NJ Maarif School

Assalamu alaikum, to all our Maarif Community! We pray this post finds you and your families and friends healthy and safe. We also pray that Ramadan is going well for you and that you are gaining all the blessings of this most holy of months. Governor Murphy announced earlier this week that no NJ schools will reopen before the end of the school year. We all miss our students very much and pray that in'sha'Allah we are all reunited in the fall semester. In these strange and unprecendented times, we want to make sure that our children are not unduly affected by the uncertainty and fear that surrounds the pandemic. As adults, it is out job to comfort and guide our children. Here is an article from the  Healthy Children blog  to help us all navigate at home. Here are some of the highlights of the article: Since our children look to us for answers, it's vital that we talk to them honestly about the pandemic. Whatever they can imagine may be far worse and scary than the...

Subhanallah! These are certainly strange times. Many of us are struggling with the stressors of having everyone at home all. the. time. We are cooking every meal and doing sinks full of dishes. We are trying to work from home or worrying about finances if we are unable to work. And perhaps most challenging, we are having to help our kids keep up with their schoolwork and learn new skills.   In’sha’Allah the following are some tips that may help to alleviate some stress from your lives. Bear in mind that there are many scenarios. No one solution or idea will fit every family. The number of children will vary. Issues in multiple kid homes like sharing devices for schoolwork, having so many people underfoot, and juggling the needs of so many different personalities will differ greatly from single kid homes. There the issue might be loneliness for the child or having no one to play with because friends and cousins are locked down in their own homes. See which ideas are helpf...

Assalamu  alaikum, I hope this message finds you all in the best of health and safety and I pray that Allah brings us all through this difficult time in the best state in'sha'Allah. The situation was very hard at the beginning, especially for us as teachers when the authorities made the decision for a statewide school closure. However, it was only through the amazing, hard work and effort of our administration that we as teachers were able to handle and manage this huge change. Not only did our wonderful administrative staff help prepare for this, they managed to do so in a very short time. They equipped any teacher and any family with computers if needed to allow everyone to have the proper access to our new learning environment. It goes without saying how challenging these times are for all of us; I personally have never experienced anything similar to this situation in my entire 24 years of teaching. Of course, being able to have the students physically with us as t...

Happy Sunday to everyone! As we enter week four of Maarif Online , I wanted to share this article  with you from Star Ledger education correspondent, Adam Clark. It serves as a reminder that all of our students across the state and even globally are dealing with the same issues and problems. As you know, we at Maarif take our amana to educate the next generation very seriously. Because of this, we have been paying close attention to what other schools have been doing to gauge our efforts and to see where we could improve in our delivery of services. We began planning more than a week before the closure requesting "gmail" addresses, planning teacher workshops on online methods led by Mr. Wright, and talking to our teachers about what virtual instruction would look like. We were fortunate that when we changed curriculum two years ago, we had the foresight to add digital access to all our core textbooks. While many teachers had no need to use them prior to the closure, th...

Bu yazıyı sadece bir Maarif çalışanı olarak değil içinde bulunmaktan onur, gurur ve mutluluk duyduğum Maarif ailesinin bir üyesi olarak yazmak istedim. Sevgili müdüremizi daha önce dost meclislerinde tanımıştım. Onun Maarif School’un müdüresi olduğunu öğrendiğimde çocuklarımı bu okula gönderme konusunda hiç tereddüt yaşamadım çünkü onun bu işi layıkıyla yapacağına hiç şüphem yoktu. Sonrasında Sr. Pam’i ve diğer eğitim kadrosunu tanıdıkça ne kadar isabetli bir karar aldığımıza şükrettim. İçinde bulunduğumuz bu zor şartlar altında göstermiş oldukları basiret taktire şayan. Bu takımın içinde yer almaktan duyduğum gururu anlatacak kelime bulmakta zorlanıyorum. Allah hepinizden razı olsun. Translation: I wanted to write this blog post not only as a Maarif employee, but also as a proud and happy member of the Maarif family. I had met Sr. Ozlem in our community. When I found out she was the principal of Maarif School, I had no hesitation in sending my children to this school because I had ...

What does online school look like for me? - Online schooling looks like dedicating one subject to each day of the week. - Online schooling looks like sending out 3 reminders a day for work that is due via three different modes of communication (i.e. Google Classroom posts, emails, and direct messages) - Online schooling looks walking away from my computer for 10 minutes and coming back to 11 more emails. - Online schooling looks like 5 of those 11 emails being just about how to use a computer, rather than what the actual assignment is asking. - Online schooling looks like spending hours recording my lessons as videos to send to the kids. - Online schooling looks like spending more hours of lesson planning just looking for different videos and apps I can use to make learning more enjoyable. - Online schooling looks like Live Sessions with the entire class as well as additional one on one time with each student who needs help. I’m sure by now, many of y...

Here it is day three of the Maarif corona-closure. It is our hope that things are going well for all our families. We have been monitoring all classes and assignments in real time with our teachers and are here to support all parents and families in our Maarif community. It is a whole new reality for all of us and we can only get through it well by the grace of Allah SWA and the support of each other. With this in mind, we are sharing several tips for our parents to help their kids at home while they are learning virtually. Remember, the greatest keys to your child’s success is support, guidance and structure provided by you, the parent. 1.        Convey the Importance of Learning and Keeping up with Schoolwork Talk to your kids and convey the importance of keeping up with school and learning new things. Explain that this is new territory for all of us and that we are getting through it together with good communication and patience. It’s not...