Hi Guest,

The 76th Annual Career Tech Expo GACTE Summer Conference is in full swing in Athens, Georgia (even as we type!) and MAD-learn is here and excited to present multiple sessions to our Georgia and southeast educators as they connect with other CTE educators and industry leaders. Come visit our booth #4 in the expo hall and:

• attend A Tale of Two Districts panel today at 4 pm in Hyatt Place Ballroom
• bring your laptop to get hands-on at APPy Hour or Don’t Worry Be APPytomorrow at 9 am or 1:30 pm

On what was a whirlwind trip to the Silver State, Director of Curriculum and Implementation Gregg Stone conducted two camps on consecutive days. What made the trip unique was the schedule and travel between the two camps. After landing in Reno (and taking in a minor league baseball game in America’s “Biggest Little City”) on a Sunday, our intrepid explorer drove two hours south for the small town of Hawthorn, where he got to work with several students at Mineral County High School the next day. While there were periodic interruptions due to students having to return to classes to take care of end-of-year school business, everyone stayed focused and enthusiastic throughout the entire day. It was great to see them work with the new platform! 

At the end of the camp, Gregg hopped back in the car and drove 4 ½ hours south to Pahrump. As this was his first trip to Nevada, he was struck by the desert landscape that defined the western part of the state. 

The Pahrump High School students’ energy that next day was equal to their peers in Hawthorn, and the work that was done in just a five-hour session was also quite impressive. The GEAR UP coordinators were so helpful, and even the lunches were great!

After the camps were over, Gregg headed to Las Vegas to spend a few days seeing the Strip, Hoover Dm, Grand Canyon, and the Blue Man Group. He returned to Pittsburgh refreshed and invigorated, even if a bit tired, from a trip that was rewarding on so many levels!

Learning is not a spectator sport, according to the Cobb InTech and Academics 2023 theme, and MAD-learn came ready to play as a proud sponsor of the joint summer conference hosted by Cobb Instructional Technology and the Academic Division on June 2, 2023.

MAD-learn presented three sessions focused on SEL skills in computer science and was thrilled to have Barber Middle School teacher Saundra Watts – one of our MAD-teachers –  join us to share her experience and how she is using mobile app development in her classroom to foster creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.
According to Saundra, her students worked in collaborative groups – relatively independent from teacher input because the program is so intuitive – to create award-winning apps that used coding and no coding templates.  She raved about her students’ experience with mobile app development and MAD-learn. 
Kudos to the Cobb InTech team for making this such a great event!

To learn more about the new MAD-learn platform, check out this blog.

Summer is here and MAD-learn is ready for our version of fun in the sun as we gear up to get down at all our summer conferences. 

Cobb InTech, NW GA RESA STEM Forum, and GACTE are under our belts. Teq’s Memphis Roadshow, STEMapalooza, ISTE, CSTA, NCCEP, and DeKalb Tech Symposium to go! 

ISTELive is coming to Philadelphia June 25-28, 2023.  Click here for more information. Kick the fun up a notch and join the MAD-ness at the Teq ISTELive Happy Hour, proudly co-sponsored by MAD-learn, for bowling, karaoke, food, and fun at Harp & Crown on June 26, 2023.  For more information or to join the waitlist, click here.

To see our schedule of events, fun, and sessions at ISTE, check this out.

Meet Buchi Emarah, one of four new interns working for MAD-earn this upcoming summer. Buchi is a rising 8th grader just outside Atlanta at Barber Middle School in Acworth Georgia where he first became accustomed to the MAD-learn app development program through a school-provided workshop. This workshop sparked Buchi’s interest in social media and design; prompting him to apply to the MAD-learn internship program. Through this opportunity, Buchi hopes to further his knowledge of social media and business understanding whilst also utilizing his creative thinking and unique perspectives to help improve any MAD projects that he can. In his free time, Buchi can be found hanging out with friends, playing video games, or on the football field playing both running back and linebacker for his school team.

Meet Abby Rivera, another of our interns working at MAD-learn this summer, and an 8th grader this fall at Barber Middle School near Acworth Georgia. Abby first started out as a user of MAD-learn, finding the platform through one of her teacher’s assignments. Abby competed in multiple app design-based competitions using MAD-learn before becoming an official intern this summer (part of her prize for winning Gold at the GaDOE CS4GA App and Design Challenge). Abby is looking to use her already extensive knowledge of the platform to help innovate and create new ideas and designs within our MAD-learn team. She hopes to gain further knowledge on the inner workings of business, and digital design throughout her tenure to utilize as she approaches high school. Outside of the workplace, Abby enjoys expressing her creative side through drawing, and writing, whilst also showcasing her competitiveness through volleyball.

Fun Fact: Abby is a former gymnast, and is able to perform a variety of challenging tricks such as a backflip on a trampoline, a split, and even a handstand! 

Gaudy Lazo is one of our new MAD-learn interns for this upcoming summer and is a senior this 2023-24 school year at Wilmer Hutchins High School in Dallas, Texas. While there Gaudy is a part of her school art club, spending many hours of her free time painting after she was introduced to it by her sibling. Gaudy believes this passion for art allows her creativity to shine in everything she does, and hopes to bring this inventive mindset to the Mad Learn team. Gaudy also wants to further her understanding of customer service and the company’s inner workings through her time as a MAD Intern in order to prepare herself for her upcoming collegiate journey. In her spare time, Gaudy can also be found working on her school student council as well as reading some of her favorite books.

Fun Fact: Gaudy is of Honduras descent, a country just south of the United States with a population of just over 10 million people. It is famous as one of the best countries in the Americas to go Scuba diving. 

Sam Silcock, another one of our new interns at MAD-learn, will be a junior this fall at Midtown High School in Atlanta Georgia. While at Midtown, Sam has gained extensive knowledge of engineering, computer science, and journalism, pushing him to apply to the MAD-learn program. In his time at MAD-learn Sam is looking to bring his creative ideas, unique perspective, and persistent work ethic to help improve the program in any way he can. Through the internship, he hopes to further expand his understanding of business, and real team functionalities in order to provide invaluable experience as he approaches his Senior year in the 24-25 school year. In his time off Sam can be found playing soccer, hanging out with friends, or reading a book.

Fun Fact: Sam is an editor of his school’s national paper The Southerner.