At the 2009 CABE conference in Long Beach three exemplary classroom bilingual teachers will be honored for their excellence, dedication and promotion of Bilingual Education. You are invited to submit one nominee for the Bilingual Teacher of the Year Award. A committee of bilingual educators will select the CABE 2009 Teacher of the Year and two distinguished teachers of the year from the submitted applicants.
2010 Liliana Gomez San Jose USD Liliana Gomez was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, where she completed most of her
studies. She received her Bachelors Degree in Education with teaching majors in Spanish and
English as a Foreign Language Instruction in 1996. She then worked for bilingual schools where
she helped design the Spanish curriculum and students’ textbooks based on the Developmental
Thinking Processes Theories. In 2002 in order to pursue her goal of exploring new cultures she came to the United
States and began teaching in the San Jose USD. After six years of teaching in bilingual and mainstreaming classrooms,
Ms. Gomez helped implement the Two-Way Immersion program for the first time at Willow Glen Elementary. She has
become an advocate, a leader, and a strong asset to the Two Way community. Ms. Gomez has used her experience as a
Spanish native speaker and her strong knowledge about teaching a second language to transform the District adopted
curriculum and adapt it to the specific needs of her two learning groups in her class. Teaching in a Two-Way Bilingual
immersion setting is a constant process of creativity and self-reflection on how to deliver an effective instruction
that makes all students feel successful, motivated and engaged in the learning process.Ms. Gomez’ philosophy is
that second language learning must be a very positive experience, the classroom must be an inviting and conducive
learning environment in which all students have the same possibilities of becoming successful--both academically and
socially. It must be a place that not only allows students to learn concepts but to value and appreciate other cultures.
