The Founder of STREaM, Inc.

Dr. La Vergne L.Thatch

Academic Experiences

My academic and practical experiences span from engineering to education and accepting responsibility as a teacher of mathematics and Science, respectively. Those experiences as an engineering student molded me for what I would experience in the classroom as the teacher of 30 to 34 students at a time each period. My engineering professors always said that as engineers we are problem solvers. I better understood what they were talking about in my role as a teacher. As an undergraduate student I struggled through some of my classes and was advised on how to study by my mother. Eventually, I gave in and made her way of learning and knowing my plan for success. I tried to apply those same principles to my graduate schooling, but those study strategies fell short and again I began to struggle.
I needed an understanding of self from a perspective of, how do I learn? I did not learn by passively taking in information exactly as the professors transmitted. My accomplishments in school began when I shifted away from trying to learn from structural objectivist approaches to developing constructivist ways of sensemaking and thought. I went home each night and constructed physical models of each problem. This included mostly internal (and some external) dialogues with myself. These experiences in learning are part of my groundwork for teaching and continued academic schooling.

Academic Discourse Pre-K-12

Professional Experiences

I began preparing for educational entrepreneurship by teaching Mathematics and Science in the New York City public school system. Chief among my responsibilities there was planning instructional strategies appropriate to the needs and strengths of my students. One of my proudest accomplishments was the development of a method of progressive questioning throughout each lesson. As I learned about the needs of my students, I noticed greater and more meaningful communication between us. I feel that it was that level of communication that most helped my students to feel confident about learning Science and mathematics. We had developed a relationship where respect for each other was mutual and communication incorporated elements of teacher and student discourses.
Working with these children I realized that my days were long because preparation time was long. The individualized attention these students needed demonstrated that when students come to the classroom unprepared or underprepared it means that more is required of the teacher to achieve success. More is needed in the sense that the teacher’s arsenal of instructional strategies must be bountiful. My attitude and belief in teaching resided in my respect for the profession and for every student I interacted with in the classroom, hallway, lunchroom and schoolyard.
The children I encountered in my first fulltime teaching assignment needed to learn how to socialize in a classroom. They needed to learn about asking or answering questions; they had to learn how to respond within the context of an academic environment, how to make their thoughts public, and how to speak out loud and put their thoughts up for debate or feedback. And especially they had to learn to socialize with me. They brought with them strengths that were conducive to making learning an active process whereby together we were able to construct understandings about teaching and learning that made sense within the context of that classroom milieu.
As part of my administrative and supervisory internship in New York City, I planned and facilitated professional development workshops that informed the implementation of local standards into departments’ everyday lesson planning and instruction. I began each workshop by pointing out to teachers that what they were already doing was employing aspects of the standards, and that incorporating one or two more things in specific areas would ensure both compliance with the standards and effective instruction for the students. We discussed how these added measures would greatly benefit the students and eventually bring us all – teachers and students – to a point where student success would predominate. The responses and results of my efforts encouraged me to learn all I could about providing more effective mediation to educators, especially those teachers or tutors working with students labeled as “at-risk.” That desire to grow professionally brought me to The University of Texas at Austin, where I have applied the experiences and insights I gained during my tenure in the New York public school system. At The University of Texas at Austin, I earned a doctoral degree in Science Education with an emphasis in Physics Education.

Tutoring Pre-K-14

My Public Profile on the STREaM, Inc. Website

Dr. La Vergne L.Thatch

“The Academy was created to serve all learners, children as well as adults. A personal mission is to increase the numbers of students of color taking coursework and entering careers in the ‘hard sciences’ including the most important of those subjects: reading and mathematics. By undertaking this entrepreneurial endeavor, I hope to bring my professional mission in line with my personal mission for the benefit of countless numbers of students.”

La Vergne Lestermeringolo Thatch,Ph.D., is the founder and director of The Education STREaM, Inc. DBA: STREaM Academy.

Dr. Thatch’s academic career has spanned from earning a bachelors of engineering from Pratt Institute (1991) and masters of engineering degree from City College of New York (1998) in mechanical engineering, to obtaining a specialist degree in school administration and supervision from Queen’s College in New York (2000). Dr. Thatch received a doctoral degree in science education with a specialization in physics education from The University of Texas at Austin.

As a former member of the team that created the online version of the Texas Teacher Reading Academies and a nine year teacher of secondary-level science and mathematics in the New York City Public School System (1993-2001), Dr. Thatch feels confident that she possesses the knowledge, skills, and compassion to deliver tutorial services to students in the PreK-14 range and feels capable to work well with their parents, as well.

Dr. Thatch’s teaching career began at the junior high school level, where she was a Mathematics/Science teacher for 7th and 8th graders. She takes pride in the fact that she coordinated and implemented the first successful science fair in that school. Another piece of Dr. Thatch’s experience was developed while working as a mathematics teacher for under-represented 7th and 8th grade students. These students were prepared for the specialized Math and Science high school exam; one of the main goals of the program. During her years of teaching, she continued learning in these areas and developed and facilitated professional development workshops in these areas for administrators as well as teachers. The preparation and facilitation of activities in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) for parents, further allowed her to introduce to parents the mathematics and science curricula that their children would be engaged in throughout the school year.

Dr. Thatch truly feels that learning is a continual process and hope that she can transfer her love of education to students through the STREaM Academy. Dr. Thatch has spent the better part of the past 25 years teaching, learning, and working in preparation for this and she is confident that she can help your child to develop a love of these subjects and skills that will last them throughout their young adult years into adulthood. We, at STREaM, get results because our strategies work and we are truly dedicated to our work and more importantly, to the children that have been entrusted to us.