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Hidden Gem: John F. Collins Park

June 5, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Rifa Islam, staff writer

The last thing you’d expect to find in the middle of the shopping life at Rittenhouse Square is a small and serene little park, but that’s exactly what’s there. If you blink you’ll miss John F Collins park, so keep your eyes open! Located on 1707 Chestnut Street, right between a little bagel shop and Buffalo Exchange, the park seems a bit out of place. While everyone is rushing to get to work, window shopping, or just having a laugh with friends, this park stays still and offers a place for people to take a second to unwind from their hectic lives.

There are lime green tables with matching chairs, electric against the dark leaves spread out against the walls. It’s perfect for a cup of coffee and a snack with a friend after school or even for some alone time. Additionally, there are small wooden benches, protected by the canopy of trees above. Though the park is quite small, it doesn’t feel congested. There’s always plenty of space to walk through without bumping into anyone. Mr. Collins, the original designer of the park, definitely thought his plans through.

My favorite part of the park, hands down, is the big fountain. It brings all the elements of the park together like the centerpiece of a jigsaw puzzle. The sounds of water bring a sense of peace and relaxation, something we all need every now and then. You can always sit on the steps in front of the fountain for a closer view, or throw in a penny for good luck.

When you’re sitting in the park, it truly feels like you’re no longer in the city. It completely transports you to a different world, one where it’s okay to take a break. Living in a bustling city like Philadelphia can get a bit crazy at times. Sometimes the workload, deadlines, and even our personal lives can get to be too much to handle. This park is a perfect place to take a second off or to actually complete that assignment you keep forgetting to turn in. Wherever you are in life, this park can at least provide a pretty place to experience it.

A Season of Triumph

June 3, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

This season brought new challenges for the SLA girls softball team, which has been in the public league’s Platinum division for some time..

For 2016 SLA Softball had a 6-4 record, which is impressive for that level of competition in their league. The Platinum division consists of larger high schools like Central, Olney Charter, and Northeast A school with ⅙ of their student body that competes in games with large schools is nothing short of challenging.

However, SLA softball has also had an advantage: They combine teams with SLA Beeber, our second campus, which gives them more talent and numbers to work with.

Players from SLA-Center City very appreciative of SLA Beeber presence. Senior Catcher Dillon described her opinion as “happy because some of our best players and opinions about the team have come from Beeber.”

With their winning record, the rockets again clinched a spot in the playoffs. This year they faced off against CAPA, who combine with Academy at Palumbo. They played a very competitive game, , but they fell short in the late innings and lost by one run.

Despite the unfolding of their playoff, the Rockets had plenty of satisfying moments. Pitcher and Sophomore Tia Roberts was very happy when they had defensive 1-2-3 innings off great fielding. Other good moments were when they could engineer their own comebacks to win close games.

There were some personal shortcomings, however. Senior Dillon Hershey believes what held the team was “having trouble being consistent and confident in our skills, which can make the game hard to play and hard to overcome tough losses.” She believed that if they could put it all together that they could improve.

Junior Ari Haven believes that this team could have been better with more commitment from the players. “I wish our team committed to the whole season. I also wish we could all commit to coming to practices and getting better.”

Haven also thanks her team for helping her mature. “My teammates have taught me everything I know.”

Roberts feels the same way about how the team has affected her. “I have matured as a teammate and improved my skills as a player. I am very proud of how much I have grown since last year and the year before that… they always will have my back no matter what.”

In softball, teamwork is key and this team played hard every game and truly played for the person to their right. This team never made it about anybody but the team as a whole, they showed they could push through any uphill battle, despite regular struggles. Next season, the softball Rockets want to come out with some fire. The softball Rockets always have played hard and they intend to work hard to make some real noise in 2017.

New Teachers Of Next Year

June 2, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Staff Writer: Dylan McKeon

e2912298-9595-4ae4-ab42-659d68f7176b — Mr. Symonds, one of the new teachers coming to SLA next year

This year SLA is saying goodbye to not only the senior class, but several teachers as well, including Ms. Thompson and Mr. Miles. As a result of their leaving, two new teachers have been brought in to fill in for Math and Computer Science along with history teacher, Mr. Symonds.

Mr. Symonds will be teaching 9th grade African American History and 10th grade World History. A graduate from Swarthmore College, he has been a teacher for three years and is very excited to come to SLA.

“I feel very, very positive about SLA and its different approach to learning,” he said. “I deeply appreciate that SLA zigs when so many schools zag.”

His favorite lesson he taught was a unit on justice and mercy were his students corresponded with a death row inmate in Georgia named Kelly Gissendaner, who became an ordained priest while serving time. “Our work with her helped to illustrate for my students that good people can make mistakes. I was proud that the project prompted my most reluctant learners to write, and that it surfaced many students’ sentiments about their incarcerated family members.”

What will he bring to SLA? “I can guarantee lots of passion, creativity, sometimes-funny jokes, and an enthusiasm for making the life of our school fulfilling, difficult, fun and memorable. I am eager to leave the classroom with students and to explore the world together. On a more practical note, I want to support student events, clubs, and other goings-on.”

Mr. Hernandez will be teaching Math and Computer Science, taking over the program started by Mr. Miles. He previously taught math at Esperanza Academy in North Philly after working as a software engineer for Apple for 12 years.

He is very excited to teach at SLA and teach using the project based method that SLA runs on.

“I was always fascinated learning new math concepts in the classroom,” he said. “But it became fascinating and rewarding when I got to apply those concepts to projects as an engineer. To get to do both while still in the classroom is a great combination that I want to participate in.”

His favorite lesson he taught was an Algebra II lesson on credit cards.

“I feel great pleasure every year when my students not only understand how credit cards/loans work, but also can calculate (using a real credit card bill) just how bad an idea it is to pay only the minimum monthly payment.”

What will he bring to SLA? “I’ll bring a passion for the subjects I teach and a unique worldview based on my experiences as a Latino, an immigrant who has resided in a variety of countries, a father, an engineer, a big fan of independent music, and a cinema enthusiast.”

Ms. Burnstein was scheduled to teach Statistics in Mr. Miles’s place, however despite being initially thrilled she ended up backing out due to the lack of a contract between the school district and the PFT making it too risky.

The new staff will be rounded out by a new Statistics teacher, who SLAMedia will interview in the future.

Penny Dreadful Packs a Delightfully Terrifying Punch!

May 26, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sean Morris

Staff Writer

Recently the supernatural showtime series “Penny Dreadful” has premiered for its third season, so I thought it appropriate to discuss my love for this show , which happens to be one of the best out there currently.

The series premiere is a little complicated to talk about without giving too much away, especially since each season has a new storyline for the characters to follow. Essentially, the series weaves together classic characters from Victorian-era horror, like Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Grey and so on, along with new characters that combat the supernatural horrors that plague Victorian London.

Before I go into story writing and cast I want to talk about the technical aspects of the show. From makeup, conceptualizing, sets, music, cinematography, costuming and lighting- very little television comes close to this show. Its makeups on its creatures of the night from vampires, a creative and very creepy take on witches (or “nightcomers” as they call them in the show) and even in just the regular cast it’s wonderful. The sets are amazing, throwing you back into Victorian London and into each character’s environment- especially in how clearly carefully they plan it out- like for example in Dorian Gray’s main ballroom they have hundreds of paintings- but are all portraits. A wonderful and incredibly clever detail.

The music is also appropriately haunting and stays with you long after the scene is over with its amazing score and original waltzes. The cineomentpgrahy is wonderful and in how a simple camera pan can provide a sock or a angle to provide more fear. The costuming also works well, fits the time period nicely yet each character has a fairly distinctive style and they clearly look well made. And this show probably has some of my favorite lighting on Television. Knowing full well they are in pre-electricity London, they utilize natural light to great effect , from having it bounce off of white linen tablecloths in the darkness or thought windows- it’s brilliantly done.

And now let us move onto to this cast. Every role has been perfectly cast- from the recognizable to the the unknown- and I mean that in terms of both actors and characters. Reeve Carney is a wonderful as Dorian Grey- he has a pretty boy face and yet there’s an underlying of darkness within him. Timothy dalton is a powerhouse as new character malcolm murray and always a delight on screen. However, it is Eva Green who really steals the show. Her portrayal of Vanessa Ives, a young woman who has been touched by Satan is haunting, tragic, powerful, strong and showcases how she is one of the most talented actors of her time. Rory Kinnear plays Frankenstein’s monstrous undead creature in what is possible the most authentic showing of mary shelley’s creature. The heart of a poet trapped inside of a monster- Kinnear’s monologues and acting showcase are truly beautiful- and the scenes he shares with green are some of the best in the show. Billie Piper truly came into her own in this series, at some points making you forget about her doctor who past. Her character twists are some of the more surprising of the story but I will say her arch alone is worthwhile. The series supporting cast is no less wonderful, from Helen Mccrory, to Christian Camargo , and Simon Russell Beale (who plays a character i’ve nicknamed “Dr. Creamsicle”, for his outrageous wig), Patti LuPone (who is AMAZING in every scene) it really is one of the best put together casts in on television.

I cannot recommend this show enough. To simply mark it as a horror series would be doing it a disservice. As The Wired put it, it t is a “gothic romance” and as The Atlantic claimed that it “reanimated” the genre. So go on, stop reading this and start watching it!

What Role Does Social Media Play in Your Life?

May 23, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Staff Writer: Arielle Moore

Cyber bullying has been around since the advent of the internet, but its effects have increased in recent years from the access to free speech on any social media sites.

At its worst, Cyber bullying can have deadly consequences. Recently, Howard high school in Delaware just faced one of the most tragic doses of such a plague. Sophomore Amy Joyner-Francis was killed on April 21st, after an altercation with a few of her peers. It was reported that the feud began over a boy, which started as slight jabs, rude remarks, cyber and physical bullying, and ultimately, the final confrontation. The defendants say that Joyner-Francis’ death was an accident–that she hit her head on the sink during a fall–but the fight definitely started with events on social media.

People all over the internet have been showing their sympathy and giving condolences to the lost girl’s family, but that isn’t enough to erase the unfortunate, yet very real fact that a girl is dead and a family is in mourning.

With this issue taking place so close to home, many are wondering: could something like this happen at SLA? After surveying 158 students at SLA, SLA Media has been able to determine just what people think of the cyber bullying epidemic and how they felt about the Howard High school tragedy.

When asked if a similar occurrence could take place here, 45.2% of students didn’t think such an issue could take place, 16.6% are certain it could, and 38.2% say that it is possible.

“I find that bullying isn’t much of a problem here but I’m not at liberty to say anything else,” says one of the staff members.

As for their own experiences with Cyberbullying at least 15% of students said they had experienced some form of bullying via social media. When asked how they would handle a problem, 35% of students said they would talk about them behind their back, 7% would take it to the internet, 2% would plan to fight them,

and 79% would ignore the situation and move on.

Very few students opened up about any specific stories of cyberbullying, although sophomore Aidan Williams shared a story from before when he attended SLA. but says he experienced a very different form of cyberbullying; bullying through e-mail.

“Someone got a hold of my e-mail and I was getting weird messages from a ‘superstalker454@aol.com’. I was in fourth grade and really scared, so I deleted them immediately,” he said.“About a month went by and two more emails came, and were saying inappropriate things about me.”

When explaining how he was able to keep the e-mails from continuing, he said that the first place he went was to his parents, then his principal. °They held a meeting and the girl eventually apologized to me.”

According to the numbers, bullying is still somewhat a rare occurrence at SLA. Students from other schools claim that there is a lack of control over altercations, and this shows that a lot of schools aren’t handling the issue properly, therefore causing an untreatable epidemic to take place. I learned that in a lot of environments, they don’t necessarily feel that they are safe from bullying which should be one of the biggest priorities of the school and staff.