Teachers have always needed visuals: a quick illustration for a story, a historical scene, a science diagram, a classroom poster, or an image that helps students picture an abstract idea. AI image tools make those visuals easier to create, but they also raise new questions about accuracy, copyright, bias, and what belongs in a classroom.
Below are the Top 5 AI Image Tools that teachers can use to create stunning visuals.
Ideogram
What it is: Ideogram is an AI image generator known especially for creating images with readable, well-integrated text. While many AI image tools struggle with words inside images, Ideogram is designed to handle typography, posters, signs, logos, labels, and other text-heavy visuals more reliably. Ideogram’s own documentation highlights text and typography as one of its strengths.
Prompt: Create a bright, modern classroom poster with the exact text “Ask Better Questions“
What it does best: Ideogram is strongest when the image needs words to be part of the design, not added later. That makes it especially useful for classroom posters, quote graphics, vocabulary visuals, project headers, classroom signs, club graphics, event announcements, or simple visual reminders.
How teachers might use it: Teachers could use Ideogram to create a poster for a classroom norm, a vocabulary word graphic, a quote image for a discussion, a science safety reminder, a book-club sign, or a slide title image for a new unit. For example, a teacher might prompt: “Create a bright classroom poster that says ‘Ask Better Questions’ with curious students, books, and lightbulbs in the background. Make the text large, readable, and centered.”
URL: Ideogram
Midjourney
What it is: Midjourney is an AI art generator that specializes in producing high-quality, artistic, and surreal images based on user prompts. It has gained popularity among designers and educators for its creative output.
Prompt: Create a funny cartoon of teachers running from a school.
What it does best: Midjourney creates visually stunning, imaginative images with a unique artistic flair, making it ideal for storytelling, creative projects, and visually rich educational content.
How teachers might use it: Teachers can use Midjourney to generate inspiring classroom posters, concept art for literature or history lessons, and engaging visuals for creative writing prompts. It’s particularly useful for sparking discussion and encouraging student creativity.
URL: Midjourney
Adobe Firefly
What it is: Adobe Firefly is an AI tool from Adobe, designed to integrate with other Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Express, offering professional-grade image creation capabilities.
Prompt: Create a humorous cartoon of an ancient Roman speaker addressing a crowd, classroom-appropriate, colorful, and suitable for a middle school history lesson.
What it does best: Firefly is particularly useful for generating images with specific styles, enhancing existing photos, and creating text-to-image graphics that maintain high artistic quality.
How teachers might use it: Educators can use Firefly to create engaging presentation slides, design worksheets, and produce creative posters for their classrooms. It’s also great for making concept art for lessons in history, literature, or science.
URL: Adobe Firefly
ChatGPT/DALL·E
What it is: DALL·E 3, developed by OpenAI, is a powerful AI image generator that creates highly detailed images from text prompts. It’s known for its precision, creativity, and ability to generate complex visuals. Best of all, if you’re using ChatGPT, you can create images directly inside the chat.
Prompt: Create a cover illustration for the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
What it does best: ChatGPT and DALL·E excel at producing realistic and artistic images, making it a go-to tool for educators who need detailed illustrations, infographics, and custom classroom materials.
How teachers might use it: Teachers can create storybook illustrations, custom flashcards, and visual aids to help explain abstract concepts in math, science, and literature. It’s also great for generating historical or futuristic scenes to spark student imagination.
URL: DALL·E 3
Google’s Gemini/Nano Banana
What it is: Google’s image creation tools are getting more powerful each month. Nano Banana is Google’s image-generation and editing model inside Gemini, and Google describes it as supporting conversational image generation and editing with text, images, or both. It’s also showing up across Google products, including Gemini, Google AI Studio, and Google’s image/search experiences.
Prompt: Create a elementary classroom with block style students.
What it does best: This tool is perfect for educators looking for quick, easy-to-use image generation without needing extensive design skills. Since it’s built into Google, teachers can create and edit graphics right alongside lesson plans and documents.
How teachers might use it: Teachers can use Gemini/Nano Banana to generate clip art, classroom worksheets, custom infographics, and visual aids for assignments directly within Google Docs and Slides.
URL: Google’s Nano Banana
What image creation tools do you use in your classroom? Let us know in the comments!