Practical AI6 min read
How I Make Claude Answer From Your Own Documents
A generic chatbot guesses. A grounded, guardrailed assistant answers from your materials or admits it can't. Here is the difference, and how I build it.
July 15, 2026
22 posts in Practical AI
Practical AI6 min read
Rebuilding an Awards-Tier Interaction With AI Subagents
I took a studio site apart to see why it wins, rebuilt its signature interaction in a day, and walked away with a reusable extraction method.
July 9, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
What I Built Before the Window Closed: My Fable 5 Receipts
I said the follow-up would show what got built, what it cost, and what met the real world. Here it is: three apps, a content system, and two skills.
July 9, 2026
Practical AI6 min read
I Built the Focus App I Actually Needed. In a Day.
A calm ADHD focus partner, built in a day. The real decision wasn't the code. It was refusing to charge until it can prove it works.
July 9, 2026
Practical AI6 min read
The AI Re-Render Came Back Worse. So I Stopped Prompting and Started Editing.
A post-mortem on producing an AI-avatar sales video. The craft turned out to be in the cut, not the prompt.
July 9, 2026
Practical AI12 min read
Building Branded Video Content With Remotion (Without Being a Developer)
How I built 30 video compositions using Remotion and Claude Code — without writing the code myself. React renders video now, and you don't need to be a developer to use it.
May 1, 2026
Practical AI12 min read
I Built a Featured Image Pipeline With AI and Node.js — Here's the Whole System
How I automated blog featured images using Google Imagen 4, a Node.js compositing script, and a CSV file. The full pipeline that produces consistent, branded images in under 10 minutes each.
April 21, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
From ChatGPT Prompts to a Production API: How I Automated AI Image Generation
I was copy-pasting prompts into ChatGPT to generate images one at a time. Then I built a 50-line script that calls an API instead. Here's why that single change transformed my workflow.
April 17, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
Claude Code Changed How I Build Things (And I'm Not a Developer)
How a non-developer used Claude Code to build image pipelines, video compositions, website redesigns, and automation scripts. The mental model shift that makes it work.
April 14, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
NotebookLM Ate My 200-Page Policy Document and Gave Me Answers in 10 Minutes
The one AI tool that can't hallucinate on your documents. I use NotebookLM to prep for board meetings, analyze policy handbooks, and build course content. Here's the exact setup — step by step.
March 27, 2026
Practical AI12 min read
39 Videos, Zero Film Shoots: My HeyGen Production Workflow
I've produced two full courses with HeyGen — here's exactly how to create your avatar, build your first video step by step, and the gotchas nobody mentions.
March 20, 2026
Practical AI8 min read
I Turned Rough Meeting Notes Into a Board Presentation in 60 Seconds
Gamma takes your bullet points, a document, or even just a topic and generates a full presentation with layout, images, and content. Here's the exact workflow — and where it falls short.
March 13, 2026
Practical AI9 min read
I Cloned My Voice for $22 — Here's Exactly How
Step-by-step: how I cloned my voice with ElevenLabs, paired it with an AI avatar, and used it to produce an entire video course. The exact settings, the real costs, and what I'd do differently.
March 6, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
I Gave Claude a Job Description and It Became My Best Thinking Partner
Claude Projects let you build a persistent AI workspace pre-loaded with your documents, style guide, and rules. Here's the exact setup I use for course production, policy drafting, and board prep — step by step.
February 27, 2026
Practical AI9 min read
10 Report Comments in 20 Minutes: The AI Workflow That Saved My Teaching Team
Most AI-generated report comments are generic garbage. Here's the exact prompt and verification process I taught 50+ teachers — step by step, with the settings that actually matter.
February 20, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
How I Built an Automated Research Pipeline That Keeps Me Current Without the Tab Hoarding
A step-by-step walkthrough of using Claude Code to automatically search, summarize, and organize research digests on AI in education.
February 5, 2026
Practical AI8 min read
Why AI Skills Are No Longer Optional for School Leaders
The gap between leaders who understand AI and those who don't is widening fast. Why AI literacy is now essential for school leadership.
January 12, 2026
Practical AI10 min read
How I Use AI to Prepare for Difficult Conversations
Difficult conversations used to keep me up at night. Now I use AI to prepare, practice, and process them. Here's my system.
January 8, 2026
Practical AI9 min read
I Trained 50+ Teachers on AI in One Semester — Here's What Worked
Most AI training fails because it starts with tools instead of problems. Here's the framework that got skeptical teachers actually using AI in their classrooms.
December 14, 2025
Practical AI8 min read
The No-Admin Inbox: How I Got to Inbox Zero Without Willpower
I used to spend 2-3 hours daily on email. Now I spend 30 minutes. The difference wasn't discipline — it was systems.
December 7, 2025
Practical AI6 min read
NotebookLM Ate My Board Report (And Made It Better)
You have 47 documents, 3 spreadsheets, and a week of meeting notes. The board wants a 2-page summary by Friday. Here's how I stopped drowning in sources.
November 5, 2025
Practical AI7 min read
How I Use Claude to Draft 20 Parent Emails in 15 Minutes
You've got a stack of individual parent updates to send, each needing a slightly different tone. Here's the system that gets me out of my inbox before dinner.
November 1, 2025