TeacherServer is a teacher-created and -run AI platform that offers thousands of free tools for educators. More significantly, the whole platform complies with Department of Education guidelines, offers the option of adjusting outputs to various grade levels depending on your students' needs, and all information is private and deleted immediately after you use it.
After experimenting with TeacherServer, I found it to be a wonderful resource for various AI tools, from quiz and lesson plan generators to subject-specific resources, including data analysis, spelling and grammar checkers, and much more.
Because it is teacher-backed and education-aligned, I felt better about using TeacherServer than most AI tools. Even so, I still found some similar frustrations to when I have experimented with AI in the past: namely, that despite what I hear from colleagues, I never seem to get great results from AI when it comes to lesson planning or slide generation.
Here’s a closer look at TeacherServer.
What is TeacherServer?
TeacherServer is a free library of AI education tools that are designed for teachers. It was created by Zafer Unal, a professor and associate dean of undergraduate studies at the University of South Florida. Unal, who has a dual background in computer science and education, designed TeacherServer to address concerns educators have about using AI. To that end, TeacherServer is focused on data privacy and grade-appropriate learning. It’s also quite fast at generating materials thanks to its utilization of a locally installed AI server.
TeacherServer comes preloaded with more than 1,194 AI tools. These tools are utilized by other teachers, and some are ranked based on popularity. Tools are separated by subject, and users can often input what grade level they are teaching for more grade-specific responses. While TeacherServer’s initial focus was on K-12 resources, it also offers tools for those in higher education.
A truly dizzying number of capabilities are available, from talk-to-PDF features to all manner of subject-specific quiz, lesson plan, and summary generators. While you could do some of these tasks with a standard AI tool, doing so and getting good results would often require some prompt engineering. The AI tools at TeacherServer start already prompted for education overall, and for specific education tasks in particular.
What Are TeacherServer's Best Features?
The education-focused nature of all the AI tools offered on TeacherServer is what stood out to me. Additionally, the focus on privacy, speed, and education standards is really important.
Another fun feature is that simply browsing the catalog of AI tools can give teachers ideas about how other educators are using AI and possibly inspire them in the process.
What Are Some Areas Where TeacherServer Could Improve?
As mentioned at the start of this article, as much as I loved TeacherServer overall, I did have some of the same complaints with TeacherServer as I do with AI overall.
Despite what I hear about how others are using it to save time, I don’t find that that’s the case for me unless I am willing to really compromise on quality. For instance, I’ve never found AI to produce really good slides. True to that trend, when I asked TeacherServer to summarize a link to a resource story, I thought the slides it created were fairly basic and not very helpful.
Additionally, while a grammar and spelling tool was good at catching grammar mistakes, I still did not like the way AI tried to edit my writing. It tried to get rid of any character in my writing, and more unforgivably, it had some incorrect suggestions on comma use and tried to change content within quoted passages.
How Much Does TeacherServer Cost?
TeacherServer is free. To use it you just need to go to TeacherServer.com and create an account. This accessibility is part of its mission and a great feature for educators.
What Are The Best TeacherServer Tips and Tricks?
Search TeacherServer By Subject
TeacherServer has a wide variety of subject-specific tools that teachers of various topics can explore. These range from music and art lessons to math, writing, and more.
Search Most Popular Tools
Exploring the most popular tools on TeacherServer gives you a quick idea of what is working for other educators. This can save you time and give you ideas for prepping in your classroom.
Be Critical
TeacherServer is a really teacher-friendly AI tool, but that doesn’t mean it's perfect. You’re the human being in the classroom and should still be carefully vetting any outputs from any AI tools, including those from TeacherServer.
