here are a few examples with the kind of depth and detail that produce strong results:

• I’m planning a 45-minute lesson on [topic] for [grade level], but I’m stuck on how to make it engaging. Can you draft an outline that includes relevant [state] standards, a creative opening hook (two to three minutes) that grabs attention, and at least two interactive formative assessment strategies? Add one unconventional activity idea that approaches this topic from a new angle.
• I’ve taught [topic] so many times. Can you give me three new ways to teach it that feel fresh, with specific examples I could try tomorrow? Draw from teacher blogs, lesson-sharing sites, or educational resources and include links so I can explore the original sources.
• I need to teach [concept] to middle school students, but I’m out of ideas for how to make it stick. Can you suggest three different approaches that emphasize [skills]? For each, include a suggested activity, a quick way to differentiate for different learners, and a strategy to check if students are engaged.

Pro tip: Once you’re comfortable, explore creating a Custom GPT. These allow you to upload your own rubrics, curriculum maps, and even past lessons, so the AI responds with content specific to your classroom context. While it takes some setup, the payoff is worth it.

Curipod

Slides are a staple in many classrooms for structuring lessons, but building a deck from scratch when you’re feeling stuck is a challenge. Curipod can generate a polished, editable slide deck based on any topic and include interactive activities. It starts with backward design to ensure that your lesson aligns with your learning objective. Even if you only keep a handful of the slides, it’s often enough to help you reframe your approach and keep moving forward. 

You can do the following:

• Generate a full deck from a topic: Start with a single word or concept—ecosystems, fractions, or the Civil War—and Curipod will generate an interactive presentation. This gives you a head start when you’re not sure how to structure your lesson or just need something to spark ideas.
• Add in quick pulse checks: Drop in short, interactive checks like polls, multiple-choice questions, or thumbs-up, thumbs-down prompts. These work well to see what students know before a lesson or to gauge what stuck afterward.
• Keep students engaged with creativity tools: Features like Draw Your Answer, Predict the Outcome, or word clouds get kids involved in fun, low-stakes ways. If you’re struggling to think of an engaging activity, these interactive slides can reenergize your class and spark discussion.

Curipod shines when you need something fun and interactive but don’t have the time to spend hours building activities from scratch. It’s especially useful for pulling students back in on a Monday morning after a long weekend.

Brisk Teaching

For me, I reach for Brisk Teaching most when I have a great article or video but no clue how to turn it into something interactive. I love the Boost feature because it can quickly generate activities with built-in comprehension checks, a big help when time is short. As a Chrome extension, it lives in your browser, ready to rework whatever content you’re looking at into classroom-ready materials, assessments, slide decks, podcasts, and more. If you want a quick win without fiddling with prompts, give Brisk a try.

• Make slides from a YouTube video or article: Found a great video or article you think you could build a lesson around? Brisk helps generate a slide deck you can tweak if desired and use the next day.
• Create interactive student activities: Brisk’s Boost feature can turn materials into engaging activities with built-in checks for understanding. For example, you can generate short-answer prompts or even a mini-quiz. Or, you can take a video clip and ask Brisk to build comprehension questions that get students talking about what they’ve just seen.
• Save everything automatically: Materials go straight to Google Drive, making it easy to revisit or tweak them later.

One of the things my teachers like most about Brisk is how it lowers the barrier for entry. Even teachers who don’t feel comfortable prompting with AI appreciate how Brisk works right on top of resources they already use. There’s more to Brisk than I can cover here, so it’s worth exploring on your own.

SchoolAI

While Brisk started with teacher-facing tools, SchoolAI took the opposite path: starting with student-facing supports before expanding. The result is a platform that covers both sides of the classroom experience well. This tool is a standout in my district, and in my opinion, its student-facing side is where it really shines. The teacher tools are also strong and make it a versatile one-stop shop when you need ideas fast.

If you’re stuck in a creative rut, these are some of SchoolAI’s most helpful features:

• Lesson-plan generators that build structured, editable outlines
• Worksheet and quiz creators for any subject
• Story word problems for any topic
• Ideas for engaging student activities

What makes SchoolAI stand out is its Spaces feature: customizable environments where students can work with AI tutors and chatbots, or engage with specific subjects or topics you choose. You design the parameters—say, a Shakespeare discussion guide, a math problem explainer, or an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure exploration of the Revolutionary War—and students interact with the Space one-on-one. But this tool ultimately can address a different challenge: when your students are stuck, not you. Students in our district have used it for everything from untangling tricky math problems to brainstorming presentation ideas, and it’s given teachers a new lens on student thinking.

It can be especially powerful when students are working on a larger project and don’t know how to take the next step. Instead of sitting in frustration, they can turn to a Space for guidance—breaking down a research question, brainstorming ways to present their findings, or receiving feedback on a draft. This additional support helps students push past that stuck moment so they can keep moving forward, freeing you up to circulate, differentiate, and connect more deeply with individual learners. You can also view the transcript of student interactions, which gives you insights into their thinking, and the platform highlights common misconceptions of students.