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Why I Prefer In Person School

January 17, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Lia Dunakin

Staff Writer

Students wearing masks while in school. Photo courtesy of BBC.

From the very first minute of the day, School this year is radically different from last year.

Last year, I would just get out of bed a few minutes before school started since there was no travel time. Sometimes I would eat my breakfast or have a snack. This year, I have to wake up at 6:30 instead of 8:30, I get out of bed, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and leave the house. Take the bus. Take the subway. Walk to school.

Like many teenagers, I liked being able to wake up at a later time because of the lack of commuting, Not having to travel the 40 minutes from school to my house, I had more time to do my homework since I was at home all day. It was much easier to manage my time since I didn’t have any after school activities that I had to get to, because they were all online. Although, I do think online school affected my quality of work, since it tired me out more.

When you compare these two morning routines, , it may seem like I liked virtual learning better than in person school, but that is not true. Despite all the aspects I did like about doing school at home, being able to see my classmates in person is better.

Things have changed in our classes, too. . Last year was an exception from everything I was used to. It’s not usually just the teacher talking to you. There’s students waiting to ask or answer questions. The teacher isn’t just talking to you, now the classes are interactive again. Also, in breakout rooms there was usually minimal talking, now that we can see each other again face to face, it’s much easier to communicate in groups. This makes it easier to complete group assignments.

It was harder to focus in class last year, because all you would hear was the teacher’s voice. This year, you can do activities with your classmates that may help you better understand the topic. That learning environment of just hearing lectures and finishing your assignments was not the best for me, and I know I am not the only one with this opinion. I remember I would talk to my friends about shared experiences in break out rooms. Also having a sense of relief when you knew someone in your breakout room, and that it meant they would actually talk.

I am so glad that this year we got to go to the building this year and have the closest to normal we possibly could this year.

The biggest benefit to in-person school is communication. It’s not just being able to work in teams and talk to people, but also having spaces to just relax around the building while you’re not in class helps immensely. While at home, you don’t have places to just hang out.

I will take the social connections over sleeping late, any day.

This year is a lot better than last year and I hope it can continue being an in person school year!

Crochet is Everywhere

January 13, 2022 by Adrie Young Leave a Comment

Lia Dunakin

Staff Writer

Sophomore Leila Chacker crochets during zoom school

There is a new trend at SLA. Students in every grade have started picking up this new hobby. During covid, everyone was looking for something different to try out — exercise, pottery, cooking or baking However, crochet has seemed to have stuck around. However, this pastime is getting a mixed response from s students and staff.

There is an arts and crafts elective this year at SLA. Students who are interested in activities such as crochet and knitting. Students who have never done these before now have the opportunity to. Vice Principal Ann Leaness, who is the staff member teaching this class, offers any student interested in crafts, free materials, such as yarn and crochet hooks.

Ms. Leaness started her elective about 3 years ago, hoping to create a space for kids to learn non-traditional art skills. Outside of her classroom, you will still see students crocheting.

Most teachers are very supportive and accommodating to this new hobby, and Ms. Leaness expressed excitement towards that. She says, “It’s a great stress reliever, and it’s also great for kids that have a hard time sitting still and paying attention.”

However, not everyone is on board. Some teachers find that crochet or knitting is distracting for their students.

Biochemistry Teacher John Henkel banned crocheting and knitting in his class. He says that he feels the activities are distracting, this being the only reason this isn’t allowed in his classroom.

“If it were video games or magnets that were distracting students, I would ban those too,” he explained.

A visitor to SLA will still find students crocheting in the social areas of the school, the ballroom, the commons, and even just in the hallways.

Some students have even started their own crochet stores on platforms such as Depop, an app that is known for people selling second hand clothing, but is also a place where people can sell clothes that they make themselves

Sophomore Milani Zayas set up a store on Depop, called “Things by Inalim,” to sell her own crochet creations. She currently offers fingerless gloves, ear warmers, crochet shirts and other items. Each item takes her anywhere from 3-10 hours to create.
“I love seeing people crochet in class. It’s really nice to see other people with the same interest as you. I also love talking to people about what they’re making and what their next project is,” said Zayas.

She also mentioned that she tends to crochet when she feels anxious because it’s soothing, and that she would recommend it for anyone.

While the student crochet trend has its limits, the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

Why I Enjoyed Online School

January 13, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Leo Braveman

Staff Writer

Sophomore Biran Mahmoud working from his computer

Back last year we had to have almost the whole year be online . I found my rithim and actually enjoyed online school. Usually when online school is brought up I hear about strong negative opinions – “it was so hard to learn, “I just coulden’t focus” or “it was just so boring” but I had a different experience.

To start I got to wake up at basically 9 am, and I didin’t have to commute to shcool. Classes were sometimes tough, and I did have technology rage to be fair, but when I had a problem my teacher would be understanding and I could normally find a solution. Secondly, breaks were amazing!! Whenever I had a long lunch break it was so nice to be at my house for it. I could take a nap, do school work, eat lunch, go on my phone and even go to the park with my friend. Finally, my favorite part of online school was being at home, although there were cons like not being as social, being at my own desk with more space felt like the nicest thing ever.

Because of this when I heard septa was planning a strike I was ecstatic. This meant all the old things for me, with more benchmark work time added, and I even made goals like going to the park everyday and going to the gym everyday. Although this didin’t happen I think school should think about the benefits of working from home. Maybe more study periods could be added, where kids could get work done and bounce from class to class. Or maybe kids could get out early on days where they had an advisory, if they were going home early for a purpose.

Well…Let’s Talk About Stairwells

January 13, 2022 by Fatima Abashera Leave a Comment

Fatima Abashera

Staff Writer

As soon as a class at SLA is over, the two major stairwells at SLA are flooded with students rushing to various floors and classrooms. This is normal for high schools however not for many high schools post COVID 19 lockdown.
After the major COVID 19 lockdown, an eventual return to school was inevitable however it had to be considered how it could be made safe for everyone. That is when the SLA administration rolled out the idea of having stairwells for two designated directions. The up stairwell was for students moving up floors, down for those moving down floors. This felt like the perfect plan to limit mobs and crowds and practicing safe social distancing. Until, students began not following protocol and using the wrong stairwells. As one can imagine, this created 5 minutes of absolute chaos at SLA everyday. There would be 30+ students at a time in the stairwell commuting in opposite directions which slowed down the commute for many and frustrated students moving through the right stairwells. Not to mention, this was not even about a smoother transition in between bands but more importantly about practicing social distancing appropriately in school. Not abiding by the SLA administration’s stairwell plan only created a COVID superspreader event in the stairwells everyday.

Clearly, the administration’s plan to practice social distancing and ensure a smoother commute went south really quickly because of student’s irresponsibility.

Personally, the most frustrating aspect of commuting to different floors for me is seeing students trying to squeeze down the up- stairwell or up the down- stairwell. All it does is create chaos and rush when travelling through SLA.

This issue raises the question of why students are not abiding by stairwell protocol. This question is one on everyone’s mind that experiences this event at SLA almost everyday. If anything it is in students best interest to follow protocol as it is saving the school from another looming transition to Zoom school.

Social distancing is a mechanism designed to keep individuals a specific measurement of space away from each other to slow the spread of infectious disease. Diseases like COVID 19 spread through airborne particles so it is easy for these particles to spread at a rapid rate when people are clumped together or gather in large groups. However, when individuals are a safe distance away from one another it creates less room for these particles to spread through the air.

Well… we talked about the stairwell, what’s next? It is important for all students to pull their weight when practicing the protocol for social distancing. Even more so , if a good percentage of students practice using the right stairwell, maybe there will be a visible change in stairwell traffic and even COVID cases.

SLA Affirmations Scandal

January 13, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Anouk Ghosh-Poulshock

Staff Writer

In mid-November, the first SLA Affirmations Instagram page was created: @sla_affirmations. The next day, another one was created: @slaaffirmations, both run by different people.

On the surface, these accounts have the same intention and goal. So why two? Wasn’t one enough?

The first account, @sla_affirmations, was created by two freshmen, one of whom was Pax D’Alba. They created their first post on November 16, a post about the long and brutal walk to the sixth floor.

Many of their posts were about the day to day complaints about their time in school, such as the stairs, vending machine, and the posters around school. Both accounts were inspired by the Philly affirmations page, which started posting in early November. Ever since then, many schools created affirmation pages, such as Central and CAPA.

“I started off by following a bunch of people I knew [who] went to SLA and they followed back. Then [we] and the followers started sharing posts, more people started finding it and following it,” said D’Alba.

When asked about the second affirmations page, D’Alba was blasé. “It came after us and was posting similar things so it almost felt like competition, but I didn’t really care about it,” they said “We tried to stay away from harmful things, especially since we said who we were, and they posted more risky things. Whatever they did was their choice. It was just frustrating but then I didn’t really care.”

After only posting for a few days, the account stopped posting. D’Alba says the future of the account is still undetermined, but there will most likely not be any new posts.

The second account, @slaaffirmations, had its first post on November 17. They consistently posted for a few days as well, but stopped posting after about a week. The owner of the account has chosen to keep their name anonymous. Their content was similar, and about the same topics.

“I saw that the other SLA affirmations were run by freshmen and I thought that their affirmations weren’t that good. My friends and I had a ton of ideas for affirmations so I decided to make a separate page,” says @slaaffirmations.

This account does not look like it will be sticking around for much longer either. They don’t have the time or motivation to run the account anymore, but they enjoy seeing the other unique accounts popping up.

Both accounts wanted to stay anonymous, since they were afraid of getting in trouble with the school. In addition, both thought they could make better content, which is the reason for multiple accounts.

“I think the time of SLA affirmations has passed,” says sophomore Josie Barsky, “They were really popular for a hot second, but they’ve both stopped posting so there’s not much left of them.”

“Some are cool and funny. I think some are or could turn into something very toxic and harmful which is not good,” says D’Alba.

While none of the accounts ended up turning into something harmful, fear of getting in trouble drove both away. With both accounts inactive, it has left plenty of room for new SLA accounts to take the spotlight. The most popular, @sla_sleeps, is an account that compiles posts of students sleeping. There are also multiple SLA meme accounts, some new and some old.