Manar Hazzaa is the Egyptian Arabic Instructor in the Harvard African Language Program. She is an award-winning children’s book author and a visiting Research Fellow at the Language for Learning Lab at Harvard University. Hazzaa received her Master’s in International Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master's in Anthropology from The American University in Cairo. She has presented her work at major conferences and universities, including The University of Cambridge, The University of Oxford, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the American University in Cairo. She is proudly one of the Teaching Fellows of “How People Learn,” a foundational course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education required for all incoming master’s students. This experience allowed her to craft her Egyptian Arabic classes with a growth mindset. She borrows many teaching and learning strategies from How People Learn, creating a positive and productive learning experience for her ALP students. One of her strategies is creating individual lessons to meet students’ interests in Egyptian Arabic. She prioritizes students’ ability to use and produce Egyptian Arabic with an understanding of the social and cultural aspects that guide language use. Before moving from Cairo to Boston, Hazzaa founded a project in Egypt to promote storytelling for children. Additionally, Manar is a literary editor, having edited several Arabic children’s picture books, and she authored articles addressing the challenges of writing Arabic children’s literature. Her current academic research focus is on the Arabic language and literacy development. She is interested in studying early reading development for bilingual Arabic-speaking children and how parents’ practices and attitudes toward story-time affect children’s literacy skill acquisition in their home language.