Ana Sousa-Martins teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Columbus Elementary School in Bridgeport, where over 60 percent of the school's students speak a language other than English. She has not only helped many of these students achieve significant academic gains, but in some cases they have outperformed their classmates at the school and district levels. A bilingual Portugese woman with a comprehensive understanding of urban education, Ms. Sousa-Martins has provided leadership and promoted multicultural awareness, gender sensitivity and ethnic appreciation among students and staff. In the classroom, she maintains a student-centered approach that incorporates technology, cooperative learning and differentiated instruction. Her Visual Literacy Project has students taking pictures of the neighborhood, writing and speaking about what they saw and displaying their work at City Hall. She is chair of the Grant Writing Committee, facilitator of a Book Study Group and a member of the School Improvement Team. No matter what their native language is, Ms. Sousa-Martin's students are learning from her the language of academic success.
