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Tress Learning

January 28, 2026January 28, 2026Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment7136 views

Your content and communication partner

What it is: Tress Learning is a content and communications partner built specifically for schools. Instead of adding another platform or tool, Tress works within the channels your community already uses, including email, Instagram, Facebook, blogs, websites, print materials, etc.

Tress is medium‑agnostic by design. Their work begins with getting to know your school: your values, culture, differentiators, voice, and communication goals. From there, they repurpose existing assets (photos, stories, newsletters, announcements, events, classroom moments) into cohesive, strategic communication that feels aligned and intentional.

The result is consistent, thoughtful parent communication that keeps families actively engaged, strengthens your school’s presence in the local community, and encourages organic parent referrals without requiring your educators or administrators to become content marketers.

Maybe my favorite thing about Tress Learning is that there is no new platform to learn. Everything happens through email collaboration with the Tress team, making it super easy to implement and sustainable even for very small schools.

How Tress Learning can be implemented in your school: Tress amplifies the work you’re already doing by freeing up your team from the constant pressure of “we should be posting more” or “we need to send another email.” It ensures your families hear a clear, aligned story across platforms rather than disconnected messages depending on who had time that week. (I may be speaking from experience here…)

Whether your community prefers email, social media, or print, Tress helps you communicate in the places that already matter to your families. At Anastasis, one of the things I learned is that ongoing school communication isn’t just about announcements; it’s a way to nurture trust, clarity, and connection. With Tress, even small schools like Anastasis can show up with polish, strategy, and consistency without needing to hire a full communications team (as if we ever had the budget for that-ha!)

I’m genuinely impressed with the Tress team and the personalized way they approach school communication. I wish they existed for Anastasis, it would have been a game changer for me to have this kind of communications support!

Check out a video to see Tress in action.

Tips: Interested in getting started? Mention iLearn Tech to receive a partner discount!

Chess Kid

May 17, 2010May 17, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4067 views

What it is: Chess Kid is a fantastic way for kids to learn to play the game of chess and then practice their game against kids from around the world. The Chess Kid environment is safe and secure for kids, students have no contact with strangers. A parent or a teacher manages all access and friendships online and can easily monitor all activity. On Chess Kid students learn the rules and strategies of chess and work to improve their game, memorization skills, patience, and sportsmanship. Students can train with tactic puzzles and exercises, view video lessons, practice tactic against the computer, or read chess articles. Chess games can be played online against other kids from around the world, in online tournaments, blitz chess, or against the computer.

How to integrate Chess Kid into the classroom: Chess is a great game that is packed full of skills that help students in other disciplines such as math. Students must use problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, and the ability to make accurate judgments and estimates as they play. Chess makes for a great mental workout and develops skills necessary for solving other problems. Chess Kid is a place where students can learn how to play the game of chess, and then practice through play with kids from around the world or the computer. Chess Kid can be used with the whole class for lessons and learning the how-to aspect of chess on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Students can then play on classroom computers, as a math center, or individually in a computer lab setting.

Tips: The American Chess Foundation published that chess can improve a child’s visual memory, attention span, spatial reasoning skills, capacity to predict and anticipate consequences, and the ability to use criteria to drive decision making and evaluate alternatives.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Chess Kid in your classroom.