2018/9 Class Notes by AS (female) age 13 – (actual note(s) from student(s)) updated weekly

(actual note(s) from student(s)) submitted within one week of class – Start date Sep 2018

(These notes are mostly unedited and represent a GISLA students understanding of the previous class the attended.) Student attend class on Sunday and submit their essay of what they learnt before the next class. Interestingly, as can be seen below the same class yields different lessons for each student even though the content of the class they hear was the same.)

Students graduate level 1 IF and WHEN they pass the Level one exam (some do it in 6 weeks and some take 3 years and counting…) and students from anywhere in the world can test out to pass and earn the GISLA Level one trophy)

My note of Class of jan 17 submitted Feb 2 by female age 13

My (first) day at the Greene Stairs Academy was interesting because I walked into the class and said Salam and I was the first one to be arrived with my dad and after talking he left then Teecher Ji asked me to sit and meditate to a Woman’s voice saying “Allahhou”,

During the meditation more students started to arrive then I went to go makeup Fajr Namaz and gaved sadja. After that I did the pledge of allegiance and another pledge we had to do, then I had to do a prayer called Surah Fatiha very slowly and a Woman helped me to “Not Eat My Words” as TeacherJi says, then I was forced to introduce myself in front of the whole class and I talked about how old I am what my hobbies are and etc.

A lot of the attention was put on me which I am not used to. While doing that I sat down and TeacherJi discussed with me about my homework which was to say Surah Fatiha very slowly and if I can I need to memorize in english and I had to repeat that multiple times to him

then I sat down to learn about the U.S Constitution and how it relates to Islam and which it relates to equal rights and It was interesting because we talked about multiple topics during that day.

While learning I was asked many questions on the topics that we were discussing and it was kind of hard for me to answer because I didn’t know what was right or wrong .

After discussing the topics I ate veggie pizza and then I went outside to throw the plate away

then another teacherJi came to discuss with us about Allah and how we should love him and be appreciated for our life to Allah then when he left we discussed over the homework which was how the U.S Constitution relates to Islam,

after that I said Allah hafiz then I left and that was my experience at the Greene Stairs Academy.      

Notes of class of Feb sent in Feb 4 by female age 13 – My second session

My experience on Sunday was that I walked into class and said Salam while giving Teacher Ji a few Office Supplies from my dad, then I went to go makeup Fajr Namaz.

After that I went to go sit down and then we did the pledge of allegiance and the pledge of faith then I was getting ready to say Surah Fatiha to Teacher Ji.

After saying Surah Fatiha to Teacher Ji  he wanted me to do it fast so I practiced and then did it fast. After that we all sat in a circle because there was a lady from Baltimore to observe our class. The reason why she was here because she wanted to see how the class runs and she is deciding to open all boys school, teaching Islam and also the regular education like math,history,science etc.

During the class we were debating if this is a good idea or not and everyone had their own opinions and the whole class was just arguing over if this is a good idea. In the class many people thought this was a bad idea because it will only be all boys and no girls so once they come out in the real world and talk to a girl they would freak out.

The whole class kept arguing and Teacher Ji asked if we would want to go to this school or not and in my opinion I would not like it because I can’t do anything that I would want to do and a lot of people had the same opinion as me.

After that Teacher Ji decided to to call Teacher2 Ji to come upstairs earlier than usual to see what was happening. During the argument Teacher2 Ji had decided he was against it like most of the class. After that Teacher Ji made me pass out food to everyone and almost everyone took something.

Next Teacher2 Ji had to leave and then a Imam came to see what was happening. When the Imam came he decided to tell us a story when he was in South Africa. The story was based on how he went to this school in South Africa for four months with all men and no women so he was about 16 and he and his friend decided to go to the mall and he saw a women so he was freaking out and was having a panic attack.

Then talking about the school topic he thought this is not a good idea because what happened to him will most likely that will happen to all those boys if they go to that school.

After this a women came to give pizza and her own kid went to this program and Teacher Ji asked why she put her daughter in this program and she told us that she was failing in school and this helped her with her school work and she learned the basics of Islam.

After that Teacher Ji asked everyone including me why do we like this program, I told the lady my answer and I said Teacher Ji talks about Islam but talks about the society with it and the true meaning of Islam.

After that I had one slice of pizza and now we were telling her what we learn in this class and explaining what was on the whiteboard which is a bunch of terms relating to Islam.

Then it was time to leave and Teacher Ji asked who are we rooting for in the Super Bowl which obviously I was rooting for the Rams but of course Teacher Ji said the Patriots which sadly they won.

Then I asked what’s the homework which he told me to do the essay about what happened in class and to memorize Surah Fatiha in english and memorize some parts of the Namaz in english.

Then I said Allah hafiz and left.