My name is Heather Viall and I am the Grade 5 class teacher and the PYP Coordinator. I have been working at VIS since its opening for the 2010-2011 school year. I have had the opportunity to teach many of the grade levels at the school from Prep to Grade 5 as well as working on math coordination.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and have been living and teaching in Italy since 2002. I began working in the American public school system, but moved to Italy shortly after. I have my degree from the University of Washington, as well as a Cambridge certification for ESL and a Cambridge TKT in CLIL certificate. I was a Cambridge Examiner for 8 years for A2-B2 levels. I was fortunate to have been the lead representative of our school for an Erasmus+ project “We Are a Sustainable Community” hosted by a school in Catalonia from 2016-2018, as well as participating in material creation for another Erasmus+ project that our school was involved in which focused on CLIL in 2018.
I love teaching all subjects, though I especially love teaching math and history. I enjoy teaching in a transdisciplinary way making connections across each subject. I believe in hands-on inquiry based learning which allows for multiple learning strategies giving students the opportunity to strengthen their abilities through multiple methods. I encourage students to look at the world from different points of view and to challenge their thinking to help them become more empathetic and understanding of others. I believe that through this our learning environment is most effective. I truly enjoy working with the students and my colleagues at VIS because we all have different backgrounds and ideas to share and perspectives to learn from.
In my spare time I enjoy spending time on our family farm riding horses and lending a hand to my husband. I also enjoy visiting my family in America and travelling during holidays as well as crafting, baking and cooking. I always enjoy a good puzzle or card game and good conversation.