News

SLA trashes school recycling program

January 7, 2013 by lpahomov 2 Comments

By Jesús Jímenez

Staff Writer

A trash can and recycling bin bear the same kind of waste.

Does SLA recycle?

SLA is very familiar with litter and its problems — A recent example was when Principal Lehmann expressed his concern for the amount of trash left in the halls after lunch, earlier this year. Even though the littering problem isn’t solved, students are aware of it.

But what about recycling? Does it even happen?

This question has a complicated answer, and the story goes back several years.

Sophomore Wynn Geary was aware of the lack of a proper recycling program at SLA. A mini-course during his freshman year inspired him to take the initiative and establish a recycling program at SLA.

He and his friends contacted not only Mr. Lehmann, but also the school building’s landlord, who had no problem aiding the students in their cause.

By the spring of 2012, small blue recycling bins were all over Science Leadership Academy’s halls, and a new recycling dumpster was placed outside the building.

Unfortunately, these additions did not make a difference in student behavior. Because students were used to only having trash bins, everything, including both recyclables and trash, went into the new containers. As a result, all waste would get dumped into the trash dumpsters outside.

“[The building landlord] had promised us that he would make sure that the custodians would be taught where to put them,” said Geary “but he didn’t seem to follow through on that one.”

Student opinions about recycling at the school shows the lack of impact of the program.

“They don’t recycle,” Senior Aja Wallace said of SLA students. “Everything that goes in the recycling bin is trash.”

Some students admitted to this behavior, but other like Junior Diamond Blenman say they put their recycling in the blue bins. But do his friends recycle?

“Not really. They just put things in whatever, it doesn’t matter as long as the bag is in there.”

Even with the work they’ve already done, Geary believes that SLARP still needs to have an impact on the community.

As of right now, there is no active effort to teach students about recycling at school. Geary also mentioned a Twitter account (@SLARP) for SLARP that “we need to start using again”.

It is uncertain what the future holds for recycling at SLA. Geary mentioned that it was SLARP’s goal “to make it known that the recycling bins will be start being used as recycling bins. And that custodians are trained to put the recycling into the recycling dumpster.”

Until the community starts to sort their trash, it will continue to all be thrown out.

New Policy Results In Sub-Par Subs

December 18, 2012 by lpahomov 1 Comment

By Tytianna Broadwater & Annisa Ahmed

Staff Writers

This year, the substitute teachers are different.

In the past, when teachers reported absent, district schools could call ahead to the School District of Philadelphia and could request a substitute teacher by name.

With all of the budget cuts to the School District, many teachers were let go in June of 2012. So, at the start of this year, the District has given laid off teachers the option to substitute teach where they would like. Schools can no longer make specific requests. As a result, popular substitutes like Mr. Salters, known around the school as “Pop-pop,” and Mr. Petrovsky, have rarely been at SLA this year.

“They won’t let our old, familiar subs be a part of the community anymore,” said Secretary Diane LoGiudice. “In other words, if I have a job that has been sitting out for two days, even though the subs that I know that are familiar with our school, they don’t have the option of to pick up that job and come in.”

Instead, a rotating cast of substitutes have replaced them — and many of them have a hard time getting used to SLA’s relaxed style.

“Some of these subs are old school,” Ms. Diane said. “It’s like there is no talking in the classroom, no you-can-text-your-teacher, no you-can-leave-to-go-to-the-bathroom. They start calling the office, and I have to tell them, ‘Yeah, it’s okay.’”

Senior Ryan Harris has witnessed this strict behavior first hand. Harris spends one of his bands acting as the Student Assistant Teacher for one of English-History Teacher Joshua Block’s classes.

One December 13th, Mr. Block was out with pneumonia, and Harris walked in, expecting the period to be just like any other, minus the head of classroom.

The substitute, however, wrote rules that went against the open nature of SLA, such as no hats or hoodies, no chewing gum, and no more than four people to a table. He also complained about the temperature and fiddled with the thermometer, even though there was a sign saying not to.

When the students had already signed in, the substitute then stopped class, saying that the number of people in the class did not match up with what was written on the sheet.

“He would name a student that was not [in the classroom] and then he would look at me, basically telling me to find that student,” noted Harris. “I didn’t want to cause any trouble, so I did.”

Later on, the substitute fell asleep during class. The situation was difficult for Harris to watch.

“A lot of kids that I sit near were asking me, ‘Why can’t you be our teacher?,” said Harris. “And, the whole time I didn’t know what to do. I told them that they just had to listen to what sub has to say and come to me for any academic problems.”

290bd99f-ba84-4248-bd3f-a1594a30caec — Photo Credit: Wynn Geary

English Teacher Larissa Pahomov has the opposite complaint, where a substitute let several students out of her classroom to “work in the hallway.”

She jokingly suggested strategy to combat the issue of students leaving a class in bulk in the presence of a sub: “I think I will have a big sign on my desk that says ‘Only let one student out of the room at one time.’”

Junior Isabela Supovitz-Aznar, for one, missed seeing Mr. Salters, and had a bad experience with a substitute teacher who was covering for her Advisory. When she was the last person to come ask for her transpass, “He said, ‘Oh darn, I thought I had a free trans pass for the week. It sucks I don’t get to keep it.’”

As of now, there is no hope that the District will allow SLA to pick substitutes again, but the school will solve any problems as they happen.

“If there is a problem when the sub is there,” Ms. Diane said. “Stop by the office and I will handle it.”

Contact(s): tbroadwater@scienceleadership.org – aahmed2@scienceleadership.org.

SLA Seeks the Popular Vote

December 18, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

SLA currently stands in 35th place in the “Clorox Power Bright Future: Grants for School Programs” with just over a day left to vote.

The contest gives away 7 grants to aid school programs.

Over a five-week voting period teachers, parents and students watched SLA rise in the popular vote contest for the chance to win $50,000 to fund freshman laptops.

Voting online and through text message, Principal Lehmann made daily announcements over the PA system instructing students and teachers, “It’s that time again! Everybody take out your cell phone.”

SLA is entered in the Explore category with the other two categories being Create and Play. The program with the most popular vote overall wins the $50,000, while the popular winner in each category wins $25,000. Further, the judge’s panel at Clorox will pick an exemplary program from each category to win a $25,000 prize.

This is not the first time SLA has entered into contest for the chance to win big prize money. Fundraising efforts to continue the laptop program are a struggle every year.

Last school year, Principal Lehmann was voted a semi-finalist in the “2012 Elizabeth Rohatyn Prize for Schools Where Teaching Matters” where a school is awarded a one-time prize of $15,000.

The voting in the “Clorox Power Bright Future” contest ends on December 19, 2012 and the winners will be notified in January 2013.

Vote for nominees in the Power Bright Future contest here

Unexpected Fire Alarm Disrupts Classes

December 16, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

2012-12-13_12.39.53 (1) — Students waiting outside the school during the fire drill.

By SLAMedia Staff

Interviews by Melanie Thomas and Jacob Lotkowski

On Thursday, Dec. 13th, the entire population of 55 N. 22nd Street was sent outside for the second day in a row.

At around 12:30 PM, during Y band, the fire alarms went off, leading to a full evacuation.

This alarm was a particular surprise because the school had just had a scheduled practice drill the day before.

Students remained outside for 25 minutes while Principal Lehmann investigated the source of the alarm.

There was no fire, but the cause of the alarm is not completely clear. Construction has been happening on the residential side of the building, which Principal Lehmann thinks was probably the culprit.

“The landlords think it’s from students, and we think is from the dust of the workers,” Lehmann said. The workers were kicking up dust during construction. Residents of the building also had to evacuate.

After it was determined that the building was safe, however, the alarm could not be disabled because the code given to the school to deactivate it was wrong.

The fire department did not show up, but that was by design. According to Lehmann, “the alarm calls the fire department depending on the code.” Based on where the alarm went off, the fire department was not immediately notified.

During the time outside, rumors swirled about the cause of the evacuation. Students had many theories, including a mishap in Engineering Teacher Matthew VanKouwenberg’s classroom, or a pulled fire alarm, such as the red box by the front stairwell on the third floor, where the plastic case is broken.

Because the alarms don’t actually go off during a drill, the situation seemed more serious than usual.

Freshman Isabella Mezzaroba stated, “First I thought that it was just another drill because we had a drill the day before, but then I remembered the alarm doesn’t go off when we have drills.”

“Some people panicked,” she said, “but everyone seemed to be pretty chill about it.”

Other students were unfazed by the drill.

When asked how he felt about the evacuation, Junior Anthony Buchnico said, “Pretty indifferent. I didn’t expect there to be a fire.”

One lingering concern is the broken door to the back stairwell on the 5th floor. If the door is not propped open, it is locked shut. A truck parked right outside the back door also created a bottleneck of students trying to exit the building.

“There was a big cramp there for a little bit,” reported Buchanico, “but we got by it thankfully.”

After twenty or so minutes outside, the alarm was finally disabled, and students returned to their normal schedules.

“I was relieved that my school didn’t burn down,” reported Mezzaroba. “And then I was like, ‘Okay. Off to English class.’”

Releasing The Hardships of Homework?

November 16, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

If there’s one thing that students can agree on, it’s that homework sucks. Throughout many elementary, middle, and high school curriculums, homework is a mandatory part of the curriculum. Homework often carries significant weight when it comes to a student’s grade. Many students don’t enjoy homework because it can negatively affect their grade if they don’t do it.

This is something that is a worldwide issue.

On Oct 17, 2012, French President François Hollande had proposed a widespread ban on homework. He put forward this ban because he believes that homework entails unequal opportunities amongst students.

He believes that children with ample help from parents at home are at a greater advantage than those who don’t, resulting in great disparity between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

At that time Hollande proposed this, it was met with positive reactions from, unsurprisingly, the children themselves.

Of course, the education system in France is different from America’s. For instance, children in France spend 36 weeks in school as opposed to the 26 weeks American children spend in schools.

Since French students are in school longer, they are bombarded with more homework than American students.

At SLA, homework is administered differently from other schools. SLA’s teachers have their own opinions on how they distribute homework.

The kind of homework and how it’s graded depends on the class and the teacher. Many teachers at SLA have their homework as optional assignments, meaning that its sole purpose is for practice.

Two particular teachers that utilize this method are Math Teacher Brad Latimer and Science Teacher Rosalind Echols.

Both teachers are very keen on using homework as practice tools for their Calculus and Physics classes.

“I want students to be doing the work that will help them learn. Sometimes, this means a lot of practice with certain things, and sometimes students don’t need as much practice.” responded Echols.

Physics is a mandatory course for the junior class, however, Latimer’s homework methods can potentially apply to all grades in his class.

Latimer has required homework for his students in Algebra 2, while for the students in his Calculus class, homework is completely optional.

“I feel that upperclassman in a high level math class, should be able to recognize whether or not they need that practice.”

The teachers have had very different experiences regarding homework when they were in high school themselves.

“I found homework to be very valuable time for me to struggle with ideas independently, and keep working until I figured them out.” said Echols. “It was only as valuable as the amount of effort I was willing to invest in it, however.”

Latimer, had the misfortune of being placed into the lower-level math class in high school.

“Honestly, I was really bored in math class. We were always doing things that I understood.”

As a result of this, Latimer did not do his math homework.

“I would approach my teachers and say ‘as along as I get A’s on my tests and quizzes can I not do the homework?’ and they said OK.”

Through these experiences helped shaped how they view homework. Along other SLA teachers, they realized that homework is much better as a practice tool than mandatory work.