🎥 AI Websites & Apps for Teachers

Curriculum Companion 

“My dream is you leave with stuff you can actually use.” 🫡

🎯 Key Takeaways & Learning Goals

By the end of this training, teachers should be able to:

• ✅ Use AI tools to save time, not create more work

• ✅ Understand when AI helps vs. when it becomes cheating

• ✅ Create lessons, quizzes, slides, and feedback faster

• ✅ Communicate clearly with students about ethical AI use

• ✅ Walk away with tools they’ll actually open again 😅

🧠 Big Ideas (The “Why This Matters” Section)

• AI isn’t going away. It’s either:

  • 🔹 Something students use secretly

  • 🔹 OR Something we teach responsibly

• The goal is supplement, not replace thinking.

• If a student can’t explain their work → 🚩 red flag.

• Detection tools ≠ truth machines (they’re conversation starters, not verdicts).

🧩 Classroom-Ready Activities & Strategies

📝 Activity 1: AI as a Writing Coach (Not a Writer)

Goal: Improve student writing without replacing thinking.

Steps:

1. Students write a paragraph on their own first

2. AI is used to:

   • Improve clarity

   • Suggest stronger transitions

   • Reorganize ideas

3. Students must:

   • Highlight changes

   • Explain why they accepted or rejected them

Why it works:
You’re assessing thinking, not typing speed.

🗣️ Activity 2: The “Verbal Defense” Check

Goal: Catch AI misuse without sketchy detection tools.

Steps:

1. Pull the student aside

2. Ask:

   • “What were your 3 main points?”

   • “Explain this paragraph in your own words”

3. If they can’t explain it:

   • They redo it by hand

   • Full credit still possible

💡 If they memorized the AI version and understand it?
Congrats. They learned. 🎉

📚 Activity 3: Level the Text (Differentiation Win)

Use Case:
You find a great article… but it’s way above student reading level.

Steps:

• Drop the article into an AI tool

• Adjust reading level (up or down)

• Keep the content, change the complexity

Perfect for:

• SPED

• EL

• Inclusion classes

• Tiered instruction

💬 Discussion & Reflection Questions

Use these in PD, PLCs, or classrooms:

• “When does AI help learning—and when does it replace it?”

• “Should AI be allowed if students can explain their thinking?”

• “What skills do students still need if AI exists?”

• “How do we prepare kids for a world where AI is normal?”

🧑‍🏫 Grade-Level Examples

🧒 Elementary

• Rewrite a story at a lower reading level

• Create discussion questions from a video

• Use AI images to inspire creative writing

🧑 Middle School

• Generate practice quizzes

• Turn notes into review sheets

• Compare student writing vs. AI-assisted revisions

🧑‍🎓 High School

• Essay feedback (Glow & Grow)

• Rubric creation

• Slides + quizzes from one article

🧑‍💼 Admin / Coaches

• PD agendas

• Observation feedback

• Parent communication drafts

• Policy creation (AI use expectations)

📋 Practical Tools You Can Use Tomorrow

✔️ Must-Have Moves

• ✍️ First writing sample done by hand

• 📜 Clear AI policy:

  • “AI requires prior teacher approval”

  • “Assignments may be verbally reviewed”

• 🔄 Use revision history for transparency

• 🧠 Focus grading on explanation, not polish

🧠 Teacher Mindset Reset (Real Talk)

• You don’t need every AI tool

• You need 1–2 that save real time

• If it:

  • ❌ Creates more steps → skip it

  • ✅ Removes busywork → keep it

“AI should do the boring parts so teachers can do the human parts.”

⭐ Final Encouragement

You don’t have to be an AI expert.
You just have to be curious, clear, and consistent.

Try one thing.
Use it once.
Then decide if it earns a permanent spot. 😎