CURRENT POSITION Library Media Specialist, Jaime Escalante Middle School, Pharr, TX DEGREE MLS, 2014; EdD Candidate, Instructional Systems Design & Technology, both Sam Houston State University, TX FAST FACT Quilantan-Garza was the 2022 Texas Library Association Librarian of the Year and a 2023 SLJ School Librarian of the Year finalist. FOLLOW Twitter @cuethelibrarian; Instagram @cuethelibrarian; cuethelibrarian.com Photo by Marco Vasquez

Tech Teacher

Since Karina Quilantan-Garza became the Media Specialist at the Jaime Escalante Middle School library in 2015, she has secured the grant funding necessary to turn a facility that had no funds for technology and a $1,200 materials budget into a vital resource for both students and teachers.

Although students are the focus of her work, Quilantan-Garza has also helped more than 25 teachers earn certification as Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts—and her “Tech Yourself” online, self-paced microcredentialing courses help teachers and staff document how they are staying current with the latest educational tools and technology. She has given classroom presentations and assisted teachers whenever they needed to learn how to use a new tech tool, and has hosted 30-minute “lunch and learn” sessions for teachers at the library. So at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, she was already positioned as the school’s go-to person for tech training and professional development. Tech Yourself took off immediately.

“During the pandemic, when our classes were fully online, I wanted a way to incentivize professional development that was sustainable for my teachers,” Quilantan-Garza explains. Teachers who participate in the program receive digital badges for completing courses and generally have “an increase in technology-integration ratings on their appraisals at the end of the year,” she says.

The Google Classroom–based courses remain popular as she continues to adapt them to teachers’ changing needs. “I strongly believe that librarians play a critical role in shaping the information landscape of the future,” Quilantan-Garza says. “I am eager to discover how technology continues to evolve and how equitable access to new technologies will help serve my community.”