My name is Heather Cronin Ott.  I am a special education instructional coach at Benjamin E Mays IB World School.  This is my first year but I have been an educator for almost 20 years.

I went to school at the University of Minnesota (GOPHER NATION!!!!) and am licensed in autism and intellectual disabilities.

As an educator, this is the quote that guides my pedagogy: 

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”― Haim G. Ginott,

I hope my students become life-long learners.