Podcasts about freshgrade

Born and raised in the Okanagan, Meredith Schuurman is passionate about life and strives to live each day to its fullest. Physical, mental and spiritual wellness is extremely important to her and the OK Valley provides a rich backdrop for her to uphold these values.When she's not at one of the gyms in town, working for Kelowna's locally founded ed/tech company FreshGrade, or hiking the trails with her dog, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family and pursuing her other hobbies such as attending rock concerts and live events (DRAG SHOWS!), modeling in photoshoots, practicing aerial hoops, scoping out the offerings at local farmers and flee markets, treasure hunting at antique and thrift stores and gold panning. Meredith has a passion for travel and also gets to travel for work a great deal; and while it is always inspiring and exciting to visit new locations (most recent development = she's going on a personal trip to Africa this fall), she knows the Okanagan Valley, Kelowna in particular, is a truly special place to be celebrated for all it has to offer. Support the show (https://paypal.me/lukemenkes)

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Show NotesThis episode finally delves into who Jonathan and Angela are, a bit of our backgrounds and how we both took very different paths to get to where we are. We give shout outs to our team, mentors, friends, and family.We talk in this episode about non-medical fabric masks and we wanted to give a shout out to Sew the Curve Kamloops. We also mention a local company Desert Lily Clothing that made the custom masks for Two Story Robot.Find Us OnlineAngela Hapke - @angelahapke - https://www.clinnect.caJonathan Bowers - @thejonotron - https://www.twostoryrobot.comCreditsProduced by Jonathan Bowers and Angela HapkeMusic by Andrew Codeman (CC BY 3.0)Transcript[00:00:00] Angela: Just buy a mic.[00:00:00] Jonathan: You're just going to buy a mic anyways.[00:00:03] Angela: Why not?[00:00:03] Jonathan: Okay. Well tell me if you do, and then I will also buy the mic and[00:00:06] Angela: Well, okay. I don't want to make you buy a mic,[00:00:09] Jonathan: Well, no, no, no. Cause I, I will, um, I kind of want to[00:00:12] Angela: Let's just buy my mics then[00:00:15]Intro[00:00:15] Jonathan: Hi, I'm Jonathan Bowers. I'm the CEO of Two Story Robot and we're helping Angela build a digital health startup. And we had a bunch of masks, custom made masks that I delivered to my team yesterday. Yeah, it was super fun.[00:00:34] Angela: do people like them.[00:00:35] Jonathan: Yes. Uh, Lindsey posted a picture of her wearing our branded mask, the branded hat, some chainmail, and a sword to vanquish COVID[00:00:50]Angela:  that's awesome.[00:00:52] Jonathan: I'm excited We made a, I think there's like 35 or so. Um, so we're distributing everyone on the team gets one, it's the Olsen[00:01:01] Angela: The Olsen mask[00:01:02] Jonathan: got. Uh, I had her use some scrap fabric, whatever scraps she had for[00:01:07] Angela: well, that one has hello,[00:01:08] Jonathan: This one is Hello Kitty.[00:01:10] Angela: That's cute. That's perfect.[00:01:12] That's super fun.[00:01:13] Jonathan: Yeah, it's super fun. We're going to sell them, sell the extras, mark them up a whole bunch and give a, give the profits to charity.[00:01:21] Angela: That's great. Awesome.[00:01:23] Hi, my name is Angela Hapke and I am the CEO of Central Referral Solutions. The company that has launched Clinnect the digital health product, um, that Two Story Robot is helping us with. And speaking of masks I made masks for. Sew the Curve Kamloops, which is a grassroots organization that made over 10,000 masks for, our geographic area around Kamloops and, um, not just mass, they made scrub caps and, um, bags.[00:01:58] So like healthcare workers could put their, their scrubs in their clothes, in a bag that had like a drawstring. So they could just dump them in the washer when they got home and things like that. But it was really, really cool in the beginning of COVID to be part of something that was, um, that was really.[00:02:14] Making an impact like that. So I think I ended up making about, I want to say about 40 scrub caps and about 25 masks.[00:02:26] Jonathan: Yeah, the, uh, we hired a business out of the Sew the Curve to make our masks, somebody new who is just starting a business for the first time. Um, and she, you know, she wanted a Desert Lily Clothing.[00:02:39]She is going to make children's clothing, but then became really active on the Sew The Curve. And so we reached out to her and she was super excited about it. So yeah. Yeah, that's fine.[00:02:49] Angela: Hence the Hello Kitty uh, scrap fabric[00:02:51]yup. There we go. Somebody we can talk about today.[00:02:57]Getting to Know Each Other[00:02:57] Jonathan: Well, I wanted to, I wanted to get to know Angela. I already know Angela.[00:03:03] Angela: But do we like, so this is an interesting part is so we've known each other for a few years now. and I feel like, um, we know each other from like the last five years of our career, but I don't actually know the Jonathan pre.[00:03:20] Pre age 30 or something like that.[00:03:23] Jonathan: How old do you think I am?[00:03:24] Angela: I know exactly how old you are, because you're the same age as me.[00:03:27] Jonathan: Oh, am I?[00:03:28] Angela: Well, you're a few months older[00:03:30] Jonathan: Oh, okay. When's your birthday? What? In December. Oh, so you haven't,[00:03:35] Angela: I[00:03:36] Jonathan: you haven't[00:03:36] Angela: the big four. Oh[00:03:38] yeah, but I mean, you turned 40 during COVID.[00:03:43] Jonathan: Yeah, it was, uh, not the birthday I wanted, but it was still, it was still enjoyable. It was still fun.[00:03:49]Angela: Brad and I will be married 10 years. This December, I will turn 40 this December Yeah, we had plans to go to France. I really lovely trip. And none of that's going to happen now. So no I'm adjusting expectations as is everyone right now with life.[00:04:11] So, yeah. So, so how do we segue into the, who are we?[00:04:17] Jonathan: talk about it. Who, who, who is Angela?[00:04:20] Angela: how far do you want me to go back?[00:04:21]Jonathan: well, I was thinking about this. We met, um, when I was working at FreshGrade. Um, I was, one of the first employees and I can't remember how big the team was at that point, but you, knew one of the founders, Steve, Steve Wandler, or you knew Steve from some other thing and you were doing some kind of project through your MBA.[00:04:44] And I remember that, but I don't remember much about it. I just remember that. That's what you were there doing. And then, I dunno, you went and finished the MBA. I went and did some stuff. And then, and then you were back in Kamloops and you came, I think you came through, um, the innovation center. And I think that's how we got reintroduced.[00:05:04] Angela: I think that was I actually, I think it was Steve again. So Clinnect is, is a long journey. Forget about overnight successes. Long journey has been about three years in the making. We started off as a government project. Um, and we thought we kind of landed on something really interesting.[00:05:24] And I wondered if we couldn't make it some kind of digital health product of some kind. And so I sought out Steve, um, Just because previously I lived in Kelowna, I worked for what at the time was the Okanagan Science and Technology Council, which is now morphed and grown up into Accelerate Okanagan and I, so I knew Steve through that and we remained in contact.[00:05:51]Uh, I helped him, um, with his very first Metabridge events. Metabridge is at its root , um, uh, a series of events that would connect, um, BC and the Okanagan to the Silicon Valley. So I was helping him with that. Uh, we moved to Kamloops, um, because Brad got offered a job up here in Kamloops. It was a great one. We need, we were looking at a transition at the time. Anyway. I started working at the hospital as a project manager at Royal Inland hospital, first in the emergency department and then for the hospital itself.[00:06:25] And that's how I got introduced to a group of surgeons that wanted to do a pooled referral. Um, what we soon found to be unscalable and unsustainable way? And we thought, you know, I think there's a better way to do this.[00:06:38] Hence Clinnect was born. And at that point I reached out to Steve to say, I need a technical team um to do this and I actually I actually bounced the idea that we were bouncing around the ideas of whether I build it in house or um find someone[00:06:58] Jonathan: to do that and right away he mentioned you he said um[00:06:59] oh really? Oh, that's cool. I don't, I don't recall that, but, okay. Yeah.[00:07:03] Angela: And so, and I think that's how we met. And then it just kind of morphed organically from there is I realized like, Oh my gosh, trying as a nontechnical founder to build a technical team would be a little unruly.[00:07:19] And so then you came along and we're like, perfect. You guys can build it. And then I hired a software developer anyway, because she's brilliant.[00:07:28] And,[00:07:28] Jonathan: Oh, she's awesome. Jackie's the, Jackie's the best?[00:07:31]Angela: yeah, so she's been working with you guys straight out, straight out of university.[00:07:36]MBAs[00:07:36]Jonathan:  you did the MBA at both the university of British Columbia and Thompson Rivers University[00:07:41] Angela: Correct. So I did my core MBA through UBC Sauder School of Business.[00:07:46] And so you had to, like, I was flying in every other weekend for three days. And it was just getting too much on my relationship with Brad and I just, I couldn't do your number two right away. And then they changed it so that you couldn't take off, you had to start all over again. And I was like, Oh, that's not going to happen.[00:08:06] And the price had gone up in the time that I had started to when I wanted to go back and do my second year. So we went to TRU or Thompson Rivers University, and they were like, Oh yeah, Come well, we'll give you all these credits for your core MBA classes and you can finish here.[00:08:24] Jonathan: Yeah, I did. So I did the same. I did the same MBA program at UBC a few years before you, I think, um, and we had the reason why I chose it was because they had a, they had one that had a part time program.[00:08:39] And then, and they said, Oh, and you can, you can do this from Kelowna. I was like, Oh, that's, that's an easier drive. But when you get into it, it was just, no, you've got to come down for pretty much everything. But I remember those, those, it was like every other weekend I would, you know, leave, leave work at lunchtime ish on Friday[00:08:59] Angela: and wouldn't get home until,[00:09:01] Jonathan: Yeah, like a late Sunday night and just the whole, the whole weekend in that basement. Just[00:09:08] Angela: in the basement. No, I don't think I even remember windows in that[00:09:11] Jonathan: no, but I remember I enjoyed it. I loved it. I[00:09:14] Angela: to say the programming was unreal. It was very, very good.[00:09:20] Jonathan: And my, yeah, the classmates, like I still am in touch with, uh, not as in touch as I should be or wants to be, but I'm still, still in touch with a lot of my cohort. Um, Just, yeah, I had a much better experience in my MBA program than I did in my undergraduate, um, computing science program. It was just so much better just could have done with the driving and, um, yeah, it was also a pretty heavy strain on the relationship.[00:09:46]Undergraduate Degrees[00:09:46] Angela: Um, where did you do your undergrad?[00:09:47]Jonathan: I went to SFU, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. So I did my undergraduate in computing science.[00:09:53] Angela: Did you go straight from high school to university or did you take some time off?[00:09:57] Jonathan: No. Well, I went, I, not exactly. Like I there's a university college in Salmon Arm. So I did my first year there. Cause it was cheap and they actually had a very, very good science program and, and computing science instructors,[00:10:11] the physics, the math and the computing science instructors at Salmon Arm were just very, very good. Like I remember, I remember in one of our first year computing science programs, doing stuff that. We never even came close to doing in the four years at, at SFU.[00:10:28] Angela: Wow.[00:10:29] Jonathan: Uh, I really liked it. And then yeah, I went to SFU for the remaining six years, six years of my degree.[00:10:38] Angela: Sorry.[00:10:39] Jonathan: six Yeah. I took like seven years to do my undergraduate degree. Yeah. Yeah. I took a year off, not quite a year off. I took basically a year off. I took her a couple of semesters where I only took three or four courses.[00:10:53]Working Through University[00:10:53]Um, I also worked through through university. I had a, I had a very, it wasn't a, it wasn't a hard job, but it was, um, it was very relevant.[00:11:02]Somebody referred me to this, to this person in Hawaii who, uh, was like, who needed help doing, doing some work on websites and stuff?[00:11:11] I was like, okay, well, I'll sure and, uh, he just employed me through through university and it was. No, not a lot of work. It was maybe maybe 10 or 20 hours of work a week if that, but it was in US dollars and pretty good, pretty good wage.[00:11:27] So yeah, I was, and the stuff that I got to do was kind of, um, wouldn't say over my head, but the clients were not the clients I should have been interacting with.[00:11:38] Angela: Right. You're a little bit out of your[00:11:41] Jonathan: they were big.[00:11:43] Angela: That's awesome.[00:11:44] Jonathan: I worked on a pharmaceutical for a large pharmaceutical company helping with some of their, some of their website.[00:11:50] I worked, uh, at one point we had a client that was, um, going to be featured on Oprah. And so they said, yeah, we're going to get an onslaught of orders to our eCommerce site. So we just want to make sure that things are like tickety, boo. And so.[00:12:09] Yeah, he phones me. He's like, Hey, can you, can you spend the next couple of weeks getting ready?[00:12:13] I'm like, okay, sure. And I go in there, I'm like, Oh man, there's a whole bunch of stuff that needs fixing. And I would fix a bunch of things and report back. And then, uh, yeah, it was, it was a neat, it was a neat, like, very, very odd job for me to have as a university student. But, um,[00:12:28] Angela: That sounds like a perfect odd job to have.[00:12:31] Jonathan: it was, it was, uh, I could one work remotely, which in 2000 whatever. um, was a strange thing, right. Working, remote and working on the types of things that I was doing, which I was very excited about. Um, yeah, it was a good, it was a good job.[00:12:47] Angela: Did you, so, okay. So like 15 year old, Jonathan. Did he know what he wanted? Like, did he know that he was going to be doing what 40 year old Jonathan is doing right now?[00:13:01]Jonathan: Um, maybe not exactly, but, uh, pretty close. I think I was doing lots of programming classes and I was doing stuff like that on my own time. Um, it wasn't really though, until I got into maybe grade 12 that I was really doing, like taking it more seriously. And I had, I mean, I, I had basically started this, not this company, but this version of version of this, when I was in grade 12, I had made friends with this, um, with someone in a game who lived in New York, who happened to be a really good graphics designer. Uh, and then one of my other friends from high school and we started building, management information systems for people, for other companies.[00:13:41] They were like, it was really, really small potatoes. Like they were, we built the theaters, um, the, uh, like a system for the theater to update their what's what's playing.[00:13:50] Um, and so we built that and we like learned all sorts of technology and ideas. And then, so yeah, it was, it was great.[00:13:56] Uh,[00:13:57] Angela: is so cool.[00:13:59]Linear paths vs Z-shaped paths[00:13:59] I like your linear process.[00:14:03]Uh, well, if you want to, I have what we call it, like the, the, the Zed. Uh, path[00:14:08] Jonathan: Okay. Your, Oh your Oh, my path was linear. Oh yeah.[00:14:11] No, my path was very,[00:14:13] Angela: Yes. Yes. Sorry. I meant your path. Not your, yeah. Your path. Like, I feel like 15 year old Jonathan, you could potentially see, okay. Where[00:14:23] Jonathan: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was, it was pretty clear from when I was fairly young and that, I mean, that comes from some pretty significant privilege, right? Like I've got a computer when I was quite young and then never, um, I didn't feel like I was missing anything.[00:14:39] I mean, I also, I also had to like save up and buy some, buy some things, but I, you know, I had some jobs, which again was some privileged cause my dad helped me get those.[00:14:49] and uh, yeah, and then I just got like a lot of experience, very, very young and very relevant experience. But yours was a Z yours wasn't straight like an arrow like mine was?[00:15:02] Angela: Oh, Oh boy, uh, grew up on a ranch in Saskatchewan. Um, and then I left for university when I was 17,[00:15:12] Jonathan: Oh,[00:15:12] Angela: because, well, because I'm a December baby. So I was actually, uh, 17, my whole first semester of university. I moved four or five hours away. Um, Lived in an apartment with two friends and had just way too much fun, um, applied to university, got in, uh, for a kinesiology degree.[00:15:31] actually, sorry, I applied and got in under a business degree. So a marketing degree is what I was going for. And then I went to one economics class and one statistics class and hated it. And so I went down to the student counselor and said, I don't think this is for me.[00:15:51] Like, I don't even like where was my resiliency? No idea. Um, went down to that basement. Said to her. I can't like I can't do this. And she goes, well, what are your interests? And it was like, I really liked sports when I was in like in high school. Like, that was my thing. I loved sports. And she goes, well, have you looked at her kinesiology program?[00:16:10] I looked at it and it involved a lot of, a lot of classes that were like, I took fencing,[00:16:18] Jonathan: Yeah. As a class.[00:16:24] Angela: Oh, Tai Chi. Ooh. I took Tai Chi, like just random. And I looked at this and 17 year old[00:16:30] Jonathan: You went through the like parks and recreation catalog and thought that,[00:16:35] Angela: Yeah. She could have handed me the parks and recreation catalog. I was like, yep.[00:16:39] That's for me. Um, yeah. Seventeen-year-old Angela was, was. Going to do that and pair it with an education degree. So now I went from marketing and I was going to, because Lethbridge was the university of Lethbridge was well known for its education degree. And you could get a dual degree in five years.[00:16:58] And I thought, well, that just makes a lot of sense. And so I was on the path to be a phys ed teacher[00:17:06] Jonathan: I don't imagine you being a phys ed[00:17:08] teacher at[00:17:08] Angela: no, I would have been an awful teacher period. so third year I've now decided I just want to go do something different for the summer. So I decided to move up to Lake Louise and worked for whitewater rafting company, which I did. four months turned it into eight months and then they decided that I had to go back and finish.[00:17:29] I had 15 classes to finish and I had a goal of finishing the by September. So January to September, I was going to finish 15 classes.[00:17:39] Jonathan: that's that's ambitious.[00:17:40] Angela: So I went and I told somebody this, and she goes, Angela, you can do this.[00:17:46] but you cannot go below B in any of your classes. Well, 21 year old Angela was up for the challenge and I did it. So I finished by September and they phoned me and they were like, Angela, we're really impressed with your work ethic and how you came back and you really upped your grades and you kept the up blah, blah, blah. We'd like to invite you to do your master's program with us. And then all of this, I'd never got into the education program because I didn't have a 4.0 GPA.[00:18:19] And like four kinesiology students get into the ed program, they forgot to mention that to me when I was like, this is what I want to do. Uh, so then, uh, I got this phone call and I said, thank you very much. Um, but I have a job in Banff and I'm just going to go be a, like a, uh, gonna go be a ski bum for the winter.[00:18:39] And she just laughed and she goes, okay, have fun? So that's what I did. And what was only supposed to be eight months in Banff, turned into four years.[00:18:47] Jonathan: Cool. You ski bummed for four years.[00:18:53] Angela: In a way. Yeah, but I actually got like a pretty grownup job at a pretty young age there. So I was, I was a project coordinator for a destination management company. So it was managing these big corporate events and vacations and things like that. That's where I learned, like everything I kind of needed to learn for project management in the future, because I worked for this amazing woman named Laurie who had this really cool company, but she was like, she was really tough on , on, um, internal workflows and what must be done so that you could hand over projects really easily.[00:19:30] So she kind of trained us all to, and that set the stage for, so for me, kind of in the future. So then we met, I met Brad, we moved to Kelowna. I started working for the Okanagan Science and Technology Council, as I mentioned. Um, got into tech, which I like, then I was like, Ooh, this is fun. Um, in all of this, I've like, I've done wedding planning.[00:19:52] I've I've, I've worked like you talk about what you worked during university. I worked at the Nikka Yuka Japanese gardens. Like as a tour guide wearing a, um, a yukata. So it's not a con kimono, but it's a yukata. And like, it was just like Zed path. And then, um, moved to Kamloops, got into health care. And then I blended those two passions of healthcare and technology.[00:20:20] And here we are,[00:20:23] Jonathan: That's so funny. It is a Zed path, but I like that, like I like.[00:20:27] Angela: the ridiculous it's Zed path.[00:20:29] Jonathan: No, I feel, I feel like my path is a little restrictive. Like it's, it's good. It's focused, but I don't have a ton of breadth of experience.[00:20:40] I mean, I have, I have different experiences, obviously. I'm not totally, uni-dimensional, but where you, you know, you've got these other things that you can draw on that are okay.[00:20:52] Roll your eyes.[00:20:53] Angela: I rolled my eyes because it's like, yeah, I guess I can, you know, you're, you're right there at different experiences. That's for sure. But, Oh man, I also feel like I delayed. My career by at least four years by sidetracking and going to, you know. Like Brad always jokes that my time in Banff was my never, like, it was never, never land.[00:21:17] So it didn't age or gain[00:21:20] Jonathan: Gain anything. You're stunted by four years,[00:21:24] Angela: I'm stunted by four years. So we would joke about when, how old I'm turning. We minus four, because[00:21:29] Jonathan: you have the emotional maturity of a 30 something year old, not a, not a nearly40 year old.What Do You Want To Do When You Grow Up?[00:21:38] Angela: Yeah. And Brad, so Brad has a similar path to you and I just find it so fascinating when I meet these people that are like, okay, they were in high school and they could see themselves doing what they do now.[00:21:50] Jonathan: Yeah, I don't, I don't see that a lot. Like I've I talked with not a lot of high school students, but a fair number of high school students and, and they, you know, some, some of them are like just clearly like, yep, I want to program.[00:22:03] I want to be, I want to do this, but most, most just have no clue.[00:22:09] And it's hard, like, and the pressure to the pressure to have made all those decisions in grade nine, you know, what do you want to do when you're in your late twenties? When you're in grade nine? I don't[00:22:20] Angela: I don't have a clue. Why should I know that?[00:22:24] Jonathan: it seems unfair[00:22:26] Angela: I think I, I even think like at 17 or 18, when you're heading into university, even then, like the 30 year old Angela was dreaming of what I'm doing now, but it wasn't ever really sure if that's even like, and that was just a decade ago.[00:22:44] Jonathan: yeah. I think, I think my, I was fortunate in that I I understood what I wanted to do, maybe. Well, not, not specifically, but I understood the direction that I wanted to go in. And always, I mean, I always felt this desire to, to start a company or to start and start a business. Um, and eventually got there.[00:23:07] I had rose colored glasses though, when I was 18 or 19 thinking, thinking it would be a lot easier and a lot, like a lot more financially successful than I would that I am.[00:23:20]It's Mostly Luck[00:23:20] Um, but I think we both, and I think we both need to check that for a minute though, because you and I graduated, maybe you less. So just, it took a little bit longer to graduate from university. But when I graduated from university, it was, um, so it was 2002 and I was in Alberta. Everything the world was my freaking oyster.[00:23:43] Angela: I could, I could have got a job in five minutes there, anything, and, and, and now, so I look at, you know, the environment and the work environment that we graduated into versus these kids that better. I shouldn't call them kids. These young, young people are graduating into right now. And I'm, I, I can't even[00:24:04] Jonathan: So, yeah, I can't, I mean, yeah, like I did, I did school right when the tech crash happened and, um, it was a great time to be in school and, uh, a very, very fortunate time to have a job that was. I'm paying for it. Like, I, I came out of, came out of university with very little debt.[00:24:26] Angela: awesome.[00:24:28] Jonathan: like, yeah. And then, and then also managed to get, uh, get a job in public sector, um, which paid quite well.[00:24:35] Uh, yeah, as my first job, I, as my first job out of university, I, within three months was a manager of an IT department. I mean, I had, like, I had nobody to actually manage. It was just a title. I didn't have any, I didn't have any experience managing anyone, but they needed to put me in excluded staff.[00:24:55] Angela: This is what us as we, because we sit on the cusp of gen X and millennial. Um, wow. What an amazing time to be born.[00:25:04] Jonathan: Yeah. Yep. Super lucky. I think I it's, I've reflected on this a little bit and I mean, there's, there's a ton of luck that is unearned completely, you know? My dad introduces me to some folks and says, Hey, you should hire my son and go and do the, you know, go and hire it. Do a good job. Like I'm not, I'm not saying like I didn't deserve to work there, but I probably didn't deserve the introduction.[00:25:32] Um, I didn't earn that, but earned my keep once I got there. And then, and, but everything, everything up until up until now feels like it's just luck. Like, I've just, I've just been lucky. Right? Like meeting, meeting Steve at FreshGrade was pure luck. It it, you know, there wasn't there wasn't, I didn't go off looking for it.[00:25:53] I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and was doing, doing the right kind of thing. And he said, Hey, we should, we should chat. Uh, okay, sure. Let's let's chat. And then, um, you know, everything's, everything's like all the clients that we have is luck. It's just people, people show up and we happened to be there and.[00:26:14] It happens. I think the skill is maybe recognize not, not squandering that luck, not, not,[00:26:20] um, not letting that opportunity pass because I do see that happen a lot where people, people, people are in the right place at the right time. And, you know, I've taught with mentored these people and. And they just don't have the, they don't, they don't, they don't see it either.[00:26:34] They don't see the opportunity or they're missing some, some skill to actually, uh, be able to take advantage of that opportunity and then they miss it. And so I think that's some, one of the skills that I've managed to figure out is that I can recognize that luck is happening. Try to increase my surface area of luck and, uh, hopefully, um, hopefully turn that into, into[00:27:00] Angela: I like that. Um, I also love where we're at right now in the fact that we're now at the experience level and the age and the, um, just time in life where we can start handing the opportunities down like to, to others that are like, you know. When I take a look at, um, hiring Jackie was pure luck, I found Jackie by pure luck, that being said.[00:27:28] when I, you know, kind of got to meet her and understand, you know, where her passion was and, and her interests and things like that, I was like, Oh my gosh. Like if you got to come work for us, like, I can't afford somebody to be hired yet, but like, I gotta, I gotta find a way to get you on board. And just being able to give that.[00:27:47] You know, to be able to give her her first job out of university, what it felt so amazing. And, and those kinds of things, where we get to give the opportunity now to those that are exiting and graduating at a time, that is just crap. And now we're in the positions where we can give those, you know, um, help them out in, in some ways just feels.[00:28:11] So amazing.[00:28:12] Our Families are Our Best Fans!Alex and I were listening to Spotify. And I don't pay for the premium. and of course the ads pop up it was an ad for a podcast that was, that was being released on Spotify.[00:28:27] Comes running into my room and she's like, Mama, somebody else is releasing a podcast too. She's like you, I thought that was pretty cute.[00:28:43] Jonathan: Oh, she's so proud of her mom. That's so cool.[00:28:48] Angela: like, Aw, warms my heart. She was so excited for me

Today we talk about a big concern from many teachers!! --- Assessment in math class. More specifically we speak with Steven Sevel, a teacher from Vaughan Ontario and our online Make math Moments Academy who has joined us for a math mentoring moment episode. Like many of us in the Math Moment Maker Community, Steven is continually asking questions about the best way to assess his students. Stay with us as we talk about the purpose of assessment, Standards based grading, feedback, assessment tools such as Freshgrade and mindset!  You’ll Learn:  What’s the true purpose of assessment is; How can I incorporate Standards based grading in my math class? What’s the role of feedback;  How can I use assessment tools such as Freshgrade;    Resources:  Assessment on MrOrr-isageek.com Assessment on tapintoteenminds.com Episode 40 and 42 with Michael Rubin on Spiralling  Episode 21 with Peter Liljedahl and Thinking Classrooms

Are you looking to start the year off by introducing a fully immersive Digital Classroom? In this episode of the https://www.teachercast.net/episodes/teachercast-podcast/ (TeacherCast Podcast), we welcome Lee Wilson from http://freshgrade.com (FreshGrade) onto the program to discuss several things that teachers should have set up this year in their Digital Classroom. In this episode, we discuss: Why should teachers really embrace the concept of a Digital Classroom? What are the components of a Digital Classroom? (Learning Network) What is an End-to-End Learning Workflow How should we be training teachers to create a Digital Classroom? How do you use Technology to teach a skill in a way that you couldn't do with traditional paper-based activities? Digital PortfoliosWhat are they? How to create them? Different types of PortfoliosDraft Portfolios Assessment Portfolios Capstone Portfolios Receiving Feedback fromTeachers Peer Students Parents Parent CommunicationHaving real-time communication between student work and parent Analog vs Digital ProjectsHow to digitize them for archiving and sharing FreshGrade Company History + Overview – Evolving from digital portfolios to learning networks  Meeting the Needs of Educators – Problems with app fatigue. It's the age of instant access and schools are behind. The need for personalized learning. The balance between incorporating technology that strengthens ties between people versus isolation with screens.  The Shift to Learning Networks – the benefits of an integrated toolset like FreshGrade Next.  About Lee WilsonLee Wilson has worked in the EdTech and publishing space since 1988. His perspective is shaped by 30 years of experience on the business side of the K12 market. He currently serves as President at FreshGrade Education and previously served as CEO at Filament Games and PCI Education. Wilson has also held executive positions at Apple, Pearson, Harcourt, Common Sense Media, and Chancery Software. Through his consultancy, Headway Strategies, he has worked with over 50 companies across the industry on strategy and go-to-market programs. Formerly he served on the AEP Board, the SIIA Board, and was involved in the start of SIF and LRMI. Wilson earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a master's in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. About FreshGradeFreshGrade Next gives administrators, teachers, students and families access to a communication system that simplifies interaction and emphasizes engagement. Using the same technology as consumer social media, FreshGrade Next is a learning network that combines elements of lesson planners, portfolios, communication systems and grade books into a seamless experience. FreshGrade's education-specific approach to networking equips school leaders with the ability to connect student work and school-wide priorities while supporting a variety of teaching practices. FreshGrade Next simplifies instruction while driving engagement. Links of InterestTwitter (@FreshGrade): https://twitter.com/FreshGrade (https://twitter.com/FreshGrade)   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreshGrade (https://www.facebook.com/FreshGrade)  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/freshgrade (https://www.linkedin.com/company/freshgrade)   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FreshGradeVideo (https://www.youtube.com/user/FreshGradeVideo)   Follow our PodcastThe TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network | http://www.twitter.com/teachercast (@TeacherCast) Follow our HostJeff Bradbury | http://www.twitter.com/jeffbradbury (@JeffBradbury) Explore these ResourcesIn this episode, we mentioned the following resources: https://www.freshgrade.com/ (https://www.freshgrade.com/) https://www.freshgrade.com/community/blog/ (https://www.freshgrade.com/community/blog/) https://learning.freshgrade.com/ (https://learning.freshgrade.com/)

We’re so excited to share our conversation with Lane Merrifield with you! Kristi & I both met Lane at Baldface Lodge separately, four years apart. But it was the same qualities in Lane that struck us both. He’s one of the most down-to-earth, welcoming, engaging, and interested people we’ve ever met. Yes, interest-ED (also interest-ing, but we’re sticking with ED for now). He truly wants to connect and learn from everyone he encounters now matter how different their respective walks-of-life may be.Lane has achieved a level of business and financial success that many of us could only dream of, but it’s not his success itself that we admire, but how grounded, unchanged, and unattached to it he is. Lane has maintained a level perspective and always remains focused on how he can contribute to the world around him.In this episode we discuss:The three skills/subjects that are the most important for students to learn, but are often overlookedHow being aligned in the ‘why’ is crucial to business successHow Lane went from running remote controlled alligators at Disney Land to being an executive vice president at DisneyThe benefit of not identifying what you do with who you areLane’s foray into reality television as a dragon on Dragon’s Den (what Shark Tank is to the rest of the world)Tweetables:“One of the upsides of my school experience as a kid, was that I had to make sure I wasn’t defined by what I did in school… as I got older I learned to not overly associate who I am with what I do.”“If you don’t let it define you when you have it, then you’re not going to let it define you when you don’t.”“There’s a thrill in overcoming the fear, there’s a thrill in moving past the fear.”“You have to take risk in order to get better at anything in life.”“That’s what it’s about, like ‘how am I getting better?’ Not this idea that if I can’t be the best, then I’m just not going to do it all.”“I love life. I’ve always loved taking risks and doing crazy things.”“Just leave it better than when you came. Leave this world a little better environmentally, in business, friendships, relationships, even if you part ways. Just be good to people and everything tends to work out.”About Lane:The newest “dragon” to join CBC’s hit show Dragon’s Den, Lane Merrifield is one of Canada’s leading tech entrepreneurs. He is the founder of Club Penguin, the largest children’s online social network. At age 28, he sold it to Disney for $350 million, and, as their youngest executive vice president, turned it into a billion-dollar brand.In 2012, Lane returned to his entrepreneurial roots and launched FreshGrade, a learning assessment tool that connects teachers, parents, and students to help personalize and improve learning. It’s now used in 80% of districts across Canada. Lane is also the founder of Wheelhouse, an organization that invests in and supports early-stage tech companies and entrepreneurs through mentorship, access to capital, and connections to global business networks.Under his leadership, Lane’s teams have won dozens of awards including a prestigious BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) award for Club Penguin. Lane is also the recipient of an Honorary Fellows Award and a Business Leader of the Year award from the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, and has been named as one of the “Top 35 Executives Under 35” by The Hollywood Reporter.Lane currently sits on the board of Spin Master and the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation.Resources:Lane on InstagramLearn more about Club PenguinExplore what Lane’s up to with FreshgradeCheckout Dragon’s Den

In episode 7, Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr talk with Making Math Moments That Matter online workshop participant, Sarah-Jane Wells about realizing her personal privilege has affected her teaching habits, how she’s been working on Sparking curiosity consistently to get kids engaged and keep them on task… and a BIG can of worms was opened when the conversation moved into assessment, evaluation and the role of descriptive feedback. Show notes page http://makemathmoments.com/episode7   You’ll Learn: How to realize your own privilege and how that affects the classroom. How to teach your students meaningfully during the last block of the school day when students are wrangy! How we can effectively use assessment to further the learning of our students.   Resources: How Many Chip Bags Will There Be? - Robert Kaplinsky Sparking Curiosity Task Search Engine Standards Based Grading Gamified With Badges - A post on assessment with standard based grading Conall’s Assessment Story - A glimpse of using Freshgrade to capture evidence of learning   Episode Sponsor & Special Offer: Wipebook Flip Charts - Teacher Starter Pack 25% Discount Canadian Link: http://mathmoments.wipebook.ca US / Worldwide Link: http://mathmoments.wipebook.com

Meg is using Fresh Grade digital portfolios at her District39Campus in Poway, CA for parent engagement and student agency. She visits with Steve Wandler of FreshGrade.com

Meg is using Fresh Grade digital portfolios at her District39Campus in Poway, CA for parent engagement and student agency. She visits with Steve Wandler of FreshGrade.com

MAKING STUDENT LEARNING VISIBLE AT ARLINGTON ,TEXAS ISD. Transparency via Digital Portfolios. Thank you FreshGrade.com with Arlington Director of Professional Learning Shannon Terry

MAKING STUDENT LEARNING VISIBLE AT ARLINGTON ,TEXAS ISD. Transparency via Digital Portfolios. Thank you FreshGrade.com with Arlington Director of Professional Learning Shannon Terry

Lane Merrifield - CoFounder & CEO of FreshGrade Education IncHarmonie Krieger - Founder of POP YOUR SHOPNate Holzapfel - CoFounder of Mission Belt CoJeb Dasteel - Chief Customer Officer of OracleMario Herbelin-Canelas - Founder, CEO & President of Visual PodiumsSabina Gault - CEO of Konnect Agency

Lane Merrifield - CoFounder & CEO of FreshGrade Education IncHarmonie Krieger - Founder of POP YOUR SHOPNate Holzapfel - CoFounder of Mission Belt CoJeb Dasteel - Chief Customer Officer of OracleMario Herbelin-Canelas - Founder, CEO & President of Visual PodiumsSabina Gault - CEO of Konnect Agency

Kemp Edmonds Kemp is the Director of Marketing at Freshgrade. Kemp's career path has taken him through BCIT and Hootsuite. FreshGrade is a globally available platform of easy-to-use free apps for teachers, parents, and students to document and communicate student learning. Learn more at FreshGrade.com. FreshGrade is also an awesome team of passionate people building the learning collaboration system that is part of an evolution in education and it was founded to make learning visible in 2012 in Kelowna, BC, Canada. In this episode... Kemp's early marketing experience at the BCIT - or... teaching Twitter to PhD's Making viral YouTube videos and Pirate Bay posts How Kemp ended up working with HootSuite "Hootsuite Employee Value Proposition: At HOOTSUITE, we’re revolutionizing communications via social and transforming messages into meaningful relationships. OUR TEAM is comprised of passionate, egoless peeps having fun building something bigger than themselves. Each day, YOU will bring our core values to life through your actions and collaboration with our team, customers, and our community. See: https://blog.hootsuite.com/hootsuitelife-employer-... What it's like to start out in digital marketing today Snapchat and choosing social media platforms that work for your audience Freshgrade - Trying to build Facebook for education The importance of building community Kemp's marketing strategy for growing Freshgrade Kemp shares a marketing flop See more at jellymarketing.com/blog/podcast

As we prepare for the start of the new school year, we're taking this episode to talk about putting students in control of their learning. How can we shift the ownership? Follow: @coolcatteacher @msoskil @Freshgrade @bamradionetwork Michael Soskil was a top-10 finalist for this year's Global Teacher Prize, widely considered the Nobel Prize of Teaching, for the innovative ways he empowers his students to use learning to solve problems around the globe. He was a 2012 winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, and currently teaches elementary science in northeastern Pennsylvania. .

Seattle-based Lane Merrifield is an expert when it comes to selling to consumers--but he’s also becoming an expert on selling to schools, too. He’s the Club Penguin guy--remember that big massive multiplayer online game that was basically a virtual world for kids? Well, Club Penguin was acquired by Disney for $350M in 2007, and now, Lane’s in the edtech game with an assessment platform called FreshGrade. He’s got some good insights into the similarities and differences between selling to consumers and selling to districts, so we brought him on the podcast for your listening pleasure.

In this episode of The PE Geek Podcast we explore the role that portfolios play in the Physical Education classroom. What other system makes it possible to accurately monitor and track learning samples and evidence of progress over time? The episode breaks down the various tools that teachers all over the planet are using to curate portfolios for their students.Resources explored in detail in this episode includeGoogle DriveEasy Portfolio Easy Portfolio Site BuilderThree Ring & Freshgrade

Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin, on his shift from creating online games for kids to developing tools for teachers at FreshGrade.