Avi Cantor

What are SLA teachers’ Pet Peeves?

January 25, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Jeremiah Butler

Staff Writer

In a classroom, teachers, and students both have expectations to be the best they can possibly be. At SLA, there are three specific guidelines students are expected to follow: “respect yourself, respect the community, respect SLA as a place of learning”. These statements embody everything SLA is all about.

At times, mistakes are made and forgiveness is received. But everyone has had that moment when something just annoys you to the fullest extent.

So what happens when a member of the community is truly getting on your nerves?

A well talked about pet peeve seems to be not putting things back the way they were. SLA teachers feel strongly about leaving their room dirty.

“I will never let go of the trash thing because when you come into class and it’s clear there is a difference,” said Spanish Teacher Asha Francisco, “I don’t know, you feel more, I don’t know it’s just better.”

Another teacher pet peeve that was said, but most students don’t take into consideration, is not reflecting on graded and well thought out explained work.

“Once I had a student who took their paper out of the folder, checked the grade, and then tossed it in the trash. I had to speak with that student about how that made me feel,” said Math Teacher Sunil Reddy.

Math Teacher Sunil Reddy is big on turning things in and giving good feedback. He expects that students grow and learn from his feedback.

“First, it showed me that they did not care about learning from their mistakes. Second, it showed me that they did not respect archiving their work to reflect on much later should the content be revisited. Third, it made me feel like I wasted my time addressing their mistakes when all they cared about was looking at the final grade on the homework.,” said Math Teacher Sunil Reddy.

Of course, students also have pet peeves that teachers may not be mindful of.

“When certain teachers take forever with their grading an at the end of the quarter since nothing is graded it messes up all of our grades,” said Sophomore Sanaa Scott-Wheeler.

“The part about this that irks me most is we have specific deadlines to turn assignments in with expectations that it will get graded within a week or a little longer from the time it is due but right now it’s January and i’m still waiting for a teacher to grade something that was due in November. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of them needing to grade or them needing to put grades into Canvas.”

There are things or task that a student knows they should do to better themselves or just make life easier, but they don’t. Without knowing it, this leaves a negative impact on the teacher and who really wants that?

Most pet peeves, however, are things that both teachers and students can agree on. Being on the same page of why something annoys the other person is important as well to the other opposite side of just not understanding or not caring enough to change and solve the problem.

“For me as a teacher, I would tell them to check canvas and if they did not have the work to turn in I would ask for them to turn it in tomorrow. If they don’t have the work by then, I would just take points off because there was time to do the assignment,” agreed Scott-Wheeler about Reddy’s pet peeve.

The message interviewed teachers got across is that time and effort does go into their jobs and that they want to students to respect that. Interestingly, students were annoyed by the same thing.

Students put together all new Prom Dress Drive

January 25, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer

What happens to all those prom dresses after they have been worn?

Two students from Friends Select School, juniors Charlotte Kaplan, and Regan Loughran Moore are answering that question by planning a prom dress drive for area high schools.

The collection will take place on Saturday, April 7th from 12-3 at their building located on 17th and Ben Franklin Parkway. An advisory memo will be sent out soon with more information to give interested students a reminder.

The idea for this event was from Charlotte’s grandmother, who had an event like this at the high school she used to teach at in Massachusetts. She suggested that they create a dress drive, and include the neighboring high schools too.

“Our school’s service club, Helping Hands, planned a Coat Drive earlier in the year for people experiencing homelessness/low-income household,” explained Loughran Moore. “The Prom Dress Exchange will be executed similarly to the Coat Day, in which people come and experience a mini-popup shop in our school’s gym.”

With prom season slowly approaching, they have specifically opened it up to inviting neighboring schools and SLA was one of those granted access.

“We wanted to invite other schools so that we had more of a dress selection and so other girls had the same opportunity as our school,” Kaplan said.

Dresses that are donated will immediately be available for purchase, with the proceeds of the sales supporting a local charity. The organizers suggested $20 as the maximum cost of a dress.

There are requirements for those who are donating dresses: no big stains, lightly worn or new, all sizes are accepted, and no casual dresses are allowed.

As thoughts swirl around of what is going to be worn at junior or senior prom, the season is slowly approaching and it can be very expensive to buy what you want to wear. This event allows those who are interested to get dresses at a decent price and to also give dresses to the drive that will not be worn again.

Junior Alexandrea Rivera attended a prom last year and sold the dress she wore.

“I then used that money to buy my prom dress for the next year.” Rivera said she does not keep her dresses, and that her wedding dress would be the only one she would consider storing away. She also mentioned that she would use an app called Poshmark to sell a dress, or would talk to a friend about it.

Charlotte Kaplan and Regan Loughran Moore are super excited for the event to take place, and can’t wait to see if there are SLA students who will end up donating or finding a dress at their school. Students who want more information can contact the organizers at reganlm@friends-select.org or charlottek@friends-select.org.

SoundCloud Artists at SLA

January 19, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Louisa Strohm and Kai Bradley-Gutierrez de Teran

Staff Writers

Soundcloud has been the platform for many recent artists to rise to fame. Many artists have gone from rapping, singing or making beats in their bedroom with friends to performing concerts in front of thousands of people and signing record deals, including XXXtentacion, Lil Yachty, and Lil Uzi Vert. SLA students have definitely noticed the trend, and are using this free service as an advantage for their own creative output.

https://soundcloud.com/voiceless128

Junior Brendon Hall goes by the name of Voiceless 128 on Soundcloud. He says that ¨without music I’m voiceless.”

Hall is a Soundcloud rapper but he is not like what many first think when they hear of that genre. He seems to be more lyrically focused commenting on various topics in his songs and collaborating with other artists, one being SLA substitute teacher Kia Orian, better known as Mr. O.

He says that he became interested in music especially after watching “8 Mile,” a movie about Eminem and the Hip Hop world because he wanted to show the world what he had to say.

He stands out in the way he promotes at SLA because he is very personal in his promotion, using word of mouth and contacting other artists to exchange reviews of each others music and help each other grow.

Hall says his music following is not that large, even though he has racked up 11.1K streams on Soundcloud. He said that the Soundcloud musician movement at SLA is “A fun and very positive movement.” and that it’s “oriented on being independent,” something he thinks is important because it allows for people to create art and be themselves.

https://soundcloud.com/christian-techh-771895489

Senior Christian McCormac’s music fits the description of most Soundcloud rappers, quick ‘bangerz’ that are fun to listen to. McCormac’s Soundcloud name is Christian Techh. He said that the name was something symbolic to him as he came up with the name in middle school thinking it was cool. It seems to act a reminder of where he came from and who he was at that time.

He says that he first became interested in making music in the 3rd grade and has recorded songs on his phone over the years but it wasn’t until the past year that he first went into a music studio to record his own songs.

Techh’s music has seriously infiltrated SLA’s consciousness, as he countlessly posts on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter about his new songs.

Why use the platform for his music? McCormac said that “Soundcloud rappers give people a way to express themselves.”

McCormac plans to drop a free EP, which are a bunch of singles put together in the next few months. .” It will be free because currently does not have to rights to the beats he uses. His long-term goal is to have his own beats and to be able to make a profit off of his music.

https://soundcloud.com/user-725552961

Sophomore Joziah Matos goes by ‘Sotam’ on Soundcloud, his last name spelled backward. He produces beats for other artists to use and create their own music over. He originally started creating music because someone told him that he wouldn’t be able to do it and he wanted to prove them wrong.

“I tried it and ended up really liking it and I thought it would become my real hobby and maybe even a living.” He believes that creating music is helping the learning environment of SLA because he believes that you can learn greatly from listening to music.

He plans on continuing his Soundcloud career even after leaving SLA.

“It is a hobby now and it’s a part of me. I take this seriously like I am willing to spend hundreds of dollars on this.”

The Good and the Bad

SLA students have definitely noticed the trend, which means more attention for each of these artists. Hall says Soundcloud is beneficial to his creativity because it “Shows you how to promote yourself as a business and to plan for a job.”

However, there is the aspect of competition, which can be healthy and/or unhealthy. Matos says “I don’t see any competition and if there was, it must be really healthy because I haven’t heard about it.”

Senior Christian McCormac expanded on how competition saying “If you’re always focused on the competition your gonna mess up, you got to focus on yourself.”

As a whole, Soundcloud is a stepping stone for many musicians to make it in the music industry. It can be used seriously to advance oneself to fame and into the music industry or as a place to share music with others for fun.

SLA expands Spirit Week to include Bigger and Better Things

January 16, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Taylor Green

Staff Writer

This year, SLA celebrated an expanded spirit week from December 11-15.

Photo Courtesy of the SLA Spirit Committee’s Instagram

The week encourages students of all ages to dress up in unique outfits that correspond to the daily theme.

Over the course of the week, those who participated submitted a picture or video to the SLA Spirit Committee’s Instagram page, @slaspirit. The page is run by senior Nadya Negron. Negron is in charge of Spirit Committee and implements the activities with help from her fellow Spirit Committee members.

In a new twist, students were encouraged to share their pictures or videos because the person whose entries were the most memorable throughout the week received a gift card.

“We decided to give out prizes this year because in SLA history not many students participate during spirit week,” Negron said. “So we wanted to create an incentive that would make them want to participate.”

On Monday, December 11th, the hallways of SLA were filled with outrageous memes such as Arthur, Salt Bae, mannequin heads, and other comedic trends that have made their mark on the internet over the years.

Although there were some duplicate memes, everyone who participated made the most of it. Those who were the same meme took pictures and videos together.

Teacher Tuesday featured students dressed like their favorite teachers. The student body’s favorite teachers to dress as were English teacher Mr. Kay and Math Teacher Mr. Reddy, with multiple students dressing as each.

An example of a spot on Mr. Reddy impression was Junior Greg Tasik, who rocked his iconic basketball shorts and his plaid button-up. Students who dressed as Mr. Kay wore snapbacks and walked around with copies of the Odyssey.

Teachers were also encouraged to dress like their students. Physics teacher Mr. Enzweiler dressed as “a normal SLA student” and went with a classic hoodie and jeans look.

Twin Wednesday featured students dressing uncannily similar to each other. Many people picked out outfits with their friends that were exactly the same, or that just followed a similar color scheme.

Throwback Thursday was a play on the popular Instagram trend #throwbackthursday. Students dressed as if they were in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s.

Many people paid homage to the 90s grunge trend and wore their best flannels and baggy jeans. Those who were dressed as the 2000s wore Juicy Couture sweatsuits and carried novelty accessories like flip phones and small purses. Those who chose to represent the 80s wore denim vests and neon leggings. Some people even dressed as celebrities from these eras like Britney Spears and Michael Jackson.

For the last day of Spirit Week, the theme was “rep your set” Friday. Seniors had to dress as senior citizens, juniors were adults, sophomores were toddlers and freshmen had to dress as babies.

Many of the freshmen were dressed head to toe as babies sporting animal-themed onesies, bibs, and even pacifiers. Some of the seniors dyed their hair grey and wore nightgowns and slippers to have the appearance of old people. Juniors found it hard to dress as adults, so most of them wore cardigans and heels. A few of the sophomores wore bright colors and put pigtails in their hair to look like toddlers.

In contrast to previous years, the new themes this year allowed people to get creative and to just have more fun with it.

“I know for me personally, I liked the addition of meme Monday because it was something that a lot of people knew about and could laugh at,” said Junior Lauren Nicolella.

Negron is pleased with how the week went and has more events in the works to invigorate the whole school.

”I plan on having at least 1-2 more spirit weeks just so our students can feel that SLA spirit. Also, expect a pep rally, of course, different holiday events, and hopefully an SLA party.”

If you’re interested in helping put these events in effect, Spirit Committee meets every Wednesday after school.

Why Lil Uzi Vert is the Best New Artist

January 16, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Brendan Hall

Staff Writer

Photo Courtesy of Lil Uzi Vert’s music video for his hit song “Money Longer”

On November 28, 2017, it was announced that Lil Uzi Vert had been nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. He was nominated alongside of other notable singers, SZA and Khalid. However when further evaluating the nominees they come nowhere near Lil Uzi’s influence in Hip-Hop and music in general.

Lil Uzi Vert has been a major influencer in the up-and-coming rap scene since late 2015. But what makes Uzi such a force to be reckoned with?

One thing that sets the Philadelphia artists apart from his competition is his wide range of influences. The multiple time platinum selling artist draws inspiration from controversial rock stars Marilyn Manson and G.G. Allin. However, he also is influenced by modern Hip-Hop acts such as Young Thug, A$AP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, and Chief Keef. This eccentric blend of styles has molded Uzi into a self-proclaimed “rock star”.

Uzi has pushed away from being boxed into one genre, a decision that rocked the world of new school rap music. In an interview with Hot 97 in February of 2016, he stated that he didn’t want to be labeled as a rapper. In June of that same year one of his peers, Lil Yachty, also stated that he wanted to not be labeled as a rapper.

Uzi’s ability to ditch the title of being a rapper paved the way for artists in Hip-Hop to escape the pressures of having to a “lyrical rapper”. Uzi created a new lane for artists to express their creative abilities without being labeled as a phony.

While Lil Uzi has revolutionized the Hip Hop genre he also has received a fair amount of criticism from the older generation. He has been accused of not respecting older Hip-Hop due to the fact he refused to freestyle over old-school instrumentals. Other fans and critics questioned his lyric because they were very straightforward and repetitive. Lil Uzi Vert became labeled a “mumble rapper”, a term which is dismissive of his lyrical abilities,

Despite the dismay of his doubters the 23-year-old crafted one of the most groundbreaking songs of 2017. “XO Tour Llif3” pushes the boundaries of the Trap Music, based on its subject matter.

Trap music has been infamous for a repetitive set of subject matters involving rapper cliches that include: being rich, being tough, dealing drugs and objectifying women. However, “XO Tour Llif3” is a song where Uzi is opening up to the downsides of abusing opioids, his love life, and his mental health. The refrain of, “ don’t really care if you cry, On the real you should’ve never lied, Should’ve saw the way she looked me in my eyes, She said baby I am not afraid to, die Push me to the edge, All my friends are dead, Push me to the edge,” is something that was unheard of in the trap genre a decade ago. This song was so groundbreaking in part because it’s unlikely that his peers could create a song with this subject matter and come across as being sincere.

Despite Uzi only receiving a mainstream audience three years ago his style already starting to be mimicked by others. An example of this is one of Hip Hop’s new rising stars, 18-year-old rapper Trippie Redd.

There are some obvious similarities between the two but the two most distinct is that they harmonize over beats with the same vocal inflection and they have similar subject matter in their songs. Similar to Uzi Trippie Redd also displays themes of heartbreak in his music. On Trippie Redd’s breakout hit, “Love Scars”, he sings

“You used to say you in love I used to say that shit back Taking that shit from the heart Now look where the fuck are we at Girl you got me, just going out bad Love scars, you got me real sad”.

This is comparable to the heartbreak detailed on XO Tour Llif3. They both compare themselves to rock stars; Uzi compares himself to Marilyn Manson while Trippie compares his vocal inflection to Gene Simmons of Kiss. There are also unreleased snippets of Trippie Redd songs where he sings about his suicidal thoughts the same way Uzi did on XO Tour Llif3. (“Might go M.I.A. might just go blow my brains I’ll be Kurt Cobain”). However, what is the most telling testimony towards Uzi’s influence is “Can You rap like me” by Trippie Redd. In this song Trippie Redd spits his best battle rap bars over a jazzy hip hop instrumental, proving he has lyrical skill. However, he has no other songs that sound like that lyrical track. Trippie Redd decided to instead focus on making melodic trap influenced music that is comparable to Uzi. Lil Uzi’s influence is so massive that it led to Trippie abandoning his lyrical talents in pursuit of imitating Lil Uzi Vert’s sound.