The best AI tools for student teachers are the ones your program, your placement district and your cooperating teacher have all said you may use. For planning, the free teacher plans from MagicSchool, Khanmigo, Brisk, Curipod and Chalkie cover most of what a student teacher needs, and Google Gemini joins them if your university or placement district has switched it on. Get the three permissions first: a tool that breaks your program's rules costs more than any hour it saves.
Fall placements are under way, and the portfolio write-ups follow. Education Week reported in May 2026 that none of the dozen or so states that require teaching portfolios has specific guidance on how teachers may use AI in them. That silence does not mean permission. It means the rule lives in your program handbook, and you have to go and read it.
Which AI tools suit a student teacher, side by side?
Each row below is a different job, and none of the six is "the best" for all of them; the "best use" column is our editorial judgment. Prices and free-tier terms were checked on vendor pages on November 6, 2026. The privacy column reports what each vendor says, not what we have confirmed.
| Tool | Best use | Strengths | Limits | Price / free tier | Privacy considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | First drafts of lesson plans, rubrics and family emails | 80+ teacher tools; directory rating 4.74 from 19 reviews | The pricing page states no cap on the free plan | Free plan; Plus $8.33 a month billed annually | Vendor claims FERPA and COPPA compliance; no training statement found on the pages checked |
| Khanmigo | Lesson hooks, exit tickets, rubrics | Free sign-up for teachers; directory rating 4.40 from 5 reviews | Student access only through a school or district | Free for teachers; no cap stated | Privacy policy and terms did not load when checked; training position unverified |
| Brisk | Drafting and feedback inside Google and Microsoft files | Works where you already write; directory rating 4.77 from 35 reviews | Premium and school plans are custom-priced | Free for teachers; no cap stated | Vendor says inputs are never used to train models |
| Curipod | Interactive slides with live student responses | Students need no accounts; directory rating 4.67 from 3 reviews | Free plan limits live sessions each week; the number is not on the page | Free; school plan custom-priced | Vendor says no training on teacher or student data; teacher email may feed ad audiences |
| Chalkie | Standards-aligned lessons and worksheets, fast | Exports to slides and PDF; directory rating 4.88 from 26 reviews | Five resources a week on the free plan | Free; Pro $6.65 a month | Vendor says student data is not used to train models; prompts are logged for quality monitoring |
| Google Gemini | Drafting, quizzes and rubrics inside Workspace | Free in Workspace for Education; directory rating 4.59 from 41 reviews | An administrator must enable it; you cannot switch it on yourself | Free with Workspace for Education | Google says Gemini for Education data is not human-reviewed or used to train models |
What three permissions does a student teacher need before using AI?
You need a yes from your teacher-preparation program, your placement district and your cooperating teacher (the mentor teacher in whose classroom you are placed; UK readers know the student teacher as a trainee teacher on placement). Each can say no on its own, and a yes from one does not carry to the others.
1. Your program says what AI may touch in your coursework and portfolio. Read the student-teaching handbook and the portfolio instructions, then ask your supervisor in writing. The strictest example we found is not for student teachers at all: the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, which certifies experienced teachers, bars AI from drafting any part of the written commentary, and its FAQ says: "If the use case is not explicitly listed as allowed, then it's prohibited". That is a different body with a different rulebook, but it shows how portfolio assessors think about authorship. The same Education Week article quotes a Texas Woman's University educator saying student teachers there are told they cannot use AI for certain portfolio tasks because it is not allowed on the test. Pearson's own edTPA statement on generative AI could not be read for this post, so the current edTPA rule is unverified: look it up before you draft a word.
2. Your placement district says which tools are approved and what data may go in. Many districts keep an approved-tools list and a student data privacy agreement for each entry. Ask the school's technology contact whether a student teacher may use the district's tools under the district's agreement, or only a teacher of record. Our guide to AI tools a school can approve shows what that review checks.
3. Your cooperating teacher says what you may use for their students and their curriculum. The unit, the pacing guide and the class are theirs. Show them a draft before it reaches students, and tell them which tool produced it.
Then ask one more question of every tool: does it need a student's name, work sample or learning plan? If so, stop unless the district has approved that tool for that use. The U.S. Department of Education's student privacy office says schools may share education records with outside parties only when the party performs a function the school would otherwise do itself, is under the school's direct control over how records are used, and meets the criteria in the school's annual FERPA notice. Whether a student teacher meets your district's criteria is the placement site's call, and nothing here is legal advice.
Which AI tool is best for first-draft lesson plans?
MagicSchool is the best fit for a student teacher who needs lesson plans, rubrics and parent emails from one login, because it bundles 80+ teacher tools behind a free plan and holds a directory rating of 4.74 from 19 reviews.
The directory lists lesson plan generation with standards alignment, assessments, rubrics and communication templates among its features. MagicSchool also sells a separate student-facing product; stay on the teacher side unless the district approves the student tools.
Pricing: The pricing page lists a free plan for individual teachers and Plus at $8.33 a month billed annually, or $12.99 billed monthly (checked November 6, 2026). It lists "unlimited generations" under Plus, which implies a cap on the free plan, but states no number.
Safety: The privacy page says MagicSchool is FERPA and COPPA compliant and offers data protection addenda for districts; those are the vendor's claims. The pages checked said nothing about training models on user inputs. The directory record shows an independent 9ine assessment.
Watch out for: One dashboard with 80+ tools invites you to generate everything. Pick the three you will actually use.
Choose something else if your cooperating teacher already works in Google Docs all day: Brisk fits that habit better.
Which AI tool is best for lesson hooks and exit tickets?
Khanmigo is the best fit for a student teacher who wants a lesson hook, exit ticket or rubric from a nonprofit vendor, because the directory lists lesson hooks, exit tickets and rubric generation among its features and the homepage offers free teacher sign-up.
Pricing: The Khanmigo homepage says "sign up for free" for teachers and states no cap. Khanmigo for parents and learners requires a monthly or annual payment, and learners must be 18 or older or have a parent's permission (checked November 6, 2026).
Safety: The homepage says Khanmigo keeps work and student data "private and secure." Its privacy policy and terms did not load when checked, so the training position is unverified. Classroom access for students is available only through school or district implementations, which means a student teacher cannot hand students a log-in.
Watch out for: Only the teacher tools are yours to use. Do not point students at the learner version.
Choose something else if you need slides or worksheets rather than an activity idea: Chalkie or Curipod produce finished files.
Which AI tool is best for working inside Google Docs and Slides?
Brisk is the best fit for a student teacher who already drafts everything in Google or Microsoft files, because it runs as a browser extension inside them and holds a directory rating of 4.77 from 35 reviews.
The directory lists lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, text leveling and writing feedback among its features.
Pricing: The plans page lists Free at $0 for teachers; Premium and Intelligence plans are custom-priced for schools and districts. It states no numeric cap (checked November 6, 2026).
Safety: Brisk's privacy center says student and teacher inputs "are never used to train, fine-tune, or improve AI models." It also says Brisk has signed the National Data Privacy Agreement with 25 listed states, on a map dated November 2025, and is open to district-level agreements. Those are vendor statements; whether your placement district has signed is a question for the district.
Watch out for: Brisk also offers a student-facing extension called Boost. Leave it off unless the district has approved it.
Choose something else if your university gives you a Workspace account with Gemini enabled and you want one fewer extension.
Which AI tool is best for interactive slides?
Curipod is the best fit for a student teacher who wants a discussion-heavy opening or closing activity, because it turns a prompt into slides where students answer live without making accounts.
Pricing: The pricing page lists Free at $0 a month "for every teacher," with a set number of live sessions each week. The page does not give the number. Student written responses on the free plan are capped at 1,000 characters (checked November 6, 2026).
Safety: The privacy policy, effective September 30, 2026, says Curipod does not use teacher or student data to train AI models and never uses student data commercially. It also says that for non-student users, email addresses may be used to build lookalike audiences on third-party platforms. A student teacher is a non-student user. It stores student responses and, optionally, names, so use first names or none.
Watch out for: The free plan's weekly session limit can run out in the middle of a unit.
Choose something else if you need a printable worksheet: Chalkie gives you the file.
Which AI tool is best for standards-aligned lessons and worksheets?
Chalkie is the best fit for a student teacher who needs a complete lesson or worksheet to edit tonight, because its free plan produces five full resources a week and it holds the highest directory rating of the six, 4.88 from 26 reviews.
The directory lists alignment to NGSS, C3 and state standards, export to slides and PDF, and 40 languages.
Pricing: The pricing page lists Free at US$0 with five resources a week, Pro at US$6.65 a month (US$79.80 a year) with 200 resources a month, and Max at US$12.99 a month with 400 (checked November 6, 2026).
Safety: The privacy policy, last updated November 5, 2026, says student data is not sold, used for advertising or used to train AI models. It also says an analytics service records AI prompts and responses for quality monitoring, so assume anything you type is stored. Keep student names and work out of prompts.
Watch out for: Five resources a week disappears fast if you regenerate until a lesson feels right. Write a tighter prompt instead.
Choose something else if your district requires a signed data agreement before any tool is used: ask the district which tools it already has agreements with.
Which AI tool is best if your university or district already provides Gemini?
Google Gemini is the best fit for a student teacher whose university or placement district runs Google Workspace for Education and has switched Gemini on, because it costs nothing extra and Google states its data is not used to train models.
Pricing: Google says Gemini for Education is included in all Google Workspace for Education editions free of charge; a Google AI Pro for Education add-on is sold separately at prices Google does not publish (checked November 6, 2026).
Safety: Google says that under the Workspace for Education terms, "your data is not human-reviewed or used to train AI models," and that an administrator must enable Gemini Apps for an account. Students under 18 get a separate experience with extra guardrails. Those terms apply to Workspace for Education accounts, so check which account you are signed in with.
Watch out for: An account from your university and an account from your placement district are two different permissions. Use the one that matches the work.
Choose something else if no administrator has enabled it for your account; the other five tools work without that step.
A worked plan: one Grade 7 science lesson on density
This is a plan, not a record of a lesson taught. It shows how the three permissions and the tools fit together, with a 45-minute density lesson.
- Start from the cooperating teacher's unit plan. Copy the objective and standard from their document. No student information is involved.
- Draft with one tool. Ask Chalkie or MagicSchool for a first lesson outline using that objective, and ask for a three-question exit ticket.
- Build the opening in Curipod. A prompt such as "Why does a steel ship float but a steel nail sink?" gives students something to answer live.
- Rewrite the draft in your own words. Cut anything you cannot explain to a Grade 7 student from memory. Change one example to fit this class.
- Show your cooperating teacher the lesson and name the tools used. Ask what they would change.
- Write the reflection yourself, by hand or in a plain document. The reflection is where your program wants to see your thinking. Whether any AI help is allowed there is a question for your supervisor.
What did this list leave out?
ChatGPT is the one most readers will ask about. OpenAI says ChatGPT for Teachers is free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2027 and that content is not used to train models by default. The page does not mention student teachers or teacher candidates, so whether you qualify is unclear. Our post on whether ChatGPT is enough for teachers covers where specialist tools win.
Diffit levels reading passages for different readers; its pricing page lists a free Basic plan with limits and no student logins, and its privacy pages do not state whether user content trains AI models. Canva for Education is free for verified K-12 teachers; the education page says teachers must verify their teaching credentials, which a student teacher may not be able to do.
What does the directory say about this category?
Of the 48 tools in the lesson planning and resource creation category of our directory (checked November 6, 2026), 10 carry an independent 9ine security assessment, 11 declare FERPA compliance, 18 have no stated data-hosting location, and 14 do not state a minimum age. For the six featured here, the directory's own FERPA, COPPA and GDPR fields are blank, and four of six carry the 9ine assessment (MagicSchool, Khanmigo, Brisk and Google Gemini). Where vendors make compliance claims on their own pages, this post reports them as claims. Our security assessments page explains what the independent assessment covers.
The bottom line
Pick the permissions before the tool. Once your program, placement district and cooperating teacher have said yes, start with the free plan of the one tool that matches your most repeated job: Chalkie or MagicSchool for lesson drafts, Brisk if you live in Google Docs, Curipod for live discussion, Khanmigo for hooks and exit tickets, Gemini if your account has it. Related reading: our guides for new teachers, writing sub plans, aligning lessons to state standards and classroom observations. Browse every option in the full tools directory.
Dan Fitzpatrick is The AI Educator, a keynote speaker and author who has trained more than 150,000 educators.
