Wendy Lugo

Background

About Wendy Lugo

I started my teaching career in Puerto Rico. I became a history and politics high school teacher after graduating from college in the year After that I took a position as a middle school history and social studies teacher for 8 years. During my tenure I learned to work with teenagers and address the needs of students in these critical ages. I learned to be a teacher leader and helped my administrators with the development of schedules, documents for school accreditation, educational research, data analysis and, professional development opportunities for our faculty and staff. In 2007, I relocated with my family to the continental US and started a new chapter on my professional career. Working with second language learners sparked my curiosity to learn more about language acquisition and literacy. As a teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools, I was given the opportunity to participate on a literacy development cohort. I learned how to teach reading and writing to primary grades students and integrate English Language Arts into different areas of the curriculum. I spent eight years learning and applying new research and strategies to teach children reading and writing skills in English and Spanish. I also became a Lead Mentor for new teachers and worked to research and implement new professional development at my school to promote literacy. In 2017, I took a position as an ESOL teacher in Prince William County School. Due to a high Hispanic population, the county started training their bilingual personnel to serve as interpreters and translators. In the past 4 years I have been working as an English Language Development teacher, serving as a Parent Liaison on my spare time and using my bilingual skills to do interpretations of professional and educational meetings as translating documents. My work also includes, educate parents on the expectations of the US education system, serve as a lead mentor for new teachers at our school and be part of the school improvement committee. Currently I work as an ESOL/History/Government teacher at a Nontraditional school. This year marks my 23rd year teaching and the rewards from my current position are immeasurable. At the Nontraditional school we help students complete high school and pursue a career or college education. I use many research based approaches to deliver instruction, help the students pass the state mandated assessments and fulfil their dream of having a high school diploma.