Welcome to The Dream Team

Introducing A New Collaboration: The Antiracist STEM Coaches

Maribel Valdez Gonzalez

She/her/hers

Victoria Thompson

She/her/hers

We are STEM Integration Transformation Coaches at Technology Access Foundation and education consultants with a passion for innovating teaching, learning, and pedagogy through an anti-racist lens.

Snapshots of Work

Victoria was featured in Microsoft's "What's New in EDU?" speaking about inclusive tech tools for math classrooms in October 2019.

Victoria Thompson explains the importance of using educational technology to create inclusive math classrooms. The video link is to the left.

Maribel presented at the Pear Fair Back-to-School 2021

Maribel Valdez Gonzalez explains why we should be scaffolding more. Differentiation depends on inauthentic assessments that are punitive in nature and reinforce racism in classrooms. Scaffolding is a structured form of encouragement in learning spaces that collaboratively create powerful connections between topics A, B, and C, while increasing in complexity. Scaffolding provides an opportunity for every child to meet learning goals they consent to while differentiation unintentionally creates barriers to growth. Discover why we should be scaffolding content more often in our classrooms and how to scaffold content utilizing a multidisciplinary approach. Find the recording of the presentation here.

Victoria guest blogged for Pear Deck on creating culturally responsive classroom ideals.

The link to view the blog post is here.

In collaboration with Amplifier, Nia Tero, and IllumiNative, Maribel Gonzalez, the originator of the Education Amplifier network, created this decolonized STEM and Project-Based Learning lesson plan.

For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Nia Tero, Amplifier, and IllumiNative have teamed up to launch a new public art campaign to elevate Indigenous land stewardship.

Designed for both in-classroom as well as remote learners, this project-based lesson plan asks: What is the impact on human lives, the land, biodiversity, and air and water quality when we honor and restore land stewardship to Indigenous peoples?

Recently, Victoria spoke on the K12 Engineering Education Podcast about how to build a career in educational technology.

The session was originally scheduled for SXSW 2020 but was cancelled due to COVID-19. Fortunately, the conversation could carry on remotely, where the importance of diversity in edtech was highlighted and the need to have educators--particularly, educators of color--in the tech field to be consultants and advisors. The link to listen is here.

Maribel served as the educational consultant for We the Future.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center debuted “We the Future,” an interactive exhibition that spotlights the inspiring stories and accomplishments of 10 young leaders, icons who are working to catalyze a new era of human and environmental rights through their respective social change movements. The exhibit pedestals and builds on the work of Amplifier’s We the Future education campaign and was co-curated with the Discovery Center’s Youth Ambassador Program, a cohort of local high school students that develops youth-centered programs and organizes the center’s annual Teen Action Fair each March. Here is more information about the exhibition that was featured between October 3, 2019 – March 21, 2020.