ISLA’s 5th Annual Professional Development Week

A practical look at how schools build a strong start to the year during the first 90 days. Participants examine onboarding routines, family-communication touchpoints, and early-warning indicators of student disengagement, then design a 90-day plan for their own building or classroom.

Learning Objectives

• Design a day-by-day onboarding and orientation calendar for new and returning students
• Establish consistent, proactive communication touchpoints with families
• Identify early indicators of disengagement and matching intervention steps
• Align onboarding practices to school-wide attendance and retention goals

Dr. Zainab Abdul-Qaabidh

Founder & Executive Director, Amir Institute

Dr. Zainab Abdul-Qaabidh is a dedicated educational leader and systemic change maker. A recent North Carolina State University PhD graduate in Educational Leadership, Policy and Human Development, she focuses on improving education and lifelong opportunities for Muslim and underserved populations. Her background includes over 30 years of hands-on experience as a licensed Special Education teacher, Principal, and Superintendent in New York and North Carolina. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Amir Institute and Founder and CEO of Educaterers LLC.

A foundational session on building a safe, respectful classroom climate. Participants learn to distinguish bullying from ordinary peer conflict, apply prevention routines, and use consistent reporting and response protocols.

Learning Objectives

• Distinguish bullying behavior from typical peer conflict
• Implement daily and weekly prevention routines in the classroom
• Apply consistent de-escalation and incident-reporting protocols
• Build peer-support structures that reinforce a positive classroom climate

Rana Khalaf

Leadership Coach & Principal Consultant, Global Educational Excellence

Rana Khalaf is an educator, school leader, and community advocate with a Master's in Educational Psychology from the University of Alabama and a postgraduate degree in School Administration from Eastern Michigan University. As founding Principal of Frontier International Academy in Warren, Michigan, she led the school to statewide recognition for academic excellence. She now serves as a Leadership Coach and Principal Consultant for Global Educational Excellence, and as a speaker with the Family and Youth Institute.

A culturally responsive pedagogy session focused on connecting students' everyday experiences and background knowledge to academic content. Participants practice designing lesson hooks and scaffolds that make instruction more relevant and accessible for all learners.

Learning Objectives

• Use students' background knowledge and experiences to scaffold new content
• Design relevance-based lesson openers that increase engagement
• Strengthen family-school connections that reinforce classroom learning
• Differentiate instruction based on students' prior knowledge and experience

Youssef Mekawy

Imam & Career Coach, University of Missouri–Kansas City

Imam Youssef Mekawy is a dedicated Da'wah leader with nearly a decade of service, from his early years as an Assistant Imam in Iowa to his role as an Imam and Youth Director in Kansas City. He holds a four-year degree from Al-Azhar University, a second Bachelor's in Human Resources Management, and an MBA in organizational development and coaching. He currently serves as a Career Coach at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and founded Ummah Career Lab to empower Muslim youth through mentorship and career development workshops.

This workshop explores what character is, why it matters, and how strong character can be intentionally developed through consistent guidance, modeling, and meaningful relationships. Participants examine a practical tarbiyah framework for cultivating character in students, beginning with the educator's own personal growth.

Learning Objectives

• Design brief daily or weekly routines that reinforce character and life-skill habits
• Embed these routines into existing lesson transitions and classroom procedures
• Track student growth using simple, non-academic observation indicators
• Connect character-building routines to broader classroom-management systems

Omar Chatila

Executive Director, Straight Path Academy

Omar Chatila is the Executive Director of Straight Path Academy, a national nonprofit dedicated to advancing Islamic education through professional development, accreditation support, strategic planning, and educational resources. He previously served as a principal of Islamic schools in Florida and New York for over a decade. He has served as President of the Florida Islamic Schools Association (FISA), Vice President of the Council of Islamic Schools of North America (CISNA), and a board member of the Florida Kindergarten Council (FKC).

An introduction to AI literacy for classroom instruction. Participants examine what students and teachers need to understand about how AI tools work, evaluate appropriate classroom use cases, and practice designing lessons that build students' critical evaluation skills.

Learning Objectives

• Define AI literacy competencies appropriate for students at different grade levels
• Evaluate classroom use cases and ethical considerations for AI tools
• Design lessons that build students' critical evaluation of AI-generated content
• Apply AI tools to support, not replace, teacher-led instruction

Dr. Jamiylah Jones

Founder & CEO, Creative Transformations

Jamiylah Jones, Ed.D., is the Founder and CEO of Creative Transformations, a global education consulting company helping schools strengthen leadership, improve instruction, and implement AI-powered solutions. She is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Elhaam Academy, a K-12 Islamic school in New York. With over 25 years of experience across the United States, Africa, and the Middle East, she brings both practitioner depth and systems-level expertise to the intersection of education, Islam, and artificial intelligence.

A session on maintaining balance and well-being for staff and students. Participants learn to recognize early signs of stress and burnout, apply practical self-care and workload-management strategies, and understand referral pathways for student mental-health support.

Learning Objectives

• Identify early signs of stress and burnout in staff and students
• Apply practical self-care and workload-balance strategies
• Understand referral pathways and resources for student mental-health support
• Build classroom routines that support emotional regulation and a calm learning environment

Dr. Ali Syed

Board-Certified Psychiatrist, Founder of Khair Collective

Ali Syed, D.O. is a board-certified community psychiatrist and founder of Khair Collective, a nonprofit advancing Islamically integrated mental health education, resilience, and community capacity-building in underserved communities. He completed fellowship training in Public/Community Psychiatry at Columbia University, is dual-certified as an Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid instructor, and serves as an advisor to ISNA's mental health initiative.

Teaching Beyond the Grade. Assessment is more than assigning grades — it's a means of understanding student thinking, nurturing growth, and responding to learning with intentional instruction. This interactive workshop equips K–12 Islamic school educators with practical, research-based strategies for assessing understanding, identifying misconceptions, and responding through purposeful instruction, and includes a downloadable toolkit of classroom-ready resources.

Nour Abdullah

Founder, Building Blocks 4 Education & Tree of Knowledge Islamic School

Nour Abdullah, M.Ed., Ed.D. Candidate, is an instructional leader, curriculum developer, and professional learning facilitator with more than 26 years of experience serving educators in the United States and internationally. Her expertise spans instructional coaching, curriculum design, literacy, assessment, teacher development, and educational leadership across public, private, university, and Islamic school settings. As the founder of Building Blocks 4 Education and Tree of Knowledge Islamic School, she designs engaging, faith-centered learning experiences.

A practical session on identifying common sources of student distraction and replacing them with active-engagement instructional techniques. Participants leave with a set of routines to sustain attention and monitor engagement in real time.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the most common sources of distraction in the classroom
• Apply active-engagement instructional techniques across content areas
• Use quick formative checks to monitor real-time engagement
• Design classroom routines that sustain student attention over a full lesson

Farheen Mohammad

Director of District Impact, Digital Promise

Farheen Mohammad is a dedicated advocate for student-centered learning with more than 20 years of experience in public education, including as a classroom teacher and Director of Strategy and Innovation in a high-achieving Illinois school district, and later as Director of District Impact at Digital Promise. She holds a bachelor's in computer science and master's degrees in education and in education policy, organization, and leadership. She is the principal of a weekend Islamic school and an 8-year board member of a full-time Islamic school.

An introduction to project-based learning (PBL) as a strategy for building content mastery and addressing unfinished learning. Participants learn the core design elements of PBL and draft a standards-aligned unit they can pilot immediately.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the core design elements of an effective PBL unit
• Draft a PBL unit plan aligned to grade-level standards and pacing
• Use formative checkpoints to monitor and accelerate student mastery
• Differentiate PBL tasks to support students working below, at, and above grade level

Fatima Jan

Founding Director, Fitra Nature School

Fatima Jan is the Founding Director of Fitra Nature School, a nonprofit initiative rooted on 60 acres of farm and forest land, where her approach weaves project-based learning, storytelling, and traditional skills into an environment that fosters joyful learning, remembrance (dhikr), and stewardship (khilafa). She holds bachelor's degrees in Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology, Montessori training from the Princeton Center for Teacher Education, and certification as a nature teacher.