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Teachers featured in new iPad Product Release

January 27, 2012 by lpahomov 1 Comment

Lehmann_SLAMedia — Principal Lehmann in the new Apple product video.

By Heather Campbell

Guest Writer

On Thursday, January 19, Apple unveiled their new product iBook Textbooks at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

SLA played a key role in the event. Principal Chris Lehmann attended the unveiling, and the school was featured in multiple ways.

“Yesterday was their big announcement, and we were lucky enough to be apart of it,” he commented.

Mr. Lehmann and Science Teacher Tim Best were featured in the product’s introduction video, which was filmed earlier this school year.

Mr. Lehmann attended the unveiling in New York. A quote of his from the video was also featured on a wall of the museum.

“That was amazing. It was at the Guggenheim museum, that’s an amazing thing to see your words in one of the most prestigious museums in the country,” Lehman stated. “That’s profoundly humbling and amazing.”

Best_SLAMedia — Science Teacher Tim Best in the new Apple product video.

This new advertisement comes after Apple filmed a longer segment about computer use at the school last year.

Due to confidentiality reasons, Apple could not tell Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Best what they were filming for, or what product they were promoting.

“It was all secretive,” Mr. Best explained. “They were asking us questions, like theoretical questions, about textbooks.”

Now that they know what they were being filmed for, they feel honored to be apart of it.

Essentially, the iBook textbooks will eliminate the use of traditional textbooks and introduce interactive learning on the iPad.

“As a publishing tool it can change the way kids publish information. I think that’s always powerful. I think as a content consumption tool, I think it modernises the textbook,” explains Mr. Lehmann.

The iBook textbooks will allow teachers and students to create their own textbooks and resources and then share them with others. The application will feature interactive diagrams, photos, and videos; a highlighting and note taking tool with study cards; and a publishing program.

“It’s really sleek and really slick and has some unbelievable potential to change the way people both consume and create sort of traditional textbook information.” comments Mr. Lehmann.

However, not everyone is sure that iiBook Textbooks will make a large or positive change.

“They’re still textbooks,” pointed out Mr. Best, “They are a little more engaging and interactive but I don’t know. Since we already have laptops we don’t need to go this route.”

Although the Science Leadership Academy already incorporates the use of Apple’s MacBooks into their learning, certain features of the new iPad software do appeal to both Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Best.

“Every student at SLA could use iBook author,” Mr Lehmann theorized. “And as part of their senior exit interview they could create an ePortfolio, eText of their best work over four years and put that all electrically bound into a portfolio.”

Mr. Best commented that he would like to get a class set for playing around with to see what his class can do with them. But in a school that already has laptops, Mr. Best was unsure of the role the iBook Textbooks would play here.

While Mr. Lehmann has no intention on switching over to iPads from MacBooks, in the event that MacBooks cannot be funded, switching over to iPads would not necessarily pose as a disadvantage. For now, however, iBooks will not play a role at SLA.

Laptop Quarantine Spreads to SLA Teachers

January 22, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

The screen on an internet browser notifying that the computer has been quarantined.

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

Everybody who has been quarantined is frustrated about the situation.

“The way it impacted the classroom,” Ms. Laufenberg said, “was that this is the main machine I use to run my classes and for 5 days school days I was shut off from presenting information to kids and effectively doing my job.”

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov’s computer was also booted from the network, due to another widget called Octoshape, which she guesses a website installed on her laptop without her knowing it.

The first time her laptop was quarantined, Ms. Hull was able to get her machine back online the same day; but when she restarted her computer a week later, she was re-quarantined.

Ms. Hull believes it it a piece of malware that kept reinstalling itself after attempts to trash and remove it. Uncertainty surrounds as to how Ms. Pahomov eventually regained access to the network from School District of Philadelphia IT personnel because this piece of malware did not successfully get uninstalled by Ms. Hull.

She’s living with a loaner computer until the situation is resolved.

The misconception about torrent files being for only knowingly downloading or sharing for illegal purposes keeps some students from using them and getting quarantined.

Art and Technology Coordinator Marcie Hull said of the situation,”What happens is people aren’t educated enough, they don’t know about it and these things happen by surprise because the way that information is traded they don’t realize what’s copy written and what isn’t.”

Others downloading freeware, or free applications from the net, have gotten banned unknowingly. Most small companies attempting to distribute their software in a legal fashion use a form of BitTorrent to get it to as many people as possible.

For students though, the procedure after getting pulled from the network for using a BitTorrent client contains a few annoying steps, particularly for a student from SLA requires internet access at most times of the day. A letter gets sent home for a parent to sign informing them that the computer cannot have access to SLA’s wifi connections or through ethernet.

Juniors Zach Castro and Matthew Ginnetti were among the students in Ms. Laufenberg’s U.S. History class who were quarantined.

Castro said, “It stops me from getting anything done, I can’t do any research.”

“If I didn’t have an iPad I wouldn’t be able to do any of my work,” Ginnetti added.

The student must wait 5 days after turning in the paper to regain access. A few students even have been quarantined for weeks at a time, though SLA sent the correct information in promptly.

The detection system itself is an application put on the network at SDP that automatically detects and boots machine’s using any type of peer-to-peer sharing.

Frustration within SLA has been growing, wanting to know which applications and sites will activate the quarantine. The newness of the program to the District contributes to this lack of information.

As Ms. Hull explained, keeping the network open and fast moving is what concerns the IT people at SDP. For example, blocking Youtube because of the bandwidth of the videos is a much larger issue to them than blocking it because it is distracting to academics.

In the meantime, members of the SLA community with quarantined laptops are hoping to be back on the web soon.

Locker Talk: Alumni Special!

January 4, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

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Allison Campbell '10 (left), pictured with the interviewer: "They prepared me well on my writing skills, the ability to articulate and to be open to all ideas, but I'm still learning the proper ways to study."

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Eddie Abbott '11: "College is fine, college is college, it's hard but its good. SLA Prepared me with the writing papers part, Chase's class and 2fers helped." Alexis Beren '11: "I have a better sense of community, senior year helped me with the blue book tests and things like that

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Cody Nichols '11: "SLA prepared for a lot of things I'm seeing in college, I really have to thank the teachers and Lehmann for that."

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Aimee Leong '11 (right) pictured with Teila Allmond '11: "It helped me with interacting with the world and people around me."

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For this special edition of Locker Talk, SLAMedia crashed the Alumni Homecoming event on Friday December 23rd. They asked visiting graduates: How did SLA prepare you for college? Click on “caption” to see what they said!

Questions by Marina Stuart. Photos by Sam Lovett-Perkins.

Elective Punishment: The Ms. Martin Workout

January 4, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Juniors Sam Lovett-Perkins (left) and Matthew Ferry wall sit during one of Ms. Martin's after-school workouts. (They're not in class right now.)

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

With a P.E. class known school-wide, the teacher everyone loves but loathes as she adds 30 seconds of wall-sits, Pia Martin keeps SLA fit, trim and entertained.

“I come to work out with Ms. Martin,” Junior Matt Ferry said jokingly, “because one day I want to be as big as her.”

More seriously, Ferry said that “she really knows how to push me.”

Ms. Martin added: “and it’s a GOOD TIME!”

Beside the required P.E. class, Ms. Martin hosts a staff-friendly after-school workout Mondays and Wednesdays at 4pm.

It all started when Principal Lehmann wanted to get more in shape. Martin trained the teachers during their free bands while the rest of SLA worked diligently or was at lunch.

This year, the workouts moved to after school.

The Martin brand of workout is not unlike others in its intensity and difficulty, but she puts a special touch on the routine.

As Geometry teacher Ms. Thompson put it, “She tortures with a kind heart.”

When asked why she hosts the workouts, Martin responded, “because I am the sadist and they are the masochists.” She then laughed.

Training the SLA sports teams like Ultimate Frisbee, the after school sessions have gotten quite popular. Students get a kick out of working out side by side with their teachers.

As Ferry said, “it feels like we are all on the same level.”

The best part, however, has to be the music.

Ms. Thompson said, “I like that she does certain things specifically tuned to some songs. It’s sort of like a dance party, but a workout.”

Several attendees requested the music be promptly put back on when the songs stopped. One favorite is “Watch My Feet” by Dude ‘n Nem used for its mix of slow and fast tempo.

Combining music and creative workouts — like Ms. Martin’s use of a deck of cards with each card being a different exercise — keeps her followers coming back each week.

SLA Junior College Night: The Rundown Of What’s To Come

December 31, 2011 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

On December 15, SLA hosted its 4th annual College Night for the Junior class. The event was met with a sizable amount of SLA parents and students.

College Counselor Karina Hirschfield hosted the event along with representatives from colleges such: Penn State, Rutgers, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, Villanova and a special guest of Karen Campbell, Dir. of Young Alumni Support Programs at Girard College.

At the beginning of the event, students and their parents were given a red folder containing information about SAT/ACT prep, student aid, and more importantly, the date of each student’s college planning meeting with Mrs. Hirschfield.

“It’s an opportunity for parents and students to listen to admissions counslers, learn about college admissions, words of advice about the process in general. They also get to hear about trends and special criteria some colleges have.” stated Hirschfield about the event.

Students and parents also participated in an activity to compare the students college ideas with the parents college. Hopefully trying to find any compatibility with student and parents to ease the college admissions process.

Immediately following that were multiple presentations on Naviance, SAT/ACT, and everything to consider in the college admissions process (i.e. room, location, books, etc.).

Naviance being the website that allows high schools such as SLA, to give their students a much better grip of the college planning process.

“It should be a little more self-explanatory, but it’s really helpful and interesting when you understand it.” replied Isabella Tognini about Naviance.

Many SLA students were really excited about the College Night, since they were getting the rundown of everything that was coming their way in the upcoming months.

“I liked getting to know what’s going to happen in my future like my college meeting with Mrs. Hirchfield.” said Ruben Burenstein.

Hirchfield also talked about Junior News, and Senior News which are filled with many other ways for SLA students to influence their college choices like college visits to SLA and future college fairs dates.

“I’m excited about it but I do have a fear of not being accepted, I think it would be amazing to get accepted to my college of my choice.” replied Tognini.

Other students replied with the same sort of attitude.

“I’m not excited about applying but excited about getting responses.” stated Burenstein.

As all high school students know the college admissions process can be an extremely difficult process, but thankfully the student and parents of SLA have events like Junior College Night and Mrs. Hirschfield.

“I hope this put people mind’s at ease. This doesn’t need to be a stressful process. Use your school’s resources. That’s what they’re there for,” said Campbell.