As a classroom teacher, I realize that more data would be useful for instructional planning, communicating with parents, and helping students set their own goals. But too often, assessments simply confirm what I already know - for example, that a fourth grade student doesn't understand second grade math content. I don't have time or opportunity to go back to those foundational number concepts; and with education funding cuts, my school may not have enough resource teachers to work with this student outside of class. Similarly, many data reports may confirm that another fourth grader is really doing math at a sixth grade level. The schedule and resources available in the school are rarely adequate to meet this student's needs on a daily basis either. The power of an intelligent, adaptive learning technology is the ability to differentiate learning support for every fourth grader: those working at grade levels above or below as well as every child in-between. Our technology represents a radical transformation in how students learn. By weaving an adaptive learning environment into the curriculum and classroom structure, we can drastically improve student learning, close achievement gaps, and adapt uniquely to individual students, each of whom will at some point encounter a learning challenge.

In the end, what every classroom teacher really needs is a tool that is proven to actively and directly foster learning for every single student. If more accessible textbooks and lectures were the key to closing achievement gaps, the education crisis would have been solved long ago. I need software that adapts to each student just as I would - moment by moment - observing what the child is thinking, how she is approaching the problem and analyzing the strategies she uses in order to make a pedagogical decision about where to go next. I want software that doesn't replace me entirely - I know that's impossible - but it should meet students where they are when I'm not able to get to them.

At DreamBox, we provide teachers and students with technology that makes this learning support a reality. We don’t expect to replace teachers; our technology enhances what teachers are trying to accomplish with each student. When teachers can't be there individually for a student at the point of learning, they can trust that DreamBox will be a trustworthy partner for ensuring that student will experience success.

• State Facts for Students (U.S. Census Bureau):  Find out kid-centered state facts like how people get to work, or a comparison of candy & nut stores in 2000 and 2008.
• FactFinder Kids’ Corner (U.S. Census Bureau): Learn about your state, its population, median age, and urban & rural residences.
• Taking America’s Measure (National Institute of Standards and Technology): Metric Fast Facts for Sports.
• Energy Kids (U.S. Energy Information Administration): Lots of charts, graphs, percentages about energy.
• Spotlight on Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics): Find out how an average college age student spends their day with the aid of a circle graph or what activities are popular, depending on a person’s age group.

• Using the dice and the bag of change your child can brush up on money skills. Players take turns rolling the dice and adding the numbers together to determine how much they get from the “bank” (the bag of change). If you roll a four and a two you get $.06. As the money piles up kids can trade money in: trade five pennies for a nickel for example. After each player has five turns, the player with the greatest amount wins!

• Very young children can roll one or two dice. For the number that comes up, ask your child to show you that many counters; this is working on the concept of one-to-one correspondence. If you want to increase the challenge, roll one die again and take away (or add) that many. Ask your child, “How many counters do you have now?”
• With older students, each player makes a 6 x 6 grid, numbering it one to six across the top and down a side. One player rolls two dice, then adds the two numbers together (or you can play with multipliers) and fills the answer in on the right square of the grid. If a one and six is rolled, that player goes over one and down six and writes the answer in that box. The first player to fill in their grid wins.

• Use the bag of coins or the counters in your Math Tool Kit to practice finding patterns. You start by placing six items on the table in a given order. For example, your pattern might be: dime, nickel, penny, dime, nickel, penny. Then ask your child, “What will the next three items be?” Ask him or her to make the same pattern but with different counters, such as yellow, red, and green buttons.
• With older children, you can start by making a pattern with about ten objects, but taking out the fourth, fifth, and sixth objects. Have your child name the items that are missing. Or you can give them number patterns to solve. Try skip counting numbers (2, 6, 10, 14) or a growing pattern (1, 3, 6, 10).