It takes a special bunch of people and a very special product to get a tiny startup in the Wall Street Journal!

Between that, and our news announced this week that Pearson Canada will distribute DreamBox Learning K-2 Math in the Canadian market - it’s been a big week for us. It’s weeks like this that make working in startups so compelling. Much has been written about startup life, but I think it’s all about character. In case you haven’t heard, it takes a unique personality to thrive in a startup environment – part optimist, part dreamer, part workaholic (although I have to say that DreamBox is unique – I guess making a learning product for kids is good for work/life balance). You have to see potential where others see hurdles, and be totally committed to deliver. You must thrive on ambiguity, be flexible enough to change direction quickly if need be, a fast learner, driven. It sure helps if you have a sense that you’re on a mission, that you are part of a team that’s focused on a higher purpose. At the same time, you’re in the real world, not in a little bubble – not every startup is a success and you have to be able to maintain your balance in the face of setbacks, even failure. The ability to learn from your (and others’) mistakes is key. Wow, I’m amazed anyone wants to work in a startup! It’s a roller coaster ride, but it’s never boring! And it’s re-energizing to have a week like this.

We included the Mouse Tutorial games as a part of the First Time User Experience (FTUE). It’s a part of the opening game story. Users must pass the minimum (bare minimum) requirements for each level in order to enter DreamBox and begin the instructional math games. This ensures that most users have the basic mouse skills needed to use our virtual manipulatives. (Note: Our virtual manipulatives are vital to allowing students to “build” answers to problems instead of simply providing multiple answer choices for them to choose from.)

Math learning requires mouse education for younger students

What’s the problem? The problem is that we built this into the FTUE. Some kids love it! Some kids don’t! In the same way that the first page of a book and the first 10 minutes of a movie are important for hooking the reader or viewer, so are the first 10 minutes of a computer game experience. There are lots of solutions to this problem, and each is accompanied with varying degrees of development time. The most straight forward solution is, if can we generalize, that all kids that start at the kindergarten level receive the mouse tutorials. Anyone older doesn’t. The most involved approach, requiring the biggest commitment in terms of development, would be to create a mouse skills assessment at the beginning of the experience, just as we’ve included academic assessments throughout the math games. As with every decision we’ve made at DreamBox, we carefully weigh the pros and cons of each, ultimately leading us to a better experience for every child.

Life With the DreamBox Learning Team

Along the way, I was given more than I ever imagined. When I read an academic book that spoke to the type of teaching we wanted to apply to DreamBox, I met the author. I brought her into our fold and picked her brain, learning straight from the source. I was handed an assessment guru who was always there with the right advice and background knowledge. I was surrounded by and worked elbow-to-elbow with world-class developers. They’d ask questions and dig deep into how my mind worked as an educator. They’d come back with technology language that my team transformed into high quality learning games. As artists, developers and teachers we created our own virtual manipulatives. Building K-2 Math was an organic, get-your-hands-dirty process. We worked very hard and forged our own processes along the way. Our CEO was always there, clearing the path and providing inspiration. DreamBox is remarkable because of the people, the talent, and the empowerment.

Almost three years later, joined by 3 more teachers on the Academic team, as well as Development, Creative and Marketing teams, we got there. 2 months ago we launched DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. Now it’s time for my own launch.

The timing on all this is poetic. I’ve just given birth to my second child. My responsibilities leading the Academic team have come to an end. When and how I return to DreamBox are tbd. If this were any other job, there wouldn’t be a question of my returning to work. I’d stay home and be with my kids. But this isn’t any other job. This is DreamBox. Challenging, empowering, giving – Remarkable.

A Vote For DreamBox Math Learning Games Is:

A vote for DreamBox is a vote for kids. We’re more than a business. We sincerely care about kids and math education. Our online math game doesn’t just entertain, it really teaches.  If DreamBox had only one goal, it would be to improve every child’s access to a great math education. Other startups strive to make money; we also strive to enrich minds.

A vote for DreamBox is a vote for change. To receive the award a company has to “…make a difference in the lives of the people involved…” No other company in the “Best Startup” category is as likely to make such a positive impact in the lives of children.

A vote for DreamBox is a vote for dreams. Anyone who has ever dreamed of starting a business should vote for DreamBox Learning. We’ve come along way! Even if we don’t win, it’s an honor to be nominated. We thank everyone who has been here from the very beginning. (And thank you Seattle for those drizzly days that kept us inside and working!)

Please vote for DreamBox as Seattle’s Best Startup in the Seattle 2.0 Awards, 2009. One final reason you should vote for DreamBox: we’re really looking forward to those award ceremony cocktails.

We’re proud to announce this is our 100th blog post. Let’s hear it for us! DreamBox Learning started with … dreams. We envisioned a world where every student enjoys an individually-tailored, world class learning experience. Then created an online math learning game that’s both highly effective at teaching math, and it’s fun. We strive to reach kids, enrich minds, and inspire a life-long love of mathematics. It has been a wonderful coaster ride as a Seattle startup and we couldn’t be more proud of our achievements.

Get the Word Out and Vote For DreamBox Online Math Learning Games

As we reach our 100th blog post, we’re asking fans to help us reach another milestone. Please vote for DreamBox in the “Best of Seattle Startups” category in the Seattle 2.0 awards. Why should you take a minute to vote for DreamBox? Here’s the best reason: the criteria for this award is “…make a difference on the lives of the people involved…” And no other company in this category is as likely to make such a positive difference in the lives of so many children.

We’re honored just to be nominated as one of Seattle’s best startups.  Please vote and pass it along. A vote for DreamBox is a vote for dreams and equations!

So I was fascinated by a radio interview I heard yesterday with a science writer named K.C. Cole, whose premise is that our brains simply aren’t built to comprehend numbers this large. She talked about our natural tendency to focus on the difference in the number of digits between 2 numbers instead of the effect of multiplication. (OK this was my takeaway—it’s not precisely what she said.) For example 1,000,000 has twice the number of zeroes1,000 has. So our brains might tend to understand it as twice as much, rather than the fact that those 3 extra zeroes multiply the number by 1,000, which makes it quite a bit larger number.

Metapohrs Help us with the Math in our Daily Lives

She also suggested that we can use metaphors to train our brains to better comprehend differences in scale like this. She referenced the old story about doubling the grain of rice on each square of a chessboard, and by the 64th square you’d need more rice than is grown in the whole world. (By the way, we highlighted a cool book to help kids get this idea in a post a while back: One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale).

When I got home I looked it up the interview so I could share it. You can read what she actually said on the Marketplace radio show website.

It did make me wax nostalgic for the first time I was personally responsible for launching a new product. There was the same anxiousness. I watched one of the engineers pace back and forth, not quite sure whether he should continue to enjoy the break, or go back and monitor how the site was doing. The same mixture of joy and weariness from all the work down the home stretch was on people’s faces. There was even the plastic stemware used for a celebratory toast. However, back then I never really got to enjoy the toast. Literally as the corks were popping, my beeper, as well as those of a few other engineers, all started going off at the same time alerting us to a problem on the servers. Off we rushed to go fix the problem, fortunately succeeding quickly.

Nothing like that happened to add more excitement to the DreamBox lunch. Of course, instead of beepers, the DreamBoxers have iPhones with a slick graphical display of the vital stats of all the servers, so they can keep a sharp eye on the health of the system. Ah, beepers…

Everybody does remember what a beeper was, right?

Of the companies I’ve worked for, this is the most balanced, professional, and most oriented towards shipping product.

I love the way we have combined software, creative, teaching, marketing, and business professionals to make a real product. Other companies have meritocracies or cults which exclude whole groups of people. DreamBox is different — we listen to our customers and to each other, and it shows!

Lots of people can write software code, but if it doesn’t get out to the real world and doesn’t affect real people — well then, you’re just doing it for yourself.

Making a Difference in E-Learning

I have ALWAYS preferred companies and projects which will have a REAL impact in the world. I have been lucky to work on a couple of such projects in the past, and I think this one will truly make a difference.

We have worked incredibly hard for almost 3 years now to get to this point. We will continue to work hard, making improvements and adding more grade levels, but it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate our unusually collaborative culture, which has enabled us to create a product with the potential to help so many kids.

A software product, unlike say, building a book case, is never completely done. As TV’s Detective Monk would say, that is “a blessing, and a curse.” A blessing, because you can fix the things that are not quite perfect. A curse, because you can fix the things that are not quite perfect.

We did tons of testing and made changes and improvements to get to what you see today. But it is not perfect. We need, we want, we thrive on, what parents and students say about our product. We want to hear from you. Let us know at what you like and what we need to improve.

*Note: The feedback link will only work for customers with a free trial or paid account.
The feedback link is on the bottom of every page once you have signed into your account.  Use it as often as you wish.

Thanks!

Companies can spend a lot of time and resources searching for a brand identity. As a start-up, however, we had neither. But we did have Sarah Daniels (our then newly hired Vice President of Marketing) and Brad Chase (our advisor/investor) to guide us through the process, which can be very emotional for founders. At the highest level, we determined that as a web service it was important to find a name that was easy to spell, meaningful, appropriate, trademarkable, and last but not least, available as a .com domain. So after doing battle with an old, thick thesaurus for months, and rejecting a few doozies* along the way, we landed on DreamBox Learning. And with some formal and informal field testing, we officially passed the mantle from SchoolSoft Corporation (our original incorporated name) to DreamBox Learning, and added a great logo along the way.

Why DreamBox Learning?

Now what very few people know is that the name DreamBox is a mild homage to the great brands of Cranium and Noggin. How so? Because “dream box” is an antiquated expression that refers to your head — as in your dream box.

*As a company that provides individualized instruction, I must admit I was pretty partial to “HeaderGenius” for a while . . . fortunately, I was all alone on that one.

We stand ready to ship our 4th Beta in less than a year. An astonishing milestone, yet no heads swell among you. Instead, and with the same brute, elegant, and humble spirit that got you here, you turn your attention once again to shipping, learning, fixing, testing, planning, cutting, building, testing, and shipping anew. For many of you, this is because your march isn’t done until we reach V1/product launch. For others, it is when we serve all the children that we can. And for others still, the march will never end (mostly because you’re troubled overachievers).

I ask you though to please take a moment and reflect on what you’ve accomplished. You have already built a product like no other, and in a manner that is all your own. It is a warm reflection of you all and it speaks to your collective and individual sense of ownership and sensibilities. You also continue to self-organize in a way that does justice to both our customers and each other. It is because you have built a company where there is a democracy of ideas, where trust and reliance on one another mean something, and where no froth or sloth is endured.

In short, you all have made DreamBox a great place to ride to every day!

Thanks DreamBox Co-Owners!

Pumpkin math games and other fall activities

Here are some other fun ways to combine math and the pumpkin season.

Pumpkin math, literally

1. Get the book “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin” by Margaret Mcnamara and follow along.
2. Find out if a pumpkin floats and why, or why not. What about a really large pumpkin? You’d be surprised.
3. Wrap a string around a pumpkin and guess the size. For extra credit figure out the diameter (hint: 3.14 x diameter = circumference).
4. Follow some of the fun fall activities at Math Cats.

Share your ideas for pumpkin math games and fall activities by posting your comments below.

How many seeds in a pumpkin?, by Margaret McNamara

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

This book shows how one class predicted and counted the number of seeds inside different sized pumpkins. They found that size didn’t necessarily determine the number of seeds inside. Time on the vine, number of ribs, and color all play a role in the number of seeds inside a pumpkin.

Finally, they’re ready to explore the insides of a pumpkin, count the seeds, and see if their predictions are accurate. By using the counting techniques shared in the story, the students begin to explore which techniques for counting are efficient. In the story, as well as in class, the students begin to recognize that counting by 4’s is not as efficient as counting by 10’s when dealing with large numbers. It can also be fun to chart the number of ribs, color, and the number of seeds for all the pumpkins in the class to see if a pattern arises. Looking at data that was self-created is more likely to give kids have those ‘aha’ moments. It is an excellent way to help them realize that math and nature are closely linked!

If you like these pumpkin math problems, check out our 2009 Pumpkin Math Activities Calendar.

It’s been interesting and fun to witness the growth from a team of three 2-1/2 years ago to a team of fifteen-plus today, to watch how the product has developed and continues to develop with everyone providing their unique input into the process — and to support it in any way I can (making sure bills & payroll get paid on time, etc.).

Finally, Kid’s Math Concept Learning Technology Catches Up

My boys are adults now and I sure wish that we had this technology available to us when they were little and struggling with math concepts. I feel honored to be able to work with a team that will ease that struggle for so many kids. And, I look forward to the days when we expand to other educational topics and my husband will no longer call me a “start-up junkie“, because I work for a successful, well-established company that is changing the way kids are learning!

We have three Nationally Board Certified Teachers that work at DreamBox Learning. As newbie software developers, they plan, design, and author our lessons (yes, you read that correctly, they actually write the code that makes our lessons run). Each of them is new to the private sector as well, but you would never know it.

Experienced Teachers Make Great Entrepreneurs

As hardnosed risk-taking co-owners (not clock-punching employees), they are incredibly grounded, talented, dedicated, passionate, hardworking, efficient, willful, open minded, creative, and patient (as early education specialists, they come well-trained to deal with us Peter Pan-ers). What is truly wonderful, however, is the way they impart the importance of learning into our team culture, which in turn flows into our product.

No matter what the nature of the business, if I ever decide to do another start-up, I am certain that I will add teachers to the company mix. At the very least, they keep my grammar in check.