Tuesday, December 15, 2015

MAD SQUAD Launches Its Second Year at Madison

By Emily Hill

Madison Elementary School is giving its students the tools they need today to become the tech leaders of tomorrow through a club known as the MAD SQUAD.

MAD SQUAD meets every Thursday with the Instructional Support Coach and Technology Aides for one hour.  The goal is to provide skills needed to thrive in today’s virtual world.

The club is comprised of students in 4th through 6th grade.  They had to fill out an application and get teacher and parent permission to join.  We currently have ten members.  It empowers students to provide technology support and leadership in their school.

Cassandra said, “My favorite part of the MAD SQUAD is helping the school out.  It has supported me in learning new technology.”

Technology Aide Mr. Nguyen added, “MAD SQUAD directly involves students with the technology troubleshooting process and gives them firsthand experience at a time when technology is evolving rapidly.”

Students support other classes by troubleshooting, downloading applications for students, setting up Google accounts, and teaching various applications to students and teachers.  We are currently working on Google Classroom, Google Docs and Lexia.  Some of the students are learning to code and will soon be teaching classes how to do that.  If a teacher has a special request we learn how to do it one week and go in and teach the class the following week.

Dr. Yost said, “As a new teacher here in Central Unified, I appreciate the assistance and tech support these young leaders have provided to my class as we are increasing the  use of our tablets. The MAD SQUAD is an invaluable asset and those kids have saved the day for me more than once!”

Priscilla said, “Her favorite part about being in the club is we get to help the little kids with their tablet problems.”

The students said they have learned a lot so far and are looking forward to sharing more of their knowledge with others as the year goes on.

5th grade student Hayden said, “I have learned a lot in MAD SQUAD.  One of the things I learned was how to work with more applications and better understand technology.”


The students have been a huge support for both students and teachers.