Avi Cantor

Former SLA Spanish Teacher Melanie Manuel featured on “House Hunters International”

January 7, 2019 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer

Students were diligently working on their benchmarks when a sudden chatter about former Spanish teacher Melanie Manuel flooded the classroom. Laptops flipped open and fingers raced across keyboards to find the video as soon as possible.

Melanie Manuel has a history of traveling to different countries around the world, but it was a shock when she had announced her new plans of moving to London, England. It was astounding to see that she would be apart of House Hunters International. Word of her appearance on the popular show spread like a wildfire among students.

Melanie and her partner Chris were featured on a 22-minute episode, featuring several housing options. After hearing about House Hunters from a friend in Philly, they filled out an application to be featured on the show. It was a way for them to explore their new city with great options and made sure that their answers would stand out among the many applicants.

The show’s producers expressed their interest about two months later with loads of follow-up questions and a video interview. They had to film themselves giving a house tour, to further their progress in securing their parts for the episode. To make sure they would stand out, they included quirky and witty responses on their application to showcase their colorful personalities.

“We wrote about how one of my partner’s favorite hobbies is growing his excellent beard,” told Manuel.

Former SLA digital video teacher Doug Herman was staying with them at the time, and he helped film their submission video before the big move.

“It was very silly. We played ping pong in the video and made jokes as we walked through the space. It was not a polished piece in any way–we didn’t edit anything– but it showed our personalities.”

After the episode aired, SLA students pounced on the news of Manuel’s TV debut. The former Spanish teacher was shocked.

“I had no idea they were going to find out as quickly as they did,” Manuel explained Within 12 hours of it airing, I got emails, text messages, and photos from people at SLA.”

Information spreads very quickly at the small school, especially something as big as an airing of an episode. It was a shock on both ends, and many became interested in watching immediately.

“I hope SLA students enjoyed the episode.” The world traveler explained. ”We had a great time filming it. Really, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done yet in London and I’ve done a lot of fun things since we’ve moved here.”

Senior Olivia Musselman was quick to hear about the episode and watched it because many of her friends were talking about it. She saw it within the first couple of days of it becoming popular among members of the senior class.

“It was really interesting to see her outside of a school setting, she hasn’t really changed much as far as her personality. Since I knew her in person, I could tell that it was scripted because I know she doesn’t actually talk like that,” Musselman explained.

Olivia’s older brother had Ms. Manuel when he attended SLA, and since they both enjoyed having her as a teacher, she was quick to say, “Abe! You have to see this!”

The experience has helped create interesting conversation starters, which seemingly became convenient for them living in a new country. The teachers she just met were just as excited to watch the episodes as everyone back in Philadelphia.

“Our head of school was thrilled when she found out we were going to be on the show, it’s one of her favorites. She wanted to host a viewing party at her house, but it seems like everyone had already seen it within just a couple day of the initial airing.”

Lastly, Ms. Manuel expressed her emotions regarding a huge Philly success that she didn’t get to experience first hand.

“I still can’t believe the Eagles won the Super Bowl! A pub called “Passyunk Ave”, a Philly-themed pub in Central London, hosted a Super Bowl watching party. We didn’t miss out on the fun or the Philly love. But we did miss out on being able to celebrate the madness with our city, in our city, for our city.”

How Snow impacts students commutes

December 17, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Lily Bromley

Staff Writer

As a result, many students and staff had a complicated and potentially unsafe afternoon commute. Sophomore Mo Kelly had to walk home when her bus stopped running.

“If I was walking home it would usually take me 20 min but it was snowing and freezing so it took me half an hour,” Kelly explained.

Luckily, Kelly lives close to SLA, so her commute wasn’t unbearable. However, numerous canceled or delayed SEPTA transit options created a huge inconvenience for students who live farther away.

Northeast Philadelphia native, Charnay Kirkland had an especially hard time getting home.

“It usually takes me about an hour to get home, but that day it took two hours,” Kirkland stated.

Kirkland takes the 20 bus and said that that day public transportation was extremely crowded.

Sophomore Shawn Golden said that due to the delays in public transportation, she had some communication errors with her parents and that Septa was late to pick her up.

“I had to wait an hour and a half for the train, and when it finally came it was packed,” Golden said.

Golden also noted that since the city had not put down salt, the sidewalk and roads were icy.

Some students expressed frustration that the school did not close early. SLA Principal Chris Lehmann explained that…

Snow forecasts in Philadelphia are notoriously unpredictable, so it’s hard for schools to decide when snow days or early dismissals are necessary. November was a perfect example.

Most students and commuters have adjusted to these inconveniences, and accept the reality of public transit.

“Every time there is a snow storm I just know not to count on Septa”.

Seniors uninformed about Capstones

December 3, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Sukainah Hasan

Staff Writer

Seniors know they have to create capstone projects. But what does that really mean?

Seniors report that they know the basics: it’s a graduation requirement, and each student must pass both the class as well as a presentation portion of the project.

Apart from that, however, many seniors report on being completely in the dark about the expectations and direction that the capstone should take.

“There is no formal teaching to teach students what to do for their capstones,” explained senior Avi Cantor.

History teacher Daniel Symonds and Science Teacher Tim Best are the capstone managers and responded to these concerns. “There’s a handful of deadlines designed to ensure that projects are on track and that every student is supported in their work. Lots more information on the overall process can be found here,” said Mr. Symonds.

The provided link explains the point of doing capstones, requirements, and tells students how to get the best grade possible. The second thing that students were unsure of was if they needed a mentor or not.

“Absolutely,” Symmonds responded. “A mentor is just a reliable sounding board for seniors to plan, discuss, reflect on, and improve their project.”

The third thing that students didn’t know was if they could do anything when it comes to doing their capstones.

“Figuring out what to do for a capstone project can be a challenge for some students, and that’s totally normal! The following guidelines are helpful: Their capstone should be something they’re interested in learning more about, framed around an inquiry question. Their capstone should address SLA’s core values, and since they’re released from classes for approximately 2 hours every Wednesday, the capstone should represent about 80 hours of work,” said Mr. Symonds.

The last question that students were unsure about was when they could start.

Mr. Symonds response was, “If there are seniors who don’t know what they’re doing, they should meet with their mentor/advisors by the end of November to sketch out capstone proposals and project first drafts. Everyone should have started by now, even if that means just selecting a mentor and sharing out some early planning.”

Seniors didn’t know any of the information that Mr. Best and Mr. Symonds shared for this article, which is why I specifically asked them these questions.

Album Review: BALLADS1 by Joji

November 26, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Avi Cantor

Staff Writer

The video begins with a slow piano lead and an oddly placed dancing-bear mascot on a table in the midst of several people who were seemingly asleep.

The camera pans to reveal a trail of blood leading to a white bathtub, along with the head of the mascot and angel wings. This path leads to the artist’s head resting on the tub’s rim as his eyes stare lethargically upwards.

These are the opening shots of the moody R&B track “Will He” by George Miller, better known by the stage name ‘Joji’.

I interpreted this scene in a couple different ways.

The panda costume, accompanied by the eerie piano, represented his unorthodox approach to shock comedy from his past career and how that approach clashed with the typical comedic model.

Miller’s notoriety began a decade ago with the introduction of Filthy Frank and Pink Guy into the Youtube sphere. Both characters are abrasive, racist, disgusting, random, and outrageous. However, Miller’s content raked in millions of viewers within just two years.

The channel continued to gain traction and by the end of 2017, Miller had created another channel called ‘TVFilthyFrank’ that amassed over 6.5 million subscribers and had 10 videos above 15 million views. Miller also pioneering of the global dance trend ‘The Harlem Shake’, a Pink Guy album, which hit No. 70 on Billboard’s Hot 200, and a book called ‘Francis of the Filth’, among other accolades. But at the peak of his success, the output of content on his channel came to a screeching halt.

Miller issued a statement, which has since been deleted, that he was discontinuing his roles as Filthy Frank and Pink Guy. He explained that mental health issues brought on by the portrayal of the characters resulted in a lack of interest in maintaining the channel.

This phase in his career is represented by the sleeping people in the dancing panda’s background. They represent disinterest in his work as the bear, who represents his characters, to continue to put out content that seemingly makes him happy.

Unlike most entertainers fed up by their line of work, Miller took an unexpected turn.

The mascot’s head laying on the ground, accompanied by the trail of blood, represents Miller’s transition from Filthy Frank and Pink Guy to Joji. These characters literally bleed out of him as he lays in the bathtub where he can clean his image of grotesque immaturity.

The following scene shows him on a street with blotches of blood on a white T-shirt. This was meant to show that he’s emerged into a new career while carrying the lessons he’s learned from his previous characters. This emergence into being exclusively Joji continued with the EP ‘In Tongues’ which peaked at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart.

Despite its success, I thought it was a bit sparse and repetitive. With just four new songs and one interlude, the Osaka, Japan native had no reason to have five songs that lacked vocal, instrumental, and stylistic variation. However, Miller would rebound from this project with much better content.

The 88Rising signee would drop the track ‘Yeah Right’ in May of 2018 which blended his melancholy sound with introspective lyrics that spoke to the unresolvable loneliness that many humans feel.

“It’s that point of self-hatred that you don’t mind. I remember dancing with a girl and I’m thinking ‘you don’t really care. Like ‘yeah right’,” Miller explained.

The song has over 19 million views on Youtube and climbing. Miller would continue his success with some more upbeat pop music going into the summer.

The half-Australian singer was featured four times on the indie label 88 Rising’s compilation album, ‘Head in the Clouds’. Despite personally feeling very underwhelmed by the album, Joji’s hook on the song ‘Midsummer Madness’ was clean, refreshing and set the tone perfectly. The track amassed over 21 million views on Youtube and would serve as the album’s lead single.

Shortly after Midsummer Madness started to pick up traction, Miller released the track ‘CAN’T GET OVER YOU’ which balanced his trademark dreary sound and alternative pop. The track would rack up over 10 million views on Youtube. A month later, he’d release the harrowing and heartbreaking track ‘SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK’ which would rack up nearly 28 million views in less than two-and-a-half months.

All of these tracks would lead up to Joji’s debut album: BALLADS1.

The project is a modest 12 tracks, with just two tracks exceeding four minutes. This makes for a runtime that isn’t overwhelming, unlike many contemporary R&B albums.

However, my distaste for the majority of the eight new tracks on the record definitely hurt the album’s enjoyability.

The tracks ‘I’LL SEE YOU IN 40’, ‘WANTED U’ and ‘NO FUN’ blended unoriginal and flat instrumentals with crude tinges of autotune that outline the main vocals.

‘WHY AM I STILL IN LA’ featuring rapper Shlohmo and producer D33J is almost unbearable to listen to. The injection of an electric guitar within the first 30 seconds is overwhelming that I had to change the song before Shlohmo’s verse. Despite how bad these tracks were, it’s good to see Joji experimenting to find a sound and to vary from his typical sound. But not all of the tracks were bad.

Joji and rapper/singer Trippie Redd’s collaboration ‘R.I.P’ pairs Joji’s mellow and floaty vocals with Redd’s trademark auto-crooning. While the songwriting is meager, the song itself is pleasant and relaxing. However, the standout song for me was the track ‘XNXX’.

The beat’s main melody, which resembles a windchime, is punctuated by the hum of a quiet bass and loosely placed hi-hats. The instrumental works perfectly with the smooth and mellow vocals Joji brings to the track.

This album, in my opinion, serves as a step in the right direction for Joji. However, he still has a lot to work on to experiment artistically while honing his sound. I have high hopes for Joji’s musical endeavors and believe that he is capable of creating some great music.

What’s the secret to getting into SLA?

October 30, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Sanaa Scott-Wheeler

Staff Writer

Science Leadership Academy is a school with the same set of core values but two different locations, Center City and West Philadelphia. Incoming students sometimes prefer one campus over the other, but the question is: Is there a strategy to get into one campus over the other?

Every year Science Leadership Academy gets over 1,000 applicants from all over the city. Current SLA CC and SLA @ Beeber students gather to do interviews for prospective students. When only the Center City campus existed, students were applying for only 120 slots each year. With the founding of SLA @Beeber, that number doubled.

¨ Generally, we get about 40% of the applicants to apply to only Center City, 45% applies to both schools, and 15% applies only to Beeber. We’ve done over 60 elementary/middle school visits, we do open houses and shadows. We work with the guidance counselors to make sure that students are aware of both opportunities,¨ said Science Leadership Academy Center City founding principal Chris Lehmann.

“I was told most high schools only accept A’s and B’s on report cards but I chose SLA as my first choice because of the different teaching styles of teaching and the creativity, I fell in love with the school when I shadowed so I knew I had to go,” said Mackenzie Hopkins, a junior at the center city campus.

When applying to high schools I was told to get all A’s and have good attendance” Simone Marant an SLA junior stated during an interview, “both my brother and sister went to the center city campus so it was natural that I would go to school there”.

Inside the interview, current SLA or SLA @ Beeber students are paired with a teacher teaching at either campus. Each interview consists of set list questions, including ¨How can you make this environment a better place?¨

Students are also asked to bring in a project that means something to them. The interview is an opportunity to see who is a good fit for the school.

¨The interview allows us to find really wonderful kids,¨ Lehmann continued. He recognized that the most academically successful students are not guaranteed admission.

Few public schools in the district have the project-based learning model SLA offers or the resources and connections SLA has access to; Laptops, The Franklin Institute, Drexel scholars program. For students, SLA is more than just a school it is an opportunity for a better education.

“I love the sense of freedom. Everyone just does their own thing” said Kassie Thompson, a student at SLA Beeber, “It’s not an abnormal occurrence to see so much diversity and that’s so comforting considering we live in a society that rejects authenticity. I love that it’s a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people, gifted people, people of color, people who may not see their potential but have it, said Thompson. She continues by saying, “I think both campuses are unique in curriculum and student body within their own ways. I was really just interested in going to the school overall.

¨A student who has straight A´s and isn’t interested in engaging with us or the kind of learning we do would be better off at a different school. There is a better school for them. A student with a B average but comes in and wows us and shows that they understand what an inquiry-driven learning is, that matters.¨ Lehmann also emphasized that SLA believes deeply in seeing the whole person, not a student academically.

¨There is no hidden process to this, We look at the whole picture of the student and try to do the best we can to match them with preferences.¨ said Lehmann

I decided to apply to SLA CC because I wanted to be in the city atmosphere and the building and the teachers I had met seemed like the best fit for the person I am, Said Louisa Strohm a junior at SLA center city. “I think they will place you where they think you would fit best”. Strohm finished by saying.

There is no strategy set in stone for how to get into one campus, however, good advice would be to only apply to the campus you would like to go to and present your knowledge of the core values of SLA in the interview.