Bilal Dannoun – Key Factors to Improve Learning

			Man Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala at Emanuel ax manana lm and Dasa
who love what I've met and in iron amine Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala nabina Muhammad wa
ala wila. Early, he was happy he made
		

			the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said kulu Kumara in wakulla lukewarmness Oh, look at all
of you, each and every one of you, including myself as shepherds awry. And each and every one of you
are responsible for those under your care your flock. We all have a duty as teachers, as educators,
as parents, as a boss, as an employer. And so we need to ensure that we are fulfilling our duty.
First and foremost, galley before Allah subhanahu wa Island Hamdulillah, Allah subhanho wa Taala has
blessed me
		

			with this role of educating and teaching for a number of years. In my earlier years, I was teaching
in gatherings like this one, everybody is quiet. And I have to say, Hey, sit down, hey, what's your
name? I'm putting you on the smiley face or Hey, what's your name? You're going on the on the the
sad face? So Be quiet, leave him alone. Stop it, don't do this. Why do you push him for many, many
years, this was how this was the setting where it was all is everybody was cooperative. I even was
teaching privately. And so panel and hamdulillah. Again, I encountered no problems I love teaching,
it was just, it was just any very, very rewarding and very fulfilling for me personally. And then so
		

			panela, I entered into the school system. When I entered into the school system, I was in for a bit
of a shock, because I thought that I could apply all the things and the strategies and the
techniques that I was doing outside of school in the classroom. But quickly did I have to change
that if I wanted to get inshallah huhtala some responses and some results, and keeping the attention
of the children. So tonight in sha Allah, Who to Allah, I plan on sharing with you some of my
personal reflections and insights that I've gained by looking at inspirational teachers, by sharing
with you the feedback that I actually received from students. I've taught from primary school right
		

			through to high school. And I've actually sat with the students and I've asked them this very
question, what is it that makes a good teacher? What is it that makes? What is it that you admire
about the teacher that you love the most? So inshallah Tada, that's what I plan to disclose with
you, in sha Allah hotel. And now, when it comes to the, the area of learning and achieving the
outcomes of learning, you can't just put all of your money, all of the attention and all of the
focus on the school, for example, hey, I send my child to an Islamic school, and they're going to
take good care of my child. Well, guess what your child is also going to be probably exposed to some
		

			some bad apples that are amongst those children. Okay, so. So when it comes to learning, it's a
cooperation between the school itself between the parents as chef Arshad rightly said, and between
the student taking responsibility, these are three main areas that ensure a successful outcome, the
school and the parents the home environment in Sharla. And of course, when it comes to the
community, the community is the third one, what what experiences the students are receiving in the
community? So, this leads me to the next point and that is, what is it that shapes us as
individuals? Who are you today
		

			is a product of three main areas
		

			who you are today.
		

			You have been shaped you have been influenced by three things.
		

			Number one, it is your environment.
		

			What environment did you grow up in? Did you grow up in an Islamic environment? Did you grow up in a
very healthy environment? Or is it a very toxic environment? What sort of Southern was it
		

			People who are your neighbors, your environment, your school.
		

			So environment is a big word. And we need to ensure that we have our children being in the right
environment. I know, for example, growing up in this country, I had certain people that were close
to me move away from the main Islamic environment into more environments that were not very Islamic,
and they derailed, and today, they are still direct.
		

			So environment plays a massive role. And this is something that we need to factor in. Okay, when it
comes to our children, when it comes to the neighborhood, when it comes to the community. The second
factor that contributes to who you are today are your influences. Tell me who your friends are. And
I will tell you, who you are, who you Who are your influences, who are your mentors, who are the
people that you look up to, that's very, very important to factor in. So your influences are very,
very important. And they need to be positive influences. Insha, Allah to Allah. So and the prophet
SAW Selim, he made this very clear to us and the Hadith, whereby if you spend time with a perfume
		

			seller, he's either going to sell you some perfume, give you some perfume, at the very least, you're
going to walk out smelling very beautiful, or you spend time with a blacksmith is going to burn your
clothes, or you're going to walk out the blacksmith with a bad smell. So the prophet SAW Selim, he
said, This made this very, very clean, in terms of the environment. And in terms of the influences.
The third, the third one and, and, and this is another very important player that shapes who we are
today are the experiences that we have had. And so Pamela, these experiences that we have, growing
up really shaped us I know, personally, growing up in this country and Hamdulillah, I was blessed in
		

			going to many Muslim camps, I was placed by being placed under the instructions and under the some
of the best teachers that we had. So again, I say Jazakallah Hayden to my father, to my parents, to
my teachers, and, and that is what really, really helps in shaping who your child will end up being,
and how they will end up being. So experiences are very, very important as well, what experiences
they're having, whether it's camps, whether it's workshops, lectures,
		

			even travel, even, you know, allowing your child to really absorb, okay, of course, within the
constraints and of Islam. So this is something that I really wanted to bring about. Now, what I want
to quickly share with you are just 1010 factors to improve learning
		

			10 factors to improve learning, the first, the first one that I noticed, is very, very important
when you are dealing with children, is you need to be assertive, but not aggressive.
		

			SubhanAllah there were many moments in my beginning of my teaching where you can just imagine young
primary school teachers, young Primary School students, that would just drive can just drive a
teacher crazy, not doing the right thing. And did I scream? You bet I did. I scream from the top of
my lungs. And that way even shocked that, hey, you know, his his screens?
		

			You know?
		

			And so panela I realized over time, that doesn't work.
		

			You can't be aggressive with these kids. They're not it's not going to change anything. So I had to
change my methods and look at what is it that's going to work. So I learned cutting a long story
short, short, that you need to be assertive, that means be firm. give instructions talk about the
consequences and stick to stick to those consequences. So don't think that you're a person who
doesn't follow up on what you say. Okay?
		

			be assertive, be assertive inshallah, who to Allah, and
		

			but don't be aggressive. And this reminds me of the words of prophesies center, who said McKenna
riff officially in Illa Zanna when my Museum in Shai in Illa. Shanna risk means gentleness, and the
prophesize Selim said that whenever there is a risk, there is gentleness, it beautifies the
situation and whenever you remove this gentleness, meaning you're replacing it with aggressive
behavior, okay? It actually disfigures it and makes a situation ugly. So this is something that I'd
love to share with you in Sharla, who to Island
		

			and let's look at the time the prophet SAW Selim when that man Abed when came into the masjid, and
he didn't have much knowledge, and he came and he urinated in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, his mosque, his Masjid and the Sahaba you know
		

			They got very angry, they wanted to get up and give them give him not only a piece of their mind,
but a piece of their bodies.
		

			And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he stopped him.
		

			And then he began to talk to him and educate him and talking through what what he did was wrong and
how these places these massages are places for prayer and for the remembrance of Allah subhana wa
Island. And so Pamela that students that bed when that person just did the wrong thing. He said, I
love you. Yeah. And he, he said to him how much he loves. The prophet SAW Selim Yani so so much and
May Allah forgive, forgive him and nobody else. He thought that the Rama of Allah is limited to
certain individuals.
		

			He doesn't have the enemy. And he went over the heart through gentleness. So this is something that
we also need to reflect upon when we read upon the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. What I noticed works with students is the sandwich approach. The sandwich approach is when
you start with a compliment, Masha, Allah says Allah had, I noticed that, you know, you're you're
doing, you're doing well here, and you've achieved this and you've achieved that. But I want to now
share with you something, which I think is very important. Now the criticism comes in. Now the
discipline comes in. And then he ended off on some gentleness as well. It does wonders, even when
		

			you're criticizing anybody start off with something pleasant, something good, mentioned the
criticism, and then end up on a good note. That's what we want in sha Allah to Allah. And this is
something that has been proven. So my first point is be assertive and not aggressive. Number two, be
creative, be creative with children.
		

			Children get bored very quickly,
		

			you can give them the most exciting toy, what have you that the novelty will wear out very quickly.
So human beings, they love variety. This is a basic human need. They love variety. And this is one
of our basic human needs as humans. So we need to do things differently. Because if you don't, if
you're not creative, and you continue to do the same thing over and over again, the same teaching
method, then what's going to happen, you're going to get the same result. If you do what you've
always been doing, you're going to get what you've always been getting,
		

			you're going to get that's what inside the definition of insanity is this, as they say, insanity is
when you do the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. How could you be doing
the same thing over and over again, you're expecting a different outcome, change your strategy,
change your way, do things differently, so he didn't do it this way. There's no need to shout and
yell and smack the person. Say, okay, that didn't work. I need to now change my way my tact my
strategy with that student with that child. So this is something also that we need to be
		

			aware of. So Pamela, what I learned is there are students that actually have a disorder that is
known as ADHD is that be known I think a DD ADHD which stands for attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder. There are some children that actually have this is a curable according to the Guru's and
the scientists and the professionals. They say you cannot cure ADHD. But can you manage it? Yes, you
can manage it. So do you even know if your students that you're teaching, whether you're a parent or
a teacher, a scripture teacher, whoever you may be teaching, are you aware of the needs of your
students communicating in their language. And you can read up about this, there are symptoms that
		

			students display that show that they have ADHD. So if you might find them, for example, they find it
very difficult to pay attention and you always send them pay attention, pay attention, pay to wind
paying attention, you putting the ones attention, you're getting them in trouble. But guess what,
this child has a disorder, they can't just pay attention. You've got to be stimulating their mind.
You've got to be you're saying creative, you're going to be doing something that that really
stimulates them that will make them respond to you and work with you.
		

			So this is something that you might want to consider. They these these students that Melis pantalla
Eonni, bless all of our children, they have difficulty staying focused, they might have listing
problems, difficulty following instructions, problems with organization. They constantly losing
things easily distracted, fidgeting, always. These are some of the symptoms and this is something
that you can only read about and find out about inshallah, who to Island. The third factor is show
interest in the interests of the children.
		

			show interest and what in what they're interested in. And then that way, you can give analogies, you
can give an hour
		

			ajiz about what your whenever you're trying to teach something that will listen more attentively. I
get the hook back at school. And so Pamela we're talking about I wanted to talk about the importance
of, I think it was about the Sahaba and loving the Sahaba and knowing their names or what have you.
So what did I do in the hook that I mentioned, I found out that most of the students are into
soccer. So I mentioned all that I had, I've got no idea about soccer players. I'm very sorry to all
you soccer player fans or what have you. And so what did i i personally took it upon myself and went
and typed in Google top 10 soccer players in the world and got their names down, written down.
		

			What's the hook back? When I started throwing those names, they were looking at me like that, they
were just staring at me. I was loving it. And then I picked up a few points about each player and
then I started to give analogies and, and and what have you. And at the end of the show, that was an
amazing hook that you gave.
		

			So you know, you're trying to make those connections with the things that they can Jani that
resonates with them very, very important, talking their language learning. So this is another very,
very important point and showing interest when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he saw
		

			a young a young boy who had lost his bird.
		

			His bird had died. So prophesize sell me sitting here ever made my father new hire. He co he gave
him and like a nickname
		

			a pet name he said yeah, about romaine. Oh, oh Father of Romania soccer small Omar Ahmed. Ahmed
masala know what happened to the know what happened to you to your bird? The prophet SAW Selim
talking his language, he's finding out what is it that interests him? What is it How can I and then
look the role and I think Imam Shafi took like about 70 or 100 benefits out of this these few words.
		

			So, so, this is one of the benefits that we can gain that we talk the language of the child, what is
it that interest them? And how can we keep them Yani inshallah, to Allah inspired, which brings me
to my next point, is be inspirational, be inspiration, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And when we look at how did he inspire his Sahaba? Was it just talking about the Hellfire and the
punishment and death. But we know the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he combined between
unhealth an average between fi and between hope, giving them optimism, giving them hope, talking,
talking, talking to them, giving them the benefits of what what are the benefits of doing what they
		

			are doing? Well, I asked my students just before coming here today.
		

			And I said to them, I want to ask them about what inspiring teachers and one of the
		

			one of the common responses was, that we're talking about a certain teacher said, What do you like
about that teacher? And so will that teacher they always tell us, like, they always tell us
inspirational stories, success stories about people who have succeeded in in their Korean in this
subject and where they are today.
		

			So the teacher actually spends a lot of time, a lot of time just inspiring them. And making them
feel really amazing and making them feel confident that they can do it. So if you only get through
10% of your workload, when you're teaching a class, and, and you've inspired them, and you've
maintained their attention and Hamdulillah, you don't have to get through 100%. Because you could
get 100 Plus you can go through 100% of the content, and you've only got 10% outcome. Now I'd rather
go through 10% of the content and get 100% outcome.
		

			So this is something that you might want to factor in to your teaching.
		

			So there's a saying that says, tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, engage me and
I will understand one of the best ways, one of the best ways to impart knowledge and to ensure that
they understand it is not just telling them, but actually engaging with the students, given take
having some conversation with them. So this is something that we need to remember. There are three
laws for inspiration and persuasiveness.
		

			You want to inspire somebody, you want to persuade them remember these three rules. The first one,
they said is make it emotional.
		

			How many times do you remember a story or do you remember an incident because it moves you make it
emotional? Make it move the hearts a bit, and that's what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
would do when he gave them an admonishment one day and the Sahaba and the Sahabi. He said that, you
know, it made our eyes weep our
		

			cuivre and we thought that it was the admonishment of someone bidding us farewell.
		

			So the first one is to make it emotional. Number two, they said, make it novel, make something new,
something that they don't know. And number three, make it memorable. Meaning, do it in such a way
that that we'll never forget that experience and that learning experience. So make it emotional,
make it novel and make it novel present the content in ways that we'll never forget. And that's how
the prophet SAW Selim did it. When the professor Selim was teaching about the virtues of Salah,
encouraging us to pray, what analogy did he use in terms of how Salah wipes away our sins Who can
tell me
		

			the reversal straightaway you you erase it resonated with you, you remember the river, you he he, he
conjured up his imagery of a river flowing at the footstep, or at the doorstep of one of your
houses? And he said solid? And when you pray five times a day, it's like having a bath in this
river? Are they going to be any remnants of your filth? What are the Sahaba Sangha engaging them?
What are the Sahaba? Say? They said no, you know, saw there's gonna be no more remnants of the filth
or the or the or the engaging them. And we see this with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
asking questions and eliciting responses from them. This is excellent way to be interactive with
		

			your your children and your students in shallow Tyler using analogies. And there's many examples of
this. And sometimes, even in today's age, you can use like actual examples, like for example, you've
probably heard of the frog analogy, if you put a frog in cold water, it will stay there. If you put
it in hot water or jump out, if you put it in warm water, and you allow the water to boil slowly, it
will just die. And there's analogies given and lessons taken from that.
		

			Many that come to my mind, but we don't have time now to go through them. But analogies, giving
examples that they can relate to insha Allah to Allah.
		

			And again,
		

			sharing with them, especially when they fail, when they fail, they're going to be really down. And
it's so important to to share with them success stories. You know, for example, the inventor of the
light globe, what's his name?
		

			Thomas Edison, I'm just practicing what I preach here. We're just engaging Thomas Edison. Okay, so
power sometimes you may know, you know, one of the one of the scholars he said, sometimes somebody
would told me a story, or a hadith or something like this. He goes, I would listen to the whole
story. Even though I knew the story before that person was born.
		

			They had a class that had manners I had added. So when the student says to you, Hi, can I share with
you a story, then I go, Wow, another story before you were even born,
		

			you've killed you've killed him, if killed his confidence. He's never gonna, you know, it is gonna
come back to you.
		

			So going back to Thomas Edison. He said when he was trying to give us light, the light globe.
		

			He said I had 10,000 attempts, it took him 10,000 times before he actually made it light, light up.
He said I didn't fail 10,000 times, I just learnt there a 10,000 ways that just didn't work.
		

			It's it's just you know, it's the way you talk to the students. And yes, you're going to fail. And
we all we've all had our failures. We all have our faults. So we need to allow the child to grow and
learn from these failures and Shalom to Allah.
		

			So very quickly. So Pamela, there's so much I wanted to share quickly to my fifth point, get
yourself and your students out of the comfort zone, we're too comfortable, or we allow our child to
be too comfortable. Success begins at the perimeter of our comfort zone. As soon as you're prepared
to get out of your comfort zone. That's when you're going to see the success in Charlotte's Island.
And that, you know, we need to be understand that the there's going to be pain, yes, there's going
to be pain in educating. And there's going to be pain on the part of the students in the short term.
But that short term pain is to avoid long term pain and the pain of discipline, it weighs grams.
		

			When you compare it to the to the pain of regret. You're going through pain right now as a parent,
right? But that's nothing compared to the pain that you're going to go through. When your child is
on the street.
		

			When your child says, I don't like this whole Islam business. You need to make sacrifice for your
children.
		

			Or else you will be crying. And then when you cry and shed those tears, it's too late. You can't
find out
		

			To shift and expect him to take out some magic Hadith, or some sort of Hillel magic and make it
happen, it's not gonna doesn't work that way.
		

			So this is something that we need to keep in mind, we need to teach our children in ways to also
make them independent. And there's a saying that I've asked my students about this, saying they love
it. And that you all know this, give, give man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to
fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime. You could teach them how to do things in sha Allah with Tyler
moving, inshallah, number six, empower their belief system, remove their limiting beliefs, they're
young. And they've probably got limiting beliefs that don't allow them to move forward. So empower
their belief, when a student feels hopeless, they're most likely not ends up with a desired desired
		

			results. And when they don't end up with a desired result. And they have a weak belief system that
reinforces that belief system. So now their belief system becomes even weaker, because they're
seeing the negative result. So be very, very careful not to be putting that child down. Because
they've already got a negative belief. So this is something that we need to do in Sharla huhtala
give credit to children, but again, when they do something, right, give them the credit as well. And
but don't overdo it, some some they go overboard in the credit, they don't leave any room for
improvement, they think they're doing a fantastic job. That's something that you need to be mindful
		

			of in Charlotte hotel. And number seven, make sure that your child or your student is emotionally
fit. You know, we talked about being physically fit, we need to be emotionally fit. I counseled a
lot of students, they come to me and they're in tears, and they have a lot of insecurity and a lot
of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety, do you think that that child is going to learn? Do you think that
that child's gonna focus in their Salah they're not so what you have to do is remove that make them
emotionally fit, give them that given that certainty that they are looking for inshallah, to Allah,
and that will help them with their learning in shallow Tyler. And the point number eight is be
		

			conscious and mindful of yourself when interacting with your students yourself. What mood Are you
in?
		

			And how is your approach? There is a clinical psychologist. He's also a child therapist and a
parent, educator. He's worked with children, parents, teachers, his name is Haim jeannot. He
described the classroom teachers position in terms of the importance and influence in the lives of
children is what he said.
		

			He said, I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather as a
teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable, or joyous. I can be a tool
of torture, or an instrument of inspiration I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal, in all
situations is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de escalated, and a
child humanized or dehumanized.
		

			Number nine, teach through your actions. And that's what chef shed barakallahu li emphasized on and
I reiterate that teach through your actions, your actions, they speak louder than your words. And I
highly recommend to empower your wife, empower your mother, your mother and only madrasa to either a
data
		

			table Araki. The mother is a school is an institute, if you prepare her well, you prepare
generations with strong foundations. You're out trying to make your millions or trout you're out
with hanging out, do it as a male doing your thing you're hunting, you're earning a living for the
family who's spending most of the time with the children. The mother is one factor to shape where
you're at. You cannot give what you haven't got. So you and in in recent study that I came across,
they were talking about is it. Is it the private school that's that's better than a public school
system for the for the children. And the answer that came back in response to private versus public
		

			was that one of the main contributors was the background of the parents.
		

			How were you as a parent, how educated are you? excetera but that's another study altogether. So in
sha Allah who to Allah, let us
		

			be very mindful of this and don't allow the media and social media fear mongering prevent you from
sending your children to institutes to the message it will la la de la isla
		

			I had a parent. Okay, I had a parent or I had in front of me recently. They said they don't send
their children to a mosque for lessons at a fee that they may be brainwashed.
		

			And I said, well, then how else are they going to get their Deen and they don't live in a Muslim
community. I live in a very isolated community with there is just mainly You know, one mesh and I
sit down Have you even sat with the institute? Have you even sat with the scholars? Have you sat
with their teachers and ask them all the questions that you have we quickly to jump the gun and make
these these conclusions about Islamic centers or individuals or almost sajit. And last but not
least, again, it's Richard reiterating what chef ash said. He said do art for your children one
specific thing that comes to my mind as Allah subhanaw taala mentions when levena yaku Luna robina
		

			Milena mean as Virgina with the retina kurata ion, which I met in WhatsApp in a manner that you
actually make this
		

			our Lord grant us from among our wives and of spring comfort to our eyes. So when you look at your
child, you say Rob banner headline I mean as wodgina were 30 at a time your Allah make this child
the apple of my eye, make him the delights of my eye, and he'll become the delight of eye of your
eye when you see him praying when you see him reading. And when you see him doing the right thing.
akula Cody hedges alchemilla hyaluron barakallahu ficam wa sallahu wa salam ala nabina