Countdown For Teachers allows teachers to create online Common Core curriculum maps that can be continuously updated and shared throughout a school or district.

Teachers begin by outlining their desired calendars and deciding on start and end dates, depending on the number of calendars they want to use (weekly, trimester, semester, school year, etc.). Following, they mark holidays and other days they won’t be at school, in addition to set-in-stone assessments (i.e. state or district standard tests).

Once the calendar is set-up, teachers select their grade and create folders for the units they will be teaching. Teachers can then click and drag the appropriate Common Core standards into the folder, and the objectives within the standard will list themselves in color-coded groupings based on whether they are conceptual, procedural, or application-based. Teachers can also take advantage of Countdown’s curriculum map recommendations as a starting point or a point of comparison in developing their calendars.

Teachers then enter the planning phase in which they can drag and drop individual standard objectives onto the days in the calendar that they will be taught. Once this is completed, teachers can view their full curriculum plan in calendar form. They can also export the calendar in PDF form and share it via email with the click of a button. Additionally, teachers can co-plan on the same calendar with other teachers in their building.

Teachers can register online for free, accessing the application from a web browser on any device.

Countdown For Teachers was founded in January of 2013 by longtime educator and edtech coordinator Sarah Rice, who currently works for the Lawrence Public Schools (in Massachusetts) to implement effective data-driven instructional practices, and Matt Rantz, a software developer. The Countdown For Teachers product was launched in 2013 and has accumulated at least 1,000 teacher users as of October 2013.

Countdown for Teachers Overview 

Rhode Island Tech for Schools Summit (October 2013)