Our Faculty & Staff

Sr. Meram is the current lead teacher for the pre-K3 homeroom. She teaches the core classes for her homeroom class: language arts, mathematics, science, and life skills. This year marks her fourth year working at Noble Leadership Academy.

Happenstance brought Sr. Meram to the educational field. An avid lover of math and business, she originally had no plans on becoming a teacher. However, a stint as a substitute teacher caused her to fall in love with the profession. Now she cannot see herself doing anything else. She, herself, loves to learn, be around children, and learn from others.

Armed with the knowledge that she is often her students’ first introduction to formative education, Sr. Meram takes her role as an educator very seriously. This is evident in the setup of her classroom. When you first walk into her classroom, you notice the expert way she has divided the different learning sections that the students will be using during the day. Students use most of these sections for hands-on learning with manipulatives or group activities.

Utilizing her strength of listening to the needs of her students, she effectively discovers their educational and emotional needs. If a discipline issue arises in her class, Sr. Meram has found “​that time out doesn't always work for students. it makes students more upset. So something that I have tried this year is that if a student is angry, I give them a couple of minutes to calm down and have a talk with them. Or, I will tell the student that they need two minutes to relax and calm down. This is something that has been very successful in my classroom this year.”

Each year, Sr. Meram’s favorite part of her job is witnessing the growth of her students from the beginning of the year to the end. A lot of the time, the students come to the first day of class in tears, frightened, and experiencing a slew of emotions that stem from being away from their parents and families for a full eight hours for the first time in their young lives. Sr. Meram calms their nerves, wipes their tears, gives them words of encouragement, inspires them to explore and make new friends with their classmates, and reassures them that everything is going to be all right. As a former student who always tried her hardest at all she did, Sr. Meram pushes her students to never give up no matter how hard a task may seem. She “always tells them to keep on trying” because she knows that they can achieve anything they put the effort into. Over time, she watches her students open up and show/develop their personalities, the greatest of all growth happening within the first month of school. She also loves how her students learn to share and communicate effectively with each other in a positive way.

Bibi Fazia Hassan is a 14-year veteran in the teaching profession and a founding member of Noble Leadership Academy. She has been the kindergarten teacher at NLA since its inception and has served for the past six years as the department head of early childhood education at NLA. She also served as a member of the teacher leader team for five years. She enjoys planning, coordinating, and decorating for the kindergarten graduation celebration. 

Kindergarten is a time for new beginnings, for making friends, and for learning lots of new and exciting skills each and every day. In kindergarten, our days and weeks are filled with many wonderful experiences and opportunities for learning and growing. There is no single, correct answer for teaching because everyone has a variety of talents, capabilities, and potential. Education should be student-centered. Each child should be able to maximize his/her potential from a quality curriculum, enjoyable extra-curricular activities, and awesome teaching. 

Sister Fazia's passion in life is not just imparting knowledge to her students, but grooming them to be the best Muslims they can be. She believes that every child is a valued and unique trust given by Allah.

Sr. Manal is the current lead teacher for the pre-K4 homeroom. She teachers the core classes for her homeroom class: language arts, mathematics, science, and life skills. This year marks her ninth year working at Noble Leadership Academy.

Sr. Manal started out as a volunteer in her son’s pre-kindergarten class and loved being able to interact with young children so much that she decided to become a teacher herself. She believes it takes great patience to be a child educator who cares for others and aims to help students grow to their own full potential. Her favorite quote is “Whatever you want your children to be tomorrow, be that person today.” Thus, her classroom educational procedures stand on improving the students’ learning capabilities and encouraging them to engage personally on different levels of skills and activities.

Side by side with the students’ families, Sr. Manal creates an educational partnership program that fosters courage, determination, passion for and knowledge and provides students with a nurturing and challenging educational environment that will ensure every student's academic growth to prepare him/her for kindergarten.

When Sr. Manal runs into a difficulty with one of her students, she makes it her goal to exhaust all possible resources and techniques to resolve the issue. She talks to the student and the parents, looks for online help, reads books on issues, and if need be as a final resort, she goes to the administration.

As a former introverted student herself, Sr. Manal does her best to help quiet and shy students become comfortable in their own skin in her classroom. By talking with these students, encouraging them to interact more with their peers, and establishing a rapport with them, she makes sure that they do not feel left out and thus boost their confidence. She realizes just how vital this is to developing minds in the early elementary setting. These years help establish the foundations for their personalities and how they will make themselves known in the world as they grow.

One of Sr. Manal’s greatest learning moments this year occurred when one of her students asked her if she had both of her parents. “I told the student that no, I don’t have both parents. I still have my mom, but my dad passed away a while ago and that is okay.” The student that asked her was growing up in a household with one parent. Sr. Manal went on to take this opportunity to turn it into a teaching moment for her entire class and explained that there are many different family units that people grow up in. By the end of the lesson, the student who asked the initial question didn’t feel as alone as they did initially.

Sr. Manal believes the best teachers are capable and dedicated with great interest in making substantial difference in the future of children. The activities in Sr. Manal’s classroom are geared to be hands-on, educational, and fun. In her class, you can expect the students to dissect pumpkins, grow flowers, paint, create letter-of-the-week projects, go on field trips, meet community partners (police officers, firefighters, lunch aides, etc.), and much more! The fun never ends in the pre-K4!

Sr. Maha is the teacher's aide for the first grade. She aides the teachers from her homeroom class through all of their core classes: language arts, mathematics, science, life skills, Arabic, Islamic studies, Quran, and physical education. ​This year marks her eleventh year working at ​Noble Leadership Academy.

After moving to the United States from Syria, Sr. Maha began her career in education by volunteering at her son’s preschool, ​Head Start​ in Wayne, New Jersey. The staff at Head Start​ noticed her skills, and when a position as a teacher's aide opened up, they encouraged her to apply for it. She quickly fell in love with helping out the little people in the classrooms. Although a career in education was not her first choice, Sr. Maha cannot fathom doing anything else, especially with students in the early education age range, her favorites.

If you walk into the first grade, your eyes are bound to be caught on the dynamic Arabic language bulletin board that Sr. Maha takes pride in updating all year round. “I love making it look amazing.” Her passion for the Arabic language and nurturing the love and learning of it with her students is the source of her favorite teaching moments each year.

Each year, the majority of Sr. Maha’s students come to her class from homes where the Arabic language is not spoken. She makes it her duty to insert Arabic language lessons into her day with the students outside of their assigned class time. When she interacts with them during snack time, physical education, or lunchtime, she weaves Arabic words into their conversations. By the end of the year, she always feels happy when these students know how to say so many Arabic vocabulary words and greetings, and possess the ability to communicate verbally. Sr. Maha takes great pride in each year’s achievement when the students understand her statements in Arabic enough that they can comprehend what she is saying to them. Although they may not have achieved or can remember the correct response in Arabic, they respond to her in English.

What Sr. Maha loves the most about her job is how she can teach kids the importance of Islam and the language of the Quran from such a young age, which allows her to set the path for the children and lead them in the best direction possible. As the Prophet Mohammed (S) said, "Attainment of knowledge is a must for every Muslim." The Prophet Mohammed (S) also said, "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave."

Sr. Maha is a founding member and has been a part of Noble since 2009. She has this to say: "Just being able to work with my brothers and sisters of Islam in such a pleasant environment—there is nothing better I could ask for."

Sr. Saudia is the current lead teacher for the 3rd grade. She teaches their core classes: language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. This year marks her eleventh year working at Noble Leadership Academy.

Sr. Saudia started her educational career at Noble by volunteering when her own children were young. When a position for a teachers aide in the pre-K class opened up she applied for the position and got it. Since then, she has been a teacher's aide in all grade levels pre-K through 3rd grade.

Becoming a full-time teacher is something that Sr. Saudia believes Allah (swt) was planning for her all along. After several stints as a long-term substitute teacher when other lead teachers went out on medical or maternity leave, a full-time teaching position in the 3rd grade opened up that Sr. Saudia applied for and received. She was able to cultivate the great experiences she had from working with different types of seasoned educators with her own knowledge as a former teacher's aide and a mother of five children (soon to be six) to define her own personal teaching style.

Her experience in education means that Sr. Saudia is no stranger to dealing with discipline issues in her classroom when they arise. Drawing from her knowledge, Sr. Saudia practices a belief that a student should never be disciplined in front of his or her peers. She believes that “just because you can get the feedback from the student right away, it doesn’t mean that it is always the best course of action.” By giving her student who is having an issue time to properly decompress and reflect on his or her actions, she finds it easier to have a meaningful conversation and discuss what brought on the issue and why the student felt the way to deal with his or her feelings in such a manner. Once they have gotten through the issue together, appropriate, age-level consequences are followed. For example, she had a student who was having a difficult time concentrating and constantly fidgeting in her class during lessons, which was distracting the other students in the class. Instead of calling attention to the student in front of the class, Sr. Saudia spoke to the student outside of class and learned that this student had a penchant for drawing. She then provided the student with extra scrap paper to doodle on during class, which cut down on the student’s fidgeting. And when she would call on the student during lessons to ask questions about what they as a class were discussing, the student was still focused on what she was teaching.

Sr. Saudia loves seeing her students grow during the school year; they often begin the year lacking confidence but end the year loving to learn and playing with their peers. “I love that they are so funny, independent, not that moody, and find joy in sharing their milestones with me. It fills my heart. I recently had a student who learned how to make eggs on his own and related the whole tale to me with pride.”

Furthermore, her time teaching has taught her to always be on her toes. When she taught her students a lesson on the use of the encyclopedia, she reflected to her students that they had it much easier in this age of technology. She informed them that students used to have to do long, arduous research at the library, poring over encyclopedias for information, and now they can just ‘Google’ whatever information they need. After hearing this, one of her students raised their hand to say “Uh-uh, Sr. Saudia. We have ‘Alexa’ now, she tells us everything!”

Utilizing her professional and personal experience Sr. Saudia, makes sure all of her students from the shyest to the most outgoing are equipped with the tools to succeed in 4th grade by the end of the school year. From the start of the school year, she gives her students clear expectations of what is required of them for the school year as learners and as citizens of her classroom. She treats each of her students with respect and helps them understand that people of all ages make mistakes and are human. Instead of letting her students retreat inside of themselves when they make a mistake, she aids them in learning from those mistakes with her classroom mantra,“ You gotta be positive!”

Sr. Shofa has worked as the Arabic teacher at Noble Leadership Academy since the doors first opened in 2009. As well as being one of our founding leaders, she is also head of the Arabic department for pre-K3 to 2nd grade. In addition to being a founding member, she is also the staff coordinator for Islamic Day and Hajj Day.  

Sr. Shofa’s teaching career began in Jordan where she taught students Arabic. She taught overseas for 10 years. When she came to America, she worked at Al-Hikmah school for 10 consecutive years.  

Sr. Shofa’s teaching philosophy centers around the belief that teaching isn’t just done in one direction. It isn’t only about the teacher instructing the students, but it's about observing the learning styles of each student and creating a connection with them based upon that learning style. This practice better facilitates the learning process for both the teacher and the student.  

She is thankful to Allah (swt) for the opportunities she's been given and understands the responsibilities that come with each opportunity.  

Sr. Asmaa Sery is the Physical Education Department head at Noble Leadership Academy. She is one of the founding teachers that helped start up our precious school. Certified as a physical education instructor, she uses the Exemplary Physical Education Curriculum (EPEC) that abides with New Jersey state standards for all classroom activities. Several times a year she administers physical fitness tests for both the middle and high school students.

Since she started at Noble, her goal has been to provide her students with the information necessary to make wise fitness-related choices as well as teach them the value of good health. When they enter her class, she motivates the students to adopt a lifestyle that includes fitness and sports-related activities. She accomplishes this by teaching a variety of sports such as volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball, track and field, and various other fun-related games. 

After school, her dedication continues in her leadership of all afterschool-related sports activities. Through her instruction and guidance, she helps our school compete in leagues and programs that include basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and volleyball. Furthermore, she stresses participation in all activities because it is only through participation that we may teach our children to be confident. Physical education is her passion and she enjoys sharing this excitement with all our wonderful kids!