Frequently asked educator questions about DreamBox Learning

Download the Educator User Guide to DreamBox Learning

Getting started with your DreamBox Learning License

How do I log into my Teacher Dashboard? What should I do if DreamBox is loading slowly the very first time we play in class? What is the price to buy a DreamBox Learning License? How can I buy a DreamBox Learning License? Are there grants or funding sources to help my school purchase DreamBox?

Using and managing your DreamBox Learning License

How can I demonstrate DreamBox lessons for my class? How do I log into my classroom so that students can start playing? Can my DreamBox Learning License be used on more than one computer at a time? Can I have more than one classroom on my teacher account? Can more than one person be assigned as a teacher to one classroom? How do I add students to my classroom? What does “Intervention” mean on the Student List? How do I add a teacher to my classroom account? I have multiple classrooms on my account. How do I switch between them? How do I move or copy a student to a different classroom? Why can’t I locate the student I want to move/copy? What progress reports are available to teachers? What does it mean when a student has “passed in placement”? What does it mean when a student is “presumed passed”? Why does the student progress graph show my students working in multiple grades at one time? How much time should students spend using DreamBox Learning? I have a student that has forgotten their DreamBox password. How can I reset this? What is the “Carnival” section? Is it just games? What is the “My House” section? Can I restrict access to the Carnival? What about the Arcade?

Using DreamBox Learning School Plus Home

How will students access their DreamBox Learning progress at home? What progress reports are available to parents through their home access? Can parents see my whole classroom account? One of the parents is saying that they are having issues using the login information. What should I do?

Technical questions

What are the technical requirements for using the DreamBox Learning License? When a student attempts to use DreamBox Learning, they see a message asking them to download Adobe Flash. What should I do? What should I do if DreamBox does not seem to be operating properly on my computers? How do I contact DreamBox Learning for support?

General questions

What is DreamBox Learning Math? What will my students learn? Which math standards are addressed? How does DreamBox Learning continuous assessment and placement work? What grade levels will DreamBox Learning Math be appropriate for? Is DreamBox Learning for kids who are struggling, at grade level, or advanced in math? In the Primary learning environment, how can my students switch themes within the DreamBox Adventure Park? What do the icons represent on the Adventure Park lesson path? When should I not help my students? I teach pre-kindergarten and my students are only 4 years old. What can I do to make their DreamBox experience positive and not overwhelming?

Getting started with your DreamBox Learning License

How do I log into my Teacher Dashboard?

Sign in to your teacher account at www.dreambox.com/teacher_login with your school-issued email address and your personal teacher account password. If you forget your password click on the “forgot your password” link and we will send you an email to reset your password.

Alternately, you can also go to http://www.dreambox.com/ and select “Login”, located in the upper-right corner.

What should I do if DreamBox is loading slowly the very first time we play in class?

DreamBox is a web-based program. It is designed for many students to play at the same time, but the number of students depends on the Internet bandwidth/network that is available to your computers. For example, if you have a DSL line, up to 5 students can play at the same time. If it is a T1 line, 6-35 students can play at the same time, especially if you pre-load DreamBox Learning Math the first time your students play.

If you have many students (6-35) trying to access DreamBox for the first time on multiple computers, and are finding the program is slow to load, it can help to pre-load the program on your computers. To do this, you need to pull up your classroom account on each computer one at a time, click on a student’s name and wait until our narrator, Stella, comes out of the house on the screen. This will pre-load the program on each individual computer, and the DreamBox program will run much more quickly after that.

If you do not have time to pre-load DreamBox on to each computer, simply allow a few minutes between groups of students logging on to DreamBox for the first time. A good way to do this is to have five students log in to the program to start, and then after a few minutes, allow five more to log in, and so on.

If you continue to experience speed and performance issues, please use the “Send Your Feedback” button (located under the bottom-right corner of the DreamBox activity window) to let us know about the issue. To do this, first click on a student name. When our narrator, Stella, comes out of My House and begins to speak, click the Feedback button on the bottom of the screen. In the Message Window, be sure to tell us that you are using the program on a school computer, and are testing your bandwidth and speed. Please be sure the checkbox to send a screen shot with your feedback is checked. This will allow our Client Care team to assess how quickly your program is loading on your computers, and respond to you regarding the issue.

What is the price to buy a DreamBox Learning License?

DreamBox Learning offers pricing for classrooms, schools and districts, with discounts based on the number of students. Learn more about DreamBox Pricing or support@dreambox.com).

On the “My Students” tab of your Teacher Dashboard, you have the ability to reset individual student passwords or all student passwords. To reset an individual student’s password, click on the checkbox to the left of the name(s) of the student(s) requiring a password reset. Then, select “Reset Password” from the drop-menu at the bottom of the Student List, and click “Save Changes”. The next time the student logs in to use DreamBox, they will be able to select a new password image.

What is the “Carnival” section? Is it just games?

In the Primary learning environment, the Carnival activities are designed to teach problem solving skills in math, and give children a standard area they can return to, meaning they can very clearly see and understand how they are getting better at math. Adventure Park Lessons come and go, but Carnival games such as Dunk Tank and Frog Race can be revisited - and kids will be able to tell, based on past performances in the same game, how well they're doing now. This is a great way to reinforce their math skills.

There is a section in the Carnival called the “Arcade”. Students can practice their mouse skills for free here, or they can spend the Tokens they earn during lessons to play fun games. You can restrict the access to the number of Tokens a student can spend in this section.

What is the “My House” section?

In the Primary learning environment, the “My House” area is not necessarily academic, but it does serve as the main hub of DreamBox's most vital tool: engagement. DreamBox works because kids have fun playing it, and part of that fun is customizing their experience and collecting rewards. The My House area gives them the ability to change their avatar, check out the rewards they've earned in the Adventure Park, and print certificates of their achievements.

Can I restrict access to the Carnival? What about the Arcade?

Since most of the Carnival activities are designed to help students practice problem-solving techniques, and their progress in these activities affects the ‘Problem Solving” portion of their student progress, there is no way to restrict a student’s access to this section.

However, you can limit the number of times a student is able to visit the Arcade section. This area features games that are just for fun, and students spend the Tokens they earn during their lessons to play the games located here. To limit the number of games a student can play, click on “My Students” in your Teacher Dashboard, go to “Edit Arcade Settings”, and input the number of games you will allow per day.

Please note that earning Tokens is one of the main rewards for completing lessons, and Tokens can only be spent in the Arcade.

Using DreamBox Learning School Plus Home

How will students access their DreamBox Learning progress at home?

Parents will use a “Parent Invitation”, provided by you, to set up their home access to their child’s lessons and progress reports. To provide these Parent Invitations, you will first access your Teacher Dashboard and click on the "My Students" tab. On this page (your Student List), you should see a green button that says "Print Parent Invitations". Click this button to open a PDF file, containing a Parent Invitation document that you can give to your students to take home.

These Parent Invitations will contain instructions for setting up home access to parent reporting.  Parents will be asked to go to your School URL, have their child log into DreamBox Learning, and then click a link in the lower-right of the DreamBox window that says "Setup Parent Access".  This link will only appear after school hours and on weekends (to prevent students from setting up access while they are at school), and will not be visible between 7AM and 5PM Monday through Friday local time.  Once they click on the link, they will be asked to create a new parent account, as well as being given the option to link their child to their existing DreamBox Learning Home account. .

If the parent receives a message stating that their email address cannot be used, or they are encountering any other issues, then the parent should utilize the contact information at the bottom of the Parent Invite to contact us. This issue typically means the parent will require our assistance to manually link their account to your classroom. .

What progress reports are available to parents through their home access?

When parents set up their home access using the Parent Invitation, they will also have access to progress reports via their Parent Dashboard. In addition, parents receive an email whenever their child has successfully completed a group of lessons that demonstrates understanding of a significant concept in mathematics. We will explain what their child has learned, and provide some tips for further honing that knowledge, including quick games that can be played together in the car or while cooking dinner. We will also send an email to parents when their child has completed a unit or adventure and earned a Certificate to print out.

Can parents see my whole classroom account?

No. When parents set up their DreamBox Learning access at home, they are able to link only to their individual child’s account. They will not be able to access your classroom information. At home, students playing DreamBox with their Home Login information will not be able to play on other student’s accounts and will not be able to access the Teacher Dashboard.

One of the parents is saying that they are having issues using the login information. What should I do?

The parents should be able to use their Parent Invitations without problems, even if they already have an existing DreamBox Learning Home account. Once they set up their home account, they can log in using their email address and their password. Try directing the parent to http://play.dreambox.com and requesting that they use their email address and the custom password that they submitted when they initially logged on.

If the parents run into other issues, encourage them to use the Client Care contact information (located at the bottom of their Parent Invitation) to contact us.

Technical questions

What are the technical requirements for using the DreamBox Learning License?

To qualify for the DreamBox Learning License, your school computers must be capable of running it correctly to ensure that your students have a good experience. Each computer must have:

• Audio capability, a pair of headphones, and a mouse
• Most recent version of Adobe Flash installed
• Internet access, and the ability to access http://play.dreambox.com through a firewall
• Your network must have a minimum bandwidth/network speed:
  • For up to 5 students playing concurrently, you must have DSL speed
  • For 6-35 students playing concurrently, especially for the first time, students will have an optimal experience with a dedicated T1 line

When a student attempts to use DreamBox Learning, they see a message asking them to download Adobe Flash. What should I do?

DreamBox Learning Math does require the most recent version of Adobe Flash. Adobe Flash is free to download and only takes a few minutes; however, most school computers require someone with administrative rights to download and install the program.

You may need to send a request with your technology team to get the most recent version of Adobe Flash installed on your school computers in order to use DreamBox Learning. You can download the most recent version of Adobe Flash here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. Once downloaded, you will be given further instructions by Adobe’s Download Client. If you experience any issues with the installation, please contact Adobe for further assistance.

What should I do if DreamBox does not seem to be operating properly on my computers?

DreamBox Learning has found that certain types of Internet content filtering / blocking software or firewall can interfere with correct operation of the product.

Symptoms of this include:

• Sounds or images which do not play or display as expected.
• The math lesson client stops running, ejecting the student to a login screen.

All of DreamBox Learning’s content is entirely safe and appropriate for kids, but sometimes names chosen for content files match blocking and filtering rules in school Internet firewalls.

Because DreamBox Learning cannot know your school’s Internet filtering policies, the easiest and quickest way to solve the problem is to put the DreamBox Learning servers on your content filter’s “whitelist”. This can usually be done by the person at your school responsible for IT systems.

Placing our servers on your content filter’s whitelist should allow access to all of the content available to school students.

Depending on your system, there are several ways to specify the servers to be placed on your whitelist.

The easiest is to say that anything ending in ‘dreambox.com’ should be allowed.

If your system uses Internet IP addresses, then the address range 216.168.57.112/28 should be allowed.

If your system requires specific server names, then the following servers should be allowed:

• www.dreambox.com
• play.dreambox.com
• static.dreambox.com
• l.dreambox.com

If you still see problems after placing our server addresses on your school’s Internet content filter whitelist, please contact us with the name of your IT support contact, and a DreamBox engineer will work with that person to resolve the problem.

How do I contact DreamBox Learning for support?

There are 3 ways to contact us:

1. The best way to get Client Care help is to use the support request form. If you want us to contact you about your feedback, simply click that option.
2. Email us at support@dreambox.com.
3. Call our Client Care team at 425-646-8080, or toll free at 877-451-7845 (weekdays, 7am to 5pm, Pacific Time).

General questions

What is DreamBox Learning Math?

DreamBox Learning Math, the next generation of web-based learning, provides individualized learning for elementary math in a motivating learning environment. DreamBox Learning Math automatically adapts to each student, which optimizes his or her learning experience. We do this by customizing the content, difficulty, hints, pace, and sequence of lessons to match a student’s knowledge and learning style — just as a great tutor would do! There are millions of different paths a child could take through our curriculum.

DreamBox Learning’s curriculum effectively teaches the Common Core State Standards. K-2nd grade students personalize their learning experience by choosing a game character and a theme — pirates, dinosaurs, pets, or pixies — turning their lessons into fun adventures. Older students and up enjoy a highly motivating learning environment that they can make their own. As students learn, they can earn badges, coins to personalize their music and wallpaper and even unlock new math mini-game rewards.

Rather than simply providing practice for a concept students already know, DreamBox Learning Math helps a student learn the math curriculum step by step, in a uniquely customized and engaging way. DreamBox Learning Math helps every child reach his or her potential!

What will my students learn? Which math standards are addressed?

The DreamBox Learning Math Program has more than 600 lessons for elementary school students. The product’s underlying curriculum develops computational fluency, conceptual understanding, and problem-solving ability, which allow students to enrich and deepen their mathematical thinking. Content is aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

DreamBox Learning develops and enhances a student’s foundational math understanding through a carefully crafted sequence of activities which allow your child both choice and variety in game play. We use our core tools including dot patterns (Numbergrams™), a ten frame, a mathrack (aka rekenrek), number lines, snap blocks, function machine, and our “Human Calculator™”. Lessons and tools build a student’s understanding of 5 and 10, two important numbers in a base-ten system.

One of the first lessons played is a unit pretest, and there are numerous additional unit pretests through the product. Unit pretests assess a student’s existing knowledge and place him or her at an appropriate place in our curriculum.

Throughout the DreamBox Learning adventure, a student is given the flexibility to move between grades as appropriate. We do not show grade labels for the lesson games, and we do not require, for example, that all kindergarten lesson games are completed before 1^st grade lesson games can begin. This allows a student to explore the math that is most interesting and developmentally appropriate for him or her.

Kindergarten:

• Compare more, less, and equal sets of objects up to 10
• Count up to 10 in units of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10
• Demonstrate ability to recognize sets of up to 10 at a quick glance (“subitizing”)
• Build number lines and hundreds chart up to 100
• Early additition up to 10
• Recognize doubles
• Distance and orientation

1^st grade:

• Build, count, and recognize amounts up to 100
• Compare and order numbers up to 100 using symbols <, >, and =
• Count backwards and forwards
• Addition and subtraction using strategies of “using doubles” (for example, 7+8 = 7+7+1) and “making tens” (for example, 9+7 = 10+6)
• Develop automatic recall of basic math facts
• Identify number patterns that make 15, 20, 50, and 100
• Understand the open numberline, multiples of 10 (10-100), positive and negative, and distances between numbers
• Two-dimensional area and three-dimensional volume
• Place value to 100: identify, build and manipulate values up to 100 when presented with groupings of hundreds, tens and ones.

2^nd grade:

• Solve problems with equal expressions
• Addition and subtraction strategies for two- and three-digit numbers
• Skip counting in jumps of 3-10
• Compare and order numbers from 100 to 1000
• Advanced addition and subtraction strategies
• Place value to 100: identify, build and manipulate values up to 100 when presented with groupings of hundreds, tens and ones.

3^rd grade:

• Place value to 10,000: identify, build, and manipulate values up to 10,000 when presented with groupings of thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones
• Solve multiplication facts to 12 using different representations and strategies, including repeated addition, picture arrays, and area models
• Understand and apply multiplication relationships such as the distributive, commutative, and associative properties
• Construct multiplication relationships with partial products (12x8 = 10x8 + 2x8)
• Using landmark multiplication facts (5, 10s) to find products with one group more or less
• Find factors for numbers to 100 and multiples of numbers 1-12

How does DreamBox Learning continuous assessment and placement work?

One of the first lesson games played is a unit pretest, and there are numerous additional unit pretests through the product. Students usually won’t notice that a lesson is a unit pretest rather than a standard lesson, though they are marked with a star on the lesson icon.

Unit pretests assess a student’s existing knowledge and place him/her at an appropriate place in our curriculum. Students who already know a particular concept, for example, will pass a unit pretest and then immediately skip over all the lesson games for that concept.

In addition, DreamBox tracks every student response, on a click-by-click basis, and makes immediate small adjustments in the difficulty or scope of a particular problem, the type of hints given, and the lesson sequence that follows. All of these individual adaptations help ensure effective learning for every student.

What grade levels will DreamBox Learning Math be appropriate for?

The curriculum covered in DreamBox Learning Math will be appropriate for most kindergarteners through 4th grade students. It is also appropriate for many pre-K students and many 5th graders.

Is DreamBox Learning for kids who are struggling, at grade level, or advanced in math?

Because of our unique unit pretests and continual assessments, DreamBox is great for math learners of all abilities! Struggling students will get the basic foundational concepts they need, along with appropriate practice for mastery. Students who love math and need additional challenges can move ahead in DreamBox as fast as they want. Read more about using DreamBox Learning for intervention and enrichment.

In the Primary learning environment, how can my students switch themes within the DreamBox Adventure Park?

We know that students like to switch and experiment with different themes and stories, and that’s great! Whenever students have found 1 of the 6 objects needed to complete a story, they have the option to either find another object in the same story, or click “BACK” to go back to the Adventure Park and choose another theme and story. It typically takes 3 to 6 lessons to find each object, so students can switch stories relatively frequently if they wish. Students can explore one story in each of the 4 themes at the same time.

What do the icons represent on the Adventure Park lesson path?

When playing DreamBox lessons in the Primary learning environment, your student will see several different kinds of icons along the path. Here’s a description of these icons and what they represent.

Unit Pretest Icons: Unit pretests are always represented by a lesson icon with a small yellow star on it. Aside from the star, these icons look just like regular lesson icons. The icons may have a picture of one of our virtual manipulatives or a number card. Whatever the graphic is, it is representative of the lesson behind it. Although the stars make the lesson icons a little different, students are never told that it represents a unit pretest.

Tutorial Lesson Icons: Tutorial lessons teach students how to use one of our virtual manipulatives. These icons all have a similar look. These are represented by a picture of the virtual manipulative in a box.

Lesson Icons: Lesson icons are designed to give students clues about the lesson they’re about to play. Whenever possible we include a small picture of the virtual manipulative used. When many lessons are represented by the same icon, we number the icons starting with the earliest in the sequence (one). This happens when lessons are sequenced in order to present slightly more difficult content. Presenting many shorter lessons is also more appropriate to the needs of this age group. Because of our unique sequencing, students don’t always get the next “level” of a game on their map, they aren’t always required to play every single level, and occasionally two “levels” will appear at the same time. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to bother kids.

Checkmarks: Checkmarks will appear on a lesson to indicate that this lesson is done. Done means different things on different icons. Tutorial lessons are done when they have been played from beginning to end. Unit pretests are done when they have been completed one time. Lesson icons are done when the objectives of the lesson have been passed.

Backpacks: Backpacks hold the rewards that students earn as they play. By clicking on a backpack, students collect tokens, Adventure Friend cards and story goals. Tokens can be used in the Arcade in the Carnival. Adventure Friend cards are collected in My House. The story goal points motivate students to play more maps and earn all six goals in a story. For each story completed, students earn a certificate which can be printed from My House.

When should I not help my students?

Teachers naturally want to help a child who is struggling to learn something new, especially as lessons get harder. But because DreamBox is constantly assessing your student’s answers to understand what they’ve mastered and what they have yet to learn, your help can sometimes actually make the lessons too hard!

Here’s why: our GuideRight™ technology ensures that many aspects of the experience immediately adapt based upon how a student responds to each problem. The questions should be just challenging enough that they occasionally get one incorrect as they learn. Part of that process of recalibrating for each student involves occasionally presenting a series of questions that might be a little too difficult. If they do well, we move them on to something that might rely upon the understanding they just demonstrated. If they don’t do so well, we then provide the comprehensive set of lessons they likely need to develop that understanding.

So with DreamBox if you provide too much overt assistance or answer for your student it is quite possible that the system will temporarily attribute levels of proficiency — or lack thereof — that do not accurately reflect that of your student. If you’d like to learn more about this, and for tips on the kind of help you can give, read the DreamBox blog article: Why a Little Help Can Go a Wrong Way.

Keep in mind, however, that this does not include coaching students who are working inefficiently, or providing valuable 1-on-1 lessons (away from DreamBox Learning) for when a student is struggling with a concept. Your Teacher Dashboard will warn you if a student is working inefficiently or struggling with a concept, and it is always better to respond to these situations appropriately. Just remember not to “give” the student the answer – your assistance should help the student arrive at the answer for themselves.

I teach pre-kindergarten and my students are only 4 years old. What can I do to make their DreamBox experience positive and not overwhelming?

Although our product is written for 5-8 year olds, many 4 year olds have successfully used DreamBox. The following are tips from other teachers on how to ensure that your students will enjoy both interacting with the computer and learn to navigate and play DreamBox successfully.

1. Start with short sessions with a teacher present. It’s enough to only play 2-3 games. Having you by their side builds game-play and mouse skills confidence. It lets the student know that you value the time spent on the computer and support math learning. One-on-one time is always special and ensures that you’ll intervene before frustration kicks in.
2. Let your student lead. The student may click on areas that don’t do anything, and that’s ok – the student is learning how to explore a new environment and needs to experiment in order to learn how to react to highlighting and clickable areas.
3. Wait for your student to ask for help and watch for signs of frustration. Nobody knows your student’s frustration level better than you. When you see that the student is done exploring and is ready for some guidance, give it. “Try clicking here.” Or better yet, answer a question with a question. “Do you see anything that is highlighted? Is that a good place to click?”
4. Let your student make mistakes. This is particularly important when playing the math games. If you intervene and prevent your student from choosing incorrect answers, we won’t place your student in the lessons best suited for their abilities.
5. Replay the Mouse Tutorials over and over again! These are located in the Arcade in the Carnival, and they are always free. (Unlike other games in the Carnival area, the Mouse Tutorials never require a student to spend a token.) The Mouse Tutorials were specifically written to help our youngest users learn to use a mouse or keypad.
   1. The balloon popping activity focuses on rollover movement.
   2. The bowling pin game allows your child to practice clicking on specific targets.
   3. Finally, the turtle game is all about dragging and dropping objects.
6. Offer to move the mouse for your student, but only do what your student tells you to do! Some users really want to play the games, even before they have developed the mouse skills to do so. It’s ok to play one or two games this way because your student leaves the game highly satisfied and continues to make progress.