ST. CLOUD, Fla. — A+ Teacher Kevin Dickerson comes from a family of teachers and professors. He switched careers because he wanted to make a bigger impact by helping students break down barriers to the opportunities that education can bring.

When Spectrum News 13 stopped by Dickerson’s classroom, students were fully engaged in a math game using bright red solo cups.

While the students were having fun together, it was clear they were having fun learning.

“Using games. Gamifying education is a good way to create a little bit of incentive even in students that may be a little bored by math,” Dickerson said.

At Voyager K-8 in St. Cloud, Dickerson knows how to sweeten the learning process and make the lessons stick. “Candy most often is the best motivator,” he said, while laughing.

He said he must keep up with the middle schooler’s taste buds too, because they change.

“This year we got Air Heads, we got Jolly Ranchers, and we have to come up with as many little incentives just to make school a little more fun,” he said.

It’s a fun approach that really adds up when it comes to keeping students engaged.

The person who nominated Dickerson wrote to Spectrum News 13 to say, “As an African American male within the field of education, the youth see him as a coach and mentor. He is always thinking of new ways to engage his students by being creative. He is encouraging to everyone. He is loved and appreciated at home and his family is proud to share him with others in need of a good, fatherly figure.”

A career in the classroom is a second career for Dickerson.

“My background actually is mental health. I spent since about 2004 — so almost coming up on 20 years of work with mental health in almost every aspect of mental health. I’m always trying to help students with trying to connect that left and right hemisphere — the creative side and the analytical side because most of math is just visual,” he explained.

It’s a brand-new school year at the brand-new school and while this is his fifth-year teaching, Dickerson is enjoying it all.

“I found my calling here where I just have a love and passion for helping a lot of these students just figure out how to get around, get over, try to just circumvent these little, teeny things that may prevent them in their exceptional way of learning,” he said.

“Kids are kids. If they have the right attention and that positive reinforcement and that positive attention, they’ll do almost anything. Almost anything. Even math,” Dickerson expressed.