ClassMax is Live!

You. Guys.

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately (you should see what kind of mother I have been… Oy…), but the first phase of launching our new digital classroom management app went live yesterday!  We have spent the past few months working with our ClassMax team to create not only an app, but a web component, as well.  The app will be ready to launch in a beta test later in April, and will be fully launched for purchase in late July/early August, just in time for the 2017-2018 school year.  Early birds who try the app during the beta will get to test it out for free for the remainder of this school year.

(Hey, look!  We have a mission statement!)

I have N.E.V.E.R. done something like this before.  I mean, I’ve run this blog for almost ten years now (holy crap!) and I have been a teacher for almost seven years now (holy crap again!), but combining the web world with my teaching world didn’t even cross my mind.  It has been completely overwhelming in the best sense of the word to work with a web team to create and build a website and app completely from scratch.  I am amazed at how much work goes into launching web-based services, and have a new appreciation for all those little apps on my phone and iPad now! From now on, whenever I hear someone casually say, “There’s an app for that,” I’m going to yell out, “AND I BET SOMEONE POURED THEIR BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS INTO THAT APP, TOO!!!!!”

Chris and I were dreaming a little dream the other night together, and talking about what we would do if ClassMax does happen to take off and become wildly successful (hey! I’m allowed to dream!), and both of us said we would not quit our jobs for our company.  We LOVE what we do.  We LOVE how we spend our days.  We LOVE the people and places where we work.  And should this take off and become a small business that needs a staff, I think we would both want to hire those people instead of become those people.  Besides, we have awesome business partners, Nick and Brittany, who live in Texas, and between the four of us, there’s not much we couldn’t handle even with our day jobs.

The only way I would ever leave my job would be if A) I lost my job or B) Chris and I became Warren Buffet level gajillionaires and I had to quit my job for security reasons because my life was too important and valuable to chance it in a beautiful, suburban, A-rated middle school.  But if that happened, I’d just become a teaching mega empire.

Like my buddy, The Pioneer Woman.  Or as I call her in my head and she sometimes calls herself out loud, P-Dubby Wubby.

Just like Ree, I could open a teacher supply store.  I’d call it, “The Teacher’s Lounge.”

And then, I could sell my own line of school products for teachers.  I’d call them, “Classroom Collectables.”

And then, I could have my own cooking show on The Food Network.  I’d call it, “Microwave, Eat, Pee, and Make Copies in 20 Minutes or Less.”

And then, I could write a collection of children’s books.  I’d call them, “Miss Brown Goes to Middle School… Again… And Again… And Again…”

And then, I could…

Okay, so probably not gonna happen.  But – STILL – chasing dreams, people.  Chasing dreams.

And speaking of chasing dreams, I’d like to crawl up on my Oscar-esque podium and thank my husband for all he has done to bring me here today.  I swear, there is not a silly, random, obscure, (sometimes) terrible idea that I have that he doesn’t support.  And not only support, even, but champion.  When I came home from school one day and said, “My life would be so much easier if I had an app that…” he didn’t laugh or shrug me off.  He stopped me before I went on to do something completely mundane, like make dinner, and said, “Okay, let’s make it.”  He never thinks anything is out of the question.  I think it’s something to do with his day job, which is to bring imagination to life.  OH, THEY ARE PLAYING THE OSCAR MUSIC!  I BETTER HURRY!  I’m thankful every day that I married someone whose creativity is balanced out only by his keen business sense, and that he brings those things into my life, too.  THIS IS FOR YOU, BABE!  NOW, TUCK THOSE KIDS IN BED!  MOMMY’S COMING HOME WITH HER OSCAR!

(For realsies, check out our website, sign up for our Beta test, and then share with yo’ teacher peeps.  It’s good stuff.)