OUR TEACHERS
Hortense Bakam - French
Hortense Bakam is a native French speaker from Cameroon. She arrived in the US in 2012. As a wife and mother of four children, she has long been passionate about education. In addition, she is a talented clothing designer and skilled seamstress. Hortense speaks English, French, and Bandjoun, the local language of her native region in Cameroon.
Laura Cotter - Spanish
Laura Cotter is from Mexico City, Mexico. She has BS from Metropolitan University, Mexico City and MS in teaching Spanish as a second Language from University of Alcalá in Madrid, Spain. Laura has taught students from PreK to Adults. She has been a Spanish Teacher at the US State Department and American University. She also has been English Teacher, School Director, and Language Coordinator in different schools in Mexico. Laura has been teaching Spanish at Norwood School for over a decade. Laura has worked in curriculum development in all the institutions that she has worked using different best practices methods in Second Language acquisition including Comprehensible input. Laura loves to cook, swim, travel and take walks with her husband Dan.
Fatou Coulibaly - French
Fatou has taught French in Montgomery County Public Schools, at Montgomery College, and at Sidwell Friends. And for more than a decade, she has been teaching French at Edmund Burke School in Washington, where she is currently the World Language Department Chair. Fatou was born and raised in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). She holds a PhD in Political Anthropology from EHESS (Ecole Des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris, France. Fatou founded and led La Farandole, an after school program company teaching cooking and singing as well as French conversation classes for middle and high school students. Fatou believes the best way to teach is to ignite the flame of curiosity in the minds of students.
George Drumwright - French
George became interested in learning French at age 5 after hearing a French friend’s mother calling her children to dinner. This eventually set off a chain reaction of interest in languages: German, Japanese, Cherokee, Lakota, Latin, Danish. He taught Japanese, French, and Latin in middle and high schools for 25 years. George is retired from teaching school but loves to read Latin and read and speak French. He is also active as a church organist and music director.
Eszter Edl - Chinese
Eszter’s breadth of experience spans widely across different cultures and foreign languages: born in Hungary, Eszter lived, worked and studied in China and Taiwan for over seven years before moving to the United States in 2012. Driven by her passion for Chinese culture, she was the first Hungarian student at National Taiwan Normal University's Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, where she earned her M.A. in 2012. She was also the first Hungarian (and the first non-native English speaker) to be accepted to and to have completed the Fulbright-Hayes GPA Associated Colleges in China (ACC) K-12 Chinese Language Institute in China. Eszter has extensive experience in teaching languages in many different settings and to students from various backgrounds, from full immersion summer camps to independent middle school classrooms in Manhattan, to private online lessons, and across ages ranging from elementary school students to retired lawyers. As a lifelong learner herself, Eszter believes in the transformative power of opening our minds to other languages and cultures, and she maintains that everyone can experience and benefit from such a journey.
Rachelle Adams - Spanish (Co-Director, Elevate Education Consulting)
Rachelle is a teacher educator, trainer, and Spanish teacher who is committed to having every world language classroom be the place where culturally-responsive teaching happens through Comprehensible Input (CI). Her passion for language and culture is what led her to the classroom. She loves teaching youth and adults alike, and opening doors to the kinds of cross-cultural dialogues our global community requires. As a committed CI-based teacher and trainer, Rachelle ensures that each of her students is able to build deep language acquisition faster, and have fun in the process. Rachelle has been teaching Spanish since 2003 & has taught Pre-K - Adult learners. You can read more about Rachelle here.
Anna Gilcher - French (Co-Director, Elevate Education Consulting)
Anna is a teacher educator, trainer, & French teacher who is committed to having every world language classroom be the place where culturally-responsive teaching happens through Comprehensible Input (CI). Anna is an intellectually engaged and heart-centered language educator who specializes in teaching French and training language teachers to create a more joyful, effective, and equitable classroom environment. Anna works with her students—adults and children alike—to weave a web of connections, bringing language, culture, story, and learning to life. Anna has taught French since 1993 & has taught middle school, high school, and college. She has also taught French to students aged 2 to 80! You can read more about Anna here.