Reimagining Education Through Culture, Tech, and Empowerment
Thinkering Minds with Yaritza Villalba of McKenzie's Adventures
🎙️ Thinkering Minds — featuring Yaritza Villalba
🔗 Join the movement: linktr.ee/thinkeringmedia
How do you create classrooms where every student feels seen, heard, and inspired to learn? You start by honoring who they are — and giving them the tools to tell their own stories.
This week on Thinkering Minds, we sit down with Yaritza Villalba, global educator, Microsoft Training Partner, and CEO of McKenzie's Adventures, a consulting firm helping educators build bold, inclusive, tech-powered learning environments across six continents.
Yaritza brings unmatched energy, real talk, and a deep understanding of how to make culturally responsive education real, sustainable, and exciting.
What We Talked About
How culturally responsive teaching starts with knowing yourself as an educator
Why real-world, project-based learning is essential for student engagement
The power of choice boards, creativity, and classroom transformation
How to use technology without fear — and why "push all the buttons" is Yaritza’s go-to advice
Her dream to build a blended international school grounded in cultural exchange and family learning
Top 3 Q&A Takeaways
1. What makes culturally responsive teaching work?
“You remember what matters to you. If a student feels seen, they’ll engage. Period.”
2. How can educators embrace classroom tech?
“Push all the buttons. You’ll figure it out. Your students probably already have.”
3. How do you start connecting with students' identities?
“Understand who you are — and take yourself out of the equation. It’s not about how you learn.”
Embedded Insights
Culturally responsive education isn’t a strategy — it’s a mindset
Choice = empowerment: Let students express what they know in their own way
Community and family buy-in make or break sustainable education
Teachers don’t need more content — they need collaborative, personalized support
Socratic Thought Exercises
What does your classroom (or lesson plan) say about what — and who — you value?
If students could choose any format to show their learning, what would they pick?
Are we empowering students to innovate, or just asking them to memorize?
Dive In, Dream Bigger
📬 Subscribe to Thinkering Media
🌐 Learn more about McKenzie's Adventures: McKenziesAdventures.com
📣 Connect or collaborate: Hello@thinkeringcollective.org