Lauren Nicolella

Mo Kelly

Staff Writer

Halloween has come and gone and you know what that means. Kids — and sometimes adults — stuff their mouths with candy, they spend hours at the nearest costume store wondering what they should be, scary movies scar countless children for life, and every store decorate their stores with different varieties of pumpkins and bats.

 

But what does this mean at SLA?

 

Health and Physical Education teacher Pia Martin describes halloween at SLA “extra”, saying “we go all the way over the ridiculous top with Halloween.”

 

She says she loves Halloween here. “It allows everyone to participate at their level, and still enjoy it all.”

 

However, this year the Wednesday schedule meant that the celebrations were not as intense as years past.

 

For the past few years, Students and teachers stay after school the day before and decorate the halls. This year, students did not do a complete haunted house, but covered the lights on the third floor with red and black paper along with other various decorations.

 

During the lunch bands, there is a student costume contest/fashion show, but this year no event took place. Instead, Black Student Union had students send picture of their costumes to their Instagram page. People then voted on who they thought had the best costume.

 

Teacher costumes this year included Mr. Enzweiler pirate-vampire hybrid, Ms. Leaness Rosie the Riveter and Ms. Shagin’s and Mr. Kamal’s Hansel and Gretel. They even made Ms. Shagun’s door to look like a gingerbread house.

 

While teachers made a strong showing with costumes, student involvement was lower than usual, for a variety of reasons

Sophomore Lily Bromley decided not to dress up this this year or last.

“I don’t care about Halloween, and it’s not fun unless you’re trick-or-treating,” Bromley said. She also explained that she doesn’t have the energy to put on an elaborate costume in the early morning.

 

Although she doesn’t dress up, Bromley still enjoys Halloween at SLA. She enjoys looking at peoples costumes and trying to guess what they are.

 

Sophomores Taj Walter and Londyn Edwards are very excited to spend another Halloween at SLA. They have decided to dress up together as a pair of skeletons.

“I dressed up last year and it was really fun.”  Edwards explained. She said she knew she wanted to dress up again and was inspired by an Instagram post she saw.

 

As this is her first year at SLA CC, Ms. Leaness was surprised there wasn’t more student participation, despite the challenge of it being on a Wednesday.

 

Some sophomores and junior students explained that they didn’t want want be in full costume when they went to their ILP after school.

 

“Still, I was surprised there wasn’t more costumes.” Leaness said.

 

Faryn Heffner

Staff Writer 

 

Being a new student at a new school is very tough, I’m experiencing it myself. But coming from a different part of the world, seems to be much more challenging — and yet many students come to SLA this way each year.

 

Daniele Fiorenza, also known as Dani, is an exchange student from the town of Pollena Trocchia in Italy. Fiorenza  is currently a senior, and getting to know the ropes in his new environment.  

“There are many differences between Italian and American school system. I figured these differences out my first few weeks. In Italy, the way to teach is static,” said  Fiorenza.

 

“The teacher is just explaining things and we practice at home with homework. The way that people are teaching here is interactive, students are supposed to talk every class. I really like the way teachers teach here”.

 

He feels as if the teaching at SLA is more enjoyable and kids seem to want to do their work. He also likes the relationship between teachers and students here, they are always very helpful.

 

“I think that in my home school, kids are not enjoying coming to school to learn”. Fiorenza feels that school is a commitment.

 

“The teachers in Italy are older than the teachers here. The relationship between the students and the teacher is very formal. Here you can email your teacher whenever you need and every teacher is always available.”

 

Benchmark season is almost over, but Fiorenza reports that the benchmarks help him understand why he is learning this material and why he can use it in the future.

 

“Another thing that I love is the way I’m working. I’ll give you an example, I’m in Algebra 2 and we are doing a benchmark. In Italy I used to say very often, ‘why am I studying this? what do I need this for in my life?’  With this benchmark, I’m figuring out what I need those things for.”

 

Fiorenza also mentioned that there are many difficulties that come with this change in lifestyle.

 

Waking up early in the morning and using public transportation has been a challenge for Fiorenza. He was also surprised that the bus was free so he could go anywhere he wanted during the week.

 

Outside of school, Fiorenza and enjoys making new friends. He also enjoys listening to music and spending time with his brother, and this fall he played on the boys soccer team.

 

Senior Amelia Benamara is in Fiorenza’s advisory, and she gave some good advice so it is easier for him to adjust to the SLA community and to Philadelphia.

 

“He can meet new people to create lifelong memories with and to keep in touch with those certain people just in case he ever comes back to philly to visit everyone again.”

 

She also mentioned that staying open minded to the Philly culture because it is so different from the italian culture will be helpful for him too.

 

Benamara reported that Fiorenza definitely seems to be fitting in with the community at SLA.

 

“I think he is very close with the other students especially the boys on the soccer team because he was a part of that team. He is also really interacting with the foreign kids such as from Poland and Spain”.

 

Being away from home has reminded Fiorenza about what he values most, which is his family. He is very thankful for this opportunity.

 

“This experience makes you understand many things. I’m figuring out how important my family is to me and to always count on yourself in life too. In my opinion, this is an amazing experience, it is an opportunity to learn English better and I think I’m going to remember this trip all my life”.

 

Lily Bromley

Staff Writer

 

This year, SLA has welcomed in many new faces to the community. One of these teachers is the new Assistant Principal, Ann Leaness. Ms. Leaness has been working as a teacher for over 27 years, she previously worked at SLA Beeber as an English teacher and an advisor. Leaness also confounded an organization called Edcamp, which is a professional development resource for teachers.

 

Her History

Ms. Leaness grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and went to an all-girls Catholic school. When describing her experience in school she stated, “I loved high school, I had a great experience.”

In fact, she loved her high school so much that she went back to teach there later in life. Leaness attended Holy Family University for her Bachelor’s Degree and St. Joseph’s University for her Masters. She worked at SLA Beeber for 4 years, and described how being an assistant principal differs from being an advisor, “I think I just became an overall advisor!” she stated.

Ms. Siswick, Guidance Counselor at SLA expressed her excitement with having a woman in an admission position at SLA and also discussed Ms. Leaness’ qualifications “She has extensive experience in education as a teacher and an administrator, and also in the SLA model. Having worked at SLA Beeber, she really understands how the learning happens.”

Nydirah Torrence, a Junior from SLA Beeber talked about Ms. Leaness’ teaching style “Mrs. Leaness was creative and outstanding with her teaching that really pushed me to read more. In referring back to my middle school year I read tons of books but they weren’t really interesting to me in my enjoying what I read. But by her big selection of books in her class, she made me open my reading experience”

 

Edcamp

Ms. Leaness co-founded a nonprofit organization called Edcamp that she described as a “professional development that is meaningful for teachers.”

Edcamp meets on Saturdays and is entirely teacher run. “It just blew up,” stated Ms. Leanes. “It went viral across the country. And it’s international. And now there are hundreds of Edcamps.”

Leaness founded the organization when she was working at Martin Luther King High School during which she began communicating with other teachers on Twitter. “It was something that was needed at the time because teachers were really feeling like they were being targeted, everyone was being really negative about education. So it was a space for teachers to really flourish and talk about education,” said Ms. Leaness.

 

Yarn Love

One of Ms. Leaness favorite hobbies is knitting and dyeing yarn. She even has her own Etsy Shop called “WoolyHues”. However, the shop is currently closed due to Ms. Leaness’ busy schedule. She explained that when she was about 9 years old, a family friend taught her how to crochet, and she has been doing it since. Then, about 2 years ago she decided to take a knitting class and fell in love with it.

“When people think of knitting, they think of a bunch of old ladies sitting around, but it’s really not like that. There is a lot of really young people who get involved in the activism of it, that’s where the pussy hats were created.” She stated, referencing the hats that many protesters wore when attending Women’s Rights Marches and Anti-Trump Rallies.

Ms. Leaness said that she loved the people that she met in the Knitting community, and how thoughtful and kind they all were.

When asked what the students at SLA should know about her she stated, “I just love kids. I love being around them”