EdTech Startup Showcase

Connected Class
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[00:00:00] You're listening to the EdTech Startup Showcase, an original series produced by the Bee Podcast Network. Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us. My name is Scott Schuette and I'll be your host today, taking you through a series of stories of some wonderful emerging companies in EdTech. In today's episode, we're going to hear all about ConnectedClass.

We'll find out how they got started, their vision for transforming teaching and learning, and the way that we're currently supporting educators. Just like yourself. My guest today is Crystal Reeves, founder and CEO of Connected Class. Crystal is a celebrated educator with 25 years of experience, recognized as the 2020 STEM Small Business Innovator of the Year.

She has transformed teaching and learning through her online platform and extensive work in Florida's education system, holding advanced degrees in educational leadership and biology education. [00:01:00] Crystal! Welcome to the

Thank you, Scott. How are you doing today?

I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for asking. I appreciate it. We're both from Florida, so we're basking in our studios and looking out at the sun in the warmth, which is fantastic.

In the wintertime, that is good. Florida is a great place to be in the wintertime. Not so great to be in the summertime. But, that's another story.

That's right.

Hey, so we talked a little bit. I gave a real brief, introduction about yourself, but I know our audience would love to know more. So can you share some of your background?

Like, how did you get interested in education and in ed tech entrepreneurship?

I love it. So actually growing up, believe it or not, I was the struggling student. At one point it was in question, would I graduate from high school? I actually ended up going to community college after I graduated, good news, I passed. I had the most incredible oollege professor for biology.

And [00:02:00] he believed in me, and something just sparked, and I said, you know what, this teacher believed in me, I just found this initiative and motivation to really want to learn. So I went from community college to, the University of New York is College at Cortland, and I selected education and science, because he had such an impact on me, I wanted to do that for other learners, especially struggling learners.

I actually was recruited by Palm Beach County Schools. So, really basically because I wanted to teach by the beach. It's too cold in New York. I came down. I was a classroom teacher for a few years. I was recruited to the district office as a district resource teacher. Then I became an administrator.

And 14 years ago, I moved two hours north and I started getting phone calls to become a consultant. And I started that. And I've been working with the same 38 schools the last 14 years. And [00:03:00] this is how the EdTech piece came together. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have a company.

Like, no way. Uh uh. So this consulting business just grew and grew. Organically. So these schools, when I was working with them, we would analyze student data, I would provide a customized professional development based on the needs of their teachers and their students. And about a handful of years ago, there was just this missing piece that just kept coming up.

You know what? There is a lack of communication between the classroom and the home environment based on academic needs of the child, but actually resourcing the parents with something that they could do at home. a lot of times parents might say, okay, here's your test scores, or teachers will say, here's your test scores, but they're not really giving them something that they can do academically at home.

So That's where LearningLink came about. So it was actually our third generation of a website. We put videos on it. The teachers can go in, they can push them home. The best part [00:04:00] of it is that the parents get it in an email. It's a video embedded email. It's a two to four minute video game strategies and activities and literacy and math, but the parents don't even have to have a username.

They just pay. They just click on a little video, opens it up and teaches them how to interact with their child in a fun way.

That's amazing. And I think it's really relevant, especially at this time. So I do corporate learning for my day job and it's amazing how video has gone from when I started many, many years ago. Oh, seven to 10 minutes. That's really great. And now today it's like 30 seconds. Can you get it into 30 seconds?

If you don't know how to chunk, then you're in big trouble because

big trouble.

Oh my gosh, I read a statistic, the other day, Generation Z, right? So I think that's where we're at today. Their attention span went from seven seconds, which is I believe where most Millennials are, to 1.

3, 1. 3 seconds. If you don't grab them right away, they're done, right? So I think that that's really great. And I also want to back up and I want to talk a little bit about, You [00:05:00] got really lucky, right? So you had someone believe in

I did. That's huge.

Yeah, it's such a huge thing, and I think that sometimes we in education, or no matter where you work, forget about the impact that we can have on people, because there's so many people that never get that, right?

So they never have the opportunity to have somebody go, I think that you can do more,

more. That's right.

right? I don't know if you and I are very similar in a lot of, we had a pre show conversation, , I'm just a loyal dog, right? You just tell me I'm doing a good job and I'm going to jump through hoops for you, right?

So I just think that that's really blessed. So my challenge to the audience might be, Take a chance on people. You find those diamonds in the rough, you find some that might need a little encouragement. Oh my gosh, you got a student that needs a little encouragement. Give that student that encouragement.

They're going to go really far. We have digressed from your company. Let's try to get back on track.

You know what though? It really has a lot to what we do because right now when I go into my [00:06:00] schools that I support, like I mentioned before, I have 38 of them that I've been working with closely for 14 years. In the last few years, they've really noticed a, an academic gap and a huge increase in social emotional learning where there's behavioral issues.

They're really having a hard time with kids focusing. And what they've noticed is that a lot of times, kids are having a hard time looking at other people in the eyes and having a conversation. So these learning game strategies and activities, they're actually all hands on. So it's encouraging parents and family members and children, even to play with other children, and interact and talk with each other.

Not just sit across the table and text each other instead of actually talking.

That sounds like my house. Every night when we're watching garbage TV, my wife's on one side of the couch and I'm on the other side of the couch. We're both like into something different. So yeah, that communication is crucial. Let me ask you a question. Like, okay, so you went from [00:07:00] consulting and then you started to build your own business and you talked a little bit about some of the cool things that you're.

Doing with connected class, but what was that bridge? What was that bridge point of? Hey, you know what? I think that I could add more impact if we were to start doing this and talk to us a little bit about That process about those steps. Cause I think a lot of people go, I have this really cool idea and I want to add more impact, but I have no idea how to get started.

Yeah. So that's awesome. Okay. So for me, again, it was very organic. And so I'm an educator just at heart, period, because I know what it's like to struggle and I know what it's like to be successful in learning. I want educators to feel that because I feel like adults need that learning as well as parents and family members.

As well as kids. But for me, it came to a natural place with that learning link because we do these instructional leadership institutes and, for several years in a row, a lot of the schools, their [00:08:00] weakness was in measurement and geometry. So, I'm a how can I person. Not a can I question it, but how can I do this?

So I'm sitting here going, what is the root cause of why kids are not successful in these two strands? And it comes down to, the teachers never get to it until after the assessment. It's at the end of the year, and then when you look year after year after year, it's getting missed because they've been too busy.

So I said, we have to get measurement and data. into the curriculum sooner, but then the teachers are like Crystal, how are we going to do that? They don't know their basic facts. They don't know this. They don't know that. Well, yes, you know what? Number sense is very important and that does have to occur first.

So how can we get others to help us on this mission? I was like, we need moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, and aunts and uncles and the neighbors. So that's where, really, I'm a faith based person, and I just prayed. I was like, I need an idea, and there was Learning Link. You're gonna create these two minute videos, cause really, the [00:09:00] average watch is about two minutes.

But our fraction videos, they do take about five minutes, because we build the background knowledge of family members. Because a lot of family members, you don't always remember how to add and subtract unlike denominators if you haven't done it in a long time, but we do it in a fun way with dominoes.

So really it became a natural, response to a need. So I said, you know what, if you could do a little bit of the basic facts in class, but push that home to the parents in that email and they play those games, then you're going to have more time. Let's build a focus calendar and put some measurement and geometry earlier in the year.

You know what, Scott? It was awesome to see over the history of the different Instructional Leadership Institute schools having the red zone below the nation for measurement and geometry move to yellow and then move to green. And it's because we are incorporating that family engagement at home.

And on a side note, we saw [00:10:00] 37 percent learning gains in just 4 weeks in our monthly FAQ Fluency Challenge with, just around 400 students from 12 schools. So, it's working.

That's fantastic. You bring up a really important point on measurement. Like, so one of the, my biggest learnings from last year you got to have a measurement story. You got to have a data story. If you don't have a data story, you're really behind the eight ball. And I think the thing that you've hit on is it really provides educators an understanding of.

Is what I'm doing working? Because if it's not, then we have to change it up, right? But how often do we just like, Well, I'm going to do it this way because we've always done it this way. But if it's not working, right? And then you would want to know that too. Like, we're going to put these videos out and they're working right now.

And all of a sudden, if they're not working, what do we need to do to change it up? And I'm like, that is great. And I, I get excited about that. And I know you would probably too. Because it's like, it gives us that. It really gives us a basis of, Oh, like the worst thing that happened in all of this is when [00:11:00] we learned something, right? That's the worst thing.

Do

you know in a lot of my trainings and different masterminds that I do with administrators and teachers is I have them create a stop doing list. I give them permission to stop doing something. Like you don't have to go to page 14 tomorrow because you did 13 today.

Let's actually see where kids are at and teach them where they need to go.

Yeah, no, I think that's really important. And the thing that I tell my team all the time is we don't have time for feel good work. Like, oh, this makes me feel good. I did something. Let's check the box over here. Did it add value? Probably not. That's okay. I feel good about myself. That's not what we're here to do.

And it's critical for children, right? So it's critical for our. Our future to make sure that we're getting the results, right? So we're, we all want good results. We all want them to be better. This is really great. On that track, what are some of your learnings, right? So as you're building this stuff out.

And you're making hypotheses and then you get the [00:12:00] results that we've just been talking about. I would love to hear that everything worked out the way I thought it would, but I live in the real world where that doesn't happen, right? So what are some of the learnings you could share with our audience that you had while you were building this thing?

Oh my goodness. We're getting ready to do, a new build to take it. The next step further. I'm not gonna give you all the details of that yet, but it really comes from when you're an educator and you build ed tech company. You don't know what you don't know until you know. So there's pieces on my platform I built a certain way that slows it down a little.

And so I'm getting ready to do a web application versus coding on a specific type of platform. I wish I knew that a couple years ago. That would have been nice.

don't know what we don't know about the things that we don't

what we don't know, but you know what? This what I'm excited about with that opportunity. I love, leadership [00:13:00] books by John Maxwell.

I don't know if you've read any of his books, but I remember actually listening to one of his podcasts and he says, if you haven't a lot of failures you're not pushing yourself hard enough. And I thought to myself, wow, I really have been blessed, I haven't had a lot of failure. Well, guess what? That's not the case anymore. I'm doing great at it. But we're moving further.

you know Again, that's where real learning comes from right and if you could build failure into the things that we're trying to teach I think that's it's the best way to learn. So again, what's the worst that could happen? No, you learn something, right? So I think that that's really cool.

I

also think if there's entrepreneurs out there that are building a business, you sometimes have to be a puppies in rainbow kind of person where you just dream it and you believe it can happen and you just push it and you get past those naysayers.

I know another one of my mistakes was as soon as my platform was launched, and I actually only had a 35 videos out of 100. [00:14:00] It's the, actually we're running at 75 now. I was like, we're ready for a national conference. Let's go. There was so much really that needed to be done before that. So that was a learning curve, but I was blessed because it happened literally two weeks before the pandemic and the world shut down.

and that's when the real world really needed what you had

Absolutely. Yes. We were, yeah, we were definitely blessed. We've doubled last several years in a row.

175 videos, nothing to laugh at. That's a lot of work. You should feel really good about that.

Talk about your journey. Where are you today? And where are you going tomorrow? That's really ambitious.

Awesome. Okay. So right now we are currently in two states. We're in the state of Florida and the state of Texas. We were also selected as a CEDA Emerging Partner for this year, which is the State Ed Tech Directors Association. And in January, we are a finalist in the FETC Pitch Fest. So our goal is to actually be in every state [00:15:00] in the nation.

I want to be in every state. parent and family's email, so that they have a game, a strategy, or an activity that they can play with their child at home. Because not only is it going to help them with reading and math, but it's actually going to help them with their confidence and that social emotional piece where they're going to feel connected.

Because I'm a mom, I have two kids, and there's lots of times where I'm like, listen, we're using that iPad right now as a babysitter because I got a lot to do. But, if I take that ten minutes. Three times a week, like my family's did with the Math Fact Fluency Challenges, you get 37 percent learning gains.

my vision is every home in the United States that has children, or grandchildren, or nieces or nephews, just so that they have fun with their children and help them read and do math better.

really great. And I feel like we mentioned, it's really, really necessary. I think one of the biggest challenges, you can correct me if I'm [00:16:00] wrong, but it feels to me like the biggest challenge is just like getting the word out. Because I, as a parent, nobody gave me a handbook on how to be a good parent and nobody gave me a handbook on how to help my kids with school.

And oh, by the way, everything changed by the time that they brought their homework back. Everything changed. Like I, I don't know how to do this or I forgot how to do it and whatever. And so, but if you gave me a tool that could help me help my, Kids get better. That was fun and educational. And then also gives you, and you understand this, and I think all of us in education understand, it's the greatest joy we have is seeing that aha spark moment of, Oh, I get it, right?

Oh, I totally get it. So help us understand, how are you bridging that gap between the people that, like you mentioned, that don't know what they don't know about what they don't know to learning link. This is the greatest thing since the life spread. How do you. Fix that.

Yeah, so how I'm doing that, with my current, clients is we have an onboarding process with them. So they get it in multiple formats. They can watch some how to videos [00:17:00] that are Two minutes long.

Good.

And then we have some of the PDFs if there are people who like to read, but we also have an instructional specialist team and they're assigned different schools.

So we do webinars, we do monthly newsletters, we go into schools and we have trainings and, pretty much at any school, you're going to have early adopters that you really don't have to do much with and they're going to take it to the ends of the earth. And then you have, teachers at schools who hate technology.

And usually you win them over when you solve a massive problem that they're having. , one of the biggest problems that schools face, especially secondary teachers, because I support kindergarten through twelfth grade. My math department said, Crystal, if you could just get kids to multiply and do fractions, I could actually teach algebra and geometry.

For my teachers at that elementary level who are like, listen, I don't have time for one more thing. I just show [00:18:00] them rock, paper, scissors, multiply. It's just a very quick game where two people shoot out any number in their hands and they quickly multiply their fingers together and yell out the answer.

And if they tie, then they play rock, paper, scissors, shoot to break that tie. We were doing that yesterday at a community place that we are, we're, sponsoring to help and they're doing it in their staff meeting and the whole time we were there, the director of the organization, as well as the lead for their academy, they just kept playing it and they would fight with each other.

Like, I want to know you. That was a tie. So we're slowly getting the word out.

By

the way, I think that that's an amazing creative way to teach kids how to multiply. And I would probably be that same person that got competitive around it. And rock, paper, scissors is not normally a game that I choose to play with people, but I would want to play this one.

So I think that's really great. From an accountability perspective, do the educators get an [00:19:00] idea of who's partaking in it, and can they, do they have the opportunity to reach out to parents and hey.

Yes, absolutely. And I coach them on this in the trainings too because they have a learning link log on the website so they know who they sent it to and they'll know who watched it. It also tracks, yeah, and it also tracks if the parent watches it more than once. , I am a teacher, so I know exactly what it's like to sit in that parent conference if you have a parent who's, a little extra.

So if they're asking for more and more and more and you're sending it to it and they're not opening it, how we say to the teachers, you just say, Hey, is this your email? Because I've been sending this to you and I want to make sure it's not going to your spam and that I have your email correct.

Because I want you to try this at home with your child. So they can do that. But you know what else we did, Scott? We added a send later feature, because in the world of education, you have your superstar teachers that can plan out weeks in [00:20:00] ahead, and they can schedule what videos they want to go out.

And what's great is they don't have to remember if they did it, because there's a schedule later log, so they can change it if they want, or they can just double check, hey, did I do this?

That, that's really, really helpful. and. As I've had a conversation with some of my employees today about timing and how timing is really, really important, right? So when I send something out, it's going to be important , when's the right time to have this kind of conversation. Like it's super important.

So building that in is great.

Me ask you a really important question. Like what motivates you? This is really exciting stuff, but what's motivating you, Crystal?

so I really I have two Two things that motivate me first and foremost is my faith like I believe in God I pray and he shows me what I need to do So I want to be in his well and he's called me to be a teacher and I'm a teacher to the core So those are who are called to teach should teach You know, [00:21:00] my husband always asks And he asks me all that all the time, , like Crystal, if someone wanted to buy your business, what would you do?

And I go, I'm not sure I could sell it right away. And he's like, Oh, thank God, because I know how much this takes of your time. And I'm wondering what you would do after. So really what motivates me is number one, serving my creator. Number two, doing what I was designed to do. And, if you're a good teacher, you're a better learner.

Right? And I, like you said, I love those aha moments. When you see, it doesn't matter if they're grown ups or if they're kids, when you get that aha. I've done some trainings with these concepts in the learning link videos and I have this fifth grade teacher go, wow, if I had done fractions this way, I would have actually learned them.

You know, like, that's a powerful moment. And I'm like, I'm glad that you teach reading. But yeah, that's what motivates me helping people and [00:22:00] serving my creator.

Okay,

right? So where do we take learning link today? Like, where do we go into the future? What kind of additional impact are you looking? Like, if you were to wake up and your dreams all came true with learning link, what would that look like? Yeah.

I think the first step is national and all the inboxes and families, but I would love for it to go global. I actually am always in development mode, so we launched a pilot program this year called Digital Safety, and it's. It's Take 3 for Digital Safety with Officer E, and they're just two minutes.

It's three things, three steps, three actions, three questions that you can do to shore up your device to keep your children safe. So we have literacy, math, and digital safety, but I want to do ESC learning link videos. I want to do social emotional learning, where Ken and I are through eighth grade. Now I want to do high school.

So I really see the [00:23:00] concepts just growing, growing, growing. And I want to get more experts on, on these videos. I don't want it just to be me. I want it to be others. But I just think the simpleness and the deliverability of it, because it goes right into an email, inbox. Any parent, most Family members have cell phones? You don't even need a password, you just open up the video and watch it. Let's eliminate barriers.

What? Eliminate barriers instead of trying to put up some? That's a unique and novel concept, right?

I think that's fantastic. I love this idea of extending your reach. I know that's one of the things that, in corporate learning that I really struggle with. Like, how do I get more people engaged? How do I make more people, how do I get, how do I get the good stuff that we got to our larger audience?

Because we know that it'll make a difference. So I think that that's really exciting.

If you know what, Scott, I was thinking another thing, too, is initially when I started this, it was about the academic gains, and I didn't think of the side benefits, and [00:24:00] it's that connection piece, because it's bridging the teacher to the parent and the parent back to the teacher, because the parent can respond to that email and talk to that teacher, but it's also that child having moments to sit down at a table or on a couch with a grown up with something that's structured and the confidence and the love that they feel, you just, he really can't measure that.

You can't. And I think, that's probably the greatest thing that unconsciously came out of this.

good. That's really, really great. And if you really think about it, that's important. Cause

I'm old. And so when I was growing up, kind of had to do it on my own, I didn't, it was, those moments that I have with my parents where we worked. Do something together or moments that I'll never forget and to be able to provide more of those moments.

You're right does create this like bond between you and someone who deeply cares for you. And I think that that's a wonderful thing to be doing. And so you should feel really good about that. [00:25:00] We are getting close to that. Time where we're going to start thinking about wrapping up. Although, quite frankly, I could probably talk to you all day, which is great.

What are some things that you wanted to talk about today that I haven't hit upon? Some really important things that, that, ooh, Scott, these are things that I wanted to talk about. I'm so glad you asked that question, and if you don't, it could be a cool opportunity for you to just summarize and give some top three points for us.

I feel like we talked about everything, but in summary, I think what I really would want to say is, , for parents and family members to not be intimidated to communicate with teachers because I know the hearts of teachers and they love children. There's a lot of, adults out there that I work with and they say, I want to go into my child's school, but I feel intimidated because I wasn't a good student.

And I feel like this [00:26:00] learning link piece is something very easy for that busy educator to do because so many educators are leaving the field because they're overwhelmed. But this is one of those simple to use because they can use it to differentiate instruction in their classroom for a small group.

It's ready made. The videos have animation in it, so it's very easy for them to understand. And then when they push it home to the parents, it builds their communication. So for those intimidated parents, or those parents who can't make it to a parent night, they can do this at any time, anywhere on their cell phone.

So it's my hope that it's going to build their confidence and their courage to go into the school and to communicate. More to that staff besides the staff reaching out to the family because when we can all get connected Kids are gonna do better. Grown ups are gonna do better. And you know how our country's been the last few [00:27:00] years.

We're so divided. But if we could unite the grown ups in little communities everywhere around the needs of those children academically and socially, I feel like we could bring so much more hope in tomorrow that some people are missing.

That is a fantastic summary, and I'm so blessed that you and I could have a conversation about these things today. And you're right. And quite frankly, I don't think that you're in the minority. I think most people want to bring people together. And this is one way that we can do that. So you keep up the good work.

I think that's great. Could you do me a favor? Could you let our audience know how they could connect with you?

Yes. Absolutely. So if you would like to get connected, stay connected, and learn for a writer tomorrow, check out connectedclass. com and you will see there's lots of opportunity on the website to reach out to us and we'd be more than happy to connect with you. Thank you.[00:28:00]

Christel, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for all you do. Thank you for the time that you shared with me. I really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

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