Maria Vigil teaches a bilingual kindergarten class at Las Lomas Elementary School in La Habra. Involving parents in their children's education and forming a partnership between parents and the school has been a high priority for Ms. Vigil, most of whose students speak little or no English. She presents numerous workshops for Spanish speaking parents on ways to help their children succeed in school and has been instrumental in developing and implementing multigenerational family programs. "I am bilingual and have extensive preparation in second language acquisition and methodology," says Ms. Vigil. "This enables me to understand and teach my Spanish speaking students while they are learning English." Ms. Vigil was selected as the 1992 California Teacher of the Year.
