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  2nd Quarter Benchmark Share Out

Posted by Diana Laufenberg in American Government - Laufenberg on
1.  Go to D Band Voicethread.
2.  Register for an account.
3.  Add one image to the collective voicethread.
  • Choose one of your 12 items from the benchmark to highlight
  • Locate an image that best represents that item - you can use the flickr Creative Commons to find an image if you do not have one
  • Narrate your paragraph that accompanies that item from your benchmark
4.  Comment on at least two other 'pages' from the collective voicethread.  Ask a question.  Push back on their reasoning.  Affirm their position.  Be thoughtful

Finalize and Extend - Lobbying for Smaller Schools: Educating all of Philadelphia

Posted by Cody Nichols in American Government - Laufenberg on

To ______________,

We were assigned a project for our senior American Government Class which required us to lobby for an issue either Nationally, Statewide, or Locally. Taylor Tomasco, my partner on this project, and I felt strongly about our views on education. So we deemed it necessary to find an issue relevant to the topic of education. We decided on the belief that we need smaller neighborhood schools, and we need to not segregate misbehaved pupils into alternative schools. With this belief we had hope to break down the barriers between pupils who behave vs. pupils that misbehave, so that all may have the opportunity to receive a good education in the 21st Century.

Over the first few months of our lobbying project we have been able to complete a lot of research, ask a lot of questions, make a lot of plans and talk to many different people. However, we have had some difficulty getting proper answers, and talking to the right people. A lot of our questions have gone unanswered, and a lot of our plans were not able to be completed. We are passionate about our lobbying topic and would like to see this taken up by someone else in the future.

Below is a list of contact information, research, ideas and advice we have used so far in our process. We hope you have success in completing our unfinished task. We hope you are able to change the world by giving everyone an equal eduction.

Our Consensus:
What does a "great school" mean?
A great school offers a safe environment and an education for all types of learners.

How does a "great teacher" teach?
A great teacher is understanding and is always willing to explain, assist, and explain again. A great teacher does not talk at the front of the classroom, they engage the students minds and help students make connections not only to the academic side of life but towards life itself, the real world. They teach about the process and not about the facts.

What do we value in that kind of education that can be measured?
We value a students ability to apply the process of what they learn, not the facts and dates. We can measure this by there success in making differences in society, their ability to relate information.

Your Goal & Next Steps:
  • Have at least one SRC representative to report back to. This person will guide you through this process, answer all questions, show support, lead you in the right direction, and help you get the job done so you can reach across to all schools.
  • Visit various schools to see how education is perceived there.
  • Take a survey from students at all different types of schools. Refer back to the survey we created in one of our earlier blog posts.
  • Attend some SRC Meetings so that the public can know what you are lobbying for. You also need the School Reform Commission’s meetings to allow the public to understand your views as attending Student Reform Commission meetings. The officials who conduct these meetings can allow the issues to reach the higher powers above. http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/s/src/schedule
  • These are the allies that you need on board in order to allow your points to reach a higher power in the world. These are the people who can help you make that happen:

Bio on Ozzie Wright:
Ozzie Wright began his career with the District as a physical education teacher, and later was assistant principal of Fels High School, principal of the Youth Study Center, and the founding principal of the District’s Philadelphia Military Academy at Leeds. Before being called to active duty in Iraq, Wright served at the helm of West Philadelphia High from 2002 until 2003. He is a graduate of Temple University, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the Army Reserve. Having a huge impact on The School District of Philadelphia, we felt the need to include Ozzie Wright as a person of utter importance as a reference for  this assignment

-Ozzie Wright’s Thoughts:
* In agreement with the idea of breaking down Comprehensive High schools into smaller academies.
* Modified incorporating students from alternative schools into these academies. But rather have dedicated and qualified teachers that those students could rely on to educate those students on their perspective career paths.
* Many schools main motive is to simply make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), but yet, when that motive becomes the schools entire goal, the students’ paths aren’t thought of anymore, and the educational plan solely becomes about the institution.
*For students who misbehave:
- You only get a certain number of chances.
- Not every student is going to go to college.
* Public institutions are run by the district who can dictate where students may or may not attend. Charter Schools are run also by the district but are “mandated” to have rules that they can send any student anywhere, even back to their neighborhood high school. Private and Parochial Schools are run by private and/or Catholic organizations that require suburban students to pay for their education.

Bach Tong came from South Philly High to Science Leadership Academy. We asked him a few questions about his education thus far:

1.From your experiences as a former pupil of a comprehensive high school,
how do you feel the transition was to an smaller academy?
The transition to a smaller academy to me personally was pretty smoothly. I think it depends heavily on how one could quickly adopt a new environment as well as how open is the environment.
2.Do you feel that your career interests are being met by the various
programs that are offered at Science Leadership Academy? Did you have
that at your old school?
I do feel that my career interests are being met at SLA. However, I have only been at SLA for almost 2 quarters, so I have not experienced various different classes that are offering. My old school is a comprehensive neighborhood school, which provides mandatory curriculum from the School District with more of traditional book-in-contact type of learning with fewer elective courses, instead of project-based with more elective course like SLA. As a result, my career interest was not met fully there.
3.Was your individual needs as a student met by the teacher and or
programs at your old school? Are they met now?
My individual needs as a student was met at my old school, however wasn't as fully as it does here at SLA.
4. What are the biggest differences in the education you received at the comprehensives and that of SLA?
I would say the biggest differences between two school is the curriculum and type of teaching and learning. At the comprehensive high school, teachers get outlined curriculum from school district through their books and teach more of a traditional way through standardize testing. At SLA, teachers create their own curriculum and teach in a
project driven way.
5. How do you think the comprehensives schools can change their mission statement to make their education richer?
I would recommend comprehensive school to give teachers freedom of writing their own curriculum, as well as relying less on standardize test.

From our background research and what we have done so far, we believe that if you take on this lobbying assignment, and are passionate about the education of youth, then we believe that you will have a strong foundation in order to continue this assignment.

Sincerely,
Cody Nichols & Taylor Tomasco

Final blog post

Posted by Kristina Chiev in American Government - Laufenberg on

​For my final blogpost, I wanted to contact state representatives that agreed with "fixing" the 14th amendment and sent emails to them asking if it was really "fixed" would any of this affect people in state college and student's scholarship and the tuition of state colleges. I haven't received an answer from State Representative of PA, Daryl Metcalfe yet so I will just be uploading the email that I sent him.

"Daryl Metcalfe,
I have left an email before asking you questions and was wondering if you can answer a few more questions for me. Here are some of the questions that I've been thinking about lately. If the 14th amendment is successfully "fixed" do you think this will affect college students in any way? What I mean by the question is will student's tuition be effected and why do you think that. Thank you for your time and consideration, I hope to hear from you soon.
Kristina Chiev"

I am hoping to get an answer back from his views and thought and try to share it with the class because we are heading to college next year and if this somehow gets through, I want to see if it will really effect us.

Final Blog Post

Posted by Rumman Haq in American Government - Laufenberg on

Nutrition extends outside of the school walls.

According to a study publish by Pediatrics observed the trends in purchases made by school students at urban corner stores contributes to the energy intake among urban school students. Seeing that Philadelphia is a major city, this study certainly should alarm our community. Urban corner stores consist of high-profit that are mostly low-nutritious foods. Within a 4-block radius there are bound to be multiple corner stores in addition to food stands that are commonly found in the city. The study claims that on average students who participated in the study purchase about 350 calories, visit corner stores two times a day, 5 days a week meaning they are taking in about a pound more of calories than what is consisted to be healthy.

The Food Trust organization created the Healthy Corner Store Initiative to increase the availability of fresh foods and to promote healthy snacking. For example, they encourage corner stores to sell more fruits rather than packaged snacks. Even more, the Snackin’ Fresh youth leadership program, that’s active in 5 north Philadelphia communities, educates about eating healthy.
SnackinFresh1
SnackinFresh1

Final Blog Post_Mdoe

Posted by Megan Doe in American Government - Laufenberg on

Nutrition extends outside of the school walls.


According to a study publish by Pediatrics observed the trends in purchases made by school students at urban corner stores contributes to the energy intake among urban school students. Seeing that Philadelphia is a major city, this study certainly should alarm our community. Urban corner stores consist of high-profit that are mostly low-nutritious foods. Within a 4-block radius there are bound to be multiple corner stores in addition to food stands that are commonly found in the city. The study claims that on average students who participated in the study purchase about 350 calories, visit corner stores two times a day, 5 days a week meaning they are taking in about a pound more of calories than what is consisted to be healthy.

The Food Trust organization created the Healthy Corner Store Initiative to increase the availability of fresh foods and to promote healthy snacking. For example, they encourage corner stores to sell more fruits rather than packaged snacks. Even more, the Snackin’ Fresh youth leadership program, that’s active in 5 north Philadelphia communities, educates about eating healthy.
SnackinFresh1
SnackinFresh1

Final Transportation Lobbying Post

Posted by Aimee Leong in American Government - Laufenberg on

To wrap it up, Teila and I were going to talk to the representative of our area code, Joe Roebuck. We sent Congressman Joe Sestak a letter but we have not received a response yet. Prior to the letter, we have been researching plenty of background info on our topic but I don't think I still understand the real depths of our topic unless we hear from an official. Maybe our letter or our position as students, wasn't thought provoking or 'interesting' for anyone to get ahold of anyone's attention or a response. We thought if we get in touch with Joe Roebuck, who lives nearby Teila, we would at least get a proper introduction or be a stronger outreach than a regular e-mail could do. We were going to present a presentation to Joe Roebuck, in order to try to get our point across.

Issues with Septa:

-Making it more reliable and accessible

-Running faster on snow days

"If the weather becomes too severe for regular operation of any route or service, SEPTA will announce the suspension of service one hour before the scheduled time service ends." (http://www.septa.org/sustain/index.html)

-More bus shelters and benches.

People wait too long outside in the cold for the the bus or trolley. Especially for the elderly and disable. And if the city is worrying about keeping those clean then they could make people who need community service hours or organizations like "Unlitter Us" to keep these stops in good condition.

"Philadelphia deserves better, and the Streets Department stands firm in its commitment to attack litter on every front." (http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/unlitter-us-intro.aspx)

-"At SEPTA, we too find ourselves in a position of uncertainty. Regional unemployment has eroded ridership gains in prior years, while a sudden shortfall in state transportation funding has left a $110 million gap in SEPTA's capital program. Constraints have resulted in cutbacks on previously-planned projects funded through the operating and capital budgets."


I think one thing we would have done differently is find ways of where we could fund for these 'shortfalls'. I think this is such an important topic though because public transit have so much to do with our sustainability as a community and how much it impacts all our lives. Now that gas prices are hiking up, many people may now have to rely on SEPTA more than ever before. We need to "a more affordable, socially responsible, and environmentally friendly way to travel". And with more people (not just Teila and I) become more aware and involved, we will be able to achieve it.

Final Blog Post

Posted by Kimberlea Talington in American Government - Laufenberg on

The topic I had chosen to blog about was animal abuse in Philadelphia. I didn’t really have a process because I was dealing with a lot when this project was first introduced to us. I tried bye gathering as much research as I could and using the information I had. I didn’t fill out a lot of paper work because I was rather behind on my posts, which I found very upsetting because I wanted to do well. All I can really say, is that from the info that I have, and from doing the posts that I’ve done, this was a challenging project, but I wouldn’t mind doing it again. If I did get that chance, I would defiantly take a different approach to it.

Blog #2: Researching the Public Official

Posted by Kimberlea Talington in American Government - Laufenberg on

Being that Chaka Fattah is the Official representative of Philadelphia, he should have a lot of input on any new bills or laws that come in, right? In actuality, he shows interest in the bill…but that’s really it. He never talks about why he votes for it, or why he doesn’t, or how he feels about it.

When it comes to the issue of animal rights, he is no different. Though he never talks about it, he is all for animal rights. For example, Fattah has shown 92 present interest of The Humane Society of the United States  in 2007-2008, 92% interest in The Humane Society Legislative Fund, and 100% interest in the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

When it comes to animal rights, Fattah is all for it, yet he does not share his own personal thoughts nor does he express how he feels the new bills or laws will affect the city.

Final Blog Post

Posted by Evan Cohen in American Government - Laufenberg on

Throughout my series of blog posts I have slowly gained knowledge about the workings of the political system as well as the current state of affairs on the drinking age. In Americas first years the drinking age could vary between 14-18 but throughout the years it was permanently raised to 21. I tracked Donatuci "The representative of my area code" he was the Leader of the alcohol control board. It would have been very interesting to see his reaction to lobby the lowering of the drinking age, sadly though he died before this could be accomplished. As of recently we have come up with the idea of filming a small demonstration and sending to whomever replaces Donatuci. This will be accomplished in the near future.

Lobbying Post #5

Posted by Kimberly Yarnall in American Government - Laufenberg on

For this project, Alex and I have been working with food transparency labels. It's annoying when foods change there names to make them sound more appealing, or healthy. We first started with Corn Syrup being changed to Corn Sugar. After doing more research, we discovered that it wasn't just Corn Syrup that's name was being changed, but other foods. We want people to be aware that changing the names of foods does not make it any less fattening or unhealthy. Alex and I are going to design an AD that will inform people of this problem. Not many people pay attention to food labels, but they probably should.

I emailed a representative for this issue to get him involved, but I never received a reply. I didn't expect to, but it was pretty discouraging. Our next step is going to be actually making the AD and post it around the school and maybe even around the city. This will hopefully make people more aware of the issue, which will be doing our job.

Lobbying Blog - Final Post

Posted by Alexandra McGrorty in American Government - Laufenberg on

​What began as an incentive to stop the product known as Corn Syrup to be renamed as "Corn Sugar" has evolved into a full-on battle to force the food industry to become more honest. 

When the Corn Grower's Association began petitioning the FDA to have the name of the sweetener changed into something more "pleasant" and "natural sounding", it raised alarm among many people. My family were advocates of cutting the sweetener out of diets, so this led me to research the issue. What I soon realized was that this was not just limited to corn syrup itself, but to all edible products used in food production that needed a clear label.  

So, basically my lobbying issue became something more along the lines of "make labels in food more honest and clear", also known as label transparency. There were a couple things I did to garner more interest in my issue. The first step was email my representative, which I did and received no reply. After waiting and continuing to do the other portions of the lobbying project, I realized I needed to be more vocal about my issue. 


So, my next step will be to create an awareness campaign. My partner and are creating physical and plan on posting them in public places, (once the snow lets up a little, that is) possibly encouraging use of companies like NeutriSleuth, if only to garner awareness to the issue and attempt to cause the general public to realize there even is a problem, because it is something that can be very easily overlooked. 

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2010-11

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