I am constantly looking for new ways to inspire my students and ignite their imagination while instilling in them a love of learning. Keeping them engaged and encouraging them to tap into their innovative side by thinking outside the box is such a vital part of their growth.

As a mathematics teacher with several years of teaching experience, I have always made it my goal to explore the use of various tools that make learning fun for my students.  One of such educational tools is MAD-learn, a mobile app development program which I used in two of my classes last year and which i’m currently using in four classes.

MAD-learn is called App Creation in my school and is project based.  Our students use the program to solve real life problems through mobile app creation. Presently, our Middle School has a need for a  virtual school store, so students are competing to create the best virtual store app using MAD-learn. As always, I am super excited to see the creativity of students come to life. 

In order for MAD-learn to impact my teaching, it had to first impact me and it did.  This program has all of the characteristics to help develop the character of a student.  An app creator must be analytical, organized, create, communicate effectively, able to work in a team, and persevering.  The biggest issue for students is developing creativity skills and patience planning their projects.  They learn how and why planning is so important and learn to appreciate the process. The program has several cool components, however my favorites are the Code Set Library , Videos and Powerpoint slides for teachers. 

I am very hopeful that with the help of the HTML, CSS and Javascript components of the program, my students will be motivated to continue learning computer science. I absolutely recommend MAD-learn to other teachers. Their customer service is excellent and it is packaged perfectly for teachers. The Curriculum Resources and Video Tutorials for students sealed the deal for me!

~Kimberly M. Epps

Mathematics Teacher

Oceanside  High School and Oceanside Middle School, NY