All Science Leadership Academy Blog Posts

Difficulties Learning English

Abraham Musselman — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:09:54 -0400

Learning another language can be difficult. One must both familiarize themselves with another culture, and study the finer points of the grammar if they ever want to fully use the language. Languages derived from Latin, such as English, Spanish, and French, have similar grammatical systems. Verbs are often a point of confusion for language students, and most of these languages follow a similar pattern of verb conjugation. However, each language also has a set of irregular verbs that can make mastering a language very difficult.

Common irregular English verbs are:
Go
Be
Bring
Choose

Common Spanish irregular verbs are:
Tener
Ir
Conocer

I spoke with an English student from Spain about his thoughts about learning English irregular verbs. He wrote that he does not usually have a problem with them. More interestingly, he said that English grammar is much simpler than Spanish grammar, and is easier to learn. Mastering irregular verbs is mostly a matter of memorization, and many irregular verbs in Spanish are similar to one another. If you learn how to conjugate a certain set of irregular Spanish verbs, chances are that you have also learned the conjugation for many more with similar endings.

SLA Bike Week!

Samuel Sirochman — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:52:15 -0400

SLA BIKE WEEK!

If you plan on participating fill out this form.

Hello everyone! This is Sam Sirochman, I am hosting SLA Bike Week, it will be happening from May 21st -

May 25th. It is my Senior Capstone and I am doing this to promote a healthier and happier community at SLA. My goal is for everyone to ride their bikes to school, although that may be unlikely, I would like for as many people to ride to school as possible.

Why should you ride? Well because exercising in the morning is a great way to lose weight, increase brain function, and increases overall happiness. Now if you are planning to ride in the mornings, I highly suggest that you take a look at the Preferred Commuter Routes. I must also ask that if you plan on riding, please wear a helmet! We at SLA, are all very bright people and I would hate for any of us to fall and get seriously injured.

Now the best part, if you plan on riding and are interested in getting a PhillyLove’sBikes Sticker. Let me know and I can save you one. (I’ve got 250, they will go fast!) Finally, the SLA Bike Week Raffle, we will be raffling a $50 Modell’s Gift Card. Everyday you ride your name will be entered in the Raffle. You ride once, you have one chance. If you ride everyday, your name will be entered 5 times. There will be a spreadsheet by the bicycle rack, you must write your name and bike model, I will put a check for everyday you ride.

Please remember to use the Bike Rack!

Thank you for your time, I hope to see you all riding!

Read up on some safety guidelines!

Blog post #4

Allison Patterson — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:40:18 -0400

This week I spoke with a guy who lives in Spain in an effort to compare the violence and criminal activities between a first world country and second or third world countries. I found out that the government has made drugs illegal in Spain so, most people stay away from them. This is similar to the way the America government has dealt with drugs. As far as the idea that Spanish speaking countries are highly dangerous and full of drugs, Spain seems to be the odd one out. I tried talking to my partner about why this is but he went offline. However, I believe that Spain is different because it has other European culture to influence it's decision. In other Spanish speaking countries most of the countries around have drug or violence problems so there is no positive influence. For my final post I want to speak to some one from Brazil or another large Spanish speaking country.

Ybrownlee Blog post 3

Yasmeen Brownlee — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:45:11 -0400

This blog post is a bit short since i was not able to talk to my person after it disconnected. But my goal fo this week was to find out how to ask about college and what someone wanted to do in their future it turned out quite well and i learned a bunch of new stuff. (It won't let me upload a screenshot just yet though..)

SLA Students in the Art in the Open Festival!!

Josh Block — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:03:30 -0400

For the fourth year in a row SLA students are collaborating with the Leah Stein Dance Company to create site specific performance pieces. The pieces are part of the Art in the Open Festival and will be performed on Friday, May 18th between 1:00-3:00. All performance sites are within four blocks of the school. As always, the process has been stunning to watch...

Click here for a printable performance schedule. (This will also be at the front door of the school on May 18th.)

Enormous thanks to all our collaborators and for all of the wonderful collaborative energy everyone is bring to the project!

Hidden City Festival 2009

AiO Publicity Video (can you spot the SLA student?)

Blog #4

Chelsea Smith — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:41:48 -0400

Who you spoke with and why you chose that partner
I spoke with Looghan de Rubens from Mexico.
What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
While talking to this guy he spoke in english to help practice his english. He also told me a little bit about himself, for example he worked in an office.
How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goals?
In general my goal was to enhance my spanish and be able to hold a conversation with someone. The more I chat with these people the closer I think I am to this goal.
What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations? What specifically to you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)
Something I have done well that I continue to do is keep a conversation going as well as being able to interact more with the person I am having a conversation with. I had more with this person but something happened with my computer and I lost the other conversation me and this person had, but I uploaded everything that I do have.

Court

Marcie Hull — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:48:41 -0400

Bloggy Thingy

Sergey Kuznetsov — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:28:14 -0400

· Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

I talked to a Charles in my conversation, and obviously I chose him because he responded.

· What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

I learned that he loves anime, and speaks English pretty darn well.

· How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

He is the first one to correct me, so it helped me in more then one way!

· What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
Since my goal was to learn about him and life there, I’d say that this Dominican republic guy was pretty helpful!

La Conversation Numero Cuatro

Symone Smith — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:28:02 -0400

Goal: Share my opinions and experiences (Talking about things we have in common)

Las Preguntas

¿Música esta importante en tu vida? ¿Por que?

¿Qué typo de música te gusta?

¿Comó estas presentar bailar?

¿Solamente tu te gusta bailar en tu familia?

Transcript:

Yo:Hola chica! Que pasa?

Ella-Hola.nada,escuchando música y tu?

Yo-Yo también! Yp escuchando a Justin Bieber para el momento.jaja.¿Música esta importante en tu vida?

Ella-si musica es importante en mi vida

Yo-¿Por que?

Ella-La música es importante para mí porque me ayuda cuando estoy molesto, feliz, cansado, excitado. No importa lo que yo estoy en el estado de ánimo que puede encontrar una canción para que coincidan. Yo crecí con la música tocando el piano, la guitarra y el violín. Es lo que me mantiene viva del tipo.

Yo-yo ve,yo ve.M siento también…la música ayuda me relajarse,concentrado,y hace feliz.A veces música describe comó me humor mejor de me.

Ella-claro que si.

Yo-Esta bien.Me gusta R&B y pop.¿Qué typo de música te gusta?

Ella-todos.

yo-esta bien. Qué es tu favorita?

Ella-R&B

Yo-si si…con todos la música a escucha,te gusta bailar?

Ella-Si te gusta.

Yo-Yo también!! ¿Comó estas presentar bailar?

Ella-Yo bailo ballet y danza moderna. Cada canción me hace bailar de otra manera. Depende del ritmo y el humor de la canción.

Yo-¿llevas clases de baila?

Ella-No. Yo me enseñan a partir de vídeos y viendo Dancing With The Stars.

Yo-Jaja yo también! Yo bailo desde que pequeño pero yo no llevo un clase.Me gusta veo vídeos de baila en Youtube y intento aprendo la coreografía.

Ella-si si yo también!

Yo-jaja.Mi padre baila tambien...yo obtengo mi habilidades desde el.¿Solamente tu te gusta bailar en tu familia?

Ella-Un poco más. Mi papá baila para ser gracioso. Pero desde que mi mamá es de Puerto Rico baila salsa cada vez que tenemos los partidos con la familia.

Yo-Muy Bien!

Reflection:

For this conversation I continued talking to Brianna Perrin. I like talking to her because I feel more comfortable.In this conversation we talked about something that interest both her and me, music and dance. I feel like this conversation is actually a conversation we would have as friends, it seemed more realistic and not like an interview. I think I am making progress with making my conversation more casual. This is helpful because if I'm talking to someone in spanish its not just going to be question and answer. I noticed that my transitions and conjugations are getting better. I still do need to improve on getting my point across with my questions,make them more specific.

Proyecto de Conversación: Our Favorites

Annisa Ahmed — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:22:06 -0400

Annisa Ahmed
Español lll, D Band
Conversation Project: Week Four

Antes de Conversación:
What will your topic of conversation be?
    Trying to find out what people enjoy doing as well as how can we find similarities within.
What are you looking forward to about this conversation?
    I am looking forward to talking to a person on a more personal level than I have ever dared to go before.
What are your nervous about?
    I am a tad bit nervous about how I will write down my own key highlights, and responding to theirs. I don't want to take very long or make them feel reluctant to share. Wish me luck.

Después de Conversación:
Who did you speak with and why did you choose them?
     All of them find me, as did Majela Alvarez Rivera. She was around my age and I figured it would be easier to find some things that we might have in common - teenagers are pretty much the same.
What did you learn about them?
    Majela likes basketball, swimming as well as music. And she likes a long list of genres.
How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your goal?
    I got a long list of answers, from things she likes to do to the number of siblings she has. So yes, I would consider this to be a success.
What did you do well according to your goals?
    Yeah, I sidetracked a bit but for the most part, it was a great conversation.
What specifically do you need to improve on?
    I should try to not use WordReference too much for words I don't understand and just go with what I know because it will be better practice and also, less relying of me.

Msanders Blogpost 5

Michael Sanders — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:55:29 -0400

Before

• What will be your topic of conversation be?

Drinking.

• What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

- Do you drink?

- Whats the drinking age?

- Where are the partys at?

- If so where do you go?

- If not then what bad stuff you do.?

• What are you looking forward to about this conversation?

I don't know if this was personal but I asked about drinking in Mexico. Obviously I talked to someone who was underage and she said never in her live did she drink.

• What are you nervous about?

I'm nervous that I might mess up and she will Yell at me and say I can't speak spanish correctly. I had no confidence.

After:

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

I talked to Nohemi from Mexico She was 17 from Mexico.

• What did you learn about them?

The drinking age in Mexico is 18. Thats different from the 21 drinking age in America. I also learned that in Mexico there are a lot of partis at the beach. Its different from regular teen parties. In mexico its more tradition with music parties.

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

Nohei was a very nice girl. She was my age and understand what I was going through because just last year she felt the same about english. Also she said that she was ok with the topic which was fine by me.

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?

I learned about drinking in Mexico. I also learned that Nohemi is a good little girl who never does anything wrong. She said she never had one sip of alcohol in her life. Not that she was suppose to but most teens usually have at least 1 sip in their teenage years.

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)

I want to improve on talking like a regular spanish person and not like I'm some 5 year old trying to learn the language. I want words to come natural to me instead of looking them up.

Blog #4

Pauline Garcia — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:50:58 -0400

Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
I spoke to Jonathan Flores, he's from Spain. I didn't chose him chose him. He asked to have a private conversation. Then I thought, why not?
What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
I learned that he loves rock and romantic musics, but he hates rap music because he think it's ugly. He's 23 years old and he's a student in college majoring in English because he said he wanted to be a teacher in the future :)
How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
To be honest, I always tend to talk about other things that what I planned to do. I think this is because we're both just going on with the flow of the conversation. But dont get me wrong though, we still talk to each other well and have a good conversation. We might have some awkward silence for a while but we both regain back our cheerful self.
What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
I did well on speaking and actually not being awkward and getting along well with him. I didn't have the awkward pace were I'm trying to see what I can say.
What specifically do you need to improve on?
Probably more topics to talk about.

I would have more pictures but I didn't know that when I shut my laptop, the conversation will end and close as well. Lo siento.

blog post #4

Daniel Wirt — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:50:40 -0400

Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
I spoke with Alice, and i spoke with her for a few reasons. For one i hadn't spoken to a girl native speaker yet and wanted to see if there was a similarity in different genders. She was also 18, so she was the youngest person i had talken to as of yet.
What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
I learned that she is from Mexico and she is chosing to learn english because she wants to come to the US to take up college education. She also wants to learn medication which is cool because i too want to take that up in college.
How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
Well it helped me to see that learning different languages are helpful for future education and depending on the field you go in, it could be necessary.

What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
I was able to improve on my vocabulary and see what the younger people want from learning different languages.
What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)
Work a little more on conjugations.

¿Comó son las vidas de personas en otras países?

Sabrina Stewart-McDonald — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:47:59 -0400

I spoke with an 18 year old boy from Mexico named Miguel. He had invited me to talk on Sharedtalk. I learned that he loves architecture, wants to visit New York and also loves Dragon Ball GT. He was very friendly and extremely enthusiastic; using a lot of smileys and talking avidly. He also wanted to prove that, unlike the movies, Mexicans do not wear festive looking sombreros and not everyone sells drugs. I learned that his city has a huge cathedral and is very quiet.
At first it was difficult to get him to speak in complete Spanish; he loved to speak in Spanglish and I actually had to ask him if we could set aside about 10 minutes so I could ask him a few questions. I had to remind him again to speak in Spanish after my first question.

JHinton - Blog Post #4

Jessica Hinton — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:45:00 -0400

For this blog post, I spoke with someone named Santiago, from Colombia. I actually enjoyed speaking to him. I felt really comfortable speaking with him, so I think that's why my Spanish was much better. We spoke a little bit about school, and then we spent time speaking about the culture in Colombia.

Conversation Fail

Aja Wallace — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:33:49 -0400

Human Trafficking Blog Post #2(UnCompleted)

Sabian Rosales — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:32:58 -0400

Human Trafficking, a story that never ends…

Why does this continue? Will this ever end? Why does this happen? Is it for greed or do the Traffickers do this to feel superior? What are the reasons behind this? Is there a way to stop this?

Human Trafficking is not just making people work in farms, orchards and factories; Human Trafficking puts women and children into prostitution. These people are sold into sex trafficking and their scared because they know that the place that they are being taken to is not going to make them happy.

These children, women and men who become Victims are forced to work and are tortured if they slow down. They are even raped and treated like trash.

Human and Sex Trafficking is an underground trade. What I mean by that is that the underground is like a black market, it’s all done in secrecy. I found out that women that are aggressive towards their Captors are treated work while does their “work”. There is an interesting Blog Post I found that talks about not just women in Sex and Human Trafficking but men too. The comments show what people think about Human and Sex Trafficking.

Henninger Conversation, Post 4

Sophia Henninger — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:23:34 -0400

Before

• What will be your topic of conversation be?

La tomitina y San fermines.

• What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

- Do you know what La tomitina is?

- Do you know what San fermines is?

- Have you ever been to either of them?

- What kind of people go?

- What is the atmosphere of the event?

• What are you looking forward to about this conversation?

I'm looking forward to learning about these events from a local. It will be interesting because from what I know these are mostly tourists events.

• What are you nervous about?

I'm nervous about finding someone who has attended these events or even knows what they are.

After:

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

I spoke to Antonio, 19, from Spain. I didn't choose to talk to him. He started a conversation and it worked out.

• What did you learn about them?

I learned that he is a student and he knows of these events but has never attended. He wants to go but he can't afford it.

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

It helped me because I learned about these events and Antonio also helped me with my grammar a little bit. It helped become a better spanish speaker in general.

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?

I learned about la tomitina and san fermines.

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)

I should make sure I check my grammar before I send a message. I continue to make simple and silly mistakes.

MPyfrom- El Proyecto de Conversacíon (Parte Cuatro)

Marina Pyfrom — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:13:53 -0400

This week I took the challenge of having a conversation about comparing different cultures. I chose to have this conversation with my friend Prisilla. I asked for her opinons about culture in America and how it is different from other countries. To prepare for this conversation I made pre-made questions so I be ready to start the conversation appropriately. Soon after I let the conversation kind of go in its on direction. This was a very fun and useful conversation. I also learned a lot about Prisilla and her families' traditions.

CSheridan;BlogPost #5

Cyndilynn Sheridan — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:39:02 -0400

Blog Post 4-Education System in PR

Arlana Brown — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:38:38 -0400

I wanted to know about Education system in Puerto Rico and how it differs from the United States. I had someone to talk to but when I started to talk to them they seemed uncomfortable and quickly ended our conversation. But this is what I found out....

The education system has 3 main levels Primary(elementary school),Secondary(intermediate and high school) and higher levels.Primary is grades 1-6 and High School is 7-12. The constitution of Puerto Rico is set up that everyone has the right to learn on the island and public without cost.The largest in Puerto Rico private college system is Sistema Universitario Ana G. Mendez which is in control of the Metropolitan University.

Carter conversation 4

Bethany Carter — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:24:02 -0400

This time my mom and me talked about when we went hiking in Guatemala.

Blog Post #4

Vincent Russell — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:36:00 -0400

Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

I spoke with Melina in this conversation. I've talked with her before and decided to use this one.
What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

She has a cat, and she calls it dog. And her family calls it other names, so it must be a very confused cat.
How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

It worked out good, my goal was to talk about sports but this helped a bit. And was interesting.
What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?

My goal was to talk about sports but I forgot I asked her that already. But my expectations were met because it was interesting an I used a bit of spanish I don't normally use.
What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)rc

I need to improve on constantly speaking spanish, this was one of the few times I didn't. But I decided to use this anyway.

La habitacion De Candance en Phineas and ferb!

Khadijah Fofana — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:42:21 -0400

1)Tiene un cama

2) Hay un espojo

3) Hay una chica loca a veces

4) Hay una silla

5) Hay una manta

6) Hay una ventana

Blogpost 4- Breaking up

Amanda Millatt — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:35:59 -0400

Since last week I talked about marriage in Spain, now I will explore breakups. It was difficult explaining to people my topic because they all thought that I was asking them for a relationship. I did find two willing participants, one was Sandra maria from Columbia and Pablo from Chile. From these conversations I learned that men say in Chile "Terminamos porque no quiero hacerte" which means We are finished because I don't want to hurt you. Another phrase that men say is "Quiero terminar contigo porque ahora te quiero como amiga", which means I want to terminate with you because right now i want to be friends. For women they say "Terminamos porque no quiero mas engaños" which means we are breaking up because you lie a lot. I thought the differences in reasons were interesting or perhaps Pablo experiences this a lot.

I also learned that people typically date a lot before getting married. Also to get divorced it is very expensive, but it is not difficult to get one. If you want to know about Pablo or Sandra or even see what eles they said the conversation is below. Muchos Gracias!