Uncategorized

MAD-teacher Spotlight: Irma Dixon, Palm Beach County, FL

“Using the power of connection to lift people to their higher good. That’s what teachers do.” 

~Oprah Winfrey

Over the past few months, teachers around the world have been working tirelessly to stay connected with their students, and continue their lessons while schools are physically closed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. MAD-learn is especially proud of all teachers who are using our platform to keep students engaged by building amazing life-changing apps! To all our star MAD-teachers, we say, THANK YOU for all your hard work and dedication in the classroom.

As part of our MAD-teacher Spotlight blog series to highlight the fantastic work of our #superstar teachers, we are excited to introduce Irma Dixon, a Computer Applications in Business 1 & 2 teacher at Jupiter Middle School in The School District of Palm Beach County where she has been teaching for 26 years. During her two years of using MAD-learn with 316 students, Irma used Mobile App Development as a hands-on innovative project in her classroom and has put forth a strong and consistent effort to make sure that not only her students “get” the app development and design thinking process, but that she does, as well.

According to her, using MAD-learn as a project not only promoted engagement between the teacher and students but also increased communication among the students.  We couldn’t be more proud of the awesome student created-apps and their ability to collaborate by sharing resources, appropriate themes, and other ideas.  Irma’s driving force is mainly the joy she derives from seeing students excelling and having fun while learning! 

When asked how MAD-learn has impacted her teaching style, she explained that being understanding and allowing her students to take the driver’s seat, think outside the box, and using their critical thinking skills have been big factors.  In her own words: “I became the supervisor and the students were the employees”.  As the supervisor, she guided the students through a six-step thinking design process which includes ideation, planning, designing, building, testing, and launching.

It is great to know that under Irma’s extraordinary leadership, students of Jupiter Middle School have created mind-blowing apps and acquired real-world entrepreneurial skills. KUDOS Irma! Keep up the great work.