How I Use It
Countdown is a lesson planning and sharing service that helps teacher map their Common Core lessons over the school year. Standards are broken down into discrete learning objectives, which can be dragged and dropped into the lesson calendar. Lessons can be exported to PDF and shared with others for co-planning. While Countdown will surely save you time in planning over a paper lesson book, better alternatives exist.
While the idea behind Countdown is valuable, the execution of the planning tool isn't so hot. Navigating the standards and learning objectives can be confusing. The flow of the steps in the planning process can be counterintuitive, and several features are missing that would improve the tool (such as collaborative notes). Countdown does not include standards for science or social studies, which could be a major turn-off for elementary teachers. Overall, there are several better-done choices out there to meet all of your lesson planning needs.