Nouman Ali Khan – The Person Who Changed My Teaching Style Forever Q&A

			She walks in
		

			first day, steps on the chair
		

			and steps on the desk, stands up on the desk, opens up a kid's book and says once upon a time, there
was a lion that I'm listening to this like, whoa, that's amazing. That is one of the most profound
lessons in education I ever learned in my life.
		

			So you had the law of impact on a lot of people, even me you've had mashallah you have an impact on
so many people. I just want to know who had an impact on you, and doesn't know it, they might not
even know it.
		

			Okay, so a lot of people have had an impact on me, but a person who has had impact on me profound
impact, and Dale has no idea
		

			would probably be
		

			an older female professor
		

			at Delphi University back in 2000. And I'm gonna say three to four.
		

			Long story short, I got a job as a chaplain at Adelphi University in Long Island. So part of the
perks of the job was I could audit any course I wanted in the university, I could sit in the class,
like a fly on the wall. So of all the courses I could choose, I chose kindergarten education. So
these are certified teachers that are getting further education to become better kindergarten
teachers. Okay, so they're all professional teachers. And the person teaching them, of course, has a
PhD in early education. And she's going to teach them teaching techniques to kindergarteners. And
I'm sitting in this class in the back, like I'm just observing, I took this class, like, dedicated,
		

			I really immersed myself in it. And I didn't even know I only took it because it fit my schedule,
right. But I didn't know the impact it was going to have on me.
		

			First day of the class, these will remind you professional teachers that have master's degrees, and
they're working in schools. So they're all adults, they're not college kids, they're all adults. She
walks in, she's older, she must have been 6570, maybe she walks in
		

			first day, steps on the chair,
		

			then steps on the desk, stands up on the desk, opens up a kid's book and says once upon a time,
there was a lion.
		

			And there was
		

			a mouse. That's what she does. And she tells the entire story of The Lion and the Mouse, standing up
on the desk, jumping off walking around, pouncing, she doing all this stuff. And I'm like, this is a
master's PhD level course, in children's education. This woman psychotic, what is she doing? And at
the end of it, like after 10 minutes of this theater, and we're laughing, and we're like in shock
and who expects this. And she goes, if you want to get through the kids,
		

			you have to let your inhibitions go. If you want to tell them the story, you have to become the
story. You have to enter the story. Your job is to captivate them. And let me tell you, the chip the
chip of paint on the wall, and the squeaking of the door, and the rotation of the fan, every one of
those things will get their attention not you
		

			know, a bird flying out the window will get their attention not you. You Your job is not to teach
them Your job is to command their attention. And you will not do so until they have a reason to
listen to you. And they love their stories. So you better become a storyteller. Right?
		

			And I'm listening to this like, whoa, that's amazing. I'm not there. Because her thing was he's a
PhD, a tenured professor. She's not interested in impressing anyone. She's interested in capturing
their attention. That's her goal.
		

			Because that's her job. I cannot do my job of teaching if I don't have their attention. Right,
right. So her entire teaching philosophy is driven by that one focal point.
		

			And I walked away from their life. Let me try that on adults.
		

			Because okay, that worked for kids. Let me because it worked on me in that room. I was listening to
the lion in the mouse and I wanted to know what happened.
		

			So I left because you know, in the Islamic space, it's like when you're giving a lecture you're like
		

			inhibited you're like you become a formal version of yourself. Right so you could be like we could
be chillin talking bro, what's going on? Oh, hold on second. Ended up having that in there. Who want
to stay no who was still?
		

			You put on a person
		

			Oh, no, almost right. And you're super, because as long as no joking matter, it's not about joking
or not joking. It's about, I want you to feel like, I'm talking to you directly.
		

			Right. And I have your attention.
		

			That is one of the most profound lessons in education I ever learned in my life. And I'm very
certain, she has no idea that she gave me that heck, but that is like, it's impacted the way I teach
kids. It's impacted the way I read a room. It's impacted the way I give any lectures, like, while
I'm giving a lecture, I'm actually gauging attention. And as I'm gauging attention, cuz sometimes
I'm teaching really boring subjects, right? I'm teaching like, Arabic grammar, and the sentence
structure of, you know, complex sentence structure and nouns versus verbs and all this stuff. And
you can see some people are zoning out, you can see some people are like,
		

			some people are just kind of on the floor. And instead of getting upset, I'm like, No, no way I
have, I'm failing to capture their attention, I need to inject oxygen back into the room, I need to
do something right now to reset, and come back to this, because attention is more important than
finishing the lesson. Right? So I'm, it's like, you know, like, I'm used to driving an automatic car
in America. But here in England, most people are driving manual, right? So with manual, you
constantly have to keep track of how fast you're going. And when you're gonna break and you're just
constantly in the zone, right? It's like that with me and teaching and I'm, they're looking at me,
		

			trying to understand me, while I'm looking at them and trying to understand them. That's what's
happening. Right. So that would be I think, one of the most powerful influences in my, in my
teaching career. And Allah that's, that's, that's very interesting. It's very interesting to see how
things can be so insignificant at first, but then this actual pivotal learning experience. Yeah,
yeah. Don't underestimate the hikmah. To Bilateral movement to suicide. Shalom says wisdom is like
the lost treasure of a believer.
		

			I know, I know, my Weatherhead Takata. You wherever you find it, you grab it. Right. So I've and
then I realized, one of the other things that came out of that was, I became open to grabbing wisdom
from wherever I can find it. Like I didn't become I didn't limit my scope of where can I get
something from that can benefit me. It has to come from these filtered sources. No, no, I'm
unfiltered. It could be my taxi driver that teaches me a life lesson. I'm open to it. You know what
I'm saying? Yeah. So and that's been a really beneficial formula in life for at least what I
consider for my own growth and to take care of yourself. Right. So that was targeted to you. That's
		

			very nice. Thank you. Yeah.