The Smart Teacher's Guide to AI-Powered Planning This Summer

🕵️ PD Intelligencer - May 31 2025

LINKS FOR YOU

Keep Up To Date With the Latest News

🤫 23 Ways to Quiet a Chaotic Middle School Class - Master teacher-tested attention-getting routines that quickly restore calm and focus to noisy classrooms.

GRANTS FOR PD

Money To Support Your PD

💰 2025-2026 Pipeline to Leadership (P2L) Cohort 2 Grant - Enhance staff roles and boost educator pipelines to amplify top teachers' impact (TX)

📚 MA FY26 Early Literacy Consortium Grant 726 - Support collaborations to enhance teacher training and early literacy for PK-3 students (MA)

🎯 Statewide Professional Development to Support the Workforce and Low Incidence Disability Areas FY26 - Build skills and capacity of professionals serving students with low incidence disabilities statewide (MN)

🚜 CA FY26 Agricultural Career Technical Education Incentive Grant - Enhance CTE programs to maintain a steady flow of skilled agriculture professionals (CA)

🌍 Title III Limited English Proficient - Provide funding to help LEP students and immigrant children learn English and meet state academic standards (AZ)

JOBS

Find Your Best Fit in Education

🍎 Elementary School Teacher - Shape young minds and build foundational skills in this rewarding teaching opportunity in Madison County (FL)

🔬 Middle School Science Teacher - Cultivate curiosity and foster scientific discovery in growing minds in Ector County Independent School District, Odessa (TX)

👨🏽‍🏫 Elementary Principal (K-6) - Lead a dynamic K-6 team and shape the educational vision for young learners in Claysburg-Kimmel School District (PA)

🌟 Special Education Teacher - Make a meaningful difference by providing specialized support and individualized learning experiences in Millville (NJ)

📋 2025-26 Director of Instruction - Drive academic excellence and support educators across multiple school sites. Los Angeles (CA)

ONE BIG IDEA

Your AI Summer Breakthrough Starts Now

While 75% of teachers aren't currently using AI tools according to a 2025 RAND Corporation survey, those who have made the leap are discovering something remarkable: AI isn't replacing their expertise—it's amplifying it.

The global AI in education market is expected to grow from $5.18 billion in 2024 to $112.3 billion by 2034, and summer break presents the perfect low-pressure environment to explore these game-changing tools.

Here's the reality: many teachers who haven't explored AI tools simply haven't had the time or training during the busy school year.

But summer offers you the breathing room to experiment, make mistakes, and discover workflows that could save you hours each week come fall.

The teachers who are already using AI report creating differentiated lesson plans in minutes rather than hours, generating engaging classroom activities on demand, and spending less time on preparation so they can focus on what they do best: providing personalized guidance and inspiration to their students.

Essential AI Tools Every Teacher Should Know

The Big Three: Your AI Starting Lineup

ChatGPT remains the most versatile tool for educators. It excels at brainstorming, creating content variations, and generating discussion questions. Its conversational approach makes it ideal for bouncing ideas around and refining concepts.

Google Gemini has become increasingly popular among educators for its integration with Google Workspace tools that many schools already use. Gemini excels at research tasks, content analysis, and creating structured educational materials. Its ability to work seamlessly with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides makes it particularly valuable for teachers already embedded in the Google ecosystem.

Education-Specific AI Platforms like MagicSchool AI and Eduaide are built specifically for teachers. MagicSchool helps teachers and educators create lesson plans, write assessments, proofread, give feedback, and other administrative tasks.

Best of all, the tool complies with FERPA and COPPA guidelines.

Why These Tools Matter: A 2024 survey from the Digital Education Council found that 86% of students use artificial intelligence in their studies. Your students are already in this world—these tools help you meet them there while maintaining your role as their guide and mentor.

5 Ways AI Could Save You Hours This Summer

So how exactly do these tools save you hours? Here are five practical applications that will transform your summer prep.

Lesson Planning Revolution Instead of starting from scratch, use AI to generate comprehensive lesson plan frameworks. Input your learning objectives, grade level, and subject area, and receive structured plans complete with activities, assessment ideas, and differentiation strategies.

You can then customize these foundations with your expertise and teaching style.

Assessment Creation Made Simple Generate quiz questions, rubrics, and project prompts tailored to your specific content. AI can create multiple versions of assessments for different learning levels, saving you the time-intensive work of manual differentiation.

Turn Dense Content Into Gold Transform dense curriculum material into engaging formats. Ask AI to:

• Rewrite complex concepts for different reading levels
• Create analogies that resonate with your students
• Generate real-world application examples for abstract concepts

Feedback and Communication Draft personalized feedback for student work, create parent communication templates, and develop clear explanations for complex topics. AI can help you maintain consistency in your messaging while saving significant time.

Plan Your Growth Use AI to research new teaching strategies, analyze educational trends relevant to your subject area, and create professional growth plans. Summer is the perfect time to explore pedagogical innovations without classroom pressure.

Getting Started: Your 6-Week AI Mastery Plan

Week 1: Explore and Experiment

Choose one AI tool (start with ChatGPT if you're unsure) and spend 30 minutes daily just playing with it. Ask it to explain concepts from your subject area, request lesson ideas, or have it help you brainstorm creative projects. The goal is comfort, not perfection.

Week 2: Focus on Content Creation

Pick one specific area where you spend the most prep time—perhaps creating worksheets or writing discussion questions. Use AI to generate examples in this area, then refine and customize them to match your teaching style.

Week 3: Assessment and Feedback Tools

Experiment with using AI to create quiz questions, rubrics, and project prompts. Practice generating multiple versions of assessments for different learning levels. Start developing your quality control process.

Week 4: Quality Control and Customization

This is crucial: AI-generated content needs your expert review. Develop your systematic process for evaluating, editing, and improving AI outputs. Check for accuracy, bias, and alignment with your teaching philosophy.

Week 5: System Building and Workflow Creation

Create templates and workflows that combine AI efficiency with your expertise. For example, develop a process where AI generates a first draft of materials, you customize them for your students, and then you save the refined versions for future use.

Week 6: Integration Planning

Plan how you'll incorporate these tools during the school year without them becoming another burden. Identify specific times when AI assistance will be most valuable and create simple systems you can maintain even when busy. Test your workflows with real lesson plans for your first unit.