lpahomov

Column: One Door Opens. Another Doesn’t.

November 29, 2012 by lpahomov 1 Comment

By Sam Lovett-Perkins

Staff Writer

About a week ago, I was running late to class after X-band lunch on Friday. It was particularly frustrating as I was going from the second floor to the fifth knowing that the easiest way to avoid the congested main stairwell was to take a detour through the notoriously disgusting, but much less crowded, back staircase. Racing to get to Mr. Baird’s “Isms” class, I hastily rounded the turn between the 4th and 5th floor and went to yank the door open. It wasn’t until my hand hit the flat metal of the door that I noticed something was amiss. There was no door knob!

I’m sure I share this feeling of frustration with the many students who are simply looking for a faster way to the 5th floor. Each of them is now forced to choose between waiting for someone on the other side, or taking the humiliating walk back down to the 3rd floor only to climb all the way back up. This is an unnecessary source of frustration for students in a rush, the knowledge that all that keeps you from getting to class is a missing doorknob.

Luckily for me, my friend had a small piece of metal that we used to pull the door open through the empty doorknob hole. A piece of advice: I suggest searching through your bag for some kind of hook. Something that can be used to pull open the door.

As you scour your bag for this item, wondering “Why me?” (as I did) , I urge you to consider what events have brought you to this point in life. Was it ignoring the warning of another friend (as I did) or perhaps bad karma for not picking up that last piece of trash off the floor (as I should have)?

But one question remained. Who would break the door and not fix it? I knew that somewhere inside of SLA, the culprit walked the same hallways as their victims.

After much investigation, this columnist (with the entire journalism staff) caught the saboteur–none other than Junior Jamie Murphy. She sheepishly confessed, admitting to knocking out the knob — which was already loose, she told us — while trying to forcibly open the door.

So what’s next? Should we punish the culprit (hang her by her thumbs), or show some mercy and deal with it for a while? After all, the broken door isn’t really Jamie’s fault — but the problem continues to vex me.

This morning, I once again made my way up the grand back staircase to the 5th floor, believing that given a week of such inconvenience, someone surely must have taken care of this problem. Lo and behold, I get to the top and find that there is no door knob but perhaps something just as good. I suppose that the chair positioned between the door and the wall is an acceptable quick-fix, but by no means a permanent solution to SLA’s latest problem.

Turning The Page

November 28, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Caption

students, club, SLA, capstone

Previous Next

By: Annisa Ahmed
Staff Writer

On Tuesday, November 27th, Senior Sasha Sapp and the Book Club Committee held their first ever meeting to discuss, well, books.

Before the meeting, Sapp was fairly worried for the turnout, as she was pacing back and forth constantly, looking around for the potential members. The Café was fairly empty and the senior was almost at her wits end.

Thankfully, as time approached closer and closer to the starting point, “her freshman,” as she called them, appeared, ready and willing to begin.

The final attendance was around 10 students, who enjoyed refreshments and also brought video cameras to document the event, as requested by Sapp’s capstone mentor, English Teacher Ms. Rami.

The books read for the meeting were Erin Morgenstern’s Night Circus, a fantasy novel about two proteges struggling to comply to the rules of a twisted carnival, and John Green & David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which deals with flamboyant best friends, chance meetings and the change that comes as the outcome of both.

Stimulating conversations were a sure smash and although the group consisted of freshmen and seniors, the easygoing tone of the meeting was hardened with homemade food and a helping of salsa.

The meetings will happen monthly, with Sapp sending reminder e-mails in advance. If you are interested in the Book Club, feel free to contact Sasha via email: ssapp@scienceleadership.org. She would love to for any student of SLA to join.

Contact Information: aahmed2@scienceleadership.org

Editorial: Necessary Measures

November 27, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Littering at Science Leadership Academy has always been a problem. Our blatant pollution could be from a lack of consequences and a relaxed disciplinary system. Visitors to the school can see the trash and it also poses a problem of hygiene when pests like rats and cockroaches are roaming the halls.

We might be able to attribute this problem to SLA’s fundamental rules, or lack thereof. If SLA was to implement stricter rules, though, the whole culture of the school would change. Our teachers are aware of this, but they wanted to cultivate an environment where students would govern themselves.

Classrooms at SLA stay cleaner because teachers impose consequences. Math Teacher Erin Garvey, for example, reminds her classes every day to clean up their trash or their eating privileges will be taken away. In hallways there is no one to hold students accountable. Also, when students see cleaning staff, they make the assumption that they will clean up our trash.

Since we aren’t going to add rules, and we can’t add staff to police the halls, what do we do?

Previous attempts to curb littering were proactive campaigns and friendly reminders. Senior Chelsea A. Smith’s campaign last year spread awareness about litter by putting up stickers in problem areas proclaiming “Litter Free Zone.” Principal Lehmann’s most recent attempt was a frustrated plea over the loudspeaker to stop leaving lunch areas like landfills. These were short lived, but brought the issue into light.

SLA’s most recent idea, the space adoption program, takes a reactive approach. Instead of trying to prevent litter, we have created a system for cleaning it up on a schedule. You may have noticed the plaques hanging around the halls and stairwells claiming these spaced being owned by an advisory. People are skeptical about the future, and impact of this program, due to it’s inactivity since it’s announcement at the beginning of the year.

The SLAMedia staff has two ideas of their own:

– Have the janitors not pick up our trash and let us deal with the consequences of having a dirty school

– Hold the whole school accountable: for every day a space is dirty, don’t let students eat lunch there the next day.

We have a strong sense of community, but in this area we are lacking. It is expected that many students will reject our suggestions because they don’t want to be responsible for other people’s trash. This might feel uncomfortable, but these are necessary measures to take before it gets worse.

Unsigned editorials are written and approved by the SLAMedia Editorial Staff. They do not reflect the opinion of Science Leadership Academy and its employees.

Teachers Train On

November 27, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Annisa Ahmed

Staff Writer

It’s no secret that SLA has an athletic staff–five of them have completed marathons. Several members of the SLA faculty have been adding an extra load to their workout regimens recently.

Latimer and Thompson shows off their medals.

Many of them are preparing for events place this fall — marathons, triathlons, and other races.

Math Teacher Caitlin Thompson, for one, has been doing just that. Already a competitive cyclist, she is training for an Ironman next August, her second. The long-distance triathlon involves swimming, cycling and running, in that order and must be completed before the seventeen hour cut off.

When asked about how rigorous her current session have become, she replied saying there was a definite difference between last year and the upcoming one. “This is the most focused training I have ever done, in terms of long term duration,” she said.

Not only does has she noticed a change in her overall health because of her recent endeavors but, all of this has been quite the rush for her.

“I do these activities — running, biking, etc. — because I enjoy the individual challenge of reaching different distances.”

Math Teacher Brad Latimer has also been turning things up a notch with his running for similar reasons–he ran a half marathon this November for the Disney Family Half Marathon Event.

“Just last year kind, of on a whim, I came from school one day and my partner was like, ‘I signed us up for a half marathon.’ I was like, ‘what?’ And, she was like ‘I already paid for it for we’re doing it.’ So from there, there was no turning back.”

Contrary to popular belief, he has never once run a marathon and frankly, he was quite unnerved. It was the first competitive thing he has done with this sport and it really made him face his fears.

Now he runs everywhere.

“I go running with StudentsRun. I went for a run with Ms. Garvey the other day. I plan on running with Ms. Echols, Ms. Dunda., Ms. Martin and Mr. Bey.”

As teachers, being active has also definitely set their lives in tune. Many of them squeeze in their workouts before, during, or after school.

This can be a challenge at times. “It takes an hour and a half to go on a ten mile run and I very rarely just have a free hour and a half to use,” Mr Latimer acknowledged. “That is the biggest drawback to it for me, personally.”

However, he still thinks the payoff is worth the effort. “I am at the point where I do feel very, very happy I’m doing it. I love it,” he said. “It makes me feel a lot better, physically and mentally. It’s totally worth it.”

Contact Information: aahmed2@scienceleadership.org

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.