Mrs. Estela Valdez, teacher

Mrs. Valdez joined St. Cecilia's eleven years ago at the beginning of the 2004/05 school year. In that time, she's flipped our technology program around completely. St. Cecilia is quickly gaining the reputation of having the finest technology program in the Oak Cliff area. Read What's it take to have a rockin technology program? to follow her journey.

Mrs. Valdez graduated in 2002 from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is married and has 3 children, 1 boy and 2 girls. She was born and raised in Mexico, and came to the United States at the age of 16. She has her Texas Teaching Certification on Computer Systems and Spanish. She finished her Master's Degree in Technology and Education from Grand Canyon University in 2008.

Mrs.Valdez loves working with kids and has much experience running programs to help broaden kids horizons. She runs St.Cecilia's Cinco de Mayo program. It is a cross-cultural learning experience in which the kids learn about Mexican culture in preparation for the Cinco de Mayo show. Mrs.Valdez's experiences include: Bright Horizons summer camp counseling, assistant director for Education in Action's summer programs, Youth Digital Lead Teacher, Destination Imagination appraising, private tutoring and she is currently a health coach in the YMCA gym.

Fundraising:
We've been the recipient of several grants that have allowed us to purchase better computers for our lab and the teacher's classrooms. St. Jude donated a new server and we were able to get projectors and laptops for every teacher from Title I.

The computer class is also allowed to raise money with bake sales twice a year. We raised about $180 in each of our sales. The money has gone to support the installing of our new computers and flat screen monitors, and to purchase comfortable chairs. Thank you to all the parents and students participating... there are lots of incidentals to pay for!

Coming up... Game Design with Google!

Contact:
 

Be Safe with Technology
~ Mrs. Valdez