The updated Microsoft Education AI Toolkit includes new research, real-world examples, and practical resources to help educators and school leaders build confidence with AI. Whether you’re just starting or looking to deepen your use of tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat, the Toolkit provides guidance specifically for education. To help you explore what’s possible, try these flexible and engaging AI activities for educators to explore real-world classroom and leadership scenarios.
Designed for teachers, instructional leaders, and decision makers, these AI practice activities offer hands-on opportunities to build skills, spark innovation, and support thoughtful integration of AI into your everyday tasks. Download the latest version of the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit to get started.
What’s new in the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit
The Microsoft Education AI Toolkit offers a dynamic collection of resources to help educators and leaders confidently explore and implement AI in your institution. Our latest update includes:
- Refreshed AI Snapshots – Connect with role-based AI scenarios and use cases that reflect real classroom and leadership needs.
- Localized, translated versions – Access the toolkit in your preferred language.
- Updated research resources – Stay informed with the latest studies and strategies for responsible and effective AI use in education.
In addition to being part of the full toolkit, AI Snapshots are available as a standalone resource. This offers additional flexibility to explore practical, role-specific AI usage—whether you’re engaging with the full toolkit or seeking quick, targeted insights.
Educators, school leaders, and administrators can discover scenarios and ideas that align with their unique needs and contexts. Start by browsing the AI Snapshots to find examples that resonate with your role and get ideas for implementation.
Find inspiration in AI activities for educators
School breaks and quieter moments in the academic calendar can be a great time to explore new tools. These six activities are designed to help you build confidence with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat while offering practical ways to build skills, streamline tasks, and spark fresh ideas.
Copilot and Copilot Chat offer unique features for your organization. Copilot Chat provides AI-powered web chat using the latest models, with built-in enterprise data protection at no extra cost. You can view links to sources, generate images, summarize or analyze files, and even use pay-as-you-go agents—all in one place. Microsoft 365 Copilot brings that same intelligence into the apps you use every day, like Word, Excel, and Outlook. It combines the power of AI with your institutional data—documents, presentations, emails, meetings, chats, and more—plus the web to deliver relevant responses with sources.
Activity 1: Celebrate memorable moments
Start your day with something unexpected. Use Copilot Chat to explore a fun or unusual event from that day in history—like a surprising invention, a little-known holiday, or a unique historical first. Then, turn that discovery into a quick classroom activity or conversation starter.
Copy and paste this prompt into Copilot Chat to get started:
What fun events happened on this day in history? Include things like national holidays, inventions, or unusual milestones. Suggest a simple classroom activity I could do with [grade level] students to explore or celebrate that moment.
Activity 2: Transform lesson plans with a twist
For educators new to using Copilot Chat, creating a simple lesson plan can be a great way to get familiar with its features. Start with a basic prompt, review the output, and refine your prompts to get more detailed and tailored responses. This iterative process helps to ensure that your lesson plans are thorough, engaging, and impactful for your students.
Opportunities for your team:
- Educators – Create custom lesson plans to reflect current topics or classroom needs.
- Instructional coaches – Develop templates and engaging resources to support educators.
- Curriculum developers – Design comprehensive standards-aligned materials.
Level up with Microsoft 365 Copilot: Use Copilot in PowerPoint to create a visually appealing presentation based on your lesson plan. Transform your lesson content into slides, incorporating multimedia elements and compelling visuals.
Activity 3: Curate custom reading lists
Design an inclusive book club experience that excites your students—or even your colleagues. Ask Copilot Chat to suggest books based on a theme, grade level, or reading goal. You can go further by prompting it to include discussion questions, vocabulary highlights, or companion activities.
Opportunities for your team:
- Literacy specialists – Prepare resources for home practice that reflect student interests.
- Librarians – Plan a seasonal or themed reading event in the library.
- Paraeducators – Create inclusive book club experiences tailored to students’ interests and reading goals.
Copy and paste this prompt into Copilot Chat:
Design an inclusive book club experience for my [students/colleagues] based on a [theme, grade level, or reading goal]. Suggest a list of books and use evidence-based strategies like Universal Design for Learning (UDL), cognitive diversity, and accessibility best practices. Include discussion questions, vocabulary highlights, and companion activities that support diverse learning needs.
Level up with Microsoft 365 Copilot: Use Copilot in Word or PowerPoint to generate a polished reading guide using your past lessons, student data, or curriculum themes. Copilot can pull from your existing documents to format the list, add parent or caregiver communication, or align suggestions with current instructional goals.
Activity 4: Design your own professional learning adventure
Build new skills with a plan tailored to your goals. Use Copilot Chat to help you design a learning plan based on your timeline and focus areas. Whether it’s tech tools, leadership, or curriculum design, Copilot Chat can break it into steps and adjust as you progress.
Opportunities for your team:
- Instructional technology coaches – Create an engaging implementation plan.
- Educators – Set learning goals that align to your teaching focus.
- Grade level team or department – Identify shared skilling needs and build new skills together.
Level up with Microsoft 365 Copilot: Use Copilot in Word or PowerPoint to turn your growth plan into a professional artifact—like a skilling roadmap, reflection summary, or team presentation—drawing from your past professional learning records, meeting notes, or goal-setting documents. Let Copilot help you structure and polish it for use in performance reviews or team planning.
Activity 5: Tidy up your digital files
Managing digital files can become overwhelming, making it difficult to find essential resources when you need them. Copilot simplifies this process by helping you organize and streamline your files effectively.
Opportunities for your team:
- Educators – Organize lesson plans, student work, and resources for easy access.
- School leaders – Manage important documents and reports efficiently.
- Counselors – Organize student records, counseling notes, and resources to provide timely and meaningful support to students.
Copy and paste this prompt into Copilot Chat:
I’m an educator organizing files like lesson plans, slide decks, handouts, assessments, and grading sheets. Suggest a consistent, scalable file naming convention that includes subject, grade level, date or term, and version.
Level up with Microsoft 365 Copilot: Use Copilot in OneDrive to categorize and tag files, making them easier to search and retrieve when needed.
Activity 6: Discover, share, and inspire with your favorite prompts
Explore the Copilot Prompt Gallery to find practical ideas for using AI in your role—whether you’re in the classroom, coaching, or leading a team. Then, use what you’ve learned to inspire others. Ask Copilot Chat to help you share your favorite tips, prompts, or strategies in formats like newsletters, team updates, or social posts.
Opportunities for your team:
- Educators – Find new use cases tailored to your daily responsibilities and share innovative AI prompts with fellow educators.
- School leaders – Inspire colleagues with practical, ready-to-use ideas.
- IT professionals – Build momentum for AI adoption across your school or team.
Level up with Microsoft 365 Copilot: Use Microsoft 365 Copilot to build a resource or campaign—combine key prompts, outline a rollout plan, and tailor content for your audience.
These AI activities for educators are just the beginning. By trying even one or two, you’ll get a feel for how Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat can support your day-to-day work—while helping you build skills for the future.
Ready to elevate your teaching with AI tools? Bookmark this post and download the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit to enhance your educational strategies.
