As the new school year kicks off, parents have a lot on their plates. A lot goes into these new routines for the whole family. Claude and ChatGPT can help. I'm going to lay out some examples of how you can have it convert handwriting to text, import school calendars and directories as well as write emails to school administrators while you're on the run.

Transcribe Handwriting

We frequently talk about how helpful it is to interact with Claude or ChatGPT in the digital landscape but it's helpful to remember they can bridge the gap from analog. Yesterday I was running to the store to pick up some things. I prefer to have a list I can check off on my phone but my wife likes to write it down on a post-it. I took a picture of the post-it and asked Claude to convert it into a list I could put in my todo list.

Claude: Based on the handwritten note in the image, here's a list of the items mentioned:

1. Pepe Goats

2. Great grains (raisin date)

3. Milk

4. Bread

5. Fruit + Berries

6. Coconut milk

7. English muffin

8. Buns

This appears to be a shopping list or a list of food items, possibly for a grocery trip or meal planning. The handwriting is somewhat difficult to read in parts, so I've interpreted it to the best of my ability. If you need any clarification or have questions about specific items, please let me know.

Import the Paper Calendar into Your Phone Calendar

Some schools hand out paper calendars of events for the month or year. Myself, I'd much prefer to have that accessible on my phone where I can set reminders and plan more easily than only having it accessible at home in the kitchen. You can take a picture of the calendar and have Claude generate an .ics file which can be imported into your calendar app. This blog post goes step by step complete with prompts: https://gregsramblings.com/stupid-but-useful-ai-tricks-creating-calendar-entries-from-an-image-using-anthropic-claude-35

Import the Class Directory Into Your Phone Contacts

Just as you can get help importing your school calendar, you can do the same for the class directory. This might have more varying degrees of success depending on how creative your school gets with the presentation of the directory but it's certainly worth a try. The file format you want to generate here is a vCard (.vcf) file. Depending on what's displayed on the directory, I recommend adding the students name to a notes field perhaps so that you can search for the child and find the parents. Very helpful before you get to know everyone in the class.

Transcribe Emails With Ease

Communication is important in all spaces. We recognize how helpful it is to have a good working relationship with teachers and faculty so we may put off writing that email until we can give it the appropriate attention. You can use Claude to help you dash off a quick note that will have the appropriate tone even if you rattled off the contents while multi-tasking. You'll need the mobile app for Claude or ChatGPT.

1. Click the microphone icon either at the bottom of the keyboard or in the text input.

2. Speak your truth.

1. Start off with the context: I'd like your help to write an email to the teacher in my child's class. Please make it sound respectful and professional. Please smooth out any rough edges. Here it is:

2. Tell it what you want to say.

3. Copy-paste into your email and send.

Sure, you could do it later when you get a moment to sit down and think it through, but those moments are scarce and precious. I expect you have half a dozen other things vying for that time as well. Outsource it to the AI and be done now.

There are a lot of ways AI can help save you a moment if you know what's possible. Experiment and try something new. Let me know what you find.