Sarah Ottow

Sarah is a professional learning specialist focused on improved cultural understanding, communication and collaboration with over twenty years of teaching, training and coaching experience. Sarah is the author of The Language Lens for Content Classrooms: A Guide for K-12 Educators of English and Academic Language Learners (1st ed.) and The Language Lens for Content Classrooms: A Guide for Teachers, Coaches and Leaders (2nd ed.). Having taught English language and literacy skills to every age group, including adults, Sarah has enjoyed working in public and private schools, non-profit organizations and corporations across the US and internationally. Sarah has a master’s in curriculum and instruction with a focus on social justice in urban education, she has earned certifications in general education, English as a Second Language, bilingual education (Spanish), reading, coaching/mentoring, and she is currently earning her Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Certificate from Cornell. Sarah has extensive experience as an instructor and practicum supervisor for several educator preparation and master’s programs, all designed through innovative action research-based models for maximum impact and sustainability. When Sarah was the Director of ELL Programs at the Center for Collaborative Education, she led the ELL Teacher Leadership Network for the Professional Development Redesign Challenge with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Worcester ELL Teacher Residency Project in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Cambridge College. Sarah has also been invited as a national expert for English Learners for iCivics Advisory Board under Justice Sonia Sotomayor's civics education initiative. Sarah is a two-time recipient of the AmeriCorps Award for National and Community Service and she is proudly the first person in her immediate family to graduate from college. Sarah is the owner of Confianza LLC where she and her team of consultants support schools and organizations face-to-face and online to positively and proactively respond to increasingly diverse populations (www.ELLstudents.com).