Patricia Valdez, Special Education Specialist

When Patricia Valdez tells other educators, “Hey, I’m a special ed program specialist,” they don’t automatically know what her team does. In this educator profile for Edgewood ISD, the special education specialist explains the work and why she chose the district.

When she told her story, she’d been an educator for 25 years, 15 of them as a teacher: half that time in science and half in special ed. Her science background, she says, gives her a unique view of how multi-sensory teaching helps “learners who learn differently” succeed. She feels very honored to have been picked as a program specialist.

“I think we’re kind of a mystery,” she says, because people see her team working with special ed teachers, with administration and on special projects. At central office, a lot of people work behind the scenes, supporting directors so they can support teachers and administrators. You may not always see them in classrooms, she says, but they’re always thinking about how to improve the district.

She chose Edgewood because “there is really a lot of heart” among a lot of the professionals who work there, from teachers to administration, and they all have a student focus. She gets emotional thanking the man who hired her into the department years ago. “This has actually been the best job I’ve ever had,” she says.

Carlos Javier, pixelreflex MEDIA’s chief creative officer, produced this video under contract with Edgewood ISD and was solely responsible for creating and delivering it.