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Former Teachers: Where Are They Now?

December 2, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Tamir Harper

Staff Writer

From SLA to another job — what does it take?

In the past three years, six teachers have left SLA. Some have moved out of the education field, but many have continued working to empower the innovative approach that Science Leadership Academy takes towards teaching and learning.

However, many students don’t know where their favorite teacher (or maybe not so favorite teacher) is doing now that they left SLA.

So where are they now?

This past week, many upperclassman found out the career change of one previous eight year Math Teacher Caitlin Thompson. Many students saw Ms.Thompson greeting students into the classroom of Spanish Teacher Melanie Manuel. Ms. Thompson came back to SLA as a substitute teacher while Ms. Manuel was out.

Ms.Thompson describes her day as “interesting” when teaching 9th graders that didn’t know her.

“Most of the students gave me a big smile when they saw me. Some didn’t even seem to notice that it was any different.”

That won’t be the last time you see Ms. Thompson. She’s “hoping to sub a few times a month plus sometimes I’ll be stopping by since I work with Mr. Lehmann and Inquiry Schools.” She was back on Friday, December 2nd to sub for Ms. Martin.

Does that name sound familiar? If so, here’s why. Inquiry Schools is the non profit that was founded by our founding Principal Christopher Lehmann. Mr. Lehmann serves as the Chairman of the Board and Superintendent. Ms. Thompson is not just a substitute for the School District of Philadelphia but she is also the Director of Operations for the group, which “works with educators, parents and students to create and support inquiry-driven, project-based schools with a focus on using modern tools.”

Ms. Thompson isn’t the only previous teacher that works for Inquiry Schools. A teacher that only Seniors know Ms. Diana Laufenberg serves as the Executive Director of Inquiry Schools. While at SLA she served as the Social Studies teacher and Coach of SLA famous Debate team, according to Ms. Laufenberg LinkedIn profile.

Mr. Lehmann explained how he continues to engage teachers that no longer teaches at SLA and previous students about how they feel about seeing Ms. Thompson, Ms. Laufenberg and at times Ms. Dunn who you will learn more about later on, inside our building.

“One of the really wonderful things about SLA is how alumni – students and teachers – stay involved. SLA teachers who have left generally leave either because of a change in their life or because they have a great opportunity to do something else. And generally, they have very strong positive feelings about what we’ve done together, so when there is a chance to work with folks on outside projects, former SLA teachers are a logical group of people to go to. It gives former teachers a chance to stay connected with us, and of course, it keeps us in contact with people we love.”

Junior Deja Harris that had Ms.Thompson for two consecutive years for Math. “It feels weird because the person left, they said they were leaving and then they came back so like it’s more confusing than weird.”

Not everybody shares this feeling of confusion. Senior Aaron Watson-Sharer has been at Science Leadership Academy for four years and had the opportunity to be taught by Ms. Dunn and Ms. Thompson.

“It’s something that at first was a tad awkward, but if I enjoyed my tenure at SLA as a teacher I would like to make regular returns. Now it’s just whatever for me, I say hello if I walk past them and that’s that.”

Does he personally think it’s important to keep teachers that left engaged in our school?

“I think it’s up to the teacher. If they feel they want to remain apart of the SLA community we’ll always welcome them back,” said Watson-Sharer. Ms. Dunn and Thompson try their best to remain engaged, so why not?”

In the past, the school has lost English Teachers Meenoo Rami and Alexa Dunn, Spanish Teacher Mark Bey, as well as Science Teachers Rosalind Echols-Kuykendall and Stephanie Owens. Some continue to teach outside of Philadelphia, but others have moved on to a different career. Ms. Rami currently works as a Manager for Minecraft, Mr. Bey works as a New York public school Spanish Teacher, while Ms. Dunn still works for the School District of Philadelphia as a Professional Learning Specialist.

Ms. Echols-Kuykendall continued her educational studies at University of Washington where she is pursuing her Doctorate in Oceanography and Ms. Owens currently lives and teaches in San Francisco, California.

Where will you be once you leave SLA? Maybe you will be back as a Teacher!

Homework for tonight, readers: Google what Oceanography is! 🙂

Column: Growing Up Dark-Skinned

November 22, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Deja Harrison

Staff Writer

¨You’re pretty… for a dark-skinned girl.¨

Are dark skinned-women not beautiful?

¨Black girls are always so angry.¨

You would be too if you were objectified and called ugly your whole life.

¨I like your type of hair, I wish I had hair like yours.¨

My type of hair? What does that even mean.

¨Black girls are so ghetto and rude.¨

Where do people get these ideas from?

I am dark-skinned — the “worst type of black” girl. I wear name-brand sneakers, weave, tights, and fake nails. I do not speak in “proper tone” all the time because I do not feel the need to. In those 3 sentences most would think they have me all figured out because of the stereotypes associated with me. I always wondered where people got and came up with these ridiculous stereotypes.

I get stereotyped as the typical mean loud ghetto black girl all the time, but that’s just not who I am.

Here’s who I really am:

I am a goofy person — like serious goofy. I laugh at any and everything all the time. I remember talking to people who are even now my friends and them saying that when they first saw me they thought I was going to be such a bitch because of the way I look. As soon as someone talks to me I start smiling because I want people to know I’m friendly. I am happy 90% of the time, and in that other 10% I’m most likely upset because I´m hungry. My facial expressions categorize me as a Squidward even though my personality is much more of a Spongebob. We get wrapped up so much in people’s appearances and rumors we hear that we lose focus on actually getting to know someone who could actually be an amazing person.

Most people don’t see any of that, though. They just see my dark skin.

As a young black woman in America, I feel like I have a natural target on my back. I´m supposed to speak and act a certain way because those are the things associated with my culture and gender. I feel like no matter what I do, I just can’t shake the thoughts of those who assume based on my ethnicity and gender that I am angry, loud, and have no future.

It is hard to find my place and my happiness in this world when there are so many people out there trying to deprive me of it. Why can’t I be happy?

Column: Speaking of Love

November 18, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Larissa Pahomov

Faculty Advisor

In my first year of teaching at SLA — which was my first year of teaching in my own classroom — a student asked me, “do you love us?”

The question gave me pause. This was a student in the crankiest class I taught that year (hello, Fire Stream, Class of 2010) and it seemed, for a moment, that the query might be a trick. But I still knew the answer in my heart.

“Yes, of course I love you.”

The student wasn’t buying it. “What? You lyin’. We really annoy you in our class.”

Zac Chase, who was listening in, came to the rescue here: “You mean you’ve never been driven crazy by somebody you love?”

It was only a couple of years in that I came to realize how truly rare this conversation was at the high school level. Love exists between young children and their parents, with teachers serving as proxy; as those children become adolescents, the definition of love shifts towards romance. Our popular portrayals of “I love you” further narrow our understanding of the experience — with our heads full of images of (straight, white) couples in joy or anguish, we lose contact with the universal experience that love can be.

And yet. I am lucky — beyond lucky — to work at SLA. What I have witnessed here has helped expand my understanding of what love is and how it can save us.

When a student carries a friend in a cast down the stairs during a fire drill, that’s love.

When an entire advisory turns out for the funeral of a parent, that’s love.

When a teacher takes a student into their own home so they will make it to graduation, that’s love.

And when we feel concern, fear, even terror about the changing political landscape, our love for each other is not just comfort or safety, but an act of resistance against the forces that would prefer to see us tear each other down in hate rather than lift each other up.

Late in the evening of election night — but long before the results were made official — a question formed in my head: What are we going to say to the kids tomorrow?

That question lead to a few lines of text, which then became a collective letter that SLA teachers composed between midnight and 7AM the next morning. We got to school early, wrote it out on poster paper, and made photocopies for every teacher to read out loud at the start of first period.

These actions saved me that day, and it brought strength to many teachers (perhaps even more than the students).

At the end of the next day, I had a chance to debrief a bit with my advisory. I had to tell them: It’s not every teaching staff that would start a letter with “to our school family” and sign off with “love.”

And yet, I’ve been hearing and seeing expressions of love more than ever since last week. Not just in my building, or in my house, but all over this fine city.

There are some dark times ahead. But it is the dark moments that make love the most precious, the most essential. Let’s not lose that.

Kaepernick Creates Space for All to Protest

November 15, 2016 by lpahomov 1 Comment

13-colin-kaepernick-w600-h315-2x — Colin Kaepernick, right, kneels during National Anthem.

Benjamin Simon

Sports Editor

I have never put my hand over my heart during the National Anthem.

I grew up with a father who consistently expressed his distaste for America. He fantasized about living somewhere else and always balked at any forms of patriotism. For him, that included putting your hand over your heart.

As I grew up and began to form my own opinions, I thought about whether or not I should place my own hand over my heart during the National Anthem. Everyone else around me put their arms over their heart. The athletes I revered put their hands over the chests. Why shouldn’t I?

But I also noticed that America was not the best country in the world. It did not deserve to be praised and put on a pedestal all of the time. To me, refusing to put my hand over my heart felt like a small act of defiance. Even though no one ever noticed, it was a way of expressing that I did not love America. It did not have my heart.

Now, the same method that I grappled with for much of my childhood, is making its way into the limelight.

On Saturday September 27th, the players of Philadelphia’s high school football team, Overbrook and Mastery North, took a knee during the National Anthem. That happened a month and thirteen days after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the team’s week one preseason game in protest of the treatment of African Americans in America.

His actions, which skyrocketed on August 26th when Jennifer Lee Chan of Niners Nation snapped a picture of the 49ers national anthem, have erupted within sports and the world.

Countless numbers of professional football players have followed suit, raising their first during the anthem and/or taking a knee. Some had locked arms, trying to show unity in the presence of a flag.

Now, high school athletes are doing the same. And there isn’t a better way to go attack the issue and spark conversation.

Throughout the last couple years, supporters of the Black Lives Matters Movement have tried to stir the conversation through almost any method. But without a doubt, Kaepernick’s acts have to be one of the most influential. It has not only captured the black community, but captured the entire sports community, encouraging healthy debate.

Kaepernick, in specific, has handled the entire situation with such grace. When he received backlash for being too harsh with his protest, Kaepernick lightened up his stance, opting to kneel in the face of the flag instead of sitting on the bench. He clarified his stance and eloquently explained why he was sitting so the average American could understand his goal.

“The media painted this as I’m anti-American, anti-men-and-women of the military and that’s not the case at all,’’ Kaepernick said to the USA Today earlier this season. “I realize that men and women of the military go out and sacrifice their lives and put themselves in harm’s way for my freedom of speech and my freedoms in this country and my freedom to take a seat or take a knee so I have the utmost respect for them.”

Kaepernick has done everything right and others have followed suit. Cornerback Jeremy Lane of the Seattle Seahawks was the first player not on the 49ers to join Kaepernick. Denver Broncos’ linebacker Brandon Marshall decided to take a knee in the season opener, risking tons of his endorsements and his own livelihood. Marcus Peters of the Kansas City Chiefs followed soon after, but this time, raised his fist during the anthem. And so many others have done the same. The wave of interest has been abundant from fellow football players.

This is all great and it has sparked so much appropriate discussion. But it needs to stretch a little further.

A white male athlete in a major sport needs to do the same.

imrs — Megan Rapinoe, second to the right from far left, kneels in US Women’s National Team soccer game.

Megan Rapinoe, a white, U.S. national women’s soccer player, kneeled for the National Anthem before a game against the Netherlands. Two other WNBA players, Jeanette Pohlen and Maggie Lucas, also did the same.

While their actions were wholesome, the support of a prominent white male athlete in a major sport would be gigantic. Too often, that responsibility falls on black athletes. A white athlete needs to take a stand and speak up for their coworkers, friends, and fellow Americans.

“You need a white guy to join the fight,” Seattle Seahawks’ Michael Bennett, a large part of the Black Lives Matter movement in the NFL, said to the Seattle Times. “The white guy is super important to the fight.”

There are many distinguished white athletes in sports today that have the option to speak out. The Manning brothers, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Kevin Love, and Clayton Kershaw are all examples of athletes who have the platform to make a difference. Saying something as simple as, “black lives do matter,” would help advance the fight that much further. Kaepernick has given them the space to make to stand up for what’s right. White athletes need to take advantage of that for the better of our country.

As a white high school student athlete on interracial teams, I see myself in the position of athletes on both sides. I am a person, regardless of race, who is upset with the way country is ran. I do not feel the need to praise it.

What Colin Kaepernick has done is given Americans the opportunity to feel comfortable speaking out in the face of oppression in the country: from football players to high school students to people of all races. Everyone should use it.

First photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Second photo: Kyle Robertson/The Columbus Dispatch via Associated Press

Column: What Happens Now?

November 9, 2016 by lpahomov 2 Comments

Chiara Nemati

Opinion Editor

Last night I went to bed with the knowledge that the man that is against everything I am had just been elected President of the United States. What happens now? Where do we go from here?

I am the daughter of immigrants. My father is an Iranian immigrant, my mother an Italian immigrant. I am a citizen of three vastly different and ever changing countries. I am a women. I represent everything Donald Trump believes is wrong with this nation.

This morning my brother woke up to knowledge that the man that hates who he is is his new President. My brother like many other U.S. citizens holds a place in this country that is between worlds. He sees his father, a man who has worked so hard to come and prosper in this country, a man who has sacrificed living close to his own family for the benefit of his own, he sees a man who may lose it all. He is left to wonder, is my father’s citizenship to this country enough?

This morning my brother asked my father, “What happens now?”

My father said, “We hope…”

So America, now we hope. We hope that the man who has just been elected President of the United States will run this country for the people and not just for the elite and his voters.

We must hope that a man who was not trusted to speak freely on his own, a man who needed his Twitter account to be taken away from him, to run this country. But I ask you, how long will this man need his training wheels? Because that’s what they are. His entire campaign staff are his training wheels. They have held him on his course. Steered him back when he went way over the line. This man, who cannot even control himself from more than half an hour, will enter the White House expected to be the Commander in Chief.

In Donald Trump’s victory speech, he made a call to unite all Americans. As I sit here and write, I wonder to myself how this is possible. Donald Trump a man who has run his campaign through hatred, racist and sexist remarks, now wishes to unite all Americans. Trump does not speak for me. Donald Trump does not speak for women. Donald Trump does not and has not spoken for the African Americans of this country. For the immigrants of this country. How can he unite us now?

As I woke up in the morning I thought to myself, it’s so much more than just who I am and who my family is. This is about all of the leaps and bounds this country has made in the last century. Human rights. Equal rights. Women’s Rights. Does it all just go away? I sit here and write and wonder what will happen to planned parenthood? What will happen to the legislation that has been written in favor of the LGBTQ community? What will happen to ObamaCare?

No one saw this Trump Presidency coming. So now I ask you, how can someone who will not publicly support their candidate support their candidate? If you cannot be proud of who you are supporting then why are you supporting them? If you are not proud to be supporting who you are then look at the flaws of the person you are supporting and reconsider the choice you’ve made. We live in a country of freedom so anyone can support who they want and should not be ashamed of their choice.

Republicans hold majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is hard to see light at the end of this tunnel. All that I believe in is now on the table, ready to be thrown out. I am now going to be living with a President who flip flops on important issues. A President who refuses to reach out to other nations. Who explicitly said in his victory speech that he would only ally with willing nations. Usually we look to the Vice President for a slim shot at hope. But Pence might scare me more. An extremely conservative and intelligent man who will not have much trouble swaying the other Republicans to his side.

I wonder about my future. Where do I go from here? Many students at SLA have voiced their concern. Is college still something that is on the radar? Do they continue with their intended majors or paths? I will continue my education. I will not let this election be the decision maker in my life. I will continue to fight. I will fight in any way I can.

So what happens now? Now we hope. Now we fight. Now we become the hope. For those of us who had to sit on our hands and hope that the rest of the U.S. would go out and vote, we must fight for a stronger and more influential Democratic ticket in the coming election. What happens now is up to us.