Guiden is live — now accepting pilot school partners.  
Guiden
by Color Coded Kids
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NEWSLU Accelerator — Top 10 Finalist

Where students
learn to think,
not just answer.

Guiden gives every K–12 student a subject-specific AI tutor that guides thinking through questions — never by handing over answers. Teachers gain full visibility into how students reason.

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Arya — Math Tutor
Grade 5 · Fractions Assignment
LIVE DEMO
Assignment
Solve 3/4 + 2/5 — show your full reasoning and explain each step.
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Subject AI tutors
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Chat history visible
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Engagement increase
Mathematics  ·Science  ·English Language Arts  ·Computer Science  ·Social Studies  ·AI Literacy  ·Rubric-Based Grading  ·Socratic Method  ·Reasoning Analytics  ·FERPA Compliant  ·Zero Advertising  ·
Mathematics  ·Science  ·English Language Arts  ·Computer Science  ·Social Studies  ·AI Literacy  ·Rubric-Based Grading  ·Socratic Method  ·Reasoning Analytics  ·FERPA Compliant  ·Zero Advertising  ·
How It Works

Up and running in minutes

No training required. Designed to fit into real classrooms from day one.

01

Create your classroom

Sign up free, create a classroom, and share a simple join code with your students — no IT involvement needed.

02

Assign and let them work

Post assignments with prompts. Students engage with their AI tutor, who guides their thinking through questions and structured hints.

03

See how they think

Review full chat histories, automated rubric scores, and reasoning analytics. Intervene early with students who need support.

Join as Student
The Platform

Every feature built around how students actually learn.

Guiden is not a chatbot with a school theme. It is purpose-built pedagogy infrastructure — designed with classroom realities, teacher workflows, and student cognition at its core.

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AI Tutor

Conversational Learning

Students learn by explaining, reasoning, and discussing concepts with an adaptive AI tutor.

24/7learning availability
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Assignments

Teacher Guided Workflows

Teachers create structured assignments with guided reasoning and progress tracking.

10xbetter engagement
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Analytics

Deep Learning Insights

Track comprehension gaps, reasoning quality, and participation across classrooms.

Real-timestudent insights
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Classroom

Built for Schools

Purpose-built infrastructure for classrooms, collaboration, and scalable education.

Secureschool-ready platform
Subject Intelligences

Six AI tutors. One platform.

Each tutor is trained for its domain — with live chat, subject-specific visuals, and rubric-graded submissions. See them in action below.

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AryaMathematics
Grade 5 · Fractions Assignment
LIVE DEMO
Assignment
Solve 3/4 + 2/5 — show your full reasoning and explain each step.
Visual — Fraction Addition
3/4+2/5=15/20+8/20=23/20 = 1 and 3/20
Auto-advancing every 14s
Why It Works

The research behind the product.

Guided discovery outperforms direct instruction

Decades of cognitive research confirm that students who construct their own understanding retain knowledge longer and apply it more flexibly. Guiden operationalizes this at classroom scale — every AI is trained to guide, never to tell.

Bloom, B.S. (1984). The 2 Sigma Problem. Educational Researcher.

Metacognition is the hidden skill

When students explain their reasoning explicitly — in conversation — they are forced to confront gaps in their understanding. Guiden captures this reasoning trail and surfaces it for teachers.

Flavell, J.H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring. American Psychologist.

Feedback timing determines impact

Immediate, specific feedback tied to learning objectives dramatically accelerates skill development. Guiden provides structured rubric feedback the moment a student submits — scored on reasoning, correctness, and effort.

Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research.

"I believe every child should have access to technology education — regardless of their economic background. Guiden is that belief at scale."
Shay Gillespie, Founder & CEO — Color Coded Kids
Product Roadmap

Where we are.
Where we're going.

Transparent product development. Schools partnering now shape what we build next — your classroom feedback becomes our engineering priority.

Live now
Q2–Q3 2025
Core Platform
  • AI tutor chat engine
  • Classroom & assignment management
  • Rubric grading
  • Analytics & materials
  • Admin leaderboard
  • School announcements
In progress
Q4 2025
Intelligence Layer
  • Per-topic mastery maps
  • Expanded KPI framework
  • Teacher AI assistant (Ask Guiden)
  • Short-URL classroom entry
Planned
Q1 2026
Scale Infrastructure
  • Google Sign-In
  • District-wide admin console
  • API partner access
  • White-label option
Future
2026+
Platform Expansion
  • Parent portals
  • Learning pathways
  • Adaptive curriculum
  • District analytics
What Classrooms Say

Real schools. Real results.

My students explain their thinking so much more clearly now. The full chat history makes it easy to see exactly who needs extra support — before it becomes a problem.

MR
Mr. Raymond
Middle School Math Teacher

I like that it gives me hints instead of just telling me the answer. I feel way smarter when I actually figure it out myself.

J
Jaxson
6th Grade Student

Setup was instant and it fits right into our existing workflow. Teachers are finally getting insight into how students think, not just what they submit.

MT
Ms. Torres
Academic Coordinator
The Team

Founded on mission.
Built for classrooms.

Color Coded Kids was founded in 2016 with one conviction: access to technology education should not be determined by zip code. Guiden is that mission at institutional scale.

SG
Shay Gillespie
Founder & CEO — Color Coded Kids
St. Louis, Missouri

Shay Gillespie founded Color Coded Kids in 2016 on the belief that technology education is a right, not a privilege. Under her leadership, CCK has grown from a St. Louis after-school program to a nationally recognized STEAM education organization, partnering with Mastercard and earning selection to the SLU Accelerator.

Her professional background spans 20+ years in enterprise technology sales at World Wide Technology, real estate through Shink Properties LLC, and competitive natural bodybuilding — a combination that reflects the rare discipline she brings to building institutions that last. As a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she actively advocates for women and underserved youth across the country.

Guiden is Shay's platform-scale answer to the question she has asked since 2016: how do we ensure that every child — not just those with resources — has access to the tools that develop real thinking skills?

World Wide TechnologyCCK Founder 2016Mastercard PartnerSLU Top 10Delta Sigma Theta
HK
Hartheek Reddy Katta
Founder & Lead Engineer — Guiden
St. Louis, MO · M.S. Information Systems, SLU

Hartheek Katta built Guiden from first principles — architecture, API design, AI integration, and product. With a background spanning microservices engineering, EdTech product development, and data systems, he brings the complete technical stack to a problem that demands far more than wrapping an LLM in a chat interface.

The insight behind Guiden came from direct classroom observation while working in technology coordination at Holy Spirit School in St. Louis. He watched the same pattern repeat: students arriving at answers without building the reasoning that makes knowledge durable. Teachers had no way to see the thinking — only the output. The gap between a correct submission and genuine understanding was entirely invisible.

Guiden is his engineering answer to that gap — a system that makes student cognition legible, gives teachers actionable data, and gives students the intellectual scaffolding that builds real, lasting confidence. His goal is not another EdTech dashboard, but infrastructure that fundamentally changes what classrooms can see.

Full-stack EngineerNestJS · Next.js · PrismaSLU Accelerator Top 10Holy Spirit SchoolM.S. Information Systems
Color Coded Kids LLC — Founded 2016, St. Louis, Missouri

CCK designs and delivers computer science programs for K–12 students with a deliberate focus on underserved communities. From after-school STEAM camps to district-wide curriculum partnerships, the organization has spent nearly a decade proving that every child — regardless of background — can build, create, and shape the technology landscape. Guiden is CCK's platform-scale expression of that mission.

Pricing

Simple. Transparent. No surprises.

Try everything free. No credit card. No hidden fees. No tricks.

Student
Free/ always

Full access to all 6 subject AI tutors for students.

  • +All 6 subject intelligences
  • +Assignment submission
  • +Personal practice mode
  • +Progress dashboard
  • +Full chat history
Sign up free
Classroom
Free/ during pilot

Complete teacher toolkit. No cost, no commitment, no end date during pilot.

  • +Everything in Student
  • +Classroom creation
  • +Assignment creation & rubric grading
  • +Full student chat visibility
  • +Analytics dashboard
  • +Document uploads & AI context
Institution
Talk to us

District-wide deployment with data agreements, admin console, and priority support.

  • +Everything in Classroom
  • +District admin console
  • +FERPA data agreement
  • +API access
  • +Priority support
  • +Custom onboarding
Get in touch

No contracts · Cancel anytime · Terms & Refund Policy

Get Started

Ready to see how
your students think?

Join schools already running Guiden. We onboard every pilot personally — a real person from our team gets you set up.

Student Sign Up

Questions? info@colorcodedkids.com — a real person replies within 24 hours.