Teacher Spotlight

The first year of teaching is challenging, but is also rewarding. With many opportunities to grow and learn, the first year’s experience can be most valuable and memorable. We hope our Spotlight Teachers could be a source of inspiration for you! Click here for previous Spotlights.

Mehreen Malik

Dasman Model School
Dasman, Kuwait

Mehreen is a 4th grade special education teacher in Kuwait. Kuwait is mostly desert and the population is settled along the coast. The country is the size of New Jersey. The Dasman Model School is an international school where Kuwaitis and kids from other countries receive an American curriculum education. Mehreen and her Moroccan teaching assistant Khalid have eight Kuwaiti students in the classroom, who are 10-11 years old.

Mehreen gradated from our Special Education Program in 2005, and went to Kuwait directly for her recurrent position. Prior to living in Kuwait, she had many cross-cultural and inter-cultural experiences. She was born in California and lived there most of her life. When she was younger, her family visited and lived in many countries around the world. She lived in Pakistan for two years (her parents are originally from Pakistan), Malaysia for two years, and Indonesia for four years and then in Texas for five years. Mehreen always believes that it is important to be in different places. It will open opportunities to learn about different cultures and religions that are different from one’s own and become more respectful of others. She enjoys traveling and has been to Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Muscat, Jordan and Bahrain while living Kuwait. Mehreen is a multilinguist. She speaks English, Urdu, Hindi, Indonesian, Malaysian, Spanish, and now she is learning Arabic, the native language of her students.

In May 2006, she spoke with the 6th graders at Zilker Elementary School through desktop conferencing. Through the iSight camera and iChat, she answered the students’ questions, showed her travel pictures, and shared many interesting stories. The 6th graders were thrilled to learn that two people could talk to each other through a computer from opposite sides of the world LIVE!

Mehreen will be teaching at Dasman Model School for another school year. After that, she would like to experience living in another country and teaching in an international school. She would like to take advantage of being able to live in as many different places before having to settle down with a family. Mehreen would also like to continue communicating with students in American public schools to expose them about other countries and cultures. She feels that it is crucial for students to see as much of the world through people’s experiences, rather than only absorbing the information we get from the news. She also is thinking about pursuing a master’s degree in multicultural special education.