DreamBox Learning®» teacher resources

Educator Tools, Courtesy the Digital Literacy Initiative

Tracy H — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:53:04 +0000

On May 13th, 2011, the Department of Commerce unveiled a new website aimed at increasing computer and internet skills in America. www.DigitalLiteracy.gov provides librarians, teachers, and others a central location to share digital literacy content and best practices. Search by skill type, topic, or general search. What's great about this site is that users can suggest resources for inclusion. Check the site out today and if you see a great resource missing, request it be added! What resources can you not live without in the classroom? Share your favorites with us!

Tuesday Teacher Tip: Farewell, Dear Friend

Lisa W — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:41:32 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we’ll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. My old, faithful friend in the classroom has always been my overhead projector. It provided a way for me to keep students’ attention on exactly what we were doing, in a very visual way. My overhead cart was outfitted to the hilt with all the tools—colored markers, overhead manipulatives, water spray bottle, and lots and lots of transparencies. I didn’t think I could teach without my projector. But along came the interactive white board. My overhead’s days quickly became numbered. Our school has been adding interactive white boards to classrooms as money becomes available. On the second round of purchasing, an email went out asking who would want one in their classroom. I wasn’t sure if I should request one. Would I use it enough to warrant me having one, and not another teacher? Would my technology skills be current enough to use it? I decided to take the plunge and request one. And after only one year with it, I don’t think I could teach without it anymore. The capability of being able to pull information from the internet, and use it for teaching and demonstration can’t compare to my old faithful friend. So this fall, after collecting dust in the corner of my room all last year, I sadly carted my overhead projector to the media center. It now sits in a storage closet with other technology relics—the ditto machines, filmstrip projectors, typewriters, and record players. Farewell, dear friend. You were good to me. What is your new, or old, classroom tool that you just can’t teach without? I'd love to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a future Tuesday Teacher Tips topic you’d like to see covered? Let me know and it could be featured in a future blog!

Tuesday Teacher Tips: A Little Nudge

Lisa W — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:21:24 +0000

Welcome to the Tuesday Teacher Tips series! Each week we'll highlight teaching and learning resources, ideas to use in the classroom, as well as things to ponder as you go about your teaching day. Sometimes, I’ll admit, I need a little nudge. I’ve been teaching long enough to know what I should be doing to give my students the best instruction, but there are many times I fall short. And that’s when I need a reminder, almost like when I was student teaching and my cooperating teacher would illustrate through modeling and discussion what good teaching looked like. Last year during a book study, I was given the nudge I needed through the book, Accessible Mathematics: 10 Instructional Shifts That Raise Student Achievement by Steven Leinwand (Heinemann, 2009). It’s a relatively short book with manageable chapter lengths, which made it a little more approachable when I could grab only a few minutes of the day to reflect on my teaching. Leinwand’s introduction title sets up the entire book, “It’s the instruction that matters most.” It’s not the curriculum, the schedule, or the materials, but rather it’s the plans, actions, and decisions of the classroom teacher that make the difference. The quality of instruction is the most important factor in student learning and achievement. Leinwand proposes ten instructional shifts that enhance productivity, effectiveness, and student achievement. After reading his book, these are some key strategies I want to focus on in my classroom this year. These are the ideas that my cooperating teacher would push me on if she was in the back of the room observing.

Start each math lesson with a quick, five minute cumulative review. These warm up allow the kids to immediately focus on math, and gives me a quick glimpse of how well they are maintaining skills.
Delve deeper into students’ thinking and allow them to articulate their math knowledge by asking questions like, “Why?” “How did you get that?” “Is that a reasonable answer?” and “Explain your thinking.”
Use pictures to represent mathematical terms. For example, showing a rectangle with the word “perimeter” written all the way around the outside of the shape. Or having the word “area” written inside a rectangle, filling the entire space with the word.
Build a language-rich classroom where math terms are used naturally and frequently throughout the day.

Probably the best thing about teaching is all the learning that happens in the classroom, both by the students, and the teacher. Nudges and reminders are good for all! Do you have an idea for a future Tuesday Teacher Tips topic you’d like to see covered? I’d love to hear from you!

A New DreamBox Report for Teachers: the Academic Progress Report

Casey — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:40:39 +0000

We know teachers want easy access to details on the math their students are learning. Now teachers have a new Academic Progress report that makes it easy to see what math concepts students are learning playing DreamBox. Teachers can easily see details on:

Which math concept modules students have passed in DreamBox placement lessons
Which lesson modules they have mastered by working through DreamBox lessons
How much progress, in percentage terms, students have made in the concepts they are currently learning
How much time each student has spent on DreamBox lessons, and the number of lessons completed

In this report teachers see a list of the math concepts in DreamBox, which are based on the critical NCTM Focal Points for Number Sense and Operations, and Algebra. And teachers can see the status of each student’s progress for each of those lesson groups. If you have a DreamBox classroom, you can access this report any time on your Teacher Dashboard. (On the Student Progress tab, just click on the link that reads “Preview the new Academic Progress Report”). If not, you can preview the report on our website by clicking here. The report is easy to share with principals or with the teachers who will be working with your students next year, to show them what they know at the end of this school year. From the report, just click on the “Send report by e-mail” button at the top of the page.

Calling Teachers in Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota and West Virginia! 46 States and Counting

Casey — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:39:52 +0000

As DreamBox Learning's Director of Marketing Programs to schools I spend most of my days working with school districts, principals, curriculum advisers, math coaches, and classroom teachers who are using DreamBox in their schools and districts. I introduce them to DreamBox Learning, answer their questions about our lessons, program, and curriculum, help them roll out pilots and purchases to their schools, solicit feedback on future features and functionality that would help them better direct and improve student instruction, and bring that back to our academic and development teams. It has been an amazing experience to see our DreamBox Math Classroom product go from being tested in small after-school program pilots in a few local schools to full district-wide implementations in multiple states — in less than a year!

46 states and counting

And we are now just four states away from an important milestone. Since last April, DreamBox Learning has been used in classrooms in 46 US states and the District of Columbia. I have a personal goal to help schools in all 50 States using DreamBox before our 3rd grade math games are launched this spring. So I'm calling all kindergarten, first and second grade teachers in Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota or West Virginia! Go to www.dreambox.com/teachers, check out our program, play sample lessons, download our free teacher resources, and sign up your class to try the award-winning DreamBox program in your classroom…and help bring DreamBox to all 50 US States! You'll join the other 46 in seeing how much for your students will have learning math.

What's Math Got to Do with It?

Becca — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:39:46 +0000

courtesy of Barnes & Noble

In my other life, I am a graduate student which means that I am constantly searching and reading research and books regarding mathematics education. In the midst of one of these recent searches, I ran across a book by Jo Boaler (a former professor of mathematics education at Stanford University) that is scheduled for release on June 30, 2009--What’s Math Got to Do With It?: How Parents and Teachers Can Help Children Learn to Love Their Least Favorite Subject. While it appears that this book may be the paperback version of Boaler’s book that was released in August 2008 (What’s Math Got to Do With It?: Helping Children Learn to Love Their Most Hated Subject--and Why It's Important for America), the sub-title is different and that caught my attention. It’s not often that a book is intended for both teachers AND parents (which may be the reason for the change); more often, it’s either-or. Stay tuned for a review later this summer! But in the mean time it may be just the book that is needed to encourage parents and teachers to enter a dialogue about the mathematical learning opportunities for students.

What Should Your Child be Learning in Math? Check Out Our New Math Growth Chart

Tracy — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:44:26 +0000

Math Development Growth Chart

Ever wonder what your children should be learning in math? Or what you can do to supplement their math education? When parents know what to expect at each developmental stage, they can foster learning with fun, educational activities at home. Developed by education experts, DreamBox Learning's free Math Development Growth Chart shows what your child should be learning in math from ages four to eight. Print out our free growth chart and keep it handy throughout your child's academic career! Our Math Development Growth Chart also has a slew of summertime (and anytime) math activities, so your child can practice math when school is out of session. Don't let your kids get into a summer slump! Help them keep learning with age-appropriate math games and activities from our fun growth chart.

Features educational math games and activities

Scavenger hunts can help four year olds learn to count and sort

Clapping patterns help five year olds discover sequences

Math games like dice and cards teach six year olds basic addition combinations

Counting quarters help seven year olds think in groups

Eight year olds enjoy strategy games like checkers, chess, Monopoly, and Clue

Check out the chart for other learning tips and math games. We know that parents want to be actively involved in their child's education. So we've created a wealth of wonderful (and free) resources for parents. Take a look at our printables and parent tips!