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Over the past few weeks, the IRC has asked members of our community to nominate Illinois teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond, and now, we’re celebrating them and highlighting their work. Keep an eye out for these features in the coming months – and if you’d like to nominate someone, email leanet@cntrmail.org.
First up is Teresa Borowicz, a first grade teacher at Dorn Elementary in North Palos School District 117.
Says Anna Majchrowicz, a parent and peer liaison who nominated her: “Mrs. Teresa Borowicz is a very good teacher, always prepared for the school day. She is always very organized and focused on bilingual education and teaching students for whom English is a second language. She prepares school assignments for students every week to build good habits, challenge students with new ideas and knowledge based on individual student needs. She is always very helpful and involved. She always finds time to discuss any concerns that parents have. She is a role model teacher and wonderful to the community. Thanks to teachers like Mrs. Borowicz, Dorn School is a great place to learn and we as parents feel always invited and included in our children’s education.”
When Teresa Borowicz finished her educational leadership program, she wanted to do something different during her internship, so she began to figure out how to engage her Polish students and families. Since she began her tenure at Dorn Elementary in Hickory Hills in 2010, she’s focused on teaching bilingual students English and academics at the same time, and over the past few years, she’s begun sharing her expertise with their parents as well, encouraging them to be more involved in their children’s education. “If the parents are involved, the better the learning outcomes are,” Borowicz says.
She’s focused on really encouraging Polish bilingual parents, working with her principal to encourage them to come to school and get involved, while balancing the realities that many of the parents work full-time.
Borowicz hosts meetings four times a year with the Polish parents in her community to discuss the differences between the American and Polish educational systems, ACCESS testing and bilingual education. She has hosted these meetings online and in-person, and as a result, her classroom parents have a stronger understanding of her work with bilingual students.
As the community grew, Borowicz worked with the parents to find ways to showcase Polish culture within the school community, so the parents pitched the idea to decorate the school for Christmas. The festive scene was well-received, so much so that it’s grown into a way to build bridges—Dorn Elementary has a large population of Arabic-speaking students and parents in the community as well, so with Easter and Ramadan overlapping this past year, they engaged the Arabic-speaking parents to help decorate the school for both holidays. “It was something really unique and enjoyable for both of us,” she says.
Borowicz connects with her parents and school community through a variety of channels, be it speaking to parents in Polish over the phone, sending a message via email or having a brief conversation with parents at drop-off. “Open your classroom to everybody and make them feel welcome,” she says.
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