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Column: Why I Became a Peer Mediator

December 19, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Lauryn Lewis

Staff Writer

What exactly is peer mediation?

If you don’t know, that’s ok. Before I heard an announcement about this program in the advisory memo, I had no idea what it was either. I’m not sure why I signed up for the training, but I’m glad I did.

Peer mediation is a way to help students solve disagreements by forging an agreement between two or more parties. This system allows students who have issues to solve them without getting adults involved and clearing up the problem before it blows up.

I have completed two trainings so far and at each training we took steps to become better peer mediators. At the first meeting, besides socializing among each other, we all brainstormed issues that might arise among students in the school. We also went over the true meaning of peer mediation and what exactly we would do in a meeting. For the second meeting, the peer mediators were given the chance to have a mock peer mediation. This really helped us to understand what we needed to do and what we might deal with in the meetings.

So how does the system work?

The process was set up my School Counselor Zoe Siswick’s intern, Ms. Tess. She designed a google form for students to schedule their peer mediations. All the student would have to do is, sign up via google form saying that you have an issue that you would like resolve with someone in the school. Both parties would have to agree to sitting down with peer mediators and going over the issue. Each disputant will have time to explain their point of view of the situation. After each person speaks on what they feel the problem is, they will be allowed to come together and list potential ways to fix the problem.

All of the peer mediators understand why students might have mixed emotions about coming to the group. Some might say that they do not feel the need for peer mediation when they can handle the situation themselves while others might not want anyone in else knowing about the difficult situation they are in.

However, peer mediation will become a big deal here at SLA because the peer mediators are students. The students here at SLA will be more open to other non-judgemental students hearing their problems rather than the teachers. Peer mediators include: Ella Marton, Chloe Simmons, Jade Gilliam, Lauryn Lewis, Aniya Linder, Tyah Ward, and Jordan Grayes. The students will also be able to relate to the peer mediators being that we are all in the same age range and the mediators all have experience at the school.

And trust me, we have all had our fair share of issues and disagreements with other students that have led us to wanting to help solve the issues of others.

Students, Teachers Reflect on Narrative Report Cards

December 19, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Mekhi Granby

Staff Writer

Exactly what do SLA students think about Narratives?

The feedback from teachers written towards students as individuals at the end of the first and third quarters of each school year garners some strong reactions from the student body. They’re often a love/hate thing, students either anxiously look forward to or barely acknowledge them (or both).

The overall consensus seemed to be that students feel narratives lose their value as students get closer to graduating.

For freshmen, the process is entirely new, and the write-ups make a strong impression. As quarter one came to an end, a number of incoming freshman posted photos of their narratives on snapchat with soft-hearted messages of appreciation inspired by the insightful and generous words from their teachers.

“All of my narratives so far were meaningful to me because I saw that all my teachers appreciated who I am in class and my work ethic, said Freshman Londyn Edwards.

“I pride myself in being a good student and to see that being appreciated was amazing and fulfilling to me.”

History Teacher Matthew Baird said, “It’s crucial that as a school we look at students as individuals and not just grades. My hope is that both faculty and students appreciate narratives as being part of that process.”

“It’s important that students get more than numbers for feedback, it adds different pieces to being a student and a learner,” said English Teacher Joshua Block.

Sophomore Horace Ryans agreed with this assessment.

“I feel like my teachers make an effort to communicate and express their concern to us. Transitioning from a freshman to a sophomore, my narratives have gotten better as my teachers obtain a greater understanding of who I am as a student,” Ryans said.

The upperclassmen interviewed, however, did not feel so rosy about the narratives.

“Not to call any teacher out, but I really hate it when teachers start talking about things that don’t relate with my academics directly. I feel like my narratives are about 85 percent accurate,” said Junior Messele Asfaw.

“I think the reason upperclassmen may be less interested or excited for narratives is because they’re used to reflecting on their own by now. It’s all information that they already know,” said Art Teacher Marcie Hull.

Junior Lucien Hearn affirmed this mindset.

“When receiving my narratives for the first quarter, I had little reaction because it was standard advice,” he said.

Students also get tired of being corrected.

“I think teachers tend to overreact about certain things because they have the power to do so. For example a student being on their phone a few times during the class, they make it seem like you’re always on your phone,” said Senior Imani Williams.

“Older students may care less because they see the process of grades and narratives of further defining who they are and they think it’s all been settled but in fact it hasn’t. They don’t see them as a tool to improve,” added Mr. Baird.

So if narratives feel less meaningful to upperclassmen, should they change in some way? A lack of personalization is a big complaint that surrounds narratives. What would make them more meaningful?

“Sometimes, writing them can be challenging. Due to the amount of students it feels like I’m saying the same thing but having to word it differently,” said Spanish Teacher Joselyn Hernandez.

“The most meaningful narratives to me are those that have included helpful criticisms from teachers on how to better succeed in class for the upcoming quarters because then I can set goals for myself,” said Senior Lotus Shareef-Trudeau.

Asfaw agreed with this statement.

“My advisor gave me one that was very meaningful. It contained what I did well, what I could do better, and what he likes about me as a student as well as what he likes about me personally,” he said.

Block revealed his working solution for narratives.

“I find it helpful when older students contribute to writing the narrative as they find it more useful for improvement,” he said.

More teachers have moved toward this blended-writing system in the past year, where the student contributes at least part of the narrative.

It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue or even grow. The next narratives will be written at the end of the third quarter, in late April 2018.

How Effective is the Advisory Memo?

December 19, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Jayla Wright

Staff Writer

On every Monday and Thursday, students and parents receive an email containing information about current events affecting the SLA community. News in the memos range from updates on upcoming club meetings to telling students about volunteering

Junior Sarah Berg reads the memo to her advisory. Some teachers have students read the memo in an attempt to keep their peers interested. Photo by Jayla Wright.

opportunities to raising interest for activities happening outside of school.

But is the message getting through?

To make sure students are aware of what’s happening in their school advisors were given the task of having the memos being read aloud during advisory. However, a week-long observation by SLAMedia revealed that not all advisors read the memos consistently — and some don’t read them at all.

During one week in November, Surveyed juniors revealed that one half of the junior advisories have the advisory memo read twice in that week. A third of the advisories only had it read it once a week. And one advisory did not read it on Monday or Thursday.

Excellence Coordinator Jeremy Spry, who compiles the memos, believes that the memos can be a good resource for the SLA Community even if it does not get read during advisory.

“I think either they really great way for parents to keep up to date on what’s happening inside the building. I know kids may not always read it or advisory is a very busy time so it may not always get read aloud. I know parents really enjoy the opportunity to figure out what’s happening in the school.”

At the same time Spry believes that the SLA community appreciates the memos.

“There must be some value in it. It goes out to a wide variety of people.”

Junior Kimberly Gucciardi-kriegh, on the other hand, finds that the memos are often ignored.

“A lot of people either don’t read it or don’t pay attention to it from what I’ve seen, but I always try to read it because either there’s something I already know is in there that I wanna see or I’m just like hey what’s going on I wanna join something new.”

Junior Miguel Rivera had positive outlook on the future of advisory memos.

“I think the video stuff is popping off. I also think that the advisory memos are gonna be more visual or shorter cause a lot of advisory memos now are very wordy or very long. People would pay a lot more attention if it was shorter or more condensed and to the main point.”

Rivera was referring to the new video memo items, organized by several Digital Video students. These videos are now shared with the SLA Community on Thursdays. The video from December 6th included announcements for spirit week, Improv Club, Black Student Union, and the winter concert:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNcwhNCM46o&feature=youtu.be

A casual poll of students in the SLAMedia class revealed that most advisories do watch the videos — but one student had no idea that these videos even existed.

Gucciardi-Kriegh and Rivera both admitted that when the memo does get through, good things can come of it.

“I was able to do a program that I otherwise wouldn’t know about because of the memos.” said Rivera.

Gucciardi-kriegh stated, “I think it just brings awareness to things going on in our school community also outside of our school. It just gives people more opportunities to broaden their horizons and join things they probably wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for the memos.”

Overall, the advisory memos seems to be appreciated by students despite it not always receiving attention. The dilemma of the memos the not being read seems to be less of an issue with its content more of an issue with the way it’s presented.

Column: What’s Up With Net Neutrality

December 19, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sarah Berg

Staff Writer

Net neutrality is the idea that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should provide access to all content and not favor or block any websites. Regulations put forth by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allow for net neutrality to exist. Basic internet regulations have been in place since 2005, but in 2015, under the Obama administration, they were strengthened, when the internet was put under Title II regulations. These regulations prevent (ISPs) from tampering with speeds and charging for better speeds and access to different sites. As savetheinternet.com put it, net neutrality “preserves our right to communicate freely online.”

Pai’s Plan

In April of this year, FCC Chairman and Republican Ajit Pai announced his plan to reverse the classification of internet providers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. This act classifies common carriers under its Title II. Internet service was put under Title II in 2015, and this classification allowed the FCC the legal right to enforce net neutrality rules.

Pai is a former lawyer for Verizon who was appointed the position of chairman by President Trump in January. He argues that ISPs need better profits because investments in the industry have gone down since 2015. He has been vocal since the new rules were voted on then, saying that the government was meddling with the internet although he believed “the internet is not broken. There is no problem to solve”.

Despite many calls for them to push the vote back, and a majority of comments on the FCC’s website supporting net neutrality, on December 14th, the FCC voted 3-2 in favor of Pai’s proposal. The vote was predictably along party lines, with Pai and other Republicans voting it in.

What is at risk?

Without net neutrality, ISPs will be able to slow down and speed up connections to different websites and services, playing a large role in determining which ones succeed. They will be able to block access to content they do not agree with, whether it be political or competitive products or services.

Groups who depend on the internet to organize and communicate will be in jeopardy without net neutrality, along with small businesses. Companies will have to pay for a place in the “fast lane”. This will give large, successful businesses an advantage over smaller ones, who may struggle to pay the fee. These businesses will then have a much harder time advertising and hosting their markets.

Companies that are against the FCC’s new proposal are either small businesses who rely on the internet, or social medias and online services. Some companies who have spoken out against Pai’s plan include Discord, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, Etsy, AirBnb, Netflix, Google, and Amazon — basically every big commerce or social media site.

What now?

All over social medias and in real life, I have seen people freaking out about the vote. Misinformation is spreading, with people saying that you will now have to pay $2 for every Google search, or $10 for monthly access to Instagram. This is not the case. What we are more likely to see are increased prices for fast lines, if anything.

Congress still has the ability to overrule the FCC’s vote, by passing a resolution of disapproval. As well as this, many democrats are calling for a bill to counter the FCC’s decision, and some attorney generals are planning to take legal action to prevent the changes from occuring.

Even if the FCC’s decision passes, you may not actually see major changes to the internet. Some companies, including AT&T and Comcast, have said that the online experience will not change.

In short, we will have to wait to see what is going to happen to net neutrality. You can visit https://www.battleforthenet.com/ to send a message to Congress telling them to overturn the FCC’s vote. You can also text RESIST to 50409, and the Resistbot will help you contact your representatives.

Students Weigh In On Sexual Harassment in Philly

December 8, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Eric Valenti

Staff Writer

Sexual Harassment is a common topic in the news at present, including in the school district. Right now at Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), the counselor of the school faces charges of sexual assault against a seventeen year old student.

Because of these allegations happening both nationally and locally, many are starting to address the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. People are also trying to understand what exactly sexual harassment is, and how to handle it.

One of the big challenges in addressing this issue is that, due to the taboo nature of the topic, people have different definitions of what sexual harassment is. Many have disputed what “the line” is when it comes to this behavior. It’s important to remember that people take certain actions and certain statements more personally than others.

Health and physical education teacher Pia Martin shared her definition of what sexual harassment is stating:

“I think sexual harassment is a very broad term and that usually the definition for me is, unwanted attention of a sexual nature — so it can be physical or verbal, but it’s on the person’s perception of unwanted attention.”

Counselor Zoe Siswick is in her ninth year working at Science Leadership Academy so she has encountered students who have asked her advice about how to handle situations like sexual harassment.

“I think it is tough to define because there is such a range of what it can look like and to some extent it comes down to what the person feels, do they feel harassed?”

Sophomore Sanaa Scott-Wheeler defined sexual harassment as “when someone starts to have any form of engagement with you or interaction with you that you’re not comfortable with that violates some personal laws that you have.”

In order to understand what it’s like to be sexually harassed, people need to be exposed to people’s encounters with sexual harassment.

Senior Deja Harrison explored this topic last year when she wrote about catcalling for SLAMedia. “I get off of public transportation. I pretty much see people everyday and I’m around people every day. So someone almost always says something, whether it’s about my body or if it’s about what I have on and stuff like that,” she explained.

“It’s an everyday thing. One time someone pulled my bookbag. I said ‘ I don’t even know you,’ and they said ‘I just wanted to talk to you.”’

Scott-Wheeler had a similar story.

“I was walking home and there was this guy who made eye contact with me on the train but I didn’t make anything of it. So I walked off the train and started walking home and he was walking in front of me. He started slurring his words together and wasn’t walking stable and he was talking to someone on the phone. Then he started saying ‘Ay yo shawty, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful.’ He was about seventeen or eighteen.”

Scott-Wheeler stated that the man continued to follow her and hit on her even though she tried to ignore him and try to get away from him.

Numerous female students have confirmed that they experience or witness sexual harassment in their communities. But what about inside SLA?

“There have been people who have tried to talk to me and I’ll say no, but they’ll still pursue me and I kinda take it as a joke because we’re kids,” Harrison explained.

Most of the other interviewees stated that they haven’t been sexual harrased or have encountered sexual harassment in SLA. Ms. Siswick stated that their has never been a case of sexual harassment between a student and a teacher.

Junior Julia Hood stated that the very thought of potential harassment influences her behavior.

“I feel more aware. I’m a lot more aware of my surroundings since my experience, especially at night. Especially when I’m alone.”

Since, sexual harassment can be classified as many things, teachers acknowledged that each incident may need its own kind of reaction.

“I think the biggest thing is to tell someone and the best thing is to find people who can support you, whether that is supporting you by making it stop or help discipline the person who it happens to. Unfortunately there are situations where you can’t make it stop but you can have someone or people to talk to, to make you feel a little more better about it.” Ms. Siswick stated.

“They should be clear that it’s sexual harassment, and that they don’t own that, and that’s something that was done to them and they should feel comfortable where they could take it to a level where they feel comfortable. If I need to ignore, ignore it. If I need to take legal action, take legal action. If I need to talk it out, talk it out. If I need to confront, confront. They need the skills to make a comfortable, safe space,” Ms. Martin stated.

“That’s your face, that’s your body and I don’t think that you should feel that you should cover it up, I don’t think you should change for getting attention for it…you should be you.” Deja Harrison stated.