Built on Research.
Shaped by Teachers.
Designed for Real Classrooms.
Shaped by Teachers.
Designed for Real Classrooms.
CARL helps Canadian teachers reduce planning workload while keeping professional judgment, accessibility, equity, and student context at the centre.
Why We Built CARL
Teaching has never been “just delivering content.”
The real work is the planning, the adapting, the rewriting, the differentiation: the constant search for examples that actually fit your students, under time pressure that never quite lets up.
Most AI lesson tools miss this. They generate a lesson and leave teachers to do the hardest part alone: making it equitable, accessible, and actually right for the room.
CARL is built around a different idea.
Teacher judgment comes first. The planning supports exist to make inclusive practice more doable, even on the chaotic weeks.
New to CARL?
Start with the guides teachers actually need.
The refreshed Learn & Support pages are designed to make CARL easier to understand, easier to try, and easier to come back to when you need a quick answer.
Take the 5-Minute Tour
See the editor, curriculum profiles, teaching resources, components, CARL-Assist, remixing, and publishing in one quick walkthrough.
Start the tour
Build Your Plan in 5 Steps
A practical path for generating, reviewing, editing, extending, and finishing a lesson or unit plan in CARL.
See the steps
Explore Learn & Support
Find quick how-tos for teaching resources, components, saved class profiles, publishing, downloads, and more.
Visit the hub
What CARL Is, and What It Isn’t
CARL is meant to support teacher thinking, not replace it. That distinction matters.
CARL is
A teacher-controlled planning platform that reduces workload while supporting curriculum-aligned, inclusive instruction
A structured system that supports lessons, unit plans, and classroom-ready materials
A platform that keeps equity and accessibility visible throughout your planning
A collaborative library designed for remixing, contribution, and teacher attribution
CARL is not
A replacement for teacher expertise, professional judgment, or relational teaching
A curriculum authority, evaluator, or “one right way” engine
A source of Indigenous knowledge, or a tool that generates, interprets, or prescribes Indigenous teachings
Our Story
CARL grew out of lived experience, graduate research, and one practical belief: education should work for more people, not fewer.
I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until my late twenties. It finally made sense why school often felt like something I was trying to survive rather than fully access.
That experience gave me language for something I'd felt for a long time: many students struggle not because they lack ability, but because learning environments often aren't designed with enough flexibility, accessibility, and care.
During my Master's research, I kept coming back to a central question.
“How can AI be used to make education more equitable and accessible, while also supporting teachers and reducing workload?”
Founder note
What I found was consistent: teachers care deeply about representation, accessibility, and student dignity. The barrier usually isn't willingness. It's time and tools.
The Reality We're Responding To
45%
of educators considered leaving
the profession in the past year
the profession in the past year
93%
say working with students
remains a core reason they stay
remains a core reason they stay
That combination of deep commitment alongside rising strain is exactly why we're serious about designing tools that reduce workload without lowering the bar.
Source:
Canadian Teachers' Federation
The Research Behind CARL
CARL wasn't built from a single “AI can do everything” idea. It came from connected research questions that shaped the product:
Lesson and unit planning with AI: reducing workload without flattening instruction
Student voice and self-advocacy: agency, consent, dignity
Teacher collaboration: planning is better when it's shared
Engagement without gimmicks: entry points beyond dominant cultural norms
EDI and decolonization as practice: equity as structure, not optics
AI model design and constraints: reliability, guardrails, and limits
The framework behind the product
The CARING Framework
CARING is not just a values statement. It is the design backbone behind CARL, shaping how the platform gathers context, supports inclusive planning, checks for bias, protects teacher judgment, and keeps learning human.
C
Context
Fits outputs to the specific classroom situation: grade, subject, learners, goals, curriculum, available time, and local context. In CARL, this shows up most clearly through the guided planning Wizard.
A
Affirmation
Emphasizes the learning journey over assessment outcomes, using strengths-based framing and intentional inclusion of diverse identities, lived experiences, and examples.
R
Relational
Protects time for the human side of teaching. CARL reduces planning load so teachers can be more intentional with relationships, while also supporting student voice, choice, engaging hooks, collaborative activities, and learning experiences that meet students where they are.
I
Inclusion
Actively checks for bias, missing voices, dominant perspectives, accessibility needs, and culturally sensitive content. This includes guardrails such as the Indigenous Voice Inclusion resource.
N
Nurture
Honours emotional reality without toxic positivity, using trauma-informed supports, flexible participation options, and structures that validate struggle.
G
Growth
Supports growth for both students and teachers. Student-facing materials include reflection and metacognitive prompts, while teacher notes, revision, remixing, and classroom-informed updates help educators keep improving plans over time.
The Team Behind CARL
We're not outsiders trying to “fix” education. We're educators, parents, and builders solving problems we see in Canadian classrooms every day.
Courtnay Boateng, MEd
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
Courtnay leads product vision, pedagogy, and inclusive design, shaping CARL around the real planning challenges teachers face.
BA Sociology with EDI and decolonization focus
MEd: AI and Equitable Education, UBC Okanagan
CARING framework shaped by graduate research
10+ years workflow optimization and accessibility design
Samuel Boateng, MBA, PMP
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Sam leads the technical architecture, AI systems, and platform reliability that make CARL usable at classroom scale.
BSc Mathematics and Computer Science
MBA Sustainable Innovation
PMP-certified project management professional
15+ years software development and AI/ML experience
Builds reliable systems at scale
Meet CARL
We were trying to turn our working name, “collaborative resource library,” into something more official when my sister said, “Throw ‘academic’ in there, and you can call it CARL.” It stuck.
The robot came next, because CARL isn't meant to be a faceless chatbot. We're building a guide: supportive, a little playful, and genuinely useful, without adding complexity to an already full plate.
Built with Teachers. Improved with Teachers.
CARL is still growing through educator feedback. Join Beta 2 to try the platform, explore the support guides, and help shape what comes next.