Joanna Schier

Hello, my name is Joanna Schier, and I am the new Year 6 teacher at BISC this year.

I am also a poet and a writer. I was born and raised in Poland, and immigrated to the US with a Master's Degree in English Literature from University of Wroclaw, and a Translator's Diploma from the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. I had lived for 3 years in France and over 30 years in the United States where I worked for 20 years as a bilingual teacher in an elementary school. I had a privilege of teaching students from many countries, sometimes having as many as 14 nationalities in my classroom, including Korean, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Albanian, Hungarian, Swiss, Swedish, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Gabonese, Algerian, Mexican, and Columbian students over the years.

I also have a Master's Degree in School Counseling from Roosevelt University in Chicago, and finished several graduate courses in Gifted Education. In addition to elementary school teaching, I worked for 15 years in the Center for Gifted at the National-Louis University, teaching young gifted students in summer and winter enrichment programs. For several years, I contributed articles, translations, and poetry to a bilingual newspaper, 'Polish Suburban News' (currently 'Polish News') in Chicago.

I always kept in touch with my family and friends in Poland, and visited often with my family. Now I have an opportunity to contribute my knowledge and experience here in my native city of Wroclaw, for which I am grateful. I am looking forward to working with your children!