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Jovan Lewis Show Preps for Premiere

January 18, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Abe Musselman

Staff Writer

Junior Jovan Lewis is hard to miss. At six feet, four inches, he’s the kind of guy who has to duck to avoid low doorways. Jovan is a model student and can often be seen hanging out in the SLA library, but most people don’t know that he also has a deep love of comedy and sees it as the most important thing he has to offer.

Screen Shot 2013-01-18 at 11.25.45 AM — Host Jovan Lewis

“I’ll tell people jokes to make them laugh when they’re feeling upset,” he said with a smile during our interview.

Jovan just likes to cheer people up with a little laughter, which is exactly what he hopes to do with his newest project, The Jovan Lewis Show. He describes the program as a comedy talk show that is part reality, part fantasy.

Along with his co-creator and cameraman Pierce Meier, Jovan has a unique vision for his new show. “It’s not going to be super-professional. Most of the comedy will be improv.” He added, “I seem the funniest when I’m not actually trying to be funny.”

The show will feature guests from SLA who will interact with the cast, some of whom play fictional versions of themselves. Other members of the show will include characters that Jovan dreamed up with his production crew, including an obnoxious stagehand and a racially insensitive high school student.

The creators plan to tape a live showing every other week using the video production equipment from Mr. Herman’s Digital Video class, then release the recording the following Friday. Each episode of the show will then be edited using FinalCut and posted online in the tradition of other student projects such as Senior Stephen Holts’s The High School Office and Senior Dylan Cordivari’s Dylan’s Dumpster.

Jovan has high hopes that his show will become a success among SLA students, and that he will be able to continue during his senior year. He dreams of becoming a filmmaker after high school, and sees this project as a chance to learn the basics and sharpen his skills before college.

More than anything, Jovan just wants to have fun doing something that he enjoys. He’s not giving too much away for now, but you can catch the first live performance this Friday January 17th in the Drama Studio after school.

With its unique blend of strange characters and relevant discussion topics, The Jovan Lewis Show is giving SLA students one more reason to pay attention to one of our most unique personalities.

Old Club Gets New Start

January 18, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Nomi Martin-Brouilett

Staff Writer

Some Science Leadership Academy clubs can go unnoticed for a long time. Franklin Institute Stewards In Knowledge-Sharing, or FISIKS, is one of these clubs.

Club Coordinator Luke Van Meter, who is also the SLA-TFI liason, explained, “FISIKS stands for improving student awareness and access to the resources and opportunities at The Franklin Institute.”

The club actually started in 2010, when a group of highly involved SLA students who are now seniors started the program. The purpose was to maximize the benefits of SLA’s partnership with The Franklin Institute increase the awareness of the resources, programs, and activities that are available at TFI at SLA. This includes leading free trips to see movies and exhibits, and encouraging families to use their free memberships.

One of these events took place last Wednesday, when FISIKS took a group of students to see Monsters, Inc. in 3D at The Franklin Institute for free. The trip was a big hit, a group of around 15 students took the opportunity to go. One of these students was Sophomore Darya Nemati.

“Monsters Inc. was awesome! I got to hang out with friends and watch a movie at the same time.“ says Nemati, who didn’t know of FISIKS beforehand. “I heard about the movie in the Advisory Memo….and I would be willing to participate in future events.”

The club that few knew about is finally getting attention and interest, years after it started.So what is FISIKS planning next?

“Alisha Rothwell and Emmanuel are hanging posters around the school to raise awareness about the Titanic Exhibit and other opportunities. I expect the club’s activity to continue to grow as more students get involved and as the group tries out new things.” say’s Van Meter.

The club meets on Wednesday afternoon’s as well as some lunch periods, and is looking for new members! If you are interested, email Alisha Rothwell at arothwell@scienceleadership.org.

Free Reading For All

January 15, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Annisa Ahmed

Staff Writer

As of this year, the independent reading unit at Science Leadership Academy is stretching across grades.

SLA is a school built upon independence and after laying down some guidelines, students are normally allowed to explore a topic in their own fashion and the same holds true with literature. Students are initially introduced to it at the beginning of their third year.

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov finds comfort this type of teaching because it allows for more wiggle room. “It’s a challenge in English because everyone reading one book gives you unity and some common thread for discussion,” explains Ms. Pahomov. But, I remember it gets boring when you are always being told what to read, so you also have to give them freedom at some point.”

“The big thing,” Ms. Pahomov said, “is figuring a way to give people without it being totally unstructured so, finding ways to encourage students to read and enjoy themselves without making it feeling restricted.”

The brilliant mastermind behind it was former English Teacher Zac Chase, but the concept is always being fine tuned. As for instance, independent reading or rather, free reading as English Teacher Matt Kay calls it, is being brought into the curriculum as early as freshman year.

He explains as it as an approach to target kids who do not always read class texts with a passion. “I thought I would grab more of their attentions if I gave them more options,” stated Mr. Kay.

The students that he teaches are divided into small reading groups and given a book each. There are small quizzes every Friday and it is their job to manage their reading time wisely. Novels to be studied this year include Girl, Interrupted, Monster and Me Talk Pretty and so far, it has been running rather smoothly.

Mr. Kay acknowledges that there are better ways to teach about culture. “And all of these books [offered], he noted, “are tied together by a culture unit so, I figured there is no reason not to taste some free reading.”

Freshman Hikma Salhe of Blue Stream has been rather pleased with the turn of events. “It’s pretty inspiring and fun. When I talk with other kids in the class, there is more to talk about because of the options Mr. Kay has given us.”

She hopes that she will able to read more like this during her later in SLA.

Contact: aahmed2@scienceleadership.org.

Locker Talk: What is EduCon?

January 15, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

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“Educon is a conference where educators from around the country/world come to SLA to participate in courses about how to bring their school into the 21st century, or about just the school system in general.” - Sophomore, Wynn Geary

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“Are you sure you want to ask me this question because I don’t really know what it is. It’s kind of like when a bunch of people from different schools visit SLA and we present who we are and what we’re about.” -Freshman, Veronica Nocella

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“A place that’s united with education.” -Sophomore, Monisha Das

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“Educon is a huge event where tons of different people come to the school to learn about our curriculum and the way our society runs. We hope most of those people will donate a large sum of money to keep the projects of our school funded.” -Junior, Niyala Brownlee

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“Educon is a time of the year where groups of people from all over the world come to SLA and students here can share their ideas with them.” -Sophomore, True Black

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Photos and Interview by Melanie Harrington.

Juniors Begin Keystone Exams

January 14, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

Science Leadership Juniors will begin testing for the Keystone Exams starting on Tuesday, January 15th. This is the first time the Keystone Exams are being introduced to the Philadelphia School District, replacing the previous PSSA exam.

The Keystone Exams are the new state mandated end-of-course test designed to determine the status of high schools and their students proficiency in core subjects. The exam will test the students’ understanding of Literature, Algebra I, and Biology.

As a part of the national No Child Left Behind laws, each year the school has to hit certain percentages in testing to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress.

“This year it’s important because it’s how SLA is measured against other schools in Philly,” stated Testing Coordinator and Math Teacher Mark Miles.

Right now, the tests are only used to assess the school. Starting for the class of 2017, however, the Keystone Exams will become a graduation requirement for all students.
According to the Philadelphia School District, the state plans to introduce more exams as part of the graduation requirements. A Composition exam is expected to commence in 2019 and a Civics and Government exam in 2020. A Geometry, U.S. History, Algebra II, Chemistry, and World History exam may be implemented for voluntary use.

For the past couple of months, juniors have been preparing for the exams. “In English and Math class, we’ve had review packets and quizzes,” commented Junior Jhonas Dunakin, “It’s kind of like a refresher from what you learnt from before.”

With all of the review, Juniors are both feeling the pressure to perform and starting to get burned out on the practice.

“I want it to be finished. It’s taking away from what we usually do,” stated Junior Victoria Yarbrough, “We put on hold our trigonometry, which I really need to know, for something I already know.”

The juniors are not the only ones preparing for the exams. Mr. Miles has been running training sessions for proctoring during professional development. Being a school that does not hold much value in testing, the faculty and staff have a tradition to make the experience more bearable.

“It started with Mr. Chase, who didn’t like the whole testing coordinator thing, so he gave himself a different nickname.” commented Mr. Miles. This tradition has allowed the testing coordinators to give themselves a different persona to separate themselves from the position.

“There is the educator, who we are normally,” said Mr. Miles, “and then there is the testing coordinator.”

This year the juniors’ Keystone Exams are run by Marky Mark and his helpers, the Funky Bunch.