PROGRAM

Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

January 12-13, 2018

7TH ANNUAL ISNA WEST COAST EDUCATION FORUM

Fr iday, January 12, 2018

Rania El-Sioufi is a House Principal at James Logan High School, one of the largest and most diverse public high schools in Northern California. Having been raised in the very act ive New Jersey Muslim community, she has a strong appreciat ion of the role Islamic schools play in our communit ies. Her M.Ed. in Educat ional Leadership and Administrat ive Services Credentials were earned with the goal of bringing Islamic school educat ion to the next level of excellence. She is a strong advocate of ensuring equity in educat ional inst itut ions. Sr. Rania is a frequent speaker about educat ional, parent ing and tarbiya issues in the local, nat ional, and global circuits.

Omar Ezzeldine works at the Los Angeles County Office of Educat ion where he supports development of Transit ional Kindergarten programs across 81 school districts. He earned his doctorate from UCLA in Educat ional Leadership and has since worked nat ionally and internat ionally to support public and private schools in their development, part icularly in the area of increasing student achievement and in developing effect ive school leaders. He previously served as Principal at New Horizon Pasadena and Emirates National School. He is current ly at USC?s Rossier School of Educat ion, where he teaches in the Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Arts in Educat ion programs, and serves on the Academic Senate. Dr. Ezzeldine is an expert in the areas of teacher development, data-driven decision-making, and school leadership.

9:00-9:30 AM

Session 1

Grand Ballroom

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Recitation from the Holy Qur 'an

Welcom e Address from West Coast Education Forum Committee Chair - Necva Ozgur

Program overview from ISNA Director of Programs - Mukht ar Ahm ad

Emcee- Basharat Saleem , ISNA Director of Conventions

9:30-10:30 AM

Session 2

Grand Ballroom

A-C

Opening Panel Session

Panelists: Rania El-Siouf i , Om ar Ezzeldine, Im an Hashem , Safaa Zarzour

A brief discussion of the conference theme: Moving From Good to Great.

Fajr Prayer Lunch Break Jummah/Dhuhr Asr Prayer Maghrib Prayer Isha Prayer

5:45 AM 12:00-1:00 PM 1:30-2:00 PM 3:15-3:30 PM 5:00-5:30 PM 6:45-7:00 PM

Arabic Track

Leadership& Administrator

Islamic Track

Curriculum& Instruction

PlenarySessions

LICAP

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Habeeb Quadri is an educator, author, and youth act ivist . He is an elementary school principal and part-t ime staff at Harvard Graduate School of Educat ion professional development programs. Mr. Quadri is serving on the Harvard Graduate School of Educat ion Principal Advisory Board. He has co-authored five books and published two others. Mr. Quadri is the board chair of MYNA (Muslim Youth of North America) and a board member of CISNA (Council of Islamic School in North America).

Leadership and Managem ent Int ensive Workshop

Karima Diane Alavi received her Bachelor?s and Master?s degrees in History, Middle East Studies, and Asian Studies from Kent State University in Ohio, and Shiraz University in Iran. She taught courses in history and art history at Wilmington College, and history for seven years at Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. Ms. Alavi served as director of the Dar al Islam Teachers? Inst itute on Understanding and Teaching About Islam, and now serves as a faculty member. She has presented at Nat ional Council for Social Studies, the Library of Congress, the Middle East Studies Associat ion, and the Smithsonian?s Freer Gallery. Together with Susan Douglass, she authored the curriculum guide, Emergence of Renaissance: Cultural Interactions Between Europeans and Muslims. In addit ion, she has authored curriculum materials for the PBS Islam Project and the Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Curr iculum & Inst ruct ion Int ensive Workshop

Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

10:45-12:00 PM

2:00-6:45 PM

Session 3A

Grand Ballroom

J&K

Ten Models for Integrat ing Curriculum in Your School

Presenter: Karima Alavi

Facilitator: Sufia Azmat

This session will survey a number of prominent models for integrat ing curriculum within disciplines, across disciplines, and with different types of learners. Ut ilizing resources reflect ing trade and cross-cultural exchange involving medieval Islamic civilizat ion, the facilitator will prompt brainstorming and small group discussion and mapping about how various subject areas can be engaged at middle school, elementary and high school levels.

10:45-12:00 PM

2:00-6:45 PM

Session 3B

Grand Ballroom

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School Leadership and Change Agency

Presenter: Habeeb Quadri

The facilitator will share a series of case-studies pertaining to school leadership and management, involving part icipants in interact ive segments to propose solut ions. Factors considered include non-profit and legal compliance, governance and school board relat ions, and operat ional issues. These exercises will be contextualized within the body of literature that engages and crit iques the concept of change agency as an aspect of organizat ional development.

Iman Hashem is Program Director of Arabic Language at the Occidental College Foreign Language Project. She was a member of the writ ing committee for the Standards for Learning Arabic and for California's World Language Content Standards. Current ly, she consults for the Los Angeles Unified School District and K-12 Islamic schools, where she designs Arabic language programs and supports program improvement in language and culture. She also works at California State University, Long Beach where she teachs world language methods and Arabic. She was the recipient of the Special Achievement Award from the New Horizon System in 1996, CLTA's President 's Award for Leadership in Language Educat ion in 2003, (CLTA) and (CWLP) Outstanding Teacher Award 2012, and the (ACTFL) Recognit ion Award for her contribut ion to the Arabic teaching field.

Safaa Zarzour, Esq. is the Administrat ive Coordinator for the Village of Bridgeview, Illinois. He is also the founder of Zarzour Law Offices, LLC. Mr. Zarzour focuses his law pract ice in the areas of Local Government, and Non-Profit Law. He is the Chairman of the Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Arkansas State University, a Masters in Educat ion from the University of Illinois in Chicago, and a Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University School of Law. He also holds teaching cert ificates from the States of Louisiana and Illinois, as well as a General School Administrat ion Cert ificate in Illinois. Mr. Zarzour is a member of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and a member of the Illinois State Bar Associat ion.

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Ghayda Al Ali, Ph.D. is current ly Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. She earned her doctorate in Sociolinguist ic and Translat ion: English-Arabic-English. Her research interests lean heavily towards News Discourse Analysis of Arabic print media and its interact ion with the western media. She has a strong passion to improve communicat ions and understanding between two disparate cultures of the Arab and the Western. She is the winner of the 2017 CIBER Business Language Research and Teaching grants. She has authored and translated several educat ional and media art icles.

Lina Kholaki has her Master Degree in Educat ion from Pacific Oaks College, is cert ified as an ACTFL-OPI and WPT tester, and has been in the teaching field for the past 20+ years. She was appointed by the Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Educat ion and Aldeen Foundation as a language consultant and coordinator for Arabic teachers at New Horizon campuses. She taught college level at Cal State San Bernardino and University of Southern California. Current ly she serves as consultant and instruct ional coach for LAUSD-Dual Immersion program at Elizabeth Learning Center in Los Angeles, California. Lina is the co-developer of ?Hayya Natakalam Maan,? a landmark program for teaching Arabic language following the modern standards for young learners. Lina serves as president of Nat ional Arabic Teacher Associat ion (NATA K-12), co-chair Southern California QFI Teacher Council ?SCALTC?, and is a recipient of ACTFL Veteran Teacher of the Year Award- San Diego, CA.

Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

2:00-6:45 PM

Session 4A

Grand Ballroom

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Building Arabic Language via Ordinary Everyday Drama

Presenters: Ghayda Al Ali, Lina Kholaki

This workshop presents a number of children's Arabic videos as samples that can be used in Arabic language classrooms. Culturally appropriate videos integrated into the Arabic language classrooms achieves communicat ion effect ively, combining the four basic language skills - speaking, understanding, reading, and writ ing - into coherent work. Introducing such videos in classroom would simulate "real life" environment to facilitate acquisit ion of linguist ic and non-linguist ic elements of communicat ion. Thus, Arabic teacher will be advised how to select suitable Arabic videos (i.e. animations), and then how to make use of these videos in their classroom.

Celebrat ion Banquet and Award Cerem ony

Keynote address - Dr. Ingrid Mattson

Lifetime Achievement in Education and Community Service Award Ceremony honoring Drs. Yahia and Magda Abdul-Rahman

Performance by Minaret Academy

7:30-9:30 PM

Grand Ballroom F

Ahmed Khorshid holds a Master?s Degree in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo. He has over thirty years of experience teaching at the university level in Egypt, the USA and elsewhere. He also has experience supervising children in K-8 grades. Mr. Khorshid has designed curriculum both for young children and university students. Current ly, he is authoring a new book for adult learners of Arabic as a foreign language.

10:45-12:00 PM

Session 3C

Grand Ballroom

G&H

Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language: What Sequence?

Presenter: Ahmed Khorshid

Teachers of Arabic as a foreign language need to teach ALL aspects and skills of Arabic over t ime. Ideally, students should reach nat ive or nat ive-like levels. So there is no aspect, in the long run, that is reserved for nat ive speakers only. However, choosing the most appropriate sequence would make learning relat ively easier, and vice-versa. Determining the most appropriate sequence depends, among other factors, on the difference between learning/ teaching Arabic as a first language versus Arabic as a foreign language. The presenters will suggest an alternat ive sequence to the prevailing one in the field.

Fr iday Session & Arabic Int ensive Workshop

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Sat urday, January 13, 2018

Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

Janelle Scharon, PhD. is a social entrepreneur and internat ional educator dedicated to solving educat ion inequit ies through innovat ive learning and development experiences for teachers and students. She is current ly the Managing Director of Teacher Experiences at Teach for America. She taught high school chemistry and robot ics, and is endorsed as a K-12 technology specialist . Her experience includes over 12 years of coaching teachers and designing internat ional teacher trainings, educator summits, online modules, and MOOC courses.

Ambareen Nasir, PhD. is a teaching professor and researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an educat ional consultant, and community act ivist . She advocates for the educat ional equity of immigrant and refugee families. She has contributed several art icles and book chapters in bilingual educat ion and sociocrit ical pedagogy, and dedicated the last ten years preparing teachers on how to design curriculum using culturally and linguist ically responsive pedagogy, create language assessments, and develop second language and literacy instruct ion.

Rozena Raja is a doctoral student specializing in Teacher Educat ion in the Department of Curriculum & Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has an MA in English & Secondary Educat ion and an MEd in Independent School Leadership. She has worked closely with school administrators in designing and implementing professional development in areas such as Social Emotional Learning, Data-Driven Instruct ion and Understanding by Design. She has also served as Teacher Development Coach with the New Teacher Project in partnership with the New York Teaching Fellows and the New York City Board of Edu#c92d39cat ion.

9:00-10:15 AM

Session 5A

Grand Ballroom

J&K

Using Design Thinking to Integrate Technology

Presenters: Janelle Scharon, Ambareen Nasir

This session explores how students can demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways through learning act ivit ies that integrate technology and align with effect ive teacher classroom rules and school wide technology expectat ions. The session is ideal for teachers and administrators who are looking for school wide policy and pract ices for integrat ing technology in the classroom. The sample technology tools are aligned with the Internat ional Society for Technology and Educat ion (ISTE) standards and Common Core.

9:00-10:15 AM

Session 5B

Grand Ballroom

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Fostering Teacher Growth: Our Biggest Problems, Our Most Promising Solut ions

Presenter: Rozena Raja

In this interact ive session, the facilitator will present latest research findings on teacher learning from the cognit ive and social sciences. We will be unpacking and answering many of the quest ions schools are current ly facing. A crit ical framework will be employed with special attent ion to the challenges and opportunit ies of Muslim educators in an era of Islamophobia.

9:00-10:15 AM

Session 5C

Grand Ballroom

G&H

Promote Fluency to Enhance Arabic Learning

Presenter: Amal Sakr Elhoseiny

Enhancing oral reading to promote comprehension is the ult imate goal that every language teacher works hard to achieve. In order to ensure students? understanding of the main idea and more details of a reading passage, students need to be equipped with effect ive reading mechanisms. As the students? reading becomes fluent and accurate, they in turn have better chances in comprehending the content along with enjoying the learning experience. The presenter will walk attendees step-by-step through developmental stages to improve decoding effect ively enhancing reading comprehension.

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Amal Sakr Elhoseiny received her Ph.D. degree in Comparat ive Studies between German and Arabic language and literature from Cairo University in Egypt. She worked as a lecturer in the College of Educat ion. Current ly, she works as an Arabic and Qur?an teacher at New Horizon School Pasadena and head teacher for Sunday School at the ICSC. She part icipated in the translat ion of the nat ional standards for Arabic and and she designed standards-based act ivit ies for QFI and BIAE. She part icipated as a master Arabic teacher in Aldeen foundation and Startalk Student program. As well as completed two workshops conducted by Startalk/Classroad for blended and online instruct ion. With Hadi/Startalk, she taught Arabic online to high school and college students. She is an execut ive board member of the NATA-K-12. She conducted a workshop for teachers of Arabic and a Nuraniyah workshop for Qur?an teachers.

Sabura Rashadhas more than 20 years of experience as an educator, t rainer, and administrator specializing in school development and improvement. She has designed and facilitated workshops on behavior management, data analysis and assessment, instruct ional strategies, technology and STEM integrat ion, and response to intervent ion (RTI). Drawing from her wealth of experiences as an instructor and administrator, she has worked with Muslim schools, charter schools, and with home-school programs to achieve their goals for growth and excellence.

Nishat Alikhan earned a BS in Microbiology from California State University ? Los Angeles in 2005. She then went on to earn a Masters in Clinical Microbiology from The University of Nott ingham in Nott ingham, UK in 2006. Nishat is a member of the National Science Teachers? Associat ion, the California Science Teachers? Associat ion, and the California Math Council. Nishat is a dedicated, enthusiast ic, hard-working Lower School Science Specialist at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, CA, current ly teaching science to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders. In addit ion to her teaching role, she serves as a member of the Faculty Curriculum Committee, the Social Just ice, Diversity, and Inclusion Cohort, the annual Engineering Challenge and is the Fun with Science Night coordinator. Outside of school, Nishat serves as the Vice President and Special Awards Chair of the Los Angeles County Science & Engineering Fair and is a member of the Judges? Advisory Committee for the California State Science Fair.

Necva Ozgur is the founder and Execut ive Director of MERIT and founding School Head of New Horizon School Pasadena, NHSP. Necva obtained an M.S. degree from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Istanbul and later, an M.A. degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College. After serving NHSP as principal and leading the school to earn Blue Ribbon recognit ion, she established MERIT, Muslim Educators? Resource, Information and Training Center. Necva provides consultat ion to Islamic schools on board training, principal coaching, accreditat ion, school establishment and evaluat ion. Necva serves on the ISNA Educat ion Forum Programming Committee,has served on the CISNA Board and is board chair of Bayan Claremont College. Necva served as a trustee of NHSP, ICSC, the California Associat ion of Independent Schools,andthe Council of Spiritual and Ethical Educat ion. Necva also chaired a committee to develop Islamic school standards for joint accreditat ion with AdvancED.

9:00 -10:15 AM

Session 5D

Grand Ballroom

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Islamic Based Posit ive Behavior Intervent ions and Support (IB-PBIS)

Presenter: Sabura Rashad

Behavior management is a crit ical issue for every school. There are various disciplinary strategies and theories, but none integrate the character and conduct that we aspire to develop in our Muslim youth. Muslim schools need to implement programs that reinforce Quran and Sunnah while incorporat ing the most effect ive research based strategies for posit ive behavior intervent ions and supports (PBIS). What follows is an Adab and Akhlaq based PBIS program developed and revised into an easily adoptable format.

10:30-11:45 AM

Session 6A

Grand Ballroom

J&K

Diversity and Inclusion: But I Teach Science!

Presenter: Nishat Alikhan

In this increasingly disturbing t ime, it is more important now than ever before to teach using the diversity and inclusion lens. For some subject areas, this idea seems easier, but if you teach science, you may be wondering how you can teach science using this lens. This presentat ion addresses the essent ial quest ion: how do I teach science through the lens of diversity and inclusion? Come join us and find out how and access some projects you can implement in your classroom immediately!

10:30-11:45 AM

Session 6B

Grand Ballroom

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Moving Your Board From Good to Great : Three Pillars of Board Development

Presenter: Necva Ozgur

Most boards are made up of highly successful leaders, managers and business people, however, most boards do not reach their highest potent ial in governance. These highly successful leaders are ready to offer advice, guidance and supervision, not realizing that schools have principals and administrators and more than anything else they need experts in governance. What dist inguishes great boards from good boards is that great boards select their board members carefully and cont inuously develop them; they adopt the best pract ices and they create an effect ive board culture. In this workshop we will explore the three pillars of successful boards in order to move our boards from good to great.

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Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

Nadia Katrangi, Ph.D. is an American Muslim scholar with over twenty years of experience in Islamic Sciences. Dr. Katrangi received mult iple cert ificat ions by renowned scholars in Damascus, Syria. Her training in the Islamic Sciences included The Biography of The Prophet Mohammad, Quranic Sciences and Interpretat ion, Islamic History, Islamic Jurisprudence and he Sciences of Hadith (the legacy and tradit ion of the prophet Mohammad, pbuh). She also received a cert ificat ion of memorizat ion and ?tajweed? recitat ion (Ijaza) in Quran. In addit ion, Dr. Katrangi completed Medical School and training in Clinical Pathology from Damascus University School of Medicine. Dr. Katrangi's one of the founding members of Good Tree Inst itute and is a lead scholar for all programming efforts.

Marci Hadley-Mairel has been involved in the Muslim community since she was young. She is co-founder of Al-Muminah youth group and has worked for the Islamic Social Services Associat ion (ISSA-USA).Her educat ional background is in business, communicat ion and child development.

Nacheda Baroud Tizani has been teaching Arabic at New Horizon School in Pasadena for the last 23 years.She has a cert ificate in Early Childhood Educat ion. She is a member in the execut ive committee of the Southern California Arabic Language Teacher Council. She has presented at various nat ional conferences including: American Council of Teaching a Foreign Language (ACTFL), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) East & West and many more. She part icipated and instructed in the Aldeen foundation teacher program, Aldeen Startalk summer program and Al Azhar School. She has also developed language learning act ivit ies for ?Hayya Natakallam Maan?, Level 4. Nacheda has helped to produce instruct ion materials for Nat ional Arabic Standards.She is a member on the review committee for the National Arabic Teachers? Associat ion K-12. She also designed standards-based act ivit ies for beginner to low intermediate levels for Qatar Foundation Internat ional (QFI) and Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Educat ion (BIAE).

12:00-1:00 PM Net work ing Lunch Grand Ballroom F

1:30 PM Dhuhr Prayer Grand Ballroom E

10:30-11:45 AM

Session 6C

Grand Ballroom

G&H

Keep Your Students Driven in the Target Language

Presenter: Nacheda Baroud Tizani

Learning any language requires cont inuous hard work and count less effort , and the teacher needs to be aware of how to keep improving the students? performance using the target language, which will require a lot of intrinsic and extrinsic motivat ion. In order to reach students? full engagement in class,a teacher needs to be committed, skilled, supported and well equipped with a number of techniques and interact ive material.The teacher also needs to integrate games, act ivit ies and projects that reach all students and help improve their performance in all language skills.

10:30-11:45 AM

Session 6D

Grand Ballroom

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Inspiring Students Through the Quran (Part 1)

Presenters: Nadia Katrangi, Marci Hadley-Mairel

Part 1 will provide unique methodology in unlocking the mysteries of the Quran. First , part icipants receive a set of verses and begin a process of analysis that personalizes the divine words of the Creator in a way that they will never forget. They learn to analyze the word-for word meaning down to its ?3-letter root? as well as basic grammatical structure. Next, part icipants are led through a highly interact ive discussion on the general meaning of the verses, as well as the tone, mood & feelings they evoke. Last ly, using the historical significance and context of revelat ion, students start the process of pondering the greater message of the verses and how they can use this knowledge to inspire themselves and others.

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Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

Sahar Hussain has served in the NYC Department of Educat ion for nearly ten years; she has experience in various instruct ional leadership roles as ENL Department Chairperson, Literacy Coach, Instruct ional Specialist , Teacher Team Leader, Professional Development Consultant, Technology & Literacy Lead, and Literacy Educator. Her latest roles are with Hamza Academy, serving as Director of Curriculum and Staff Development, in addit ion to holding a seat as School Board member. Sahar has recent ly been elected as Board Member and Treasurer of Council of Islamic Schools of North America (CISNA); and School Board member of Muslim Center Junior High School. Sahar is the founder and CEO of EDLEVATE | Educat ional Consult ing- that is aimed at improving best pract ices across public and private schools. She has acquired NY State licenses in School District Leadership, School Building Leadership and Teaching Literacy and Language. She holds a double Masters of Science in Educat ional Leadership and TESOL and is an avid Ed-Tech explorer.

Samia Ramzi is the head of the Arabic Department in Al-Arqam Islamic School in Sacramento, CA. As a department head Samia serves as a member of the AIS leadership team where she guides the Arabic department in planning school programs, departmental brochures, speakers, field trips, and act ivit ies.She also serves asa member of the Textbook Select ion Committee, ident ifying resources and materials to support the learning of Arabic for all subgroups of students.She is also an Arabic teacher at Al-Arqam Islamic school for the Internat ional Baccalaureate Organizat ion Diploma Program (IB-DP) for high school level.

2:00 - 3:15 PM

Session 7B

Grand Ballroom

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Build, Engage, and Nurture To Sustain Our Staff

Presenter: Sahar Hussain

School leaders face many challenges when it comes to staff development and support. In this interact ive session, we will shed light onto what makes and breaks staff. Part icipants will be exposed to the how-to?s of: determining staffs? needs, fostering social emotional well-being, different iat ing individual professional growth plans, and creat ing safe and support ive professional learning communit ies in order to build, engage, nurture, to sustain our staff!

2:00 - 3:15 PM

Session 7C

Grand Ballroom

G&H

Step Up to Writ ing

Presenter: Samia Ramzi

Learning how to write is a complicated process since writ ing depends on several processes that operate together (Hayes and Flower 1980). Each of the crit ical steps in the writ ing process must be taught direct ly (Gersten and Baker 2001). From my training of (Step Up to Writ ing), I learned how to have a system that breaks writ ing skills into smaller pieces. Each piece is taught and pract iced separately. Using these strategies in high school Arabic classes demonstrated that not only did it give students a clear framework to write effect ively, but also provided students with numerous opportunit ies to collaborate with their peers to coach each other.

Rasha El-Haggan has 11 years of experience working in Islamic, public, and internat ional schools. As an advocate of student-centered classrooms, Rasha dedicates a large port ion of her t ime to training teachers and leading schools to design and implement transdisciplinary curricula that promote conceptual, inquiry-based methods. Rasha has a BA in English from the University of Maryland and a MA in Educat ion from Johns Hopkins. Current ly, she is the Head of School of Tarbiyah Academy in Elkridge, Maryland.

2:00 - 3:15 PM

Session 7A

Grand Ballroom

J&K

Developing & Implement ing Conceptual Units of Inquiry

Presenter: Rasha El-Haggan

Inquiry-based classrooms move away from the tradit ional model of the teacher-centered classroom where the teacher is the sage on the stage. In an inquiry-based classroom, the students are the center of the classroom and the teacher becomes the guide by the side. In theory, this idea is wonderful and many Islamic schools realize that this is the direct ion educat ion is taking us. However, how do we actually create inquiry-based classrooms? How do we develop and implement Units of Instruct ion that are based on inquiry? This workshop proposes ONE way of helping Islamic schools transform their curriculum to include thematic units that can be implemented with inquiry in mind.

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Noor Ali is a Doctorate of Educat ion candidate at Northeastern University in the Curriculum, Teaching, Leadership, and Learning concentrat ion. She holds an MA in English Literature and an MSEd in Inclusion Educat ion. A veteran teacher of fifteen years and a principal at a private, faith-based school in MA, Noor Ali has also been a freelance writer for popular Muslim magazines in North America.

Ibrahim Yousef is current ly the principal of Nashville Internat ional Academy. He holds a master's degree in educat ional leadership, a bachelor's degree in interior architecture, and is a cert ified teacher in the state of Texas. He has worked with Islamic schools throughout his career, and helped three different schools achieve accreditat ion. He's known to be an advocate of posit ive student relat ions, as well meeting their social-emotional, spiritual, and intellectual needs.

3:30-5:00 PM

Session 8A

Grand Ballroom

J&K

Making STEAM a Reality

Presenter: Noor Ali

As the principal of a school what support can be provided to teachers to make the switch over from the previous Science Standards to the Next Generat ion Science Standards (NGSS). The presenter will help the part icipants unpack the standards for Grades K-8 and help explore the ways the lessons can be created and categorized with easy. As a summer project teachers were successfully able to create alignment between their lessons, standards, and hands on act ivit ies to mindfully engage in inquiry and project based STEAM act ivit ies.

3:30-5:00 PM

Session 8B

Grand Ballroom

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Creat ing a Posit ive Social Infrast ructure

Presenter: Ibrahim Yousef

The Prophet SAW exclaimed that "Al Deen Huwa Al Mu'amala"; Your religion is but a social t ransact ion. This suggests that a big part of being a Muslim requires having social competencies, or being socially competent. To build social competencies in a school, leaders must create a social culture that fosters posit ive relat ions between all stakeholders. Come and learn the strategies and rout ines and rituals that can produce pro-social human beings.

3:15-3:30 PM Asr Prayer Grand Ballroom F

Nadia Katrangi & Marci Hadley-Mairel - See previous bio's.

2:00 - 3:15 PM

Session 7D

Grand Ballroom

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How to Create a Space for Students to Connect to the Quran (Part 2)

Presenters: Nadia Katrangi, Marci Hadley-Mairel

Part 2 builds upon the technical foundations set forth in part 1. Armed with the knowledge of the root words, historical context of revelat ion, grammatical patterns, and aural rhythm of the surah, part icipants are equipped to begin exploring the meanings of the verses in the context of their own lives. This session will provide part icipants a safe space for free thought, quest ions and personal enrichment under the guidance of a tradit ionally trained scholar. Part icipants are encouraged to share their personal stories on how the verses speak to them. Through this process, part icipants realize not just the relevancy of God?s words, but their necessity in navigat ing the challenges of today?s modern world. After deep discussion and exploring real life scenarios Part icipants are reenergized to create spaces for their own students to be supported and inspired at a new level.

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Sufia Azmat is the Execut ive Director of the Council of Islamic Schools in North America. She is a cert ified teacher with over 20 years of teaching and administrat ive experience and current ly serves as the Head of School at An-Noor Academy in Piscataway, NJ. Ms. Azmat is an educat ional consultant whose workshops include Bullying Prevent ion and Posit ive School Climate.She serves on the Advisory Board of Fons Vitae Ghazali Children?s Project and the Board of Trustees of E3 (Excellent Educat ion for Everyone). She is current ly enrolled at Bayan Claremont School of Theology in the Islamic Educat ion and Leadership Program.

Sadeq Al-Hasan is one of the founders of Al-Arqam Islamic School in Sacramento, California. He has been part of the Educat ion Forum Program Committee for several years. Addit ionally, he serves on the Consultants for Islamic School Excellence (CISE) Board. He is also the Execut ive Director of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA). Professionally, he is a Security Systems Test Engineer with the Intel Corporat ion.

Muzammil Siddiqi received his BA in Islamic and Arabic studies from the Islamic University of Medina, Saudi Arabia and went on to complete a degree in comparat ive religion at Harvard University. Since 1981, he has served as the director of the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove, CA. He is the chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America. Internat ionally, he is a member of the execut ive board of the Internat ional Assembly of the Council of Ulama? in Makkah; a member of the Supreme Islamic Council of Egypt and the Supreme Council of Mosques in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Siddiqi served as the president of ISNA from 1996 ? 2000, and is a current member of ISNA?s Majlis Ash-Shura.

5:00 - 5:15 PM Maghr ib Prayer Grand Ballroom F

3:30-5:00 PM

Session 8D

Grand Ballroom

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Challenging Quest ions Students Ask

Panelists: Sufia Azmat , Sadeq Al-Hasan, Muzammil Siddiqi

Samar Ghannoum is current ly an Arabic adjunct professor at Pasadena Language Center and University of Redlands. She also serves as a master teacher for the Aldeen Startalk summer program and a lesson developer for Bahrain's Internat ional School Services. Her accomplishments in the field of educat ion include developing Alarbito Zadi, and co-developing the Loughti Allslamiah professional book series. She earned a B.A. in the field of Arabic Language and Arts at Damascus University. She went on to obtain a M.A. in the field of educat ion and was further credentialed in the field of psychology. She later studied the methodology of teaching foreign language at Occidental University.

Moving f rom Good t o Great : Fost er ing Growt h

Concluding Session

Join us for an excit ing session with a raffle and fabulous prizes!

5:15-6:00 PM

Session 8D

Grand Ballroom

A-C

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3:30-5:00 PM

Session 8C

Grand Ballroom

G&H

Words and Ways to Make Them Seem Wonderful: Teaching Vocabulary in Sunday School Classroom

Presenter: Samar Ghannoum

During the last decades, the vocabulary in the foreign language teaching world has moved from the periphery into a central posit ion. We feel that vocabulary deserves close attent ion and we are confident that vocabulary, including not just words but also orthography, pronunciat ion, context and conjugat ion, is in the very essence of the process of learning a new language.

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