Natalia Heckman
Educational Consultant
Trained in Russia as a translator in English and French, Natalia never thought about becoming a full time teacher, but after her first year in a classroom, she knew that teaching was her calling and her mission. After 10 years of teaching English and ESOL at a public high school, she assisted teachers as an ELA Coach, and served as an ESL/Bilingual program specialist.
Natalia joined Seidlitz Education in May of 2019 and quickly became a sought-after presenter due to her foreign language simulations in French and Italian. During a forty-five minute lesson simulation with Natalia, mainstream educators with no prior language experience speak, read, and write in a foreign language using the 7 Steps approach! A fun fact about Natalia is that she conducted the very first online training in the history of Seidlitz Education in the spring of 2020!
Natalia is the author of Building Better Writers. She also worked closely with Allison Hand to create “Preparing ELs for STAAR/EOC Writing” and “Moving ELs forward on TELPAS” trainings.
Natalia holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Houston at Clear Lake and a master’s degree in school administration from Lamar University.
Read more about Natalia, her experiences, and her strategies on her blog: https://nataliaesl.edublogs.org.
Author Of
Building Better Writers
This resource offers ELA/ELAR teachers an insight into the unique needs of emergent bilingual writers and provides practical strategies to address these needs. Created with emergent bilinguals in mind, Building Better Writers aims to offer an asset-based perspective on writing instruction for newcomers in a self-contained ESL/ELD classroom and long-term ELs enrolled in mainstream ELA courses.
Enjoyed Building Better Sentences! You were simply amazing. Thank you soooo much! —Johanné 2021
I was nervous about the 154 ESL course as a band director, however I am really enjoying it. It is informative, interesting, and the way you are presenting is very easy to understand! Thank you so much!
This was the best virtual PD I have ever attended – well organized, clear instructions, practical, authentic lessons that can be used in my class on day 1 – thank you! — Alief ISD
Talk Read Talk Write was Fabulous! Wonderfully engaging and extremely usable! — Killeen ISD
Featured In
November 18, 2020
• Seidlitz Education Blog •
“…While reading/phonics is a topic of constant debates, syntax is frequently overlooked. Why should we focus on syntax in every classroom? Why is syntax worth our time as we build lessons focused on language acquisition?…”