Welcome back! Pre-service days are here, and a fair bit changed in the AI world while you were off. Here are a few things worth knowing about before you walk into your first week.

Two of the major AI companies launched or expanded free offerings for K-12 educators. Google rolled out Classroom changes that reached students of all ages. Microsoft added AI features to Education licenses at no additional cost.

Here is what is new, what it means for your first week, and what to check before you plan around any of it.

1. Claude for Teachers is free for verified US K-12 educators

Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers on July 14. Verified US K-12 educators get free access to premium Claude. Sign up by June 30, 2027 for a full year.

What is in it:

1. A Learning Commons connector giving Claude access to academic standards in all 50 states, plus the smaller learning components beneath each standard and the order students typically learn them. A drafted lesson plan can be grounded in those standards and learning progressions rather than relying only on what the model already knows about your framework.
   
2. Curricular resources including OpenSciEd and IM v.360 from Illustrative Mathematics.
   
3. Connectors across nine K-12 tools, including MagicSchool, Brisk Teaching, Diffit, Canva Education, ASSISTments, Eedi, Snorkl, Coteach, and TeachFX.
   
4. Claude Code and Cowork, which can run longer work. Anthropic’s own example is handing over a folder of roster and diagnostic data to build a picture of where each student is, or scheduling a daily exit ticket review that runs at 4pm.
   
5. Its own teacher terms and a K-12 Data Processing Addendum written to comply with FERPA. Teacher conversations are not used for model training.

For your first week: the standards connector is the part that matters most right now, because it changes what you have to check. You still verify the output, but you are checking a plan grounded in a structured source of state standards and learning progressions rather than relying only on what the model knows about your framework.

The limits: US K-12 only, individual educators only. Verification runs through Goodstack and requires your professional school email; additional documentation may be requested. Anthropic’s own documentation states that international educators are not eligible at this time. A schools and districts offering is described as coming soon, and districts are pointed to Claude for Nonprofits in the meantime.

2. ChatGPT for Teachers extended its free window

OpenAI’s free plan for verified US K-12 educators has run since November 2025. The original announcement said free through June 2027. OpenAI’s current plan page now says June 2028, although its Help Center still says June 2027, suggesting the free window has been extended and the documentation has not yet been updated consistently.

Verification runs through SheerID with a school email. Workspaces are limited to your own district, so you cannot build a cross-school planning team inside one. Teachers, staff, school leaders, and district administrators are all eligible. Students are not. Like the Anthropic offer, this one is US only.

For your first week: the shared workspace is the underused feature here. Custom GPTs can standardize a template across a department, which is worth more in August than any individual prompt. If your grade team is about to write eight versions of the same family welcome letter, that is the use case.

3. Google Classroom looks different, and Gemini reached younger students

Three changes rolled out, or began rolling out, inside roughly a three-week window:

1. The redesigned Classroom homepage began rolling out July 27, with different views depending on whether you are a teacher, a student, or an administrator. Teachers get a dashboard with assignment completion and coursework interaction data.
   
2. From August 5, Gemini can draft a Classroom-ready rubric from inside the assignment creation page, using context from the assignment itself. You review and edit the criteria before attaching it. This one is limited to users over 18.
   
3. From August 10 on web and August 17 on mobile, Gemini in Classroom expands to students of all ages where an admin has already enabled it. Student starter prompts can now pull a specific class and assignment in as context. Students with Gemini Notebook access can sync teacher-provided materials to build study guides, audio overviews, and flashcards.

For your first week: If your school has Gemini in Classroom switched on, the students in front of you may have grounded access to your own course materials in a way they did not have in June. Your own handouts can now become part of the context Gemini uses with students.

Worth knowing: access remains off for all students if an admin has Gemini in Classroom turned off, and admins can disable it for under-18 users by organizational unit. So the answer to “do my students have this” is a question for your tech team. Google notes the Gemini tab is available globally in all Classroom-supported languages where Gemini is also available.

4. Microsoft 365 Education added AI features at no additional cost

Alongside its AI in Education Report on June 24, Microsoft announced another wave of AI features for Microsoft 365 Education at no additional cost. Student AI Guidelines arrived inside Assignments; Copilot Notebooks expanded to Microsoft 365 students and educators; Learning Groups were slated for August; and Unit Plans in Teach was announced for the following quarter. Microsoft had also made its Study and Learn agent generally available in May, giving students 13+ a scaffolded Copilot experience designed to guide them through concepts rather than simply provide answers.

These features sit on top of eligible Microsoft 365 Education licenses. That is not the same as free to anyone who signs up, and availability varies by feature and license.

For your first week: Student AI Guidelines lets you set expectations for AI use at the assignment level rather than declaring one blanket rule for the year.

5. If you teach outside the US

Both Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s educator plans require a US school affiliation, so the two headline free tiers are not available internationally. Anthropic’s documentation states this directly.

What is available regardless of where you teach:

1. Gemini in Classroom, which Google describes as available globally in all Classroom-supported languages where Gemini is also available. If your school runs Workspace for Education, the August changes apply to you on the same timeline.
   
2. Microsoft 365 Education, which is a global license rather than a regional program. Unit Plans in Teach was announced with global standards coverage rather than a US-only database, though it is slated for a later quarter, so treat it as coming rather than available.
   
3. Anthropic’s AI Fluency for PK-12 Teachers, which is Creative Commons licensed and model-agnostic. You can adapt it into your own PD in your own context without a US affiliation and without committing to a vendor.
   
4. The open-source teaching skills repository Anthropic published alongside the launch, which is available to anyone. The skills themselves are portable even when the free account is not.
   
5. Paid Claude and ChatGPT accounts, which work anywhere either service operates. The standards connector is the piece you lose, and for a school running IB, IGCSE, or a hybrid curriculum it was built around a different framework anyway.

For your first week: supply your own curriculum context. Paste in your scheme of work or unit outline so the model is working from your actual framework rather than a US standards database.

6. Free training

Anthropic released AI Fluency for PK-12 Teachers, co-created with Teach For America, plus a train-the-trainer module co-created with the American Federation of Teachers. Both are model-agnostic and Creative Commons licensed. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Foundations for Teachers is free to enroll on Coursera. Microsoft’s Elevate for Educators program is available globally in more than 13 languages, with a no-cost AI Literacy for Educators credential pathway.

For your first week: the Creative Commons licensing is the useful part. It means you can adapt this material into your own staff PD without a procurement conversation, in any country, on any platform your school has already approved.

That is the round-up. Most of this is new since June, so it is worth a few minutes in your own accounts to see what has actually reached you. Some of it depends on what your admin team has enabled, and some of it is still rolling out through the end of the month. Have a great first week back!