Greetings! I’m George Garcia, a Education Program Consultant in the Office of Learning Environments with the California Department of Education.
Prior to working for the department, I was a STEAM Instructional Coach in Santa Clara Unified School District. Within my work in Santa Clara, I supported administrators, teachers, and students in bringing highly engaging, cross-curricular learning experiences into schools. I combined my curricular work with my collaborative work in committees designing innovative learning environments in the new construction of multiple K-12 schools. I have also led multiple school design teams in creating their Makerspaces and STEM labs that were unique to their individual communities.
As a side note, I will be in a dual role here in the department as I will be doing fieldwork in school planning as well as leading for the Green Ribbon Schools Recognition Award. I am happy to answer any questions about this award if anyone is interested in learning more.
- I love working with schools to design innovative learning environments that help student's minds, bodies and spirits thrive. I believe the environment is an additional teacher in the classroom and can support more than attention and focus but also creativity and determination. This is an exciting time to be in education because we are developing learning environments that reflect our rapidly evolving world. Students have a profoundly different way of acquiring information and our schools have to be reflective of this change. I love being part of a system that is working toward creating learning spaces that will meet the needs of today’s learners as well as continuing to be relevant for years to come.
Check out my interview on Teaching Tales with Brent Coley. We talk about perseverance, life-long learning , and how we can build grit not just in students, but in ourselves. To do so, we must learn to break out of our comfort zones, to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.