Judy Gordon
Originally from Binghamton, New York, Judy Gordon was working in a restaurant in Massachusetts when the opportunity to tutor English learners arose. Through that experience, she became interested in bilingual education. As Massachusetts at the time was hiring only native-speaking Spanish teachers, Judy knew she had to move elsewhere to find schools where she could use her Spanish skills. She ultimately landed in New Mexico, while on her way to Latin America. After a long and successful career as an elementary school teacher and a trainer for high schoolers enrolled in the non profit Amigos de las Americas, a summer program in Latin America, she was ready to retire. But then an offer came her way to be one of two founding teachers in a brand new dual-language program at Zia Elementary. She recalls the eleven years she spent in that program, teaching kindergarten, first, and second grades simultaneously in Spanish and in English, as some of the best years in her career.