RatQing Rios on Education:

My Origin Story

"Be who you needed when you were younger." 

I saw that on a billboard early on the road in my career as an art educator. Despite detours and roadside excursions into everything from teaching graphic novels to pre-readers to teaching “Life College” to teens in residential treatment, I have always taught art and social and emotional learning to come capacity. 

I am currently parked in the realm of Restorative Practices, acting as an administrator and community-builder at a public charter school I helped to found on the West Side of San Antonio, TX, a historically underserved area. 

I am a designated Master Teacher in Texas, certified in Special Education, ESL, and Gifted & Talented with over fifteen years of experience that has grown me into the educator I believe I needed as a fat, frizzy-haired, undiagnosed neurodivergent, Tejane kid with coke-bottle glasses, clutching her notebook, hopeful this will be the year she might see herself reflected in an adult around her.