MLZGMónica Lucía Zambrano GarzaEducational Leadership · Learning Design · Innovation

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP · LEARNING DESIGN

Students take
ownership.
Teachers
have support.

School leadership grounded in relationships—and purposeful learning.

I’m Moni—educator, school leader, and learning designer. I’ve led a grade-level team of approximately 25 staff, supported teachers with classroom relationships and behavior, and designed work students take responsibility for. I care about how a school feels—and how well it works for the people in it.

Meet me as a leader ↓Start a conversation ↗
M.Ed. · Learning, Design & TechnologyHead of Grade Level · ~25 staffU.S. public & international schools

01 / EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Know your people.
Help them do good work.

I listen, learn the context, and build trust. Supporting teachers means understanding what is happening in their classrooms, helping them work through difficulties, and making expectations clear enough to act on.

2020–2023

Head of Grade Level

American School Foundation of Monterrey · Monterrey, Mexico

Alongside teaching Grade 6 Social Studies, I served as Team Leader in 2021–2022 and Head of Grade Level in 2022–2023. I supervised teachers, supported behavior and classroom relationships, and coordinated grade-level collaboration, PLCs, student support, and family communication.

In my classroom, I introduced student-led peer review and publishing, giving students responsibility for their work and for helping one another improve. Art and English-language skills became part of Social Studies inquiry grounded in observation and evidence. Relationships, clear expectations, and shared responsibility helped create a community that cared about learning.

2016–2020

ELA / Reading Department Chair

Briarmeadow Charter School · Houston ISD · Houston, Texas, USA

I taught Grade 6 Pre-AP ELA/Reading and World Culture Studies and served as Middle School ELA/Reading Department Chair from 2017–2020. I worked on vertical alignment and in PLCs, planned virtual reality lessons, and incorporated theater and the arts into the curriculum.

Forty minutes of sustained silent reading after lunch gave students a daily space to read. Across the classroom, I maintained a culture of care: students valued one another, took pride in their work, and had room to grow.

LEADERSHIP BEYOND A FORMAL TITLE

Six classrooms. 74 families.
Trust earned through participation.

I organized a voluntary family community, hosted a 120-person welcome event, and worked through feedback and disagreement as a fellow parent. Without formal authority, I had to listen, explain, negotiate, and earn cooperation.

Family Community · Leadership without formal authority
IMPLEMENTED · COMMUNITY PILOT · 2026

FAMILY CONNECTION & PRACTICAL ORGANIZATION

Leadership begins
with earning trust.

I organized a voluntary family-community pilot across six classrooms and 74 families, bringing onboarding, calendars, a private directory, interest groups, and event coordination into a shared system.

I hosted a welcome event for 120 people with a volunteer team and designed an AI-assisted activity connecting new and returning families within their children’s classrooms. I also helped coordinate a Bioparque Estrella outing and the initial planning for a Halloween gathering that later welcomed 170 people, after my administrative handoff. Behind the events were onboarding, parent feedback, clear communication, volunteer coordination, and a structured transfer of responsibilities.

I was another parent, without formal authority over the group. Progress depended on listening, encouraging participation, negotiating differences, and adapting the work in response to feedback. I had to make unfamiliar processes understandable and uphold a code of conduct, including when conversations became difficult.

That experience deepened my understanding of family relationships: trust has to be earned through how you listen, communicate, and respond. A workable system needs people to understand it, help shape it, and choose to participate.

Welcome familiesConnect interestsListen & adaptShare responsibility

Six classrooms · 74 families

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING · 2022

Coaching and Supervising Your Team

Principals’ Training Center · Teacher Leader Institute Online · Completed 2022

WHAT I WOULD BRING TO MY NEXT SCHOOL

I want to learn a school’s model deeply, help teachers bring it to life consistently, and strengthen the relationships that make it work. I bring initiative, care, and the willingness to do the daily work well.

02 / THE PERSON BEHIND THE WORK

Rooted in education.
Driven to build.

I’m a fifth-generation educator. Education is part of my family’s story—and work I choose for myself.

I’ve taught in U.S. public and international schools, led a grade-level team of approximately 25 staff, and designed learning experiences that give students real responsibility.

My background and values

My family includes a school founder and an international head of school. My own contribution brings together classroom practice, teacher support, learning design, and the drive to make useful ideas real.

I value attentive listening, self-awareness, and responding thoughtfully when things become difficult. My study of coaching and human development informs how I build relationships and help people recognize their own capacity.

I hold a master’s in Curriculum & Instruction—Learning, Design & Technology from the University of Houston. My résumé includes education, awards, and selected professional learning.

Explore my résumé ↗

Mónica Lucía Zambrano Garza

03 / SELECTED WORK

Learning put into practice.

Learning, belonging, and shared responsibility.
From classroom practice to the tools I build.

Classroom practice comes first. The projects below show how I put students in charge of meaningful work and give teachers structures to guide it.

FROM PRACTICE TO DESIGN

Experience that informs
what I build.

Classroom implementation and evaluated work first, followed by current tools and exploratory concepts.

Implemented · ASFM · 2021–2022

PREZKOR Publishing

Student teams create, review, design, and publish together.

Explore the work
Evaluated · 2020

Collaborative Publishing Capstone

A workshop helping beginning teachers create collaborative online magazines.

Explore the work
Activity created · 2026

Common Ground Constellation

Discover shared interests and turn connections into classroom stories.

Explore the work
Lesson designs · 2026

Student-Led Inquiry & Media Literacy

Evidence, perspective, discussion, and responsible communication.

Explore the work

Current digital projects

How I extend my interests in learning, publishing, and belonging through technology. Images are illustrative concepts.

Software in development

PREZKOR

A learning platform designed around student voice, standards-aligned goals, useful feedback, revision, and meaningful audiences.

Explore the project
Published web project

The Villages We Still Have

An Atlas of Belonging: a digital storytelling project about generosity, inclusion, and the everyday connections that make a community.

Explore the project
Further ideas · PREZKits & CommuniTea

Exploratory learning concepts, with more detail available in each project.

Learning concept

PREZKits

A creator-learning concept for families, classrooms, and camps: choose a mission, investigate, document, and publish.

Explore the project
Experience concept

CommuniTea

Shared learning experiences where parents and children explore, document discoveries, and build relationships together.

Explore the project
PREZKOR Publishing · Classroom practice
PREZKOR PUBLISHING ASFM / 2021–2022
OUR
voices.
Students create.Teams review.A community publishes.
CREATE / REVIEW / DESIGN / PUBLISH

Illustrative cover · not a student artifact

IMPLEMENTED · GRADE 6 CLASSROOM PRACTICE

CLASSROOM PRACTICE · 2021–2022

PREZKOR Publishing

Students take responsibility for the work—and for helping one another make it worth sharing.

In 2021–2022, I implemented a student-led publishing system with Grade 6 at the American School Foundation of Monterrey. Students worked in teams, checked one another’s work and designs, and assembled their creations in Canva for publication.

My master’s capstone on collaborative online magazines helped lay the foundation. That work now informs PREZKOR: learning experiences that give students greater responsibility for their assignments and creations, with teachers guiding and facilitating.

My role
Classroom teacher & learning designer
Setting
Grade 6 · ASFM · 2021–2022
Explore the case study

The classroom system · 2021–2022

PREZKOR Publishing grew from a way of working I put into practice at ASFM. Student teams created content, reviewed one another’s work and designs, and brought the pieces together in Canva for publication. Students took on work they could meaningfully do themselves, including supporting their peers.

A reason to care about the work

Publishing gave students a purpose beyond completing an assignment. Their ideas became part of something shared. Reviewing, revising, designing, and assembling the publication made responsibility visible: their contribution mattered to their team and to the final result.

The teacher’s role

I designed the learning experience, established expectations, and guided students through the process. Giving students responsibility created space for me to facilitate, support their learning, and help them make thoughtful decisions.

Academics and belonging, together

Students brought art and English-language skills into Social Studies work grounded in observation and evidence. Combining academic work with genuine connection helped create a classroom where students could form opinions, examine them, and find responsible ways to communicate them.

From capstone to classroom to PREZKOR

My 2020 master’s capstone focused on helping beginning teachers create collaborative online magazines. The classroom publishing system followed at ASFM in 2021–2022. PREZKOR now develops the technology around that approach, including peer review, revision, team responsibilities, and publishing.

PREZKOR · Learning platform
PREZKORDESIGNED AROUND THE WORK OF LEARNING
Clear learning goals↓Visible evidence↓Feedback & revision↓Work worth sharing

Learning workflow illustration

SOFTWARE IN DEVELOPMENT

LEARNING DESIGN & EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

PREZKOR

Visit prezkor.com ↗

More ownership for students. A clearer view of learning for teachers.

Students need clear, standards-aligned goals, useful feedback, and a reason to revise. Teachers need to see the evidence of learning and know where to step in. I’m developing PREZKOR to support that balance.

The idea grows from my own classroom publishing practice: students create, check one another’s work, improve it, and contribute to something shared.

My role
Founder & learning designer
Design focus
Student agency · standards alignment · peer review
Inside the design

Start with the learning

Make the goal and success criteria understandable before students begin. The design connects what students are learning with what they create, review, and revise.

Give students real responsibility

Purposeful team roles and structured peer review help students contribute to one another’s work. Feedback becomes something they use, rather than something they simply receive.

Keep teachers close to the learning

The platform is being developed to make progress visible and support teacher decisions. The classroom approach was implemented at ASFM; the software is a separate project in development.

Student-Led Inquiry & Media Literacy
THE WAY WE SEE THINGS
What do we see?
What do we assume?
InvestigateDiscussCreateRevise

A lesson-design collection · October 2026

DESIGNED · NOT YET CLASSROOM-TESTED

LESSON DESIGN & RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP

Something worth
having an opinion about.

Real questions. Student-led inquiry. A reason to communicate.

I design lessons teachers can use to connect academic learning with students’ lives: how we interpret evidence, treat people, express disagreement, and participate in our communities. Students do the thinking and creating. Teachers have a clear structure to guide them.

My role
Instructional designer & educator
Focus
Student ownership · values · manageable teaching
Explore the case study

The design challenge

An assigned essay can arrive before students have anything they want to say. My recent English lesson designs begin with a question or competing interpretations, let students investigate and discuss, then invite them to choose how to express an idea worth developing.

Three questions from the collection

  • Media and perspective: Can an authentic photograph still mislead? Students separate observation from inference and examine how framing changes an audience’s interpretation.
  • Emotion and responsibility: Are people responsible for learning how to react when they are angry? Students consider competing positions, support their reasoning, and respond to one another.
  • Public words and their impact: Are we responsible for how our words affect others, even when we did not intend harm? Students explore the difference between holding an opinion and choosing to express it publicly.

What students do

Ask questions, examine sources, discuss with one another, choose a form for their response, and revise after peer feedback. Handwritten notes can support the discussion. Feedback asks which sentence made a reader think, which argument persuaded them, and what question remains.

What makes it manageable for teachers

Clear learning goals, visible success criteria, purposeful roles, and structured peer response share the work of learning. The teacher facilitates, checks understanding, supports students, and recognizes improvement.

Across ages, with appropriate adaptation

The current collection is designed for high-school English. Adapting it for younger learners means changing the sources, language, independence, task length, and assessment. Younger learners might compare two captions for the same classroom drawing; older learners can investigate competing media accounts.

FAMILY LEARNING & BELONGING

More ways to bring people into learning.

PREZKits · Creator missions
Concept

PREZKits

PREZKits extends the PREZKOR approach into homes, classrooms, and camps through creator missions. Children choose a role—reporter, photographer, reviewer, filmmaker—and turn an investigation into something they can share.

Design thinking

The proposed format offers six missions, with learners choosing three for an issue. Each mission combines a purpose, creator role, clear deliverable, documentation prompts, and reflection. An interview, photo essay, review, or mini-documentary becomes part of a shared publication.

Choice makes space for different ages, interests, and strengths. Reusable formats let the subject change while learners build communication, collaboration, and production skills. Family-controlled sharing and private publications are part of the concept. PREZKits remains a proposed extension, not a launched program.

CommuniTea · Family learning
Concept

CommuniTea

A concept for parent-and-child learning experiences that combine hands-on exploration, creative documentation, and time to connect. Learning becomes something families participate in together.

Design thinking

I’m interested in designing experiences where relationships between parents grow alongside children’s curiosity—through a shared activity with room for conversation.

Look What We Already Have

This fall family photo and memory studio is designed for children ages 2.5–3.5 and their caregivers. Children move between photography, art, nature exploration, movement, and keepsake-making stations. Choices let them contribute in their own ways.

View the full infographic ↗

The Villages We Still Have
Published web project

The Villages We Still Have

Visit the website ↗

An interactive Atlas of Belonging exploring the stories and everyday acts that connect communities. The project brings together digital storytelling, place, and human connection.

Design thinking

An atlas of the people, places, and everyday acts that make belonging tangible. I’m interested in how we notice, document, and carry those connections forward—and what their stories reveal about the communities we build. Visit The Villages We Still Have ↗

Children’s writing · Two book projects

Writing for children

Alongside my learning-design work, I write for children and have developed two children’s book projects. They are another way I bring storytelling into my work as an educator.

Collaborative Publishing Capstone
Formatively evaluated · University of Houston · 2020

Collaborative Publishing Capstone

My master’s capstone helped beginning teachers create a collaborative online magazine. I designed the learner analysis, objectives, tutorial, and self-assessment checklist, then documented a formative evaluation with four beginning teachers.

Design thinking

The evaluation highlighted the difficulty of watching, creating, and discussing feedback in the same live call. I planned an asynchronous sequence and earlier image selection. This design work helped lay the foundation for PREZKOR Publishing at ASFM in 2021–2022.

04 / TEACHING APPROACH

Connection first.
Meaningful work follows.

Students are people first. I want them to understand themselves, take responsibility for their learning, and become informed, thoughtful contributors to the world we share.

01

Belong

See each student as someone with something valuable to contribute. Help them recognize their strengths, appreciate themselves, and understand why their presence matters to the community.

02

Question

Begin with what students care about. Invite them to investigate, inform themselves, debate, and question assumptions. Make room for curiosity, personal connections, and perspectives beyond their own.

03

Create

Offer meaningful choices within clear learning standards. Students use their interests and strengths to decide how to communicate—through writing, speaking, art, investigation, or design.

04

Revise

Share drafts, ask for help, and seek perspectives that challenge your own. Use feedback and evidence to adjust, clarify, and strengthen the work before submitting it for publication.

05

Publish

Give the work an audience. Students share content with purpose, take responsibility for what they communicate, and see their contribution become part of something beyond an assignment.

05 / LET’S CONNECT

Let’s give more students
a reason to care.

Ready to contribute to a school community.

I bring a commitment to thoughtful educational leadership: developing people, sustaining high expectations, and building trust with families.

Educational Leadership · Learning Design · Innovation

Let’s discuss the leadership your learning community needs.

Email Mónica ↗

View résumé ↗

Based in Monterrey, Mexico. Open to international opportunities.
Start date and longer-term availability open for discussion.