Start-up's app aids teachers
Ben Threadgill (left) and Ryan Haight, the co-founders of a company that makes software applications for teachers and schools, stand Friday outside Catoosa High School, which uses their product. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World
Having worked in schools, BrighterLogix's co-founders have a feel for what's needed.
By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
Published: 2/16/2010 2:23 AM
Last Modified: 2/16/2010 4:34 AM
Teaching is much more than just passing on knowledge to students. A lot of paperwork is involved, from organizing assignments to reporting grades to the school administration.
BrighterLogix LLC is a new company looking to make that behind-the-scenes work easier for educators.
So far, the Tulsa company consists only of its co-founders, Ben Threadgill and Ryan Haight. But they have rolled out SideKick, a Web-based, customizable lesson-planning application that has been adopted by several school districts and some individual teachers.
Catoosa Public Schools has started using the software. Kerry Sitton, the principal of the district's Helen Paul Learning Center, a pre-K through first-grade school, said it's been well-received by teachers there.
"It's been working very well," Sitton said. "They've made lots of enhancements that have made it very user-friendly for us."
BrighterLogix is just over a year old, but the work is familiar ground for the company's founders. Haight used to work in the Catoosa Public Schools technology department, and Threadgill worked for Western Heights Public Schools in Oklahoma City.
At Western Heights, "They were fortunate enough to be able to find a good deal of technology funds, and if they found an application that they wanted and couldn't get, they would have me build it," he said.
Working in a school district's tech department made him realize the need for better teaching applications, Threadgill said. Too many were prohibitively expensive, unnecessarily complex, inflexible to individual district needs or dependent on pricey hardware.
Threadgill said lesson-planning was the best place for his company to start, because he had already tinkered with the issue at Western Heights and knew the work could be made more efficient.
"Teachers often write them out on paper, make copies of them and hand-walk them to the office to submit them," he said.
SideKick largely revolves around a searchable lesson plan database, as well as an interactive calendar that arranges plans by day. Additionally, SideKick is built around state standards that teachers must follow, making it easier for them to comply.
BrighterLogix is concentrating on rolling out SideKick to more Oklahoma schools, although it's also being used by D'arbonne Woods Charter School in Farmerville, La., Haight said.
He and Threadgill also are signing up teachers independently, and they envision some of them spreading the word about SideKick.
"We hope we can take the individual teachers as leads for talking to their districts," Haight said.
Robert Evatt 581-8447
robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com
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Tulsa start-up's software helps teachers with lesson plans," which was published on 2/15/2010.
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