12 word description of app/product:

Free teacher-optimized version of the award-winning, comprehensive ABCmouse Early Learning Academy app/website.

Formats: Website and app for iOS, Android, and Kindle mobile devices

Website:

https://www.abcmouse.com/teachers

What does it help with?

ABCmouse is the leading and most comprehensive digital early learning resource, encompassing literacy, math, science, health, social studies, art, and music. The more than 10,000 fun and engaging Learning Activities also help young students develop a love of learning.

With ABCmouse for Teachers, educators can use ABCmouse for whole-class, small-group, and individual learning and to strengthen the school-home connection by engaging families in their child’s learning. We've recently added hundreds of Common Core standards-based playlists covering key foundational skills for K-2. Teachers can now easily find and assign ABCmouse activities that correspond to specific standards.

Large-scale research studies assessing the effectiveness of ABCmouse have concluded that ABCmouse accelerates learning and helps children make significant gains in early literacy and math skills.

ABCmouse for Teachers also allows teachers to use our award-winning Mastering Math app. This innovative, game-based adaptive early learning app helps preschool through kindergarten children build a strong understanding of the most fundamental math concepts: number sequences, numeral recognition, and counting objects. Having that foundation is a key requirement for success in kindergarten and beyond. The app uses appealing characters and personalized learning pathways to help children achieve mastery through practice.

What grade and age range?  

Preschool–2nd  grade, ages 2–8  

Is this core/supplemental/special needs/extracurricular/professional development or what?

ABCmouse for Teachers is a supplemental curriculum offering.

What subject, topic, what standards is it mapped to?

ABCmouse for Teachers offers hundreds of Common Core standards-based playlists that cover key foundational math and ELA skills for kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Subjects include literacy, math, science, health, social studies, art, and music.

What lesson time does it use?

ABCmouse for Teachers enables educators to use ABCmouse for whole-class, small-group, and individual learning, such as centers or stations.

What is the pricing model?

ABCmouse for Teachers is offered 100% free to teachers for classroom use.

Schools or districts that want additional services can choose to upgrade to ABCmouse for Schools, our enterprise offering, which includes onboarding and implementation services, ongoing usage reports and training, teacher and administrator support, and ABCmouse accounts for students to use at home. Pricing for ABCmouse for Schools is on a per-student basis.
 

Are there services around it?

Teachers get access to a teacher interface that helps them use ABCmouse in their classroom, enabling them to quickly roster students, find and assign standards-aligned learning activities and playlists, communicate with families, and monitor student progress. The recently upgraded interface displays three core functions—Plan, Teach, and Monitor. Each month, teachers are invited to free professional learning webinars where they receive tips on how to further integrate ABCmouse into the teaching day.

Additional services are offered through the ABCmouse for Schools enterprise product. ABCmouse for Schools provides scalable tools and resources to implement and manage ABCmouse across an entire school district or group of schools. We partner with schools to ensure fidelity of implementation. Services include systematic onboarding and implementation sessions, ongoing usage reports and training to improve teaching and student results, teacher support, and enterprise support for IT and school leadership to help ensure overall program success throughout the district or group.

What makes ABCmouse for Teachers unique?

With ABCmouse for Teachers, educators can leverage one resource for virtually all their curriculum needs, rather than trying to cobble something together from multiple sources. ABCmouse is the single most comprehensive digital curriculum for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. It offers more than 10,000 individual Learning Activities and encompasses all key academic subject areas, including literacy, math, science, health, and social studies, plus many art- and music-based activities. So, students and teachers can get comfortable and focus on learning, not learning to use a new website.

ABCmouse for Teachers is also a classroom resource that teachers can trust. ABCmouse has won numerous awards from national educational, parent, and media organizations, is the leading digital early learning resource for children ages 2–8, and offers a curriculum that’s been research-validated. Over the past school year, more than 145,000 teachers—including 1 in 4 kindergarten teachers in the U.S.—serving millions of students, used ABCmouse in their classrooms.

ABCmouse for Teachers allows educators to take full advantage of all that ABCmouse offers—at no cost—facilitating whole-class, small-group, and individual learning in their classrooms, in addition to engaging families in their children’s learning and strengthening the school-home connection. The product was also designed to empower teachers and simplify their use of educational technology in the classroom. The dashboard helps teachers quickly roster students, find and assign standards-aligned learning activities and playlists, communicate with families, and monitor student progress.

From the perspective of the young students who learn from it, ABCmouse for Teachers is uniquely engaging—so children think learning is fun and are excited to learn. All aspects of ABCmouse—the characters, games, rewards—were designed to be delightful, fun, and engaging, because we think learning should be fun and know that children do their best learning when they are motivated and engaged. 

A description of the characteristics--how is it designed for user interface, user experience? What instructional design principles are at work here?

ABCmouse for Teachers was recently redesigned based on feedback from thousands of teachers, who communicated with us in detail about how they work with technology in the classroom, what works well for them, and what could help them even more. We’ve used that input to develop and test prototypes of a new user experience, and recently announced the launch of a reimagined teacher experience for back-to-school 2018. When teachers log into their ABCmouse accounts for the new school year they will be greeted by a new interface that makes ABCmouse more powerful and even easier to use in the classroom. Centered on three core functions—Plan, Teach, and Monitor—this ABCmouse teacher experience enables educators to quickly roster students, find and assign standards-aligned learning activities and playlists, communicate with families, and monitor student progress. The new interface also makes it easier than ever for students to use ABCmouse in the classroom.

Teacher reviews:

Teacher Testimonial Video: https://vimeo.com/211575452

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As a Kindergarten teacher, I absolutely LOVE ABCmouse! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have so many students that have excelled because I offer it in my class, who otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity. ABCmouse is the BEST resource a primary teacher could ever use. You have the seal of approval from this Kindergarten teacher/former Teacher of the Year/State Teacher of the Year Finalist.

Kindergarten teacher in Jacksonville, FL

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I use ABCmouse in the classroom all the time. The students love it. They learn and have fun at the same time, and the program targets what they need to learn. What I like best about ABCmouse is that I can create my groups according to abilities. Thank you! 

Kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles, CA

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This is working great. I am individually pulling my students out of their independent work and having them try ABCmouse. My students are loving this fantastic resource, and I hope that this helps my struggling student, Andrew, and maybe even pulls some of my lower students ahead. Thank you so much, ABCmouse, for making your website free for my classroom. I am truly grateful for your generosity.

1^st/2^nd grade teacher near Trenton, NJ