Avi Cantor

Avi Cantor & Brendan Hall

Staff Writers

One of the newest members of SLA’s teaching community is a true collage of a person. Digital Video and Photography Teacher Anna Walker-Roberts’ eclectic collage features a love of video with roots that draw from acting, a love of the outdoors, rap music, her husband, and her visions for the future of SLA’s Dig Vid and Photo programs.

College life and getting into video

Ms. Walker-Roberts attended the Savannah College of Art and Design where she majored in theater. In her academic work, there was a lot of overlap between video and theater, and she soon became mesmerized with how film gives the audience the opportunity to experience a story over and over again without having to go to a theater.

She started out not by manning the camera, but acting, casting, producing or directing films. She soon began to investigate what many of her friends with film majors were doing with their cameras. Despite not being able to use much of the equipment, she immersed herself in editing and creating film, photo, and video.

She stayed on at SCAD for a graduate degree in film. However, after finishing that degree in 2014, her career took a completely different turn.

Getting into teaching

Ms. Walker-Roberts first teaching gig was at her high school where she started a new program for kids that were behind in school either because English was their second language or they have been in jail or were a juvenile delinquent.

She describes using “film and theater to help them learn how to tell stories with language pull them out of their shells work on communication.”

She fell in love with teaching and earned her teaching certificate through that program.

“There’s not that insane pressure of if I were doing videos as my full-time job to make money off of everything I’m doing,” Ms. Walker-Roberts explained. Teaching “gave me the freedom to like do things that I am creatively interested in while getting paid to be a teacher.”

Her next teaching job was as a substitute teacher in the special education department for a school in Missouri, soon after marrying her college sweetheart, Adler Roberts. They moved to Lancaster shortly thereafter when her husband found a job there.

Emerging as a part of the SLA community

Not long after the move,  someone introduced her to the principal of Linville Hill Mennonite School who wanted to convert their high school into a project-based learning environment. She had just read the book Deeper Learning by Edward McGrath and Monica Martinez in which SLA is mentioned.

She ended up sitting in on a bunch of SLA classes and reporting back what she discovered about project-based learning. Towards the end of the school year, she sat in on former Dig Vid and Photo teacher and current Rough Cut director Doug Herman’s classroom.

In addition to helping turn her old high school into a project-based environment, she taught Spanish which she explained, through bursts of laughter, that she was far from qualified to teach.

“They were like ‘you teach languages so it’s fine right’ and I was like ‘ahh uhh yeah hola’’’. She also taught English and a video elective.

She had taught at Linville Hill for a little under a year when her husband decided to leave the theater he was employed at in order to do more freelance acting work in Philadelphia and New York. The couple decided to move to Philly because it would be a better middle ground for her and her husband.

This move also gave her the ability to apply to SLA on “a wild shot”. She thought that “they’re not going to have an opening, but I loved observing at the school and was excited to work there. I thought my best to teach drama”.

At that same time, Mr. Herman announced that he was leaving the school to pursue running the Rough Cut program full-time.

Ms. Walker-Roberts went through the interview process to become a teacher at SLA and her potential and love of teaching were immediately recognized by Engineering Teacher John Kamal.

“She had insightful and important student-centered responses in the interview. She continually brought back the questions to how it would impact the students,” Mr. Kamal said. She was given the job in the summer of 2017 and already has visions about the possible direction of the Dig Vid and Photo programs.

Ms. Walker-Roberts sees herself as “standing on [Mr. Herman’s] shoulders” when it comes to her visions for the Digital Video and Photography programs. She wants to capitalize on what Mr. Herman has built but wants to integrate her acting experience into the program.

She wants to show her students how to act, cast, produce and direct film as well as edit it. She also hopes that her husband can assist in some of the films and share his acting and pre-production writing background. She also has plenty of interests outside of school.

Life outside SLA

Of course, Ms. Walker-Roberts’ life doesn’t revolve just around her school life. The Texas native loves everything about the outdoors. She loves to hike, ski, kneeboard go camping, and so much more. She also loves to travel and has been to several countries including Mexico and Israel. She even developed a love of rap music from her students in her first teaching experience.

Ms. Walker Roberts collage wouldn’t be complete without her new job at SLA.

“When I got the job I was like so happy I needed to drop to the floor and pinch myself,” she exclaimed. She hopes that the happiness of that day will continue to excite her for years to come.

Eric Valenti 

Staff Writer

Do you know what ESL is? Have you seen Gail Goldberg around SLA? Many students at SLA, teachers and other staff members come from another country or come from a family who immigrated to the United States speaking another language. However, many of them have no idea that we have an English as a Second Language teacher right here at SLA.

Gail Goldberg has worked in Philadelphia school district for 18 years helping foreign students learn English and now she’s here at SLA.

Citywide Experiences

Ms. Goldberg was born and raised in Philadelphia and started off with started off as a regular English teacher for most of her career. As a teacher, she wanted to help people — it’s what she says she’s best at.

“I’ve worked at Olney High School, Pollok Elementary, Hardy Middle School, Washington Middle School and recently Kensington High School,” she stated.

Students who have English as a second language have trouble translating their words to English, so Ms. Goldberg helps translate and even helps improve their writing to showcase their writing skills to their full potential.

The Inspiration for ESL

Unlike a typical classroom teacher, her work with ESL makes her job unique.

“It’s a very specialized area, I like to learn about other cultures, I like to learn about places where people have been, where they have grown up, different languages, different traditions, I also just like helping people, that’s what I feel like my purpose is helping kids,” she said.

ESL allows students to have a one on one relationship with a teacher, learning English can be difficult and a lot of people in the United States don’t know how to speak English. Ms. Goldberg has made it her life’s goal to help people and she applies her passion when teaching so kids feel English is a breeze.

“I like for students to get the experience and the extra learning support, and to be able to take what I’ve helped them with and use it in there outside life,” she stated.

Fitting in at SLA

Ms. Goldberg has been to many schools, but when she came to SLA she couldn’t believe the spectacular community or the unique learning style.

“I thought SLA’s type of learning should be a model for other public schools. I think that other schools should look at how Chris Lehman and Aaron Gerwer run the school. What they have done here is just beyond belief” she raved.

At other schools, she felt more alone in her work, and she actually had trouble adjusting to SLA because she’s never had so much help or support.

SLA has a multitude of students from other countries, so having Ms. Goldberg is very useful. Study Skills Teacher Elizabeth Menascion agrees that Ms. Goldberg is an asset to the SLA staff.

“It’s really nice to have someone who can give students one to one support, I think the more support a student gets, it helps them improve.  SLA has students that are still learning English and can use her services and she’s a really nice lady and it’s great to have her on our staff,” Ms. Menasion said.

Not only the staff thinks Ms. Goldberg is great but the students should be the real voice that says how helpful Ms. Goldberg is. Sophomore Jack Motter is one of Ms. Goldberg’s students.

“She just helps me edit my work and make it sound better. She’s always there, even if I don’t necessarily need her she’s there, and that’s really great for me,” Motter said.

English is said to be one of the most difficult languages to learn, having an ESL teacher like Ms. Goldberg at SLA will hopefully help students. Ms. Goldberg has been to many schools and met so many students with unique and cultured backgrounds, and she can’t wait to see what else SLA has to offer.

“If I ever leave SLA, I’ll remember the environment and opportunities that it gives to the students, SLA allows the students to only advance and improve,” she stated.

 

Autumn Lor & Keith Hodge

Staff Writers

Lukas Hoffmann is a senior, foreign exchange student from Wiesbaden, Germany that came to Science Leadership Academy for the 2017-18 school year.

He came to America without knowing what school he was going to or what he was going to do as a new student. However, he did already know English.

He started learning it when he was in third grade back in Germany. He also speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and French. He believes that learning these languages helps commutation with others around him in the community.

During his sophomore year in high school, he wanted to be a foreign exchange student but at the time he was 14 and his parents thought that he was too young to go to a new country by himself.

In summer of 2017, he graduated from high school in Germany.He still hungered for an international learning experience, so he decided to get his high school diploma in America.

New Friends and Environment

When Hoffmann first arrived in America on August 22nd, he met friends who were also going to other countries. He didn’t have a choice of where he wanted to go but was very grateful for getting the chance to come to Philadelphia, especially Science Leadership Academy as a school.

When coming to a new school, it was very easy for him to make friends. He was able to join the boy’s soccer team and is now friends with most of the team. Including a great friendship with one of the team captains, fellow Senior Malachi Johnson.

“He wasn’t shy at all and he really put himself out there, I think that he is someone who I would still talk to in 10 years,” Johnson stated.

Hoffmann plays left wing with other seniors like Johnson but in Germany, he didn’t always play. He played for a few years in middle school but didn’t have time to keep up with school and soccer.

“I remember our first game, my jersey was dirty and I thought it was a good sign because we won,” Hoffmann said with pride.

Life outside of SLA

For the past couple of months, he has only been to his host house and a few places in Center City. Although he has a lot of friends, he doesn’t have much in Philadelphia outside of SLA because the schools in Philadelphia are more isolated than Germany schools.

Some of his favorite shows are The Simpsons and Family Guy. In Germany, he would watch a lot of television but here he doesn’t get the chance to do that as much because his host, Senior Chuckie Copeland, doesn’t have one.

“I like old action movies because I have memories with my dad about watching movies at home with him,” said Hoffmann.

Life as a Student

“He fits in really well, can provide some eye-opening perspective because he is from a different place,” Hoffmann’s Advisor, Larissa Pahomov told SLA.

Just like other SLA seniors, Hoffmann will have to present his Capstone to the rest of SLA in other to graduate. Teachers and students are waiting to see what he has to offer.

In the meantime, he has been fitting right in at school and surprising his peers with his English skills.  

“Everyone says that I  talk a lot and also talk very fast. When I was younger it was worst because I was stuttering more but now I don’t do it as much because I talk fast,” Hoffman explained.

Lukas has also told SLA media that by the end of the school year his goal is to try to possible play America’s pastime, baseball because he is in America after all.

Sarah Berg & Sanaa Scott

Staff Writers

SLA’s school psychologist, Dr. Wendy Galson, may be hidden away in a small office in the health suite, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t doing big things for the school, utilizing her extensive experience in the psychology field.

“I’ve worked in a lot of different schools, I’ve been in the district for 12 years,” Dr. Galson stated.  “I was a therapist for 25 years before I switched over to working in schools. I just felt like I wanted to reach more people and have more impact than I did just in my office.”

Dr. Galson’s office is located on the second floor, across from the nurse, she is here on Thursdays and Fridays.

Busy Schedule

A lot of students may not even know SLA has a psychologist. This is largely due to Dr. Galson’s limited time here and heavy workload.

Dr. Galson works in all three SLA schools, plus the Workshop School in West Philly. Because of this, she can only work with students briefly.

“I am really good for when somebody needs a few tools to help them,” Dr. Galson said.

“A lot of people are very stressed out about a lot of things, and there are two things that I would usually do. One is, to take a deep breath and look around. That’s great stress management. The other is to ask the question, about any stressful situation; what can I control, and what can’t I control? The thing to focus on is one step at a time, addressing the things I can control.”

School Counselor Zoe Siswick is deeply appreciative of Dr. Galson’s presence at the school.

“If the world was perfect and richer,” chuckled Ms. Siswick, “we would love to have her here full time, it would give her more opportunity to help on the assessments with IEP and 504 plans. It would also give her time to do what she’s best at, which is working with students and being a psychologist,”

“Sometimes I have cases where I feel stuck. Rather than her giving advice, sometimes it’s helpful for a student to see a fresh face and have someone else that can work closely with them.”

History at SLA

Dr. Galson’s work here at SLA is not the only thing connecting her to the school. Her son Greg Windle, was in the first graduating class of the school.  

“I love this school. I’m one of the originals. I really like being here, I really like the educational world that’s used here.”

“The people who are here, at SLA, have actively chosen to come. In many schools, things are much more regimented,” Dr. Galson said. “There’s much less opportunity for people to connect with each other, you all have an hour for lunch; this is so rare in the district.”

Ms. Siswick feels that this double role is one of Dr. Galson’s strengths.

“The fact that she’s been an SLA parent means that she understands things at SLA can be a little different. She understands the type of care and support that our students are getting here, so when she is working with students and their families she gets what their needs might be and what needs are being already being met.”

Dr. Galson also has a past at Benjamin Franklin High School, where SLA will co-locate in 2019. “I worked at Ben Franklin for six years, and so this whole transition is very exciting to me because it’s kind of bringing the threads together.”

On whether or not she will be coming to Ben Franklin along with SLA, Galson simply stated, “There will be a psychologist if it’s me or not I don’t know.”

Giving Back to the SLA Community

Dr. Galson works largely along with the teachers and counselors, mostly assisting on IEPs.

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov has her own thoughts about the counseling at SLA.

“What I appreciate about the counselors and our school psychologist and other support services is that, when there’s something I don’t know how to deal with, that I can turn to them, and then they have a larger toolkit of things that they can do.”

Ms. Pahomov sees Dr. Galson’s role as integral to the school functioning.

“If a student with an IEP or some other situation needs an evaluation she will come to us and ask us questions or ask to fill out a form about the student. So the instance where I go, ‘Oh, I really think this student needs to see a psychologist’ is actually pretty rare. It’s usually that there’s someone who is already in that system and she’s coming to us,” Ms. Pahomov said.

“She’s very professional and also very kind, in the few times I’ve made a plan with her for a student it’s always like ‘what will help the student the most and interrupt their lives the least’, even when it’s a serious situation, she just wants to keep everybody calm and moving along.”

Dr. Galson has an equal level of respect for the staff at SLA.

“I like to think that I can help the teachers do their jobs here. Mostly I work with the teachers if they’re having a problem the teacher will come to me and discuss it. I am one of the few staff members in the school who can really talk to one student at a time. It’s a real privilege.”