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Column: I Hate Keystones

January 23, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Dalena Bui

Staff Writer

The Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments designed to assess proficiency in various subjects. The Keystones show the school district how well students are assessed and it reflects on the school and how well they teach the students.

Keystones. That name alone makes the juniors at SLA stomachs drop. The juniors at SLA have never heard of Keystones until this year. The reason why is because the Keystones were made to replace the PSSA. The only thing I heard was that it is a test that lasted for 3 hours. That made my heart drop. Taking a test is hard alone, but taking a 3 hour test sounded horrible. The juniors were tested in 3 major subject, English, Math, and Science.

I am not allowed to write about things I saw in the Keystone but I can give an overall evaluation of what I felt. The math and english section I felt confident in. But when I heard about science I wasn’t too sure of myself. I felt like I couldn’t recall anything I learned over the past 2 years in science. The test confirmed my worst fear. There were things I have never seen in the subject of science. I knew I was not going to do well and so did the rest of my classmates . We all agreed when we all looked at each other and said “See all of you in May, because we’re not passing this.”

The worst part about testing was sitting in a room for hours on end with nothing to do. Since my cell phone and every other juniors phone was taken away. We all had to sit there and do nothing until the time ran out. That was honestly, to me, the worst part of the Keystone week. But, when I finished the last question on each test I felt a sense of accomplishment.

Overall, it was a good experience. It really showed me that I have learned a lot over the years. My teachers all helped us prepare for the test and it did help for the most part. This test brought out the worst and the best in me.

Locker Talk: What website do you wish was unblocked in school? Why?

January 23, 2013 by lpahomov

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“Facebook. I like facebook and it’s really fun.” - Freshman Hikma Salhe

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“Tumblr. I feel as though we should have other means of expressing ourselves besides twitter.” - Sophomore Alexis Dean

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“Damnlol because when I finish my work I think there should be a site we can go to to waste time.” - Sophomore Nadir Meeks

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“Facebook because there is definitely a lot of educational things you could find on there if you use it right.” - Freshman Morgan Caswell-Warnick

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“Spotify. Having spotify blocked is just going to make us torrent music.” - Junior Anthony Buchanico

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“Youtube. I know it’s unblocked already but I don’t care about any other website.” - Junior Ananda Kinght

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“No website. People shouldn’t be focusing on something else besides their school work.” - Sophomore Rahed Albarouki

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Students Limited By Blocked Websites

January 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Tytianna Broadwater

Staff Writer

In this past year the school district of Philadelphia has been blocking websites that have previously been available to us.

Last year, there was access to websites and apps such as Spotify which only played music, but is blocked this year

No one really knows how or why the school district blocks or unblocks the websites, “I don’t know who’s mind goes behind the whole process and I wish I could talk to them,” said Senior Annisa Ahmed.

Teachers and students feel it’s a pain in the bum to not have access to Facebook because SLA does a lot of networking. “Facebook should be unblocked because it’s social media and Twitter is unblocked, so it’s basically the same thing there.” Annisa said.

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Some other students have mixed feelings about the websites we have access to, “They’re good at picking out distractions,” stated sophomore Melanie Harrington. “But they don’t realize that some of the websites are used for more good than harm.”

“Its not totally clear what triggers a blocked page” English Teacher Larissa Pahomov said, after her juniors wrote and posted their 2fer papers and then came back to find their articles blocked by the school district labeled as ‘pornography’.

Students at SLA have stated they get really annoyed when they are doing a project and they need a simple picture such as a flower and they can’t access it because of labels like ‘mixed content’.

On the other hand Principal Chris Lehmann does not experience content blocking like the rest of the school because of his administrative access.

“SLA would rejoice if things are unblocked,” Annisa added.

SLA Reacts to School Closings

January 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By: Jamie Murphy

Staff Writer

On December 13th, the School District of Philadelphia announced its plans to close or relocate close to 40 schools in the city.

New superintendent Dr. William Hite announced these plans in the hope for better quality schools and schooling environment.

In an interview published on News Works, Hite said that, “At the end of this process, we believe that we will have a system that better serves all students, families, and stakeholders.”

SLA is not on the list of schools, and does not expect any changes in location or enrollment.

Principal Mr.Lehman reasures by saying, “Anytime you have to close schools that majorly its a really hard place, but we are fortunate as a community that our school is not closing.”

However, the changes are still having an influence on the SLA community.

Sophomore Melanie Harrington is worried because her mom works at the Tanner Duckery school, one of the schools being shut down.

“When schools close they are usually force transferred, but that may not happen since so many teachers are losing their position,” she said. “There may not be a position for everyone. So that would leave some out of jobs.”

Junior Ellen To mentioned, “It’s affecting a lot of other public schools too. My little sister, who goes to Greenfield Elementary school, will have like 10 or 15 more kids in her class now.”

Parents of the students attending the schools that are closing are protesting. As this is a major event, affecting a very large number of people.

Activist group, Parents United for Public Education stated in refute to the plan, “National studies have shown that Districts do not improve academically or financially though mass closings,” “The [Philadelphia] District has failed to demonstrate what it will do differently from other cities to address those concerns.”

Most of the SLA community are in their own bubble as it is safe to safe to say, we’re in the clear.

Photo credited to Philly.comStudents, teachers, and parents protest out side school headquarters. — Photo credited to Philly.com
Students, teachers, and parents protest out side school headquarters.

Column: I <3 Calculus

January 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you– mathematics. The most hated subject among nearly every student ever. Now I represent a dying race, people who, wait for it…. actually like math.

It’s not even that I “like” math, I love math, more specifically Calculus.

We’ve been identified as many different delightful titles: nerds, geeks, and my personal favorite, crazy.

Well if ‘crazy’ means having a great appreciation for math concepts and how they relate to the world around us, then send me to the loony bin.

I remember junior year taking pre-calculus and absolutely HATING it.

Now you’re probably thinking: “But Ryan, I thought you said you loved math?”

Before you accuse me of hypocrisy, my love of math is certainly a new-found one.

Like many kids growing up, and many kids now, I utterly loathed math class. I know that each and every one of you guys remembering sitting in math class, always having this question pop into your head: “What’s the point of all this?”

“I’m never going to pursue a career in math so why would I ever need to learn this?”

I was once in the same position myself and I didn’t have a change of heart until this year, when I starting taking calculus.

I used think math was the most boring subject in the world. Who wants to learn about triangles, absolute value, and polynomials; when there’s massive wars and glorious adventures being told in subjects like history and english?

I will say this: there are extremely boring and frustrating parts to math, like there are with history, english, or science.

I would rather watch paint dry or eat GLASS than have to deal with stuff like domain and range, matrices, and box-and-whisker plots.

And there’s limits…… Oh, how my anger for thee burns like sun that we orbit.

But even with the boring parts and my hatred for all things related to limits, there’s so much more interesting and, quite frankly, cool things about mathematics.

One of the basic concepts of mathematics is the concept of inputs and outputs. You put something in, to get out something different. Something is always a function of anything. This evident in pretty much EVERYTHING ever.

Think about it.

How much time you have to get ready for school is dependent on what time you wake up in the morning, or even if you wake up at all. When you tell yourself to go to sleep at 10pm so that you can wake up at 6am, there’s math behind that thought process.

It’s so second nature to you that you don’t even of something like that as math.

Also the idea of derivatives, or rates of change are constant throughout everyday life as well.
If you were to go to sleep at 11 or 12, the amount of sleep you get would decrease. Thus, the amount of time you have to get ready is also decreased by rate as well.

I know it’s crazy to think but, math is, and always will be apart of our lives whether we want it to or not.

Plus, talking about complex mathematical problems always makes me feel like a super genius of some kind. You guys should try it sometime.

P.S. This column was in NO way trying to kiss up to my calc teacher, Brad Latimer. But, if my calc grade suddenly changes from a “B” to an “A”, I wouldn’t object.