sla

Locker Talk : What do you remember about your SLA acceptance interview?

December 10, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Junior Taylor Thomas, "I remember Mr.Lehmann was interviewing me and I was super scared because I was this little thing about to go into high school."

Caption

Junior Joe Tartaglia "I enjoyed [being interviewed] very much, it was pretty chill."

Caption

Sophomore Amy Chen "I was interviewed by Ms.Dunda and Jeff Kessler and I was so nervous I kept stuttering. Although, after a while I knew it was going well."

Caption

Junior Octavius Collins " Mr.Lehman was interviewing me so I was a little more scared than I would have been if it were someone else. Except I knew since him being the principal, that it was a better opportunity."

Caption

Freshmen Jamie Turner (left) "I was interviewed by Mr. Latimer and I was kind of nervous, but I knew I was doing fine." Freshmen Jesse Shooter (right) "I was deffinatly nervous, but I felt welcomed."

Previous Next

Click the “caption” button to see what they said!

Photos by Isabela Supovitz-Aznar and interviews by Jamie Murphy.

Column: The Perils of Going to a Small School

December 6, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

If you’ve ever wanted to avoid a certain someone in the halls of SLA–whether it’s someone you just broke up with, or a friend turned enemy–good luck. Having only 500 students around makes that almost impossible. SLA loves appreciating the small community we have- but not all that glitters is gold.

Fewer students equals less empty space, which means many more hangout spots to avoid on a daily basis in order to steer clear of that certain someone. Sometimes, it seems like the universe is purposely putting you in the path the one person you’d rather avoid.

This isn’t the only drawback, though.

While students at SLA often have the initiative to start clubs and activities of their own, some clubs never get off the ground because of lack of support. With a small staff, finding a sponsor can be hard, but even more so is getting participation from students.

If a club averages at most, say, 8 members and 3 of them are busy during your meeting time, the change is noticeable. During a benchmark season with deadlines creeping closer, a lunchtime club doesn’t stand a chance.

As a co-leader of SLA Community Involvement Club (CIC), organized by Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins, we feel the impact of this. Being apart of the committee to plan this and other clubs, the best incentive to attract members to meetings is food.

In other ways, the small size of the school benefits students. This year’s C Band Calculus class with Math Teacher Brad Latimer only has 12 students–a rare opportunity for a lot of personalized attention. Rigor of the coursework aside, a small school population makes the odds for having small classes much higher.

On the flip side, fewer students means a smaller variety of courses offered, because our teachers can only teach so many a day. I am often envious of courses like Psychology or Cooking offered at high schools much larger than ours.

The staff, Principal Lehmann and all of us sacrifice many traditional things to participate in a school community like ours. We will never have a homecoming game or might not ever have a gym, but I like that I can name everyone in my grade.

Even so, eye contact would seldom have to be avoided if there was a mass of even one hundred more students to hide behind.

Can You Hear Me Now?… Good!

December 4, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jamie Murphy

Staff Writer

“No cell phones out!” “If I see it, it’s mine,” said no one in SLA ever.

Here in SLA we don’t have a cell phone ban like most other schools. As a result, we don’t have to hide our phones. Remember the ol’ ‘slip your phone in your desk’ trick from middle school? How about hiding it under your lap?

Students that have already been here for some years, almost forget that they’ve ever had to hide their phones.

“I like that we have no cell phone ban, I feel like the school trusts me,” said Junior Lexy Babcock. She also added that “It’s good in case of an emergency.”

For freshman, the change was sudden. Overheard in the SLA halls, a freshman said that “I was just texting that whole period.”

It seems as though at first it’s a struggle to multitask the freedom with their school work. But freshmen eventually adapt.

Other high schools have much stricter policies. At Bodine High School, phones must be off all day. At the Academy at Palumbo, if a phone goes off, it is turned in to the principal’s office.

At SLA, the teachers have different policies, but in general put more responsibility in the hands of students.

In Ms. Echols’ Physics class, “If you wanna use your cell phone and go on iChat, that’s on you. But you will pay in the long run, with quizzes,” said Junior Dalena Bui.

Teachers find the switch to be a pretty good way of having a content school environment. History Teacher Pearl Jonas said, “In previous schools, enforcing a cell phone ban was frustrating. Learning to use cell phones in a healthy way is a life skill for teenagers and adults.”

On the whole, students get used to the freedom quickly — although that’s not always a good thing. In this case, students have adapted to our SLA ways of functioning, which makes our schooling and learning environment very different from others.

Student of the Month: Tobias Hahn

November 9, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jesús Jimenez

Staff Writer

Who is Tobias Hahn?

Some might claim that they have not heard this name before, but rest assured, you’ve probably seen him. Toby, as he prefers to be called, is the freshman who wears a peculiar object on his head as a hat. And many students at SLA have yet to find out what it is–although they have their theories.

“I guess it’s a deformed antenna to be wore as a hat, for some type of Halloween costume,” said Sophomore Betty Louis.

Other people came up with answers such as a bug, monster, and headcrab.

A few students in fact, confirmed that what was on Toby’s head was in fact a ‘headcrab’ originating from a video game series called Half-Life.

So, why does he wear it?

To Toby, the headcrab on his head is special to him. He has worn it everyday since the school year started, but never noticed anyone staring at it.

When asked what his peers think of his hat, Toby said “Some have poked fun at me, but most thought it was cool”.

Toby also owns merchandise from different video games because they have had an impact on him. So whether he owns a shirt from Portal or a headcrab from Half-Life, Toby wears his items proudly for the soul reason that he enjoys those titles.

SLA can be a tough place to transition into, but speaking on behalf of himself and his headcrab, he stated “It’s been pretty good. I find people here to be pretty nice.”

Combatting the filth at SLA

October 23, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Teachers and Students agree: SLA had been getting dirtier.

Many people at SLA have been overheard talking about some of the “trouble spots” in the school. Common spots to find litter are the pool and the ballrooms, where students leave packaging and food from lunch.

Things get more extreme in places like back stairwell, where people have left litter, extra chairs, and other messes. Even in the bathrooms, weaves, unsanitary napkins, and other trash have been found on the floor and in the sinks.

The littering has resulted in some gross consequences. Senior Winston Wright has a tale about bugs.

“During the beginning of preseason for soccer we wanted to use first floor bathroom in the morning but couldn’t because there was like 4 or 5 cockroaches running around,” he said.

As popular as SLA is, there are constantly visitors viewing our school and speaking with students. Staff is concerned about how the school looks to outsiders.

“As somebody who has to give tours all the time, it’s embarrassing when the school’s not at its best,” Said ILP Coordinator Jeremy Spry.

“The truth is that the majority of the school is clean most of the time there is just some trouble spots–everybody finds it gross but no one tries to change the culture, we are living in our own filth.” Said English teacher, Mrs. Pahomov.

In response to this problem, Health and Fitness Teacher Mrs. Martin thought of an idea to keep the school in tact and cleaner: have the students take care of the space in which they must work every day.

SLA’s new Space Adoption program officially started on the first day of school, where advisories picked…

Advisories must now clean up that space and make a sign posted there, encouraging others to keep it nice.

“You are not the new janitors for that space,” Ms. Pahomov said. “The idea is that you help beautify it, and convince others to keep it nice. Plus you have to remember that every space in the school belongs to an advisory — if you mess with it, you’re messing with them.”

One of the biggest problems at SLA is with trash and leftover mess from lunch. It’s not really noticeable to students since it’s such a normality to them now. The cleaning ladies are then left to clean up the student messes. Their job is to clean the school in general, not to clean after the disrespectful students leaving their trash behind.

SLA students seem to have some mixed feelings towards the project.

Senior Alex Johnson said,” Somewhat at first I believe it will help, but well see how it ends up as the months go on.”

“I think this is just a step towards becoming the best school we can be,” Mrs. Martin said. “When you have limited resources, your people are the best resource.”

Written by Isabela Supovitz-Aznar & Jamie Murphy