Sarah Bernadette Ottow: Educator, Author & Eduprenuer

Sarah presenting on her Language Lens® approach at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Sarah Bernadette Ottow is a voluntary multilingual and a lifelong learner of the world. Having taught all ages including adults in the US and internationally, Sarah is passionate about sharing her Language Lens® approach to make sure all learning spaces are accessible, engaging and inclusive. Sarah's work focuses on improving outcomes by reinforcing relationship skills and value-identification of diverse populations within systems. Certified in PK-12 ESL and Bilingual Education, Reading and Grades 1-8 with leadership certificates in coaching and diversity/inclusion, Sarah leads her organization, Confianza, to promote equity, language and literacy in schools and she is the author of The Language Lens for Content Classrooms: A Guidebook for Teachers, Coaches and Leaders, 1st Edition and 2nd Edition and the creator/facilitator of The Language Lens Academy.

“Sarah is a true champion for change; a champion for ALL learners. With your guidance, we’ve studied who children are as individual learners and discovered that accessibility means something different to each one of them. We’ve learned how to coach their teachers in becoming educators who reflect on their own practice and adapt lessons to ensure they are culturally and linguistically relevant. ”

— COACHES AT SALEM PUBLIC SCHOOLS, MA

EQUITY ・ LANGUAGE ・ LITERACY

Founded, by Sarah, Confianza supports cultural understanding, communication, and collaboration through professional learning programs. With tailored coaching, practical guidance, and world-class content, we positively impact educators and students.

“As an ESL student who now sits in the superintendent’s office, I appreciate Confianza’s conscious effort to move practitioners towards a Language Lens. Sarah and her team help educators get to know their students culturally and linguistically, while providing a very comprehensive set of competencies that support language learners in content classrooms.”

— VICTOR F. CAPELLAN, FORMER SUPERINTENDENT, CENTRAL FALLS, RI

Press & Highlights

    • Masters of Science in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in social justice in urban education studying under Dr. Martin Haberman, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, 2003

    • Two-time recipient of the AmeriCorps Award for National and Community Service as a classroom teacher in urban classrooms

    • Teaching certificates in general education, English as a Second Language (ESL), bilingual education (Spanish), and reading

    • Certificate in Instructional Mentoring from New Teacher Center/Southeastern WI New Teacher Project and facilitator of trainings for new teachers and mentors

    • Former Director of Worcester ELL Teacher Residency Masters in ESL Program under Race to the Top

    • Former Lead of Bill & Melinda Gates Professional Development Redesign Project: ELL Teacher Leadership Network

    • Leadership Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell

  • Sarah's accomplishments and accolades include being an invited speaker for:

    • Harvard Graduate School of Education's first English Learners Leadership Summit

    • John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts Teaching Artist Retreat

    • Colorado TESOL

    • Center for Applied Linguistics

    • NearPod's formative assessment webinar series

    • National Center on Deaf-Blindness for support on cultural responsiveness

    • VirtuEL's virtual conferences

    • Center for Applied Linguistic's Education Connections

    • New York City Special Education Collaborative's Conference on The Intersection of Equity and Inclusion

    • Saudi Khabrat Scholar Program at Kansas State University

    • Special Education ACCEPT Collaborative

    • National Association of English Learner Program Administrators (NAELPA)

    • The School Administrators of Iowa Conference

    • South Carolina Multilingual Learner Program Conference

    • Arkansas Department of Education Summit and ARKTESOL

    Sarah has also given conference presentations at:

    • ASCD

    • Learning Forward

    • National Service Learning Conference

    • Blended and Personalized Learning Conference

    • Educational Collaborative of International Education Multilingual Learning in International Education

    • Wisconsin State Reading Association

    • Rethinking Schools' Anti-Bias Anti-Racist Teaching Conference

    • WiTESOL

    • WIDA

    • MATSOL

    Sarah has also been invited as a national expert for English Learners for iCivics Advisory Board under Justice Sonia Sotomayor's civics education initiative.

    In 2018, Confianza was nominated for the Boston Area’s US Small Business Administration's Woman Small Business of the Year with Sarah as Founder and CEO.

    Aside from consulting directly with schools and districts, Sarah has consulted for the WIDA Consortium, the Center for Applied Linguistics with WestEd, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and has facilitated the ELL Teacher Leader Team of FabFive Squadsters and resource collection for Teaching Channel's ELL Deep Dive, including the featuring of key Confianza clients' classrooms that have been filmed and shared around the world.

    Aside from her career in education, Sarah has worked as a summer school custodian, a motel housekeeper, an interpreter for yoga classes, a factory picker, a restaurant server, a hostess, a farm laborer at a cherry orchard, and a cleaner for residential and industrial settings.

A little backstory…

It began with Sarahʼs memories of watching a sibling with extensive medical and learning challenges navigate her education, as well as her parents fighting for their childʼs basic educational rights and having to become empowered and educated on the law and holding schools accountable. She started her career as a teacher at the ground level of one of the countryʼs most economically and demographically challenging inner city populations, the North Side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she faced what so many teachers face: high class numbers and needing to support learning, emotional and physical needs of a multilingual population of students in poverty while achieving state and district test score goals. After being the first in her family to graduate from college, Sarah then lived and worked in Puerto Rico for almost two years as a voluntary language learner. This experience deepened her empathy and understanding of her bilingual/multilingual students.

Sarah accrued more experience teaching, coaching and leading in some of the most challenging teaching and instructional coaching situations in Wisconsin, Puerto Rico and Massachusetts schools, as well as more recently across the country and internationally, including training workplace ESL for international business professionals and leading adult literacy and ESL programming. She also has worked closely with some of the most innovative organizations within education and the corporate space. Sarah has a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on social justice in urban education and has not only taught graduate courses for teachers and leaders but also led an innovative ELL teacher residency Masters program under President Obama's Race to the Top initiative.

She has earned a Leadership Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from eCornell to strengthen her knowledge base and support for leaders inside and outside of education. She is also a Teaching Tolerance Certified Trainer (AKA now: Learning for Justice). Within the context of school districts and globalizing corporations, Sarah set out with determination to identify the opportunities these populations presented to the world, learn hands-on with them and attain the skills necessary to address and advance them forward. And with this, she branched out to start her own business, Confianza, equipped with tried and true techniques and tools applicable within schools and companies alike.

Sarah has worked not only as a full-time educator but also as a part-time maid/cleaner, summer school custodian, restaurant server and farm laborer. Additionally, Sarah has experienced outdoor skills training through the Outward Bound program on the Rio Grande and she has earned an outdoors leadership certificate through the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Sarah is the author of the best-selling The Language Lens for Content Classrooms and the the second edition of published in July 2023. Ottow's book was selected for an international #ELLchat_Bkclub on Twitter in 2019.

“We are super appreciative of the protected time that we have had with Sarah from Confianza. It has been great to focus on the continued academic progress and the momentum that we are building here. What a great sounding board in giving suggestions to improve our practice and also feedback to reinforce what is already being done. We believe that any admin team that is not taking advantage of this opportunity is really missing out!”

— SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM, WHITTIER SCHOOL, HAVERHILL, MA

Invite Sarah to speak at your next event!