EdTech Startup Showcase

Tanya Sheckley: [00:00:00] Welcome to the EdTech Startup Showcase, an original series produced by the BE Podcast Network. On this series, we spotlight and amplify some of the most innovative emerging companies in EdTech. We also have the opportunity to speak with a number of the educators who put those tools into action and support student success.

I'm your host today, Tanya Sheckley. I also host the podcast Rebel Educator on the BE Podcast Network. Reigniting wonder and reimagining the future of education are among the themes we explore on Rebel Educator, and I plan to bring those ideas to this series as well. And now, I'm pleased to introduce today's guest, Amanda Anthony.

Amanda is a Learning Link Instructional Specialist at Connected Class with over 20 years experience as an educator, and is known for providing invaluable feedback and differentiating instruction. Amanda, welcome to the [00:01:00] show!

Amanda: Thank you. It's good to be here.

Tanya Sheckley: So, I'd love to hear a little bit about your background and your journey as an educator. What, what brought you into education?

Amanda: So I didn't begin in education. I started out in music. But I, immediately when I graduated from college, I started teaching voice and piano lessons and just loved my students. I fell in love with that individual one. On one just education with the kids, teaching them piano and voice, and saw just how different each child that came to me was.

Their different learning styles, their different abilities, their different little personalities, and just fell in love with that. So I pursued my certification in teaching and began teaching K through 8 music. In private schools. And about 10 years ago, when my own child was in preschool, I met Christel, who is our founder and CEO of Connected Class, and she was telling me about this business that she had started, and just the momentum that it was picking up, and the empowerment she was being able to give teachers, and It just sounded really [00:02:00] exciting.

Like she was really pouring into these teachers and then she was able to engage parents. And so it just sounded interesting. So fast forward to August of this year, felt a transition in my own my own life and was like, Christel, are you hiring by chance? I, your company sounds really amazing and I would love to be able to empower teachers and educators as well.

So that's kind of my journey to this point.

Tanya Sheckley: Awesome. Can you share with listeners a little bit, if they maybe haven't heard the first episode, a little bit about Connected Class and, and what they do and how they empower and encourage teachers and bring parents into, into that collaboration as well? Sure. Awesome.

Amanda: Yes, of course. So Connected Class started out as just something very organic out of Christel's life. She was in and she Just really naturally felt just a call to professional development. So people started asking for her to come into trainings and do trainings [00:03:00] for, for them.

And then it just kind of built from there. It kind of started organically as people asked her to come in and do trainings for them. And then now it's this amazing company that starts out with data analysis for, for schools. And it just does the whole big picture. But they take the data analysis and then use that data on the professional development side on how they could best help that particular school in those particular teachers with their distinct needs and then moves into the learning link component, which is what I'm over, which is how teachers and parents can then engage and help students.

So there's. Certain games they can send home to the families and have them reinforce ideas that the teacher's already working on in class. So it's really a full scope from beginning to end, from data analysis all the way through to parent engagement in, in how this company operates. So it's really, it's really special.

Tanya Sheckley: Yeah, it's so important with children, especially to build that community and build that network. And when we look at [00:04:00] the way that we raise children as a community, you know, generations ago and all the different places they would go for help and support. And now that circle in for so many of us is so much smaller.

Amanda: Yes, yes, they feel it from every angle. And a lot of times I think teachers don't know how to communicate with parents and then parents don't understand, you know, they forgot the math problem, they forgot the certain terminology, they don't know how to help with the worksheets, and they don't, you know, they're, everybody's busy with too much to do, right?

So we're all overwhelmed, we're all tired, we all have way too much to do, and We just get stuck. We have a block, and if we can help bridge that gap between the classroom and home environment and help that just help support teachers and parents learn how to communicate and just kind of break down some of those walls, it helps the [00:05:00] overall student success.

Tanya Sheckley: it feels like this is moving towards a more personalized approach and a more differentiated approach. Are there specific strategies or skills that teachers can employ to help differentiate instruction for their students?

Amanda: for sure. So we you know, there's so many factors in, in differentiation. It's such a broad, huge topic. And like I mentioned before, teachers are overwhelmed with too much to do. And with every individual student, there's an individual story, right? Like you can have a child come in and they could have, you know, ADHD and maybe they're on a new medication that day.

And maybe they are really good at reading and writing, but math is not their thing. You know, or you have another student who maybe was at mom's one night and is going to dad's the next night, and they forgot their homework, and they, you know, they're frazzled. There's so many factors in each student and, and each of their students.

And so, you know, [00:06:00] differentiation can just have a scope of things that we can be looking at. Oftentimes we look at how to plan with content, product, and process. But we also have to look at student readiness and their interests. And then the environment, right? So again, the teachers are like, how do I do this?

If I have 25 students? How do I look at the individual needs of each student? And I just did a webinar a couple weeks ago and tried to break it down to like the ABCs of differentiation, just to make it as simple as possible. I said, A was for assess. The beginning the teachers are, are given each student for a reason.

I believe every teacher has their students in their classroom for that year for a reason, that they're the right teacher for the job. And so, taking that time to really assess the students, look at their readiness level. You know, are they below grade level? Are they at grade level? Are they above grade level?

That's usually a great place to start. There's more factors, but it's a great place to start. What is their [00:07:00] learning style? You know, do they prefer to work in a group or alone? And just really take time to assess and know your students. Knowing that you will reassess later. Like, you know, things change over time.

But, you know, assess at the beginning. And then B was for build. Building their small groups. Building their lessons. This is where Connected Class can come in and help as well because we have games, strategies, and activities called Learning Links that are hands on activities that they can also send home to families to do as well for parent engagement.

And on these activities, on the video that explains them, there's two ways to modify, modify each activity, when to make it easier, and when to make it more challenging. So it kind of takes a little bit of that off the plates of the teachers. Those activities are already modified. They're already differentiated.

I mean, they're fun. They're super fun to do. And the small groups are fun because the kids can mix up. You can mix them up however you think is best based on readiness or interest or learning style. And then I always say, you know what, if [00:08:00] you're walking around and they're in the wrong group and you, you assessed them wrong, just shuffle, be like, okay, it's time for a class, shuffle, and then purposely move them.

They don't have to know that they've BEn moved for a particular reason and then get them in the right small group. And then C was for connect the students are connecting with each other. in groups with games and they're making social and emotional connections as they learn to work together.

They celebrate the wins, they embrace the losses, and the teachers are making connections as well as they walk around and interact with the small groups. And then if we're, if you work with Connected class, the C also stands for connecting with us because we are there to support the teachers for one-on-one.

You know, they can schedule a one-on-one with me. If they're having trouble, they can, you know, we can do a Zoom meeting and I can help them in any way possible to support them in differentiating the lesson as well.

Tanya Sheckley: Part of differentiation is also how we accommodate and work in the environment. You mentioned content and product and process and learning style in the [00:09:00] environment. So can you talk a little bit about how we can accommodate for diverse student needs within the environment of the classroom?

Amanda: for sure. So I think, you know, there's different things you can do. Some students, like I said, some students aren't, you know, they don't do as well in a group. So I think you could maybe have, you know, spots. There's definitely some learning link games that can be played independently. So you can have you know, an opportunity for students to work independently if they prefer that style.

I definitely think, you know, how the teacher sets up the room can, can make or break the success of the students, making it very friendly, making the lighting friendly. For students that have maybe some sensitivity to lighting you know, it, it really depends on the style of the teacher and the needs of the students in the classroom.

But I definitely think, you know, even different seating, different seating arrangements can help students focus better.

Tanya Sheckley: Yeah, I think those are all great tips. I know it's one of the things that we talk a lot about in UP Academy. So I run a small school and we do our best to set [00:10:00] up our environment in a real universal design framework where students are able to move around the classroom. They're able to move to their just right spot for success.

There's flexible seating, there's a space to take a break if they need to take a break or move away from their small group or come back and I think creating those spaces that are really welcoming for all of our students is a really important piece of success.

Amanda: Absolutely, absolutely. I actually personally have a son who has Asperger's and having, letting him take breaks in the classroom and like, you know, all of those things have BEn so helpful during even during our, the quarantine when we were home and he was doing more online learning, like, that was so good for him because he could move around as much as he wanted, you know, he could, you know, listen to music if he needed to.

So every student just has such different needs in the way that they learn best. And I think. You know, the best we can accommodate that in the classroom setting is so helpful.

Tanya Sheckley: How, how are you [00:11:00] working with parents to make sure that they're empowered as learning partners to provide academic support at home?

Amanda: So, like I said, I'm new at Connected Class, but I've, I've attended several trainings, and teachers continually are asking, like, they want more family engagement. They, they really are longing for that, but they're not sure how to do it. And so we You know, they're sending home worksheets. The parents aren't understanding them.

Like I mentioned before, they're, they're confused about the topics. And a lot of times, you know, they can't, they, you know, banging their heads against the wall, trying to get the nightly reading done for the reading logs and things like that. And so at Connected Class, we We really try to connect the teachers and the parents.

We've created those learning links that I mentioned before which are video embedded emails. And here's the cool thing is they don't have passwords or logins for the parents because I don't know about you, but I lose every password that I've ever had. Like, I'm not good at keeping up with logins because it feels like there's so many.

And so they get a video embedded email that's [00:12:00] from the teachers comes directly from the teacher. They just click on the video and it goes right to these awesome little animated short two to six minute videos that explain the activity. But they're not they're not a digital activity. They're hands on activity.

So while it's explaining the activity and they're seeing it online, they're watching it with their parents, then they go and do the activity together. So they're working with their parent. So some of those like we, I talked about the nightly reading logs and how parents are like, Oh my goodness, my kid does not want to read.

We created a series called Stop Whining and Just Read With Me already. So teachers send home creative ways to read with their child. So one of them's called Camp Out, where parents can find a pop up tent around their house, or they can create a tent with blankets and pillows, make a little fort. And they simply read together in the tent, maybe make s'mores together.

And have a moment, they can pick whatever they want to read or whatever their teacher is having them read that night and it just gives a different environment, a different way to do it. Or silly [00:13:00] Snapchat where without posting, you can create different filters with Snapchat and faces and voices as you, you know, do the characters in the story, and you can do that together, and some of the kids who love the digital stuff, that's really fun for them.

Or, I know I'm short on time as a parent, we also have one called What's Cookin and you can just have your child read the recipes with you as you're cooking dinner that night. You can even turn it into a math lesson if you want to as well, but just, even just that time of reading together while cooking takes a little bit off the parent's plate, but they're still do, they're still engaging the child, they're still doing something with their, their child.

And then our math videos are amazing because they explain to the parents. Each component, like I know so many times parents are like, I'm not a math person, like I don't, you know, I, this isn't, they don't, they don't do well in math because I don't do well in math. And and so a lot of times they've just forgotten those basic terminologies or things and they, they feel like they can't help their child.

But each video explains Each basic component. So the parents [00:14:00] feel like, Oh, I can finally help. I get it. I remember this. You know, I remember what an exponent is or a factor is like, finally, they, someone explained it to me and the hands on games and activities. They use manipulatives that pretty much everyone has in their junk drawer, like dice, dominoes, cards, and occasionally fly spotters, because everybody likes to hit something every once in a while.

It's just kind of fun. So, so these are fun ways for the teacher to. Engage the parent. When they reply back to that email, they reply back to the teacher. It doesn't come to us at all. So there's that meaningful two way communication between the classroom and the home environment as they reply back and forth.

And then maybe, maybe the parent's like, oh, give me some more ideas on how to read with my child. I loved, I'd love to camp out. What else can I do? And then the teacher can send, you know, another option or another learning link. And then they're, you know, they're starting to work together for the success of the student.

Tanya Sheckley: It sounds fascinating and sounds really easy to use and sounds like it also helps to build. [00:15:00] Build more of a relationship and rapport between parent and child as well as parents in school and teacher and child and all in support of academic success. Do you have specific examples or feedback of schools that you've worked with or teachers that you've worked with, or a story you could tell of a student that you've worked with that has, You know, started out, you know, kind of struggling or has brought in connected class or the learning link tools and, and how that has supported or helped, you know, that student or that class, kind of a case study that you could share with us.

Amanda: Yes. In fact, on our on our website, connectedclass. com, we have a whole page of success stories that anybody can check out, but I know this one teacher in particular, she is a teacher and a parent, so she has a really different perspective, or a neat perspective, of both students.

Sides of it where she has sent learning links home for her students and seen tremendous gains. Like we have monthly challenges that [00:16:00] she's done and seeing, you know, we have a pretest and a posttest post-test with the math and like 37% learning gains in her classroom and in just four weeks because these challenges, these students are playing these games at home.

And then. She uses the learning links with her own children at home and has seen them just fall in love with reading and really just where they were struggling with comprehension and even fluency are starting to make tremendous gains because they're in a different environment. Like, with Camp Out that's a really fun one.

That one is definitely a popular one with a lot of the kids and it's helped them just. I think where they, they thought they were stuck with the fixed mindset of I can't do this. I can't do this. Now they're in a different environment and a different way. And they, when they see success, it switches to a growth mindset.

Right. So, definitely this teacher loves it as a teacher and a parent has seen great wins.

Tanya Sheckley: Yeah, it's funny how much a tent can change perspective.

Amanda: Right.

Tanya Sheckley: my kids during did during COVID as we set up our [00:17:00] camping tent just in the garage. And so they'd go out there and do zoom school in the tent. And like they didn't want to do it and it wasn't fun, but then they'd sit in the tent and everything changed and suddenly it was fun and it was interesting and it was exciting.

Amanda: Yes, I love it.

Tanya Sheckley: yeah, so it's funny how one little tiny shift of environment or one little addition of imagination can make such a big difference in, in motivation and in desire of wanting to overcome a challenge or take something on that might be difficult.

Amanda: For sure.

Tanya Sheckley: Let's talk about play. How does play come into this, or how do you see using play as a tool or how can we incorporate more, I mean, we're talking about camping out, that's pretty play based, but even more play based learning activities, and I think we talked a lot about how we're using it to improve academics, what about just play, for the sake of play, and how does that work or improve or support student development?

Amanda: I, I love it so [00:18:00] much and I feel like we take play away too quickly from our students in the classroom because it is such, it's so, it's so good for so many things, not just academics like you were talking about, but the social emotional development. And just helping students be able to work with one another and dialogue with one another, especially, you know, playing together they learn to celebrate each other.

They learn to, you know, take turns and win and lose and, you know, how to manage those emotions, how to, how to deal with conflict in play. A lot of times we figure that out, you know, how to apologize, right? I just think that is so, so important. And then also, you know, on the academic side, like I mentioned before but I feel like it's so important.

It can take someone who really has this, I can't do this mindset. Like they could be like, I can't do fractions. I'm not good at fractions. I will never be good at fractions. And then all of a sudden they're playing a game. They don't know it's about fractions. They have no idea. No one said this is a fraction [00:19:00] game.

They're just playing and they're, but they're using fractions. They're actually doing it and then at the end someone says, you know what you actually, this is, Did you know that this actually is just like fractions? And then they have this aha moment of success, but they're like, wait, maybe I can do it.

Like maybe, maybe this is something that I could be good at, or maybe I could, I can get this. It, I feel like it just takes students out of their, their everyday mindset of what school is or what learning is and what it has to be. And then just breaks down barriers of just where they thought they were stuck, where they thought they had a challenge.

And in the same way, you know, like I said, socially, you know, just helping students practice how to be with one another and how to I don't, I just don't think we do enough of that. I think it's so, so important, especially as you know, kids age. And I did want to say too, I don't think you're ever too old to have play.

Like I think the high schoolers, we like, I mean, obviously needs to be age appropriate. You know, [00:20:00] an age appropriate game or an age appropriate fun activity in the classroom, but, you know, I have high school students in my house and they love, they love play. They love to have fun. They love a game, you know, and so I think, you know, we, we're too, uh, Close minded.

If we think that, Oh gosh, in high school, we shouldn't, we should no longer have play. We should no longer have that, you know, that time for imagination or that time for connection in that way. Because I think, you know, you can make some major gains even in the high school years with play.

Tanya Sheckley: Absolutely. And coming from, so you're coming from the background of a music teacher, are there ways, you know, are there ways that you're incorporating that background of music or musicality or dance or movement or like imagine to play in dramatic arts into the work that you're doing now with connected class or with learning link.

How, how are those things connecting for you?

Amanda: So I don't know yet, [00:21:00] to be honest. I hope that they will. I do have a desire to, to reach out to the, especially because we meet with teachers, you know, reach out to the specials teachers, reach out to them and connect with them and then incorporate, you know, the giftings that, that I have, you know, and the experience that I have in that area.

I definitely think because music is I don't want to say such a specialty. I don't know the right words for that, but just such a, like a a unique thing. I, I think I've had to differentiate so much in my classroom, in my time with music that I think it does add a unique voice to these teachers and to give them a unique perspective.

But I'm not sure exactly how the arts are going to fit into this role, but I hope it does at some point. Yes.

Tanya Sheckley: the specials teachers or music teachers or art teachers, they're sometimes a safe haven for students who are struggling in other spaces. And so drawing them in, but from a, you know, from a perspective of school leadership or [00:22:00] you know, creating a really cohesive work environment, it's also often a challenge to have those teachers as part of the Kind of the learning ecosystem, if you will, like we talked about drawing and teachers and drawing and parents and making those connections.

But I feel like it's often the special teachers because they, they see them less, it's not the core homeroom teacher. It's someone else who's in the building and may know their child, really, really well, but often isn't brought into the loop of those, those circles. Are there ways that you're working with that or ways that you can help teachers and schools to make sure that they're bringing in, you know, all of the people who are really supporting and working with their students?

Amanda: Right. I think, you know, for me, when I was in the classroom, it was so important that I was looped in on the emails or looped in, like if something was going on in a child's home that was, that they were able to share that wasn't, you know, super private, that they, you know, that I was looped in on that so that I could maybe [00:23:00] be sensitive to a need that that child had that day.

Or you know, like if they have a 504 or, you know, need accommodations, you know, looping me in on that so that I can be a part of that and accommodate them in the way that they need so they can learn best. And, you know, of course, music is all the things, right? It's math. It's science. It's, you know, it's, literature. It's all of, it kind of combines all of the subjects together. So if I can, you know, if I can encourage the teachers to include all the specials to be part of the conversation, then I think it would be a much more cohesive learning environment for the child.

Tanya Sheckley: Are there things coming up with Learning Link, new tools, or things coming up with Connected Class that you're really excited about, that you want to talk about, that you want to share with us?

Amanda: So we are, we're in the middle of enrolling for the new year for schools. So we're really, we're signing everybody up. The really cool thing about, uh, Connected Class is that we take federal funds. So we [00:24:00] accept Title I, Title II, and Title IV and that can help pay for the program for the schools.

So we're starting to, to get schools set up for next year. And again, like I said, we start with the big picture. So we do data analysis. Professional Development, Customized based on the needs of the school and, you know, include learning link in that. So that's something we're, we're revving up right now.

And also our Summer Success Program we're, we're really excited about that because we know the summer slide, you know, students lose a lot of momentum over the summer. And so, the Summer Success Program includes those learning links. We have a kit with all the manipulatives, the fly swatters, the dice, dominoes, cards, all the things that they could need for.

Their activities, and then they get access to Learning Link, and then we provide the support over the summer, so the teachers, we call it the Summer Relax Package for the teachers, because the teachers get to relax while we support the parents and families if they have questions, or they're not sure how to do an activity, they can reach out to us and so the, the summer success is a lot of fun, and parents [00:25:00] and families can, can do that individually as well, it doesn't just have to be like a school system, they can order that on ConnectedClass.com. So we're excited about that.

Tanya Sheckley: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing and thank you for your time today. I've loved learning about the program and more about you and your history and, and how you're bringing all of these things together to connect teachers and educators all really with supportive students in mind. So thank you so much.

Amanda: Yes, thank you.