MAD-news for August: Happy New School Year!

August 19, 2024

Hi Guest,

The whirlwind of summer conferences has finally come to an end and what an epic summer it was! Our marathon ended with the amazing NCCEP Annual Conference in DC right after the “global IT outage” prevented us from getting there in time for all of the fun. Thank you for being the brightness in our days – we loved getting to meet you and brainstorm ideas with you this summer. We hope you have an AMAZING new school year! Make the magic happen! You got this.

– Alefiya Master

Welcome back to a new school year!  The MAD-learn team is so excited about the opportunity to work with you to incorporate mobile app development into any curriculum.  As you kick off this year with your students, we want to do our part to support you and make your year easier. 

We know this time of year can be hectic and busy for teachers so we took the guesswork out of how to use mobile app development with your kids. Here are a few ideas to make the beginning of your year a little more smooth and a lot more fun:

Welcome and Orientation Apps

  • School Orientation Guide: Have students create an app that serves as a digital guide for new students. The app can include interactive maps, information on school facilities, key contacts, and a virtual tour.
  • Icebreaker Games: Develop an app that includes icebreaker games or quizzes to help students get to know each other at the beginning of the school year. Features could include personality quizzes, match-the-fact games, or interactive polls.

Back-to-School Planners

  • Daily Planner App: Help students learn their back-to-school schedules. Have students build a planner app that includes their daily schedules, including classes, extracurricular activities. 
  • Goal-Setting App: Students can create an app that helps set academic or personal goals for the school year, track progress, and provide motivational quotes or tips.

Back-to-School Events

  • Event Organizer App: Have students create an app for organizing back-to-school events like open houses, parent-teacher conferences, or club fairs. The app could include event details, schedules, and RSVP functionality.
  • Virtual Scavenger Hunt: Develop an app for a virtual scavenger hunt around the school, with clues that lead students to different locations or require them to answer questions about the school’s history or staff.

Classroom Resources

  • Study Guide App: Students can develop an app that includes study guides, flashcards, and other resources for different subjects. 
  • Reading List Tracker: Create an app where students can track books they need to read for their classes, including summaries, notes, and discussion questions. The app could also have a feature for sharing book reviews.

Feedback and Suggestions

  • Suggestion Box App: Develop an app where students can anonymously submit feedback, suggestions, or concerns about the school environment, academics, or events. The app could have a feature for tracking the status of suggestions.
  • Classroom Polls and Surveys: Have students create an app for conducting polls and surveys on various topics related to school life, allowing teachers and administrators to gather student input on important decisions.

We got to spend the day with hundreds of fabulous CTAE teachers in Cobb County School District a few weeks ago. The CTAE team does an amazing job kicking off the new school year in style with inspirational keynotes, engaging sessions, and delicious lunch. Our sessions were packed all day with teachers excited to get their students building apps in all kinds of CTAE pathways! 

We were also thrilled to spend time with teachers in the School District of Palm Beach last week for their CTE Back to School Conference.  We loved their enthusiasm and engagement and can’t wait to continue working with all of our Palm Beach teachers and students (Psst: If you are a Palm Beach teacher interested in using MAD-learn, just complete this form and we’ll create your MAD-teacher account at no additional cost to your school).

Congressional App Challenge:

Don’t sleep on this national app-building competition that encourages students around the country to submit their original apps to promote appreciation for computer science and STEM, according to their website.  The deadline to submit apps is October 24, 2024.  Learn more about this event as well as guidelines on how to enter here. Check out the 2023 winners here.

National GEAR UP Week 2024

Celebrate 25 years of GEAR UP during this year’s National GEAR UP WeekSeptember 23-27.  GEAR UP is “a highly competitive grant program that helps empower local partnerships comprised of K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, state agencies, and community organizations to achieve three strategic goals: 1. Increasing the postsecondary expectations and readiness of students. 2. Improving high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates.3. Raising the knowledge of postsecondary options, preparation, and financing among students and families,” according to the NCCEP website.  MAD-learn is thrilled to be a GEAR UP partner as we work with programs around the country helping students learn more about STEM, AI, coding, and entrepreneurship while creating mobile apps.

We wanted to thank Faiss Middle School teacher Juniper Gill for the awesome session she presented at NACTE on how she uses MAD-learn and mobile app development with her students.  Juniper has been an educator in Clark County School District for 18 years and has spent the last six years engaging students in STEM.  She loves “encouraging [students’] curiosity” and shared examples of her students’ apps in her session “APP(lying) STEM skills in Your Classroom”. We love it when teachers take the opportunity to present and share with other teachers locally and nationally!

… welcoming our newest Curriculum and Implementation Specialist: Caroline Westervelt! Caroline lives in sunny Florida and was a teacher for 20 years. She spent the last 10 years of her career teaching Computer Science to middle schoolers and has been a fabulous addition to our team. Fun fact: Caroline is a certified mountain bike trainer and loves ocean kayaking!   

What does this mean for you?  More help, more support, and even more activities in our curriculum.  As we continue to expand and grow our team, we are excited to provide even more dedication to our amazing MAD-teachers and students. Welcome aboard, Caroline! You can reach Caroline at caroline@mad-learn.com