JORGE VALENZUELA is both a graduate teaching assistant and doctoral student at Old Dominion University and the lead coach at Lifelong Learning Defined. He is a national faculty member of the Buck Institute for Education and a national teacher effectiveness coach for the Engineering by Design curriculum. His work is aimed at helping educators understand and implement computational thinking, computer science, STEM/STEAM, and project-based learning.

Jorge is a national presenter, ISTE author, and frequent contributor to books, academic journals, how-to blogs, and webinars. He is also the 2018 awardee of ISTE’s Computer Science Excellence Award and recipient of the Lynn Barrier Engineering Leadership Award for his contributions to STEM education in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In our conversation, Jorge talks about how a lack of confidence held him back from sharing his learning with his PLN. He offers some sage advice about how to get started with project-based learning, and describes what excites him about computational thinking in the classroom. He also shares a productivity habit, a professional goal, and the voices that shape his thinking and inspire his practice today.

Connect with Jorge:

On Twitter @JorgeDoesPBL 

On Instagram @JorgeDoesPBL

On his blog at https://www.lifelonglearningdefined.com/.

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Song Track Credits

Intro: Easy (by Mike Cosmo -- license purchased at https://taketones.com/)

Outtro: Bluntedsesh4 (by Tha Silent Partner, courtesy of FreeMusicArchive.org)