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SLA Times Out

March 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

Last Tuesday March 12, many students were marked late due to the ID scanner being flipped according to SLA Time. Normally, this wouldn’t be troublesome, but SLA Time has not been itself recently.

After Daylight Savings Time began on Monday the 11th, the clocks were just one hour behind. After that was “fixed” on Tuesday the clocks were set to normal time, so the 5 minute buffer was forgotten by mistake.

Senior Heather Campbell said,“To be honest I didn’t even notice that anything had changed.” Unconcerned, she usually gets to school around 8ish.

Rumors swirling include that Science Teacher Matt VanKouwenberg changed the clocks because of his tendency to be late.

An even better one was the the Superintendent Dr. Hite visited and told us that is was illegal to have the clocks set 5 minutes later than normal time, as per SLA Time.

None of that is true and in reality, around midweek, IT people from the District did visit SLA, but on a completely unrelated problem. However, the door to the room with the clock controls was shut behind them. The sole key was with Principal Lehmann in Prague where he was speaking at a conference

Attempting to get things back to normal, the clocks were then set 5 minutes slower than normal time really throwing everyone off.

The time warp has caused a bit of difficulty for students and teachers. Students who are used to regularly walking into class right in the nick of time were late which caused a disruption. Those that normally arrive early are now almost late.

Though teachers at SLA are a bit more flexible than teachers at other schools, no one is happy about students coming late to class. Because SLA doesn’t have a bell that sounds at the end of a period, the unique schedule relies solely on SLA Time.

For the majority of the week, the clocks stood 5 minutes earlier than regular time and people were beginning to adjust.

On Thursday the clocks were reset to the classic SLA Time.

“Even I was a little bit late to class, I just keep expecting it to be fixed.” English Teacher Larissa Pahomov said.

Ask fm: fun or dangerous?

March 21, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Melanie Harrington Staff Writer

Do you like to ask questions online?

We’ve all heard of Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. The new site to joing htis group is a website called ask.fm, was launched and introduced to the public in June 2010. It currently has over 125 million users, and its main design is to have users invite people to ask them questions.

This new website contains some of the same aspects of other social media sites such as, following your favorite people/friends and interacting with others through messaging. However, Ask fm takes it to another level by allowing questions can either be submitted anonymously or not.

Ask Fm is slowly and surely making its way to the students of SLA.

Everyday, users receive a daily question. Some examples of these questions are “What’s your favorite color? What’s under your bed right now? Love or Hate?”

Freshman Isabella Mezzaroba said, “People’s immature sides tend to come out when there isn’t a name connected to their words. I don’t take the stuff on their seriously though.”

Recently, the site has been the subject of several media articles involving cyber-bullying. Apparently the site was being used to send rude, offensive, and hateful anonymous messages to its users. These allegedly resulted in suicides and violent deaths of teens across the country.

While Ask fm is a great way to pass time and have a good laugh from time to time, Mezzaroba admits that other social media sites have more ways to interact and have fun.

Sophomore Traevon Gray is in favor of Ask fm as well. “Its a fun way to see what people are thinking,” he said. However, Gray does not recommend the site to people who are easily bullied.

Ask fm obviously has some pros and cons to it. In some cases it can be very harmful to people regarding the bullying. In other cases it is helpful and provides a good laugh and a distraction.

Peace Corps. Coming to SLA

March 19, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Nomi Martin- Brouillette

Staff Writer

On Thursday, March 21st, two representatives of the Peace Corps will be coming to talk to the SLA community about the Peace Corps.

The meeting was arranged by member of the Community Involvement Club, freshman Michelle Friedman. Friedman went to the Peace Corps. website and requested a visit from representatives, and soon after received an email from Colleen Daley and Paul Masuti, two former Peace Corps. volunteer’s, saying they would be coming to SLA.

Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins, who founded CIC for his capstone says, “Part of my club’s idea was to teach about global issues and to offer resources to student to get interested. I thought that inviting a peace corps. volunteer would get students interested in the club, and teach them about global education value.”

“The Peace Corps takes people from America and sends them to countries that need help out with education and medicine and technology for two years.” says Friedman.

During the presentation, the former volunteer’s will talk about their own experience in the Peace Corps. and answer any questions anyone may have about the organization.

Sophomore Nikki Adeli, who is part of CIC club say’s “I’m excited to get involved in any open opportunities the representatives might bring to the school. It will be a fun experience!”

If you are interested in coming, the meeting will take place Thursday, March 21st, during both X and Y bands in the library. All those interested are invited and encouraged to attend.

Boys Baseball Begin the Season With Some Changes

March 16, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

After finishing in second place in the playoffs the past two years, SLA Boys Baseball are preparing to step up to the plate and go for the title of Division Champions, with a few new changes too.

For the first time the team will hold both a Varsity and Junior Varsity team.

Positions on the teams will be highly competitive. “Some current Varsity players have been on Varsity since 9th grade and some 9th graders this season are already good enough to compete on the Varsity level,” said Coach Herman.

The varsity team will be coached by History Teach Douglas Herman, while new coach Dan Winterstein from Mt. Airy Baseball will manage JV.

“He’s a good coach,” commented Junior Jhonas Dunakin about Coach Winterstein“He has experience and he knows what he is doing on the field.”

“We have a lot of dedicated guys who are making this team a priority and seeing it as an extension of their family.” commented Coach Herman. In addition to dedication, communication, motivation, and training will make their season as successful as they are hoping it will be.

In preparation for tryouts and the season, the Boys Baseball team has been undergoing an extensive preseason training, composed up of conditioning, skills training, situational training, and will soon be incorporating scrimmages against other city teams.

“We try to make trainings as realistic as possible,” mentioned Junior Antonio Reveron, “I feel like there are some flaws that still need to be worked out, but overall we will definitely give some teams a challenge.”

Last year they lost in the playoffs to Nueva Esperanza, an A Division team. The year before, they lost to Philadelphia Academy Charter, a B division team. With all this preparation Coach Herman is confident about a successful season and expects to win D division.

Two additional changes in this year’s season is the location of their playing fields. The previously homeless baseball now have an official practice field at 44th and Haverford and an official home field at Mt. Airy Park in Germantown.

The Boys Baseball team begin their season on April 2nd, with Varsity playing against King and Junior Varsity against Boys Latin.