Features

No Need to Torrent: An Interview with Ms. Hull

October 23, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

When they got their laptops back this September, many students were surprised and confused by the new applications and lack of software. SLAMedia sat down with Technology Coordinator Marcie Hull to get the facts and reasonings behind the new procedure. To learn more about the change, check out the related News Article.

Jacob Lotkowski: Why did you decide to change the disk image?

Marcie Hull: If I privilege one person over another for what goes on the image, the Image would be too large to copy to 500 computers quickly. Also, I wanted kids to realize what is happening to inside their computers, and part of that is going out to the interwebs and getting things [applications] they want and loading them onto their computers… it’s a necessary thing for them to learn before they go to college.

JL: Were you in favor the the Google Drive Dashboard feature?

MH: Absolutely I am, I think there some kinks in it, and it will get better over time….People want something to work and be done with it, here. People forget we are like a teaching hospital, we are teaching teachers… we are first adopters of many things and we try them out here, to see if they can work in an educational setting.

JL: What is your favorite app on the downloads list?

MH: One that would be all encompassing and helpful for students would be Evernote, because you can put it on any device and there is a hard drive component and a web interface. It’s a smart, smart app.

JL: What would you like to tell people who want Word?

MH: It’s just as good as any word processor out there, and we don’t have a license for it so it would be illegal for me to distribute on computers without purchasing it. Pages is a wonderful word processor, but since we’re a Google Sites school we should be editing most of our work on Google Drive. [Using Google Drive] will result in less loss of data. I want to train people out of Microsoft Word.

JL: Are we going to get iLife?

MH: iLife is available now in Ms. Hull’s classroom on a thumb drive.

JL: Creative Suite?

MH: I don’t have the disks, I’ve been looking for that disk for a year and a half, I’ll get around to it, but not before freshman laptops go out.

If you’re still lost, Here is SLAMedia’s guide to setting up your computer this year.

To Download Your Own Apps

The easiest and most secure to download applications is through the Mac App Store. The advantage of this is that all the apps you download are free of viruses and malware, and will be easier to update, through OSX’s built-in software update.

Community Involvement Club: Building off of buildOn

October 19, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Members of SLA’s Community Involvement Club write facts about HIV/AIDS on the sidewalk in front of SLA

By Leah Kelly and Annisa Ahmed

Staff Writers

What happens when your favorite club is canceled?

For the last several years at SLA, the community service program called buildOn was where students participated in volunteer service and global education.

However, due to a lack of funding, buildOn left SLA at the end of last year.

“buildOn is a charity that gets a lot of their money through donors,” Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins explained. “And, [the donors] can request that the money goes to a specific place.”

buildOn’s program has shifted to include schools in most need of additional programs. Rather than small programs in many schools, they are running larger programs in a few schools.

This left volunteers like Lovett-Perkins without an organization to call home.

Instead of giving up, he took it upon himself to start his own community service club for students at SLA. The project has also become his senior Capstone project.

“I thought that [the buildOn program leaving] left a gap of community oriented people that can all do community service work,” Lovett-Perkins said. “I wanted to help keep that going at SLA.”

SLA’s Community Involvement Club is not a solo effort. Fellow classmates have pitched in to help, including Seniors Jenn Wright, Bernicia Guercio, Shamarlon Yates and Amanda Millatt.

All of the organizers are seniors, but they hope to involve underclassmen in leadership so that the club will continue after they graduate.

Senior Amanda Millatt, a fellow community service promoter, remembers a time in her freshman year that got her to continue offer her help over the years.

“I went to my first service project with buildOn and instantly felt like I was part of the family,” she said. “Not only were people amiable, but just outgoing and willing to get to know even the shy kids even to freshmen, like me.”

Community service has become a norm at SLA that has made many students here feel enthusiastic about helping others, and Lovett-Perkins hopes that it will continue.

Younger students are already jumping onto the bandwagon. Freshman Naomi Fecher-Davis said, “All of my friends joined, but I really enjoy it now– helping people makes me feel good.”

“I don’t want this to just go away after I leave,” he said. “I want it to stay and grow and be able to come back in five years.”

The meetings are held on Thursday during both lunch bands: X-Band in Ms. Echol’s room and Y-Band in Señorita Manuel’s.

Upcoming events include the AIDS Walk in the fall and the Broad Street Run next spring. There are going to be smaller gatherings, including bake sales and can drives that will be determined at later dates. The club also arranges for students to volunteer at MANNA, the program which delivers meals to homebound patients.

For Lovett-Perkins, this project reflects a lifetime commitment in service. “It is part of who I am now and I really take passion in that.”

Seniors Share Their Interests, Expertise with Capstone Clubs

October 19, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

CIC — SLA students in SLA Community Involvement Club volunteer at MANNA
credit: Sam Lovett-Perkins

Clear your schedule, because new groups are hitting the scene this fall at SLA — and many of them are courtesy of this year’s senior class.

Senior Capstone projects are the final project every SLA student must complete in order to graduate. As a culmination of four years, it’s supposed to draw the core values and be a representation of an individual student’s learning.

For some students, this leads to them starting a club. While many proposals haven’t been officially approved yet, these groups intend upon making them into their projects.

Capstone projects are often the result of students turning their outside experiences and passions into a school project. For some students, that means getting others to do what they already love.

Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins has founded the SLA Community Involvement Club (CIC). “I want this club to be a unified group of people that all care about their environment,” he said.

Following the buildOn program being discontinued at SLA, Lovett-Perkins spoke to wanting to keep the energy alive for volunteerism within the community.

To complete a Capstone project each senior must have a mentor, whether in school or out. Interests overlap often between teachers and students that generate collaborations like Senior Sasha Sapp’s Book Club with English Teacher Meenoo Rami.

“…[the project] allows students, parents and teachers to come together and share their love of books and community,” says Ms. Rami, “It just made sense that it would work great as a Capstone.”

In an unusual double interest, two Model United Nations groups are forming. Both hoping to attract members, Seniors Heather Campbell and Allison Patterson are working on separate Capstones.

Although very different from one another, they share a common aim–making the SLA community a more cultured place.

Senior Chelsea J. Smith’s Latin Dance group has already begun practicing. She has a solid group attending, but she knows that it can be hard to keep members involved. “I can’t force anybody to come to practice,” she acknowledged. She plans to be strict about attendance.

Being fall, the outlook for each looks good. Lovett-Perkins hopes to continue legacy for CIC by asking underclassman to try out leadership roles.

As for the Latin Dance group, Smith says that it could go on past this year “…if people have the commitment it takes.”

Lovett-Perkins said of volunteering, “I want people to be there because they are interested and that’s the best way to get people to come to things and be motivated,” then qualified, “self motivated.”

Each Capstone club hopes to extend the joy and learning to the students who sign up.

The Pearl of SLA: Ms. Jonas Joins SLA

October 19, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

SLA’s new faculty member Ms. Jonas outside of her classroom
Photo Credit: Sam Lovett-Perkins

By Ryan Harris

Staff Writer

This school year marked the beginning of a new adventure for freshmen and one faculty member at SLA: History Teacher Pearl Jonas.
Before coming to SLA, Jonas had her start as a teaching assistant at Northeast High School.

“It was actually my student-teaching year,” she said, “but I count it as my first year, because it was so hard.”

After her student-assistant teaching year, she worked at a high school located in Ecuador for 2 years. There she was a teacher of History, English, and Spirituality.

Jonas was comfortable, having come from a Nicaraguan/Jewish background. “I was there by myself; but the school was so welcoming, from the students and the teachers.”

The school was not always easy to work at, however.
“One challenge was the cultural differences in the classroom and managing that the school is very, very different.”

One difference was the curriculum. It was not at all like SLA’s project-based structure.

“It was test-based — so much so that there was a certain schedule to your class and you had to stick to that,” she said.”

Even though the school in Ecuador was traditional, it still helped her learn to be a good teacher at SLA.

“My way of teaching and how I appreciate education is more thorough, giving students the ability to try different ways of telling what they learned,” she said.

It was soon after her return from teaching abroad that Ms. Jonas would come in contact with members of SLA’s community before even working at SLA.

During the summer of 2010, Jonas met SLA English teacher Matt Kay while they were both working at the Awbury Arboretum, a botanical garden located in the neighborhood of Germantown.

“We were both teachers, but it was more experiential learning,” Jonas said. “We would take elementary students on tours of the Awbury Arboretum; talking about trees and insects and lots of other ‘science-y’ stuff.”

While attending meetings with the organization know as the Teacher Action Group/Philadelphia (TAG Philly), Jonas met another SLA teacher, English Teacher Larissa Pahomov.

It was Kay that told Jonas about an opening to teach history at SLA — filling the position vacated by Ms. Laufenberg.

For her first year, Jonas is teaching 9th graders African American History, 11th graders American History and also acts a monitor for the new Spanish 3/5 Rosetta Stone class.

Becoming a new member of SLA’s community has been almost seamless for Jonas, thanks to a welcoming group of students, teachers, and faculty.

“A lot of students and teachers alike have reached out to make sure I’m doing OK with transitioning here,” she said. “Making me feel like they really care about me as I start here at SLA.”

“It’s nice to have another person who staff who’s had experience outside of the classroom and lived all over the world.” said Pahomov. “More than just a classroom teacher.”

Jonas has always been an admirer of history, but not just old facts and figures. “I always loved finding connections for why the present is the way it is today, because of the past.” she stated.

When asked about her future at SLA, Jonas had this to say: “I want to learn to be the best teacher that I can be, for students. So definitely just growing as a person, developing relationships with the teachers, the students, and the community…contributing to the community in any way I can.”