📍 Lesson 1 of 3
3 AI Tools Every
Teacher Needs in 2026
You don't need to master every AI tool. You need the right three — and you need to know when to use each one. By the end of this lesson, you'll have a clear decision framework that saves time every single week.
What You'll Learn
1
Identify the three core AI tools every teacher should have in their toolkit — and what makes each one distinct
2
Apply the ‘source question’ to instantly decide which tool to use for any task
3
Recognise common misuse patterns that waste time — and how to avoid them
Video Coming Soon
👨🏫
Benedict Rinne · KAIAK Founder
Former Head of School · 20 Years in International Education
▶ 3 min intro
▶
The Three Tools
After training 1,000+ educators across Asia and the Middle East, I've narrowed it to three tools. Not because the others aren't good — but because these three cover 90% of what teachers actually need, and each one does something the others can't.
Claude
Best for long-form writing, nuanced feedback, lesson planning, and thinking through complex problems step by step.
Deep Thinking
ChatGPT
Best for fast tasks, generating multiple options quickly, brainstorming, and student-facing interactions.
Speed & Volume
NotebookLM
Best for uploading your own documents — curriculum guides, policies, textbooks — and asking questions directly.
Your Documents
How to Choose the Right Tool
One question decides it every time. Walk through these four steps whenever you're unsure which tool to reach for.
The Tool Selection Framework
Step 1 of 4
Ask: Where does the content come from?
Before opening any AI tool, ask yourself one question: Is the content I need based on something I already have, or am I creating something from scratch?
This single question splits your decision into two paths and eliminates most of the confusion teachers feel about which tool to use.
This single question splits your decision into two paths and eliminates most of the confusion teachers feel about which tool to use.
⚡ Most teachers skip this step. That's why they get mediocre results from tools that would actually work well for them if used correctly.
If you're starting from scratch → Claude or ChatGPT
Writing a parent email from scratch? Planning a lesson on a new topic? Drafting a rubric you don't have a template for?
Use Claude when you need depth — report comments, feedback on student work, something that requires careful thinking.
Use ChatGPT when you need speed and options — brainstorm 10 ideas, generate three different versions, quick short answers.
Use Claude when you need depth — report comments, feedback on student work, something that requires careful thinking.
Use ChatGPT when you need speed and options — brainstorm 10 ideas, generate three different versions, quick short answers.
🧠 Claude tends to give one excellent, well-reasoned answer. ChatGPT tends to give multiple decent options fast. Both are useful — in different moments.
If you have your own documents → NotebookLM
Have a 60-page curriculum guide you need to search? A school handbook you need to quote from? A unit plan you want to interrogate?
Upload it to NotebookLM once. From that point, you can ask it questions like "What does the curriculum say about differentiation in Year 8?" and it answers based on your document — not generic AI knowledge.
This is the most underused tool in the classroom.
Upload it to NotebookLM once. From that point, you can ask it questions like "What does the curriculum say about differentiation in Year 8?" and it answers based on your document — not generic AI knowledge.
This is the most underused tool in the classroom.
📁 One teacher I worked with uploaded her entire IB Unit Planner. Now she asks it questions instead of scrolling for 20 minutes. She estimates it saves her 90 minutes a week.
Match the tool to the task — every time
The mistake most teachers make is using one tool for everything. That's like using a hammer for every job in your house.
The three-tool setup covers your whole workflow:
• Claude → your thinking partner
• ChatGPT → your fast generator
• NotebookLM → your document librarian
Once you have all three set up and you know when to use each, AI stops feeling overwhelming and starts feeling effortless.
The three-tool setup covers your whole workflow:
• Claude → your thinking partner
• ChatGPT → your fast generator
• NotebookLM → your document librarian
Once you have all three set up and you know when to use each, AI stops feeling overwhelming and starts feeling effortless.
✅ In Lesson 3, you'll turn this framework into a weekly workflow that runs on autopilot.
Real Classroom Examples
Expand each scenario to see which tool fits and why.
Use Claude. This is a high-stakes writing task that needs nuance. Each comment should feel personal and honest — not generic.
How to do it: Give Claude your observation notes for a student (3–5 bullet points), the subject, grade level, and tone you want. Ask it to write a 3-sentence comment. Review, adjust, repeat for each student.
Time saved: Most teachers report going from 4 hours to under 60 minutes for a full class set.
How to do it: Give Claude your observation notes for a student (3–5 bullet points), the subject, grade level, and tone you want. Ask it to write a 3-sentence comment. Review, adjust, repeat for each student.
Time saved: Most teachers report going from 4 hours to under 60 minutes for a full class set.
Use ChatGPT or Claude. ChatGPT is faster for standard updates; Claude is better if the message is sensitive or needs careful wording.
How to do it: Write your bullet-point notes ("field trip next Thursday, permission forms due Monday, reminder about PE kit"). Ask the AI to turn them into a parent-friendly email.
Time saved: 10–15 minutes per email → under 3 minutes.
How to do it: Write your bullet-point notes ("field trip next Thursday, permission forms due Monday, reminder about PE kit"). Ask the AI to turn them into a parent-friendly email.
Time saved: 10–15 minutes per email → under 3 minutes.
Use NotebookLM. Upload your curriculum document once. Then query it conversationally — no more scrolling through 80-page PDFs.
Example queries:
Example queries:
- "What are the learning outcomes for Unit 3 in Year 7 Science?"
- "Does the curriculum mention differentiation strategies for EAL learners?"
- "Summarise the assessment criteria for the personal project."
Use Claude. Ask it to help you think through the lesson — key concepts, common misconceptions, activity ideas, timing. Treat it like a thinking partner, not a template generator.
Suggested prompt: "You are an experienced IB MYP Science teacher. I need to plan a 60-minute lesson on chemical bonding for Year 10 students who have studied atomic structure but not bonding before. What are the key concepts, common misconceptions, and two engaging activity ideas?"
Result: A solid first draft in under 5 minutes.
Suggested prompt: "You are an experienced IB MYP Science teacher. I need to plan a 60-minute lesson on chemical bonding for Year 10 students who have studied atomic structure but not bonding before. What are the key concepts, common misconceptions, and two engaging activity ideas?"
Result: A solid first draft in under 5 minutes.
⚡ The Rule
If you remember nothing else from this lesson: Use Claude for thinking. Use ChatGPT for speed. Use NotebookLM for your own documents. That's the whole framework.
✏️ Check Your Understanding
A teacher wants to search through her school's 45-page safeguarding policy to find the section on reporting procedures. Which tool is most appropriate?
Before We Continue
AI Learning Companion · Trained on this course
“Any questions about the three tools or how to choose between them? Ask me anything before we move to Lesson 2.”
📍 Lesson 2 of 3
Your First Prompt
Framework: RCFCC
Most AI prompts fail because they're too vague. The RCFCC framework — developed specifically for educators — turns a weak, generic prompt into one that gets you exactly what you need, every time.
What You'll Learn
1
Understand the 5 components of the RCFCC framework and why each one matters
2
Build your first RCFCC prompt step by step for a real teaching task
3
Apply the framework across different subject areas and task types with confidence
4
Diagnose weak prompts and rewrite them using the RCFCC structure
Video Coming Soon
👨🏫
Benedict Rinne · KAIAK Founder
Creator of the RCFCC Framework for Educators
▶ 4 min lesson
▶
The RCFCC Framework
Every powerful AI prompt has five ingredients. Miss one and the output suffers. Include all five and the AI knows exactly what you need.
R
Role — Tell the AI who it is
Giving the AI a role dramatically improves output quality. It shifts the AI from 'generic assistant' to 'expert in the specific thing you need.'
"You are an experienced IB MYP Humanities teacher with 15 years in international schools..."
C
Context — Share the background
Grade level, subject, student profile, what you've already done, any constraints. The more context, the more tailored the output.
"I teach Grade 9 students (age 14–15). They have studied World War I but not the Treaty of Versailles yet..."
F
Format — Specify the output
Without a format instruction, AI defaults to whatever it thinks is appropriate — which is often not what you want. Be explicit.
"Give me the output as a bullet list with no more than 8 points" or "Write this as a formal email, one paragraph"
C
Constraints — Set the limits
Length, tone, what to avoid, reading level, language. Constraints prevent AI from going off in an unhelpful direction.
"Keep it under 150 words. Formal but warm tone. Do not use jargon. Suitable for parents whose first language may not be English."
C
Call to Action — The actual task
The specific, clear, actionable thing you want the AI to produce. This is the task itself — everything above is setup for this moment.
"Write a progress report comment for a student who excels academically but rarely contributes in discussions."
Build Your First RCFCC Prompt
Let's construct a real prompt together — for writing parent communication about an upcoming assessment. Walk through each step.
Building a Parent Communication Prompt
Step 1 of 5
R — Set the Role
We want to write a parent email about an upcoming assessment week. Start by telling the AI what role to play.
Add to your prompt:
"You are an experienced international school teacher with a warm, professional communication style..."
Why this role? We want the email to feel human, not corporate. The role signals the tone before we even ask for anything.
Add to your prompt:
"You are an experienced international school teacher with a warm, professional communication style..."
Why this role? We want the email to feel human, not corporate. The role signals the tone before we even ask for anything.
👆 Notice we're not saying "You are an AI assistant." We're giving a specific, contextual identity. That distinction matters.
C — Add Context
Now load in the background information the AI needs to write something relevant and accurate.
Add to your prompt:
"I teach Grade 7 English (age 12–13) at an international school in Southeast Asia. Assessment week is the week of April 14th. Students will sit a reading comprehension test (45 min) and a writing task (60 min)..."
Every specific detail you add here saves you from having to edit the output later.
Add to your prompt:
"I teach Grade 7 English (age 12–13) at an international school in Southeast Asia. Assessment week is the week of April 14th. Students will sit a reading comprehension test (45 min) and a writing task (60 min)..."
Every specific detail you add here saves you from having to edit the output later.
📌 Include dates, timings, and any school-specific details that should appear in the email. The AI can only use what you give it.
F — Define the Format
Tell the AI exactly what you want it to produce — the structure, not just the content.
Add to your prompt:
"Write this as a professional parent email. Include: a subject line, a warm opening, 3–4 bullet points covering key details, one sentence about how parents can support their child, and a professional sign-off."
Now the AI knows the exact structure. No guessing.
Add to your prompt:
"Write this as a professional parent email. Include: a subject line, a warm opening, 3–4 bullet points covering key details, one sentence about how parents can support their child, and a professional sign-off."
Now the AI knows the exact structure. No guessing.
🗂️ If you find yourself reformatting AI output frequently, the problem is usually a missing or weak Format instruction.
C — Set Constraints
Add the guardrails. What should the AI stay within? What should it avoid?
Add to your prompt:
"Keep the total email under 200 words. Warm but professional tone. Avoid overly formal language — this school has a friendly, approachable culture. Do not use the phrase 'please do not hesitate to contact me' (it's overused). The email will be sent to parents from a range of linguistic backgrounds."
Add to your prompt:
"Keep the total email under 200 words. Warm but professional tone. Avoid overly formal language — this school has a friendly, approachable culture. Do not use the phrase 'please do not hesitate to contact me' (it's overused). The email will be sent to parents from a range of linguistic backgrounds."
🚫 Adding 'do not use X' is one of the most underused prompt tools. If there's a phrase or style you hate seeing in AI output, just ban it explicitly.
C — Give the Call to Action
Now ask for what you actually need. Everything above was the setup — this is the moment you make your request.
Final prompt assembled:
"You are an experienced international school teacher with a warm, professional communication style. I teach Grade 7 English at an international school in Southeast Asia. Assessment week is April 14th... [context] ...Write this as a professional parent email with a subject line, warm opening, 3–4 bullet points, one support sentence, and a sign-off. Under 200 words, warm tone, no jargon..."
Call to Action: "Write the parent email."
Final prompt assembled:
"You are an experienced international school teacher with a warm, professional communication style. I teach Grade 7 English at an international school in Southeast Asia. Assessment week is April 14th... [context] ...Write this as a professional parent email with a subject line, warm opening, 3–4 bullet points, one support sentence, and a sign-off. Under 200 words, warm tone, no jargon..."
Call to Action: "Write the parent email."
✅ That's a complete RCFCC prompt. Paste it into Claude. The output will be usable in 2–3 minutes from now, with minimal editing.
RCFCC by Task Type
See how the framework applies across common teaching tasks. Expand each one.
R: "You are an experienced [subject] teacher who writes warm, honest, parent-friendly report comments..."
C: "Grade [X], student name [Y], subject [Z]. Student strengths: [list]. Areas to develop: [list]. Recent assessment result: [X/100]..."
F: "Write a 3-sentence report comment in the first person..."
C: "Maximum 50 words. Positive tone but honest. Avoid generic phrases like 'a pleasure to teach'..."
C: "Write the report comment."
Result: A personalised, usable first draft in under 30 seconds. Edit lightly and move to the next student.
C: "Grade [X], student name [Y], subject [Z]. Student strengths: [list]. Areas to develop: [list]. Recent assessment result: [X/100]..."
F: "Write a 3-sentence report comment in the first person..."
C: "Maximum 50 words. Positive tone but honest. Avoid generic phrases like 'a pleasure to teach'..."
C: "Write the report comment."
Result: A personalised, usable first draft in under 30 seconds. Edit lightly and move to the next student.
R: "You are an experienced [curriculum] teacher with expertise in differentiated instruction..."
C: "Grade [X], topic [Y], prior knowledge: [Z], class size [N], any SEN/EAL students [details]..."
F: "Create a lesson plan with: learning objectives, warm-up (5 min), main activity (30 min), formative assessment (10 min), closure (5 min)..."
C: "60 minutes total. Include differentiation suggestions. Avoid lecture-style teaching. No slides — hands-on only..."
C: "Plan the lesson."
C: "Grade [X], topic [Y], prior knowledge: [Z], class size [N], any SEN/EAL students [details]..."
F: "Create a lesson plan with: learning objectives, warm-up (5 min), main activity (30 min), formative assessment (10 min), closure (5 min)..."
C: "60 minutes total. Include differentiation suggestions. Avoid lecture-style teaching. No slides — hands-on only..."
C: "Plan the lesson."
R: "You are an assessment design specialist familiar with [IB/Cambridge/IGCSE] frameworks..."
C: "Assessment task: [describe task]. Grade [X]. Learning objectives being assessed: [list]..."
F: "Create a 4-level rubric (Exceeds / Meets / Approaching / Beginning) with 3 criteria. Present as a table."
C: "Use student-friendly language. Each descriptor should be specific and observable, not vague. Max 20 words per descriptor..."
C: "Build the rubric."
C: "Assessment task: [describe task]. Grade [X]. Learning objectives being assessed: [list]..."
F: "Create a 4-level rubric (Exceeds / Meets / Approaching / Beginning) with 3 criteria. Present as a table."
C: "Use student-friendly language. Each descriptor should be specific and observable, not vague. Max 20 words per descriptor..."
C: "Build the rubric."
R: "You are a skilled writing teacher who gives actionable, encouraging feedback..."
C: "Grade [X] student. Assignment: [describe]. Criteria being assessed: [list]. Student's work: [paste text]..."
F: "Give feedback in three sections: (1) What's working well, (2) One key area to improve, (3) One specific rewriting suggestion..."
C: "Encouraging but honest tone. Age-appropriate language. Do not rewrite the whole piece — guide the student to improve it themselves..."
C: "Give the feedback."
C: "Grade [X] student. Assignment: [describe]. Criteria being assessed: [list]. Student's work: [paste text]..."
F: "Give feedback in three sections: (1) What's working well, (2) One key area to improve, (3) One specific rewriting suggestion..."
C: "Encouraging but honest tone. Age-appropriate language. Do not rewrite the whole piece — guide the student to improve it themselves..."
C: "Give the feedback."
Try It Now
✍️ Practice Exercise
Write your own RCFCC prompt for a real task you have this week. Use the framework: Role → Context → Format → Constraints → Call to Action. Don't worry about making it perfect — just get the structure right.
📥 Download
The 15 Copy-Paste RCFCC Prompts PDF in the sidebar has pre-built prompts for the most common teaching tasks. Use them as starting templates and edit for your context.
Before We Continue
AI Learning Companion · Trained on this course
“Any questions about RCFCC — how to apply it, what to include in each section, or how to adapt it for your subject? Ask before we move on.”
📍 Lesson 3 of 3
Building Your
AI Workflow
A single prompt saves minutes. A workflow saves hours — every single week, without thinking about it. This lesson shows you the three workflows that have the biggest impact for teachers, and how to build the first one this week.
What You'll Learn
1
Understand what makes a workflow stick — why most teachers give up on AI after two weeks, and how to avoid that pattern
2
Identify your highest-leverage workflow from the three core options
3
Build your first routine using the Monday Email Batch step-by-step setup
Video Coming Soon
👨🏫
Benedict Rinne · KAIAK Founder
Builder of AI Workflows for 1,000+ Educators
▶ 5 min lesson
▶
Why Single Prompts Aren't Enough
Most teachers who “tried AI and gave up” were using it reactively — a prompt here, a prompt there. No system. The problem isn't the tool. It's the absence of routine.
⚡ The Insight
A workflow is a prompt you run on a schedule, connected to a recurring task. Once the habit forms, the time savings become automatic. Teachers saving 10+ hours a week have three or four of these running — they don't think about AI anymore, they just use it.
The Three Core Workflows
Start with one. Build the habit. Add the second. Then the third. These three alone account for most of the time teachers save with AI.
Monday Email Batch
Every Monday morning: turn your bullet-point notes into the week's parent communications in 15 minutes.
Saves 2–3 hrs/week
Report Comment Engine
A reusable RCFCC prompt template that generates first-draft report comments from your observation notes.
Saves 3–4 hrs/cycle
Curriculum NotebookLM
Upload your curriculum once. Query it whenever you need to align lessons, activities, or assessments.
Saves 1–2 hrs/week
Set Up Your Monday Email Batch
Let's build Workflow #1 right now. Five steps and you're done — this routine will run every Monday from here on.
Setting Up the Monday Email Batch
Step 1 of 5
Create a dedicated Claude conversation
Open Claude and start a new conversation. Name it "Monday Emails" (you can rename conversations in the sidebar).
Having a named, dedicated conversation for this workflow means you can return to it every week, and Claude will have the context of your previous emails. It remembers your school name, your tone, and your parents' communication preferences from session to session.
Having a named, dedicated conversation for this workflow means you can return to it every week, and Claude will have the context of your previous emails. It remembers your school name, your tone, and your parents' communication preferences from session to session.
📌 Do this once, right now, before you continue. It takes 30 seconds and sets the foundation for the whole workflow.
Write and save your base RCFCC prompt
In your Monday Emails conversation, paste this base prompt (customised for your context) and save it somewhere easily accessible — a note, a doc, or your phone.
"You are a professional teacher at [school name], a warm and approachable international school. I need to write parent communications for my [subject, Grade X] class. My parents come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Emails should be under 200 words, warm but professional, with a clear subject line and bullet points for key info."
This is your permanent setup. You only write it once.
"You are a professional teacher at [school name], a warm and approachable international school. I need to write parent communications for my [subject, Grade X] class. My parents come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Emails should be under 200 words, warm but professional, with a clear subject line and bullet points for key info."
This is your permanent setup. You only write it once.
💾 Save this prompt in a note or doc titled "My Email Base Prompt." Every Monday, you'll paste it in followed by your weekly notes.
Every Monday morning: dump your notes
On Monday morning, spend 5 minutes writing down every communication you need to send this week as rough bullet points. Don't write sentences — just notes.
Example:
• Parent of Aisha — struggling with fractions, needs extra support, not engaging in class
• Parent of Tom — excellent week, nominated for student of the month
• General class — spelling test Friday, topics X Y Z
Paste your base prompt + these notes into Claude and ask: "Write these emails."
Example:
• Parent of Aisha — struggling with fractions, needs extra support, not engaging in class
• Parent of Tom — excellent week, nominated for student of the month
• General class — spelling test Friday, topics X Y Z
Paste your base prompt + these notes into Claude and ask: "Write these emails."
⏱️ This dump takes 5 minutes. Claude turns it into polished emails in under 60 seconds. The whole workflow runs in under 15 minutes.
Review, lightly edit, send
Read each email Claude produces. You'll find they need minimal editing — usually a personal detail you want to add or a slight tone adjustment.
Important: Don't send anything without reading it. AI makes occasional errors, and parent communication is high-stakes. The goal is to reduce your writing time — not to remove your judgment.
The editing step takes 2–3 minutes for a batch of 5–8 emails. Compare that to 30–45 minutes writing from scratch.
Important: Don't send anything without reading it. AI makes occasional errors, and parent communication is high-stakes. The goal is to reduce your writing time — not to remove your judgment.
The editing step takes 2–3 minutes for a batch of 5–8 emails. Compare that to 30–45 minutes writing from scratch.
✏️ Over time, as Claude learns your style and your parents' context, the editing becomes lighter. Most teachers report editing down to 30 seconds per email by week three.
Run it for 4 weeks and measure the time
The first week feels slightly awkward. The second week feels faster. By week four, this workflow is automatic.
How to measure it: Before you start, time how long parent communications take you in a normal week. After 4 weeks with this workflow, time it again. The difference is your weekly time saving.
Teachers using this workflow consistently report saving 2–3 hours per week on communication alone. Over a full school year, that's 70–90 hours back.
How to measure it: Before you start, time how long parent communications take you in a normal week. After 4 weeks with this workflow, time it again. The difference is your weekly time saving.
Teachers using this workflow consistently report saving 2–3 hours per week on communication alone. Over a full school year, that's 70–90 hours back.
🎯 Once this workflow is running automatically, come back and set up Workflow #2: the Report Comment Engine. Same principle, different cadence.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
These are the patterns that cause teachers to give up on AI. Knowing them in advance means you won't fall into them.
Opening ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity in the same week is a fast track to overwhelm and abandonment.
Fix: Start with one tool for one workflow. Master it. Then add a second. The teachers saving the most time are using 2–3 tools deeply, not 8 tools shallowly.
Fix: Start with one tool for one workflow. Master it. Then add a second. The teachers saving the most time are using 2–3 tools deeply, not 8 tools shallowly.
AI makes mistakes. It occasionally invents details, misses tone, or includes something that doesn't fit your school's culture. Parent communication is too important to send without a human review.
Fix: Always read before you send. The goal is to reduce your writing time, not to remove your judgment. You are still the professional — AI is the assistant.
Fix: Always read before you send. The goal is to reduce your writing time, not to remove your judgment. You are still the professional — AI is the assistant.
A vague first prompt that produces a mediocre result is not evidence that AI doesn't work. It's evidence that the prompt needed more RCFCC structure.
Fix: When AI output disappoints, ask: Which part of RCFCC was missing? Usually it's Context or Constraints. Add those and try again. The second attempt is almost always significantly better.
Fix: When AI output disappoints, ask: Which part of RCFCC was missing? Usually it's Context or Constraints. Add those and try again. The second attempt is almost always significantly better.
Some teachers immediately try to build elaborate AI systems: automated marking, AI lesson planners, full curriculum bots. They spend a weekend on it, get frustrated, and give up.
Fix: Start embarrassingly simple. One RCFCC prompt for one task you do every week. Run it for a month. Then build from there. Sustainable adoption always starts small.
Fix: Start embarrassingly simple. One RCFCC prompt for one task you do every week. Run it for a month. Then build from there. Sustainable adoption always starts small.
✏️ Final Check
A teacher used Claude to draft parent emails for two weeks, then stopped because "it was taking too long to fix the output." What is the most likely root cause?
Before We Continue
AI Learning Companion · Trained on this course
“Any final questions about building your workflow, the three tools, or how to get started this week? I'm here before you collect your certificate.”
Course Complete
You've completed AI Tools for Teachers 2026.
You now have the tools, the framework, and the first workflow. The rest is repetition.
You now have the tools, the framework, and the first workflow. The rest is repetition.