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Students Give Teachers Makeovers

May 19, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Staff Writer: Aylin Echandy

It’s no secret that students judge the fashion choices of their teachers. I have heard students point out certain clothing or shoe style that they were disgusted by when their teachers walked past. I have always wondered why students would frown their face and stare with a face full of shame and embarrassment. So why are students so bothered and impacted by teachers’ clothing?

The issue went viral last month when students at Freire Charter decided to start their teacher a GoFundMe because they felt as though he needed an upgrade on shoes. The GoFundMe was supposed to be an April Fools joke, but it ended up going viral. Mr. Julian’s history class wanted to see their teacher in new kicks after wearing the same shoes for four years. The students raised over $3,000. No word on how many pairs of shoes they bought their teacher.

I admit that it can be hard to focus when you see questionable and weird-looking clothing walking around, so I could understand and vouch for the feelings of certain students when they are paying attention to what their teachers choose to wear. And. But how do SLA teachers fare in the eyes of their students? Are they more fashionable than the teacher whose students wanted to buy him a new pair of kicks? Or are they old and out-of-date?

I decided to randomly ask students about what their dream outfits would look like for their teachers.

“I like how Mr. Todd dresses, but I really feel that his shoe game could use some improvement,” said Sophmore Jabree Brown. “If I were to dress him, I would pick him out some black jeans, a Polo white tee, and some OG Patent Bred Jordan 1’s.”

Sophomore Fanta Dukley chose Ms. Gasser to makeover.

“She dresses really comfy and that’s like her signature style. It fits her well since she has this soft attitude. A dream outfit I would choose is a cardigan with some baggy pants.” -10th, Dukley

Sophomore Jasmine Young had somewhat-kind words for the instructional staff at SLA.

“I mean some of them usually don’t actually dress badly, you can just tell that they are a teacher.”

Now that the students have made their opinions known, will teachers continue to allow their students to be distracted by their clothing, or will they take inspiration to switch it up and show their ‘22 “swag”?

Only time will tell.

Big Expectations As New District Superintendent Enters Important Role

May 12, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Oskar Glahn & Marcus Diemer

Staff Writer

Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr. has accepted the position of Philadelphia School District Superintendent by the School Board. He will assume his new role on June 16, 2022.

Watlington has some big shoes to fill. The District’s current superintendent, Dr. William Hite, has held the role for over ten years, which is very rare for school district superintendents to hold the office for that long.

“It’s a hard job, and he did it for ten years,” said Principal Lehmann. “His ten years as superintendent was the longest of anybody’s since Constance Clayton back in the 80’s, so that’s an incredible run.”

Since June 2012, Dr. Hite has worked hard to create equity and achieve goals of innovation and equality. In his past ten years, Dr. Hite has effectively worked through the district’s obstacles, opened new quality high schools, and conjoined schools with the communities around them. Dr. Hite has been a huge help to Philadelphia’s struggling public schools, and a personable role model for teachers and students within the district. His leadership has a very positive impact on the community.

Dr. Watlington seemed like a very obvious choice to replace Dr. Hite. “It was very clear with these three candidates that Dr. Waltington was the choice of the community. You saw a lot of support for his candidacy,” said Lehmann. He is an experienced educator and understands the school system. He started out as a history teacher in North Carolina, and made his way up to principal and eventually Superintendent of the Rowan-Salisbury school district, also in North Carolina. That school district is nowhere near as big as Philadelphia’s, but very few school districts are.

To gain this position, Dr. Waltington had to contend with many other candidates including John Davis, who was chief of schools in Baltimore, and Krish Mohip, who was on the Illinois State Board of Education who were the two closest contenders.

Although most teachers and faculty are aware of this change, many students are not.

“I ain’t even know that we got a new guy [superintendent],” remarked senior Jacob Farrell. Students have not received any information about this change, and most of them don’t really seem to care. “I feel like more people should know about this,” said senior Colin Clapper.

Even though some people are unaware of this new change, we have hopes that Watlington will continue Dr. Hite’s legacy of leadership, and make some positive change. We are looking forward to what comes next.

SLA’s PE and Health Teacher’s Retirement: What’s Next?

May 12, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Valeria Escobar Staff Writer

PE and Health teacher Pia Martin — who has taught for 30 years and has been part of the SLA community for 14 years — has announced her retirement at the end of this school year.

Even though she will be missed by many students and staff who have worked with her, she explained in her interview that she will be subbing at SLA and keeping in touch with the staff and students while still being able to accomplish all her future goals and plans.

Ms. Martin has influenced the SLA community in more than one way, but one that English and Journalism teacher Larissa Pahomov brought up was Ms. Martin’s influence on SLA’s fitness culture.

Ms. Pahomov explained how SLA’s old building didn’t have a gym, but Ms. Martin still found ways to get all the kids to engage in her class. “She really made fitness culture a part of the school in a really integrative way, which was great.”.

Ms. Pahomov also mentioned how Ms. Martin is responsible for most proms happening, especially last year’s senior prom, in which she had a personal connection to the person who owned the space where prom was held. Ms. Martin also organized and managed a lot of proms and graduations. “She knows how to make a party happen,” she explained.

In an interview I had with Ms. Martin, I asked about her future plans after her retirement which she said include, “Eventually some travel, a lot of working out, i’ll be subbing here, and I have desires to, in my volunteer time doing some volunteer work.”.

When asked about her experience at SLA, she said that the best part about her job here was, “That I’m capable and have the opportunity to laugh every single day.” she said.

“She’s a good example of someone who doesn’t have a different teacher persona, she is her authentic self both inside of school and outside of school.” Ms. Pahomov said.

Math Teacher Sunil Reddy also said “I think she is definitely the same person in school as she is out of school.”.

“I think Ms. Martin is good with following the school’s principal ethic of care, so rather than worrying more about rules, and what students are supposed to be doing, and more of the administrative side of things, she worries more about the student’s wellbeing and the community’s well being, and how to make sure the whole community is taken care of.” Mr. Reddy said.

Ms. Martin has played a big role in the SLA community, but when she leaves, who will take on her job? I asked SLA’s principal Chris Lehmann, to which he responded with “There is no replacing Ms. Martin, she is one of a kind in all of the best ways.” He then added, “We’re narrowing down candidates but we’re still trying to make a final decision.”.

In addition to Ms. Martin’s job as the only health and physical education teacher in SLA, she’s also a huge support to students and the SLA community overall, so I wanted to know what were some specific requirements that candidates need to meet to be able to become SLA’s next health and PE teacher.

“Her Health class I think is a foundational experience for kids at SLA, it’s such an important class so for me making sure that we have somebody who can do a wonderful job as a Health teacher is a big piece of the puzzle.” Mr. Lehman said. “I think that one of the challenges is that someone is gonna be able to work as a discipline of one.” He said.

All Eyes on Ukraine

May 9, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sean Hogan

Staff Writer

Since February 24th if this year ], the world has had its eyes on the war that Russia has waged in Ukraine. The conflict has displaced at least 10 million people and resulted in sanctions and businesses pulling out of Russia. The concern about the oil supply has caused massive price hikes for gasoline, and politically the tensions are reminiscent of the cold war.

How has the SLA community been impacted by the conflict? SLAMedia spoke with students about their connections to and opinions about the conflict

Sophmore Biran Mahmoud told me about his family in Syria, another nation where Russia has been having a military intervention since 2015.

“My famly lives in the small towns/villages so they aren’t targeted by Russian artillery,” Mahmoud explained. “They do experience issues with smaller groups but don’t really come under fire.”

As for the conflict in Ukraine, Mahmoud is clear: “There is no point in this war, no one really wants this. It’s just an old man’s war.”

Mahmoud also recognizes the complicated nature of the conflict: “They (NATO) are already pretty involved in supplying Ukraine with weapons, ammo, and supplies. But they should instate a No-Fly Zone but that could start WW3 with them shooting down Russian planes. It’s a tricky situation with Russia threatening nuclear war.”

“It’s very unpredictable,” he said. “I hear the Russians are losing, but god only knows how this war will end.”

Senior Eric Casalena reported that he doesn’t “know every single detail” about the war, but enough to have formed some opinions.. ”

“I feel like no one deserves this and the only person who wants this war is Putin because even his soldiers don’t want this war.” He was also asked if NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) should step in and assist Ukraine directly, He said that NATO should Intervene but then asked me if Putin was threatening nuclear escalation.

When asked if he thinks Russian forces committed war crimes, he said “100%”

As for how the conflict might end, Casalena provided three scenarios.Number one is that Vladimir Putin and President Zelenskyy sit down and resolve this conflict peacefully, the second one is that Vladimir Putin gets assassinated, and lastly that Ukraine surrenders to Russia.

Senior Philip Lee said that his take on the conflict

Is “generally the same as most folks. Trying to take over a country like that isn’t too moral.”

SHould NATO intervene? “As of now? Probably not since I’ve heard their (Ukraine) doing a pretty good job at defending themselves to the point where Russian troops are refusing to go and would rather face consequences from higher-ups.”

He also stated he does not know if Russia has committed war crimes. As for how it will all end, “Ukraine will likely keep its independence and the violence will end though I don’t see Russia halting other strategies like media manipulation, data collection, spies, political interference, etc.”

While we may not know how this horrible war will end, we can only keep aware of the situation, Donate to charities and support the refugees of wars like the one happening in Ukraine.

A Badminton club? Does SLA and Ben Franklin have one?

May 5, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Staff Writer Dinah Soloway

As of the 2021-2022 school year, SLA and Ben Franklin are sponsoring a badminton team. Currently, the Badminton team has nine girls plus a handy helper for games and equipment. Most of the players are new to the sport. Many have only previously experienced playing badminton in a PE (physical education) class.

As both schools returned to in-person learning this past fall, many of the sports have resumed their regular scheduled practices and games. This includes Badminton, which for SLA is an entirely new sport.

The team has been competing since March, and the matches usually consist of 3 independent games which are played to 21 points. Games are always held indoors. The SLA and Ben Franklin badminton team travel on a bus to the opponents school.

These matches can be played as a single-player match or a double with a partner. A single match consists of 2 opposing players on each team, but when a doubles match occurs there are 4 players on the court for each team. Ending the game, after a team reaches 20 points they now have to achieve a 2-point lead to finish the game.

The team is led by Coach Canada, who is also the principal of Ben Franklin High School. She decided to coach the sport because no one else would. Earlier in her own school career, coach Canada had played badminton with her school team.

For readers who have never witnessed the sport before, The rules of badminton are very easy to understand. The game setup is almost a cross between tennis and volleyball, only it uses a small racket to hit a birdie back and forth over a high net. It is an interesting sport that challenges players to look all around and aim at the birdie (the ball in this case). There are two main points that any player needs to know really well. That is how to serve the birdie properly over the net so as not to get fouled. Two hitting the ball to other teammates or over the net.

“In badminton, serving is one of the most difficult skills to learn,” said Lara Rosenbach a 10th grader at SLA. Serving the birdie over the net needs to be under the player’s waist. One way to serve the birdie is to place the birdie above your racket with one hand straight out below your waist before swinging with your rack, quickly drop the birdie and then follow through and up towards the sky.

Coach Canada Said that “There is so much team spirit on the court!”

The badminton season is over for this year, but if you are interested in doing a sport then stop by the gym next season and give it a shot!