SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.
Darius Purnell
Staff Writer
SLA students respond to Quotes.
This week’s quote: “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
– Dr. Maya Angelou
This week, we interviewed the following SLA students:
Eleanor Shamble, 9th Grader
Rifah Islam, 10th Grader
Luke Risher, 10th Grader
Morgan Caswell, 11th Grader
Heaven Mendez, 11th Grader
As school students we are given grades to show how well we’ve done in classes, usually to show if we are actually participating or slacking off. At least thats what parents see it as. Most parents expect a passing grade such as an A or a B, because they believe that it always possible and if you don’t achieve these goals they set of you, they assume you didn’t try your hardest. In the past parents blamed “bad” grades on the teachers when it is the students work as well.
As students of Science Leadership Academy we are given the choice of a different approach of the dreaded report card conference.
First we don’t see grades as Accomplished, Basic, Common, Deteriorate, and Failed. We look at grades as a scale of understanding the criteria.
Another thing about SLA is that it may help you or not is the way we grade entirely. When it comes time for the grades to be recorded on the report card they can only be shown as 95, 85, 75, 65, and 55. Depending on your grade, if its in between two grades then is will either be bumped down or bumped up.
What works with report card conferences is that you run the conference, not your advisor or parents. So you are given the voice you might have not been given through grade school. We also give you narratives about you from the teachers of each of your classes in advance, so you can come up on how you want the conversation to run. They tell how exactly you are in class, they say the good and the bad. Giving what you did good at and what you can improve on. Make a plan to show how you can do better and make sure you stick to that plan. You want to look like an excellent student and not a hypocrite.
What I tend to do when given my narratives is build a key. Usually what my key insist of is: What I Did Good, What I Did Bad, What I Can Do Better, What Can I Continue, & Tips For My Self. What I usually do to assure my parents agree with what I highlighted is think how they would think and think of what they would argue. Just as our fellow 10th grade student Michaela Peterson said when I interviewed her about her approaches of the interviews her words were “Stay in control. The conference is lead by you, not about you. Don’t let anyone usurp your power.”
Another student I interviewed was Ellie Kredie and what she had to say was “Be confident! Talk to both your advisor and parent before the conference, letting them know of your grades. Also, just remember that this is a time to get to know your advisor and allow your family to get to know your advisor as well.” just as Ellie said you must not let everything get to you.
One thing you should make sure you do is talk to your advisor. Tell him or her about certain things (if there are such things) that your parents will try to focus on and if you need your advisor to help you keep them on track. Such as your parents might look at the negative of what the results are and you want your advisor to help you show the positive.
Remember its not the end of the world if you have a bad grade it just means you need a little bit of help to get you on the right track.
by Staff Writer Calamity Rose Jung-Allen
Sean Morris
Staff Writer
First off, before I even get into the awesomeness of the film itself, I want to praise the marketing team for a wonderful promotional campaign. They created several astonishing and visually eye catching images, especially the ones highlighting the districts like the one below and the incredibly detailed website The Capita.pn that is well worth a visit.
The film itself was an excellent treat for those that have been searching for an worthwhile cinematic journey lately. Mockingjay had strong performances, stunning effects and a well-kept pace leaves the audience ‘hungry’ for more. The film picks up where Catching Fire left off — Katniss and her allies, among them the long lost district 13, are no longer competing in a gladiator fight against each other, instead a much more dangerous battle altogether- a war with the tyrannical and ruthless Capital, which will stop at nothing to regain its power over the districts. In a current world where a youtube video can, quite literally, spark a revolution, it’s worth noting the power of propaganda as demonstrated several times in this film on both sides of the conflict.
As previously stated I felt the performances were all strongly delivered her The always- good Jennifer Lawrence showed a more uneven side of Katniss, struggling to adapt in a new world without the same singular purpose as the previous films and having great responsibility sprung onto the girl who started it all off by simply trying to save her sister. While having less screen time this film, Josh Hutcherson is able to give a wonderfully nuanced and more subtle performance as Peeta Malik, the poor boy with the bread who has suffered greatly at the hands of the Capitol. Other returning characters like Finnick, Heavensbee, Haymitch and Beetee were able to show a few new sides while new characters like the icy President Coin, left us in mystery to some of her intentions.
While it was a little sad to see the great comic relief that is Effie Trinket without her fabulous outfits, she was still able to steal every scene she was in. An often overlooked force in the movies, but is always entertaining is Donald Sutherland as President Cornelius Snow who nails the head on the wall with whatever he needs; the loving caregiver, the cold villain or the ruthless enforcer he provides them all in a wonderfully sinister character.
Paragraph more into the real-world connection HERE. (SLA media is looking further into this and will be publishing an article on it soon)
This movie is definitely not for one who hasn’t seen the previous films (or at least read the books) but for fans of the series there’s a lot to enjoy, even as a movie in general, and while I can’t speak for the accuracy to the book I would find it hard for there to be too many inconsistencies/ changes. If you can I’d strongly urge you to “volunteer as tribute” to see the next exciting installment of the Hunger Game series currently in theaters.
Chhievling Seng
Staff Writer
For some students, it’s impossible to even imagine that their teachers were once under the age of 18. But the truth is that they all have a history — and their pasts influence their current selves in surprising ways.
For this article, SLAMedia set out to uncover the hidden pasts of the teachers at our own school.
One thing that several teachers confessed: they wanted independence or were independent.
English Teacher Amal Giknis said she had always wanted independent.
“ I really wanted independence which was hard to come by in my family. It’ s like I don’t know what I’m doing vs I got this. You are old enough to do a lot but you’re not able to do everything on your own.“ I’m glad I did push for that independence then. Now I’m really good being by myself and good at managing my times and needs. I’m still really independent today. “
Art and Technology Teacher Marcie Hull said she was independent knowing that she had to be.
“ I was always given scholarship to take art classes in the city. I would go to south street, I had learned to take public transportation. I can walk to a train stop that took me to downtown in 40 min. I had a whole city to explore. That made my experience very different compared to kids who are sheltered and kept in.”
“ I had a friend that moved in the 6th grade in Utah. I would save my money and I would buy a ticket and visit her and her family alone.”
“ I had to be independent, my parents told me that I can’ t be dependent on them, and I had to learn.”
Some other fascinating things from the following teachers:
Bio-Chem Teacher Tim Best said he has matured.
“ I was kind of nerdy, I didn’t get in trouble very much, but I would do goofy things to get a laugh but you know in the end I end up getting in trouble for it. “
“Proud of my how I grew, matured and changed. Changes from like 7th grade to 12th grade, I used to be really shy and quiet. Then I came out of my shell and now I am more outgoing. “
Spanish Teacher Melanie Manuel was a classical pianist and she also said that she would be the type of students who would annoy herself today!
“ I was a classical pianist. In my final recital, I was chosen to be the closing performance. I was in the Junior Classical League which I appreciate now more than ever. I love that I can still play pieces that I played growing up.”
“ I think if my teenage self were in my current Spanish 1 class, I would annoy the living bejeeezus out of myself. I was often distracted. My teachers loved me, but there was one in particular who I drove crazy because I couldn’t sit still. I had way too much energy.”
Digital Video Teacher Douglas Herman said he was quite curious.
“I think I would probably consider myself a curious person, I wasn’t necessarily sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, I kind of tried a lot of different things, I played sport, and I was in theatre. I moved away from where I grew up to diversify my background. I kind of tried everything , little of this and that. I wanted to explore option, because where I grew up was a little confine.”
“ I had a couple of opportunity to make a serious attempt to play sport and go to college to play. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, if I had gone for it and I had done that, I might’ve been able to play baseball or hockey in a professional way. My message to myself would be if I would’ve worked harder to pursue those dream, I would’ve had a better shot and start to college.”
“ I’m thankful for taking chances, being curious and extending myself to situation and groups of people. I pushed myself to be outside of a shell. That is something I did through my life and it started early. I was comfortable talking to different types of people.”
You now know a little bit more about your teachers and their secret teenage lives. Maybe now you might be able to relate to them with what you are going through now as a teenager at SLA.
Image courtesy: http://www.clipartoday.com/_thumbs/034/G/Growing_up_tnb.png