In three hours, they build the tool that replaces it, and they test it on their own students’ work before they leave. For their class, their way, without writing a line of code. It is free, and there is no obligation.
Three hours
Half a day, in one go. Not a training programme to fit into the school year.
Ten to fifteen people
Your teaching team as it stands, complete beginners included.
At your school or online
I come to your school whenever I can.
Free
There is no paid version hiding behind this one.
More than 13 schools and organisations run on our tools.
Schools, a university institute of technology, and organisations from other sectors. The same constraints everywhere: lots of people, very little time, and off-the-shelf software that never quite fits.
What actually happens.
The workshop is called “Build your own classroom tools, without a developer”. Three hours, three parts. Nothing to install. Just one thing to prepare: each participant turns up with one specific chore they want to get rid of.
Hour 1 · I build in front of them
Screen shared, from a blank page to a working tool. Wrong turns and fixes included, because that is what makes people think “I could do this”. Five minutes at the start on student data, and one rule we stick to all day: no names, ever, initials only.
Hour 2 · Everyone builds their own
In their own subject, on a chore they actually have. I bring three backup ideas for those who freeze at the blank page, because there are always two or three.
Hour 3 · We use it, and we fix it
They try it on a real case, with their own students’ work. Something will go wrong, and that is the most useful moment of the three hours: it is where they learn to fix things instead of giving up.
The kind of tool that comes out of three hours.
“Build your own tool” does not mean much until you have seen what one looks like.
- 01
A report-comment tool that takes your own observations and gives you a draft to proofread, not to write from scratch.
- 02
A generator that turns one chapter into exercises at three levels of difficulty.
- 03
A multiple-choice quiz built from an existing lesson, answer key included.
- 04
A marking rubric that totals the marks itself and can be reused year after year.
These are examples, not a syllabus. The three hours start from whatever your teachers bring on the day.
Nathan Goutagny.
I run NateSystem. I build custom management software for schools, and teaching tools too: timetables, staff hours, records, student progress tracking. More than ten schools run on them, Les Chartreux and the IUT de Saint-Étienne among the best known.
What it gives them: hours back for their teams, repetitive tasks that disappear, data that is finally clear, internal communication that no longer depends on who happens to know, and, at the end of the chain, students who are properly supported. Les Chartreux report forty hours given back every month.
I spend a lot of time on training, because software nobody actually uses is useless: I keep going until the team can run it without me.
That is where I kept seeing the same thing, meeting after meeting. Teachers and heads who wanted to build small tools of their own, who tried, and who ended up in a muddle. This workshop came out of that.
Nobody leaves empty-handed.
Every teacher leaves with a first tool that works, ready to try the next morning. And, more importantly, with the method to build more without me.
- Hour 1
- Hour 2
- Hour 3
If anyone leaves empty-handed, I will come back and build it with them.
What you need to have in place.
Nothing exotic, but everything counts. The two lines in red are the ones that sink a workshop when they are missing, not the ones that merely get in the way.
What the school provides
A room and three uninterrupted hours
Not split into two ninety-minute sessions: the third hour only works because it comes straight after the other two.
One computer per participant
Their own or the school’s, either is fine. A tablet will not do.
A connection that holds up
Fifteen people on it at once. This is the most common blocker, and the only one I cannot work around on the day.
A screen or a projector
The whole first hour is spent watching me build. If the room cannot see my screen, there is no workshop.
Ten to fifteen people, no more
Beyond that, I cannot get round to everyone during the second hour, and that hour is the one that makes the difference.
Someone from the leadership team in the room
The other half of my work is about how the school runs, and that is a conversation to have directly, not second-hand.
What each participant brings
One specific task that eats up their time every week
The most important prerequisite, and the one nobody prepares for. A teacher who turns up without knowing what they want to automate spends the second hour hunting for an idea instead of building. The four examples above are enough to get them started.
Their own documents
A marking rubric, a test paper, a list of learning objectives. What they actually use, not an example made up for the occasion.
What you do not need
No technical skills
Nobody writes a line of code, at any point in the three hours.
No prior knowledge of AI tools
Complete beginners are often the ones who get the most out of it.
No fee to take part
There are paid tools for going further afterwards: I name them during the session, and I say what I earn from them, if anything.
Request the workshop for your school.
I will get back to you within 48 hours with two or three possible dates. I am taking on 3 schools this term.