Mrs. Duliman, a sixth-grade Language Arts teacher at Creekland Middle School, has been teaching children the necessary communication, reading, and writing skills they need for several years. Inspired by her own experiences, Mrs. Duliman aims to help all students, especially English as a second language (ESOL) students, adjust to life in middle school.
Personal experience as an ESOL student led Mrs. Duliman to having a passion for teaching children, and helping those who need to adjust to life in the United States. Mrs. Duliman’s family moved to the United States from Germany when she was little, and much of her family is originally from Bosnia as well. Once she began school in America, she went through the ESOL student program, which has enabled her to effectively relate to the students who are in the program today. Her ability to establish these meaningful connections with ESOL students helps the students then become more comfortable in a new country or with a new language. Mrs. Duliman also tries to bond with all students she interacts with to make all of the children more comfortable as they enter into the world of middle school.
Inside of the classroom, Mrs. Duliman takes on the role of a facilitator as she encourages and guides her students to find the right answer through their own lines of thinking and their own questions. This method of teaching allows for students to establish critical thinking abilities without letting them come to the wrong conclusions. By having the students figure out problems through questioning, Mrs. Duliman helps students become comfortable with asking questions, which, though seemingly an obvious skill, needs to be fostered at young age so that students will be able to effectively ask questions as they grow older. In combination with her ability to connect with ESOL students, Mrs. Duliman’s encouraging of critical thinking and questioning in her students makes her a great teacher for students first entering middle school.
