Focus on a Teacher: Sean Leber

By Evan Spann

Sean is a teacher at Project Learn School (PLS), he teaches math to the fifth grade through Jr. High groups. This is not his first teaching job, he has also taught at two high schools: Olney and Nueva Esperanza.

Sean found out about PLS from his brother-in-law Ari Miller, who used to go to PLS and told Sean about it. Sean was born in 1984, he is 29 years old. Sean is married to Kelilah and she is a rabbi at two colleges; Swarthmore College in (PA) and Stockton College (NJ).

Sean Leber, PLS teacher

Sean loves PLS because it lets students follow and learn about their own ideas.  

Focus on a Student: Ma'ayani Kaplan

By Fae Lobron

    Ma’ayani is twelve, and she is in seventh grade at Project Learn School (PLS). She is super funny and great friend.

Ma'ayani in the Jr High

    An interesting fact about Ma’ayani is she lived in Israel until she was seven and then she and her family moved to America. Her dad, Avi, was born in Israel and met her mom, Tresa, at the University of Michigan. They moved to Israel together, got married and had Elya and Ma’ayani. Ma’ayani says changing countries was a big move for her because she had to leave her friends, family and school.

    In Israel, Ma'ayani went to the Democratic School which she said was similar to PLS. She says that at that school some of the teachers were more strict than others, that she got to pick out her own schedule, and every Friday her school had an all school meeting to vote on decisions with each student having an equal say.

   At PLS Ma’ayani’s favorite subjects are social studies, science, art, and lunch. For Social Studies Ma’ayani said, “I like learning about places in the world that I normally wouldn’t know about, and learning about different cultures is really cool for me.” For science Ma’ayani said, “I am always amazed by science, because there are so many things our earth does that I can’t wrap my head around.” For art, she said, “I like art class because we get to do so many creative things that are challenging and fun.” Finally for lunch she remarked,” I love lunch because I am always really hungry, but also because it is a chance for all the Junior Highers to interact with each other and just hang out together.” One of the reasons Ma’ayani likes PLS is that she likes the fact that each student gets individual attention. Ma’ayani says that PLS and her old school are alike but so different at the same time.    

Some of Ma'ayani's hobbies, besides hanging out with friends, are dancing and singing. Ma'ayani loves to dance because she says it makes her happy. Modern, ballet, and jazz are her favorite types of dance and the ones she takes most seriously. She has five classes each week to learn more about those dance styles. She also loves to sing with friends for fun. Ma'ayani is a great, smart girl who like to dance, sing and hang out with her friends.  

  

Focus on a Student: Shayla Allen-Gerald

By Sophie Gala

Shayla in Aubrey's Group

Did you know that there only two girls in Aubrey’s group? Shayla Allen-Gerald is a third grader in Aubrey's group and is in her third year at Project Learn School (PLS). She has two siblings, Jessica and Emma Allen-Gerald  of whom are both older. Her family found PLS by coincidence when her mom LaCresha was looking for a school on the internet, for Shayla to attend after The Caren Center where she went to Pre-K and part of kindergarten.

    Shayla’s favorite subject at PLS is art because of how you can look back on what you made when you get older to see the progress you made over the years. Shayla likes to read and her favorite book is “Amelia Rules” because it is written in the point of view of the main character Amelia.

    Shayla and her mom  live on Provident Street in Philadelphia and it takes her about six or seven minutes to get to school in the morning. Shayla was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She and her family own two guinea pigs and her hobby is making Rainbow Loom Bracelets.

Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars

By Kennedy Alston-Lucky

The Fault In Our Stars is a book by the author John Green. John Green is a thirty six year-old young-adult author whose works include: An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska and many others. John Michael Green was born August 24,1977. He is an American author, a Youtube blogger, and an educator. He won the 2006 Printz Award with his book Looking for Alaska. In 2012 The Fault In Our Stars became number one on The New York Times Best Sellers List.

The Fault In Our Stars is about two teenagers trying to get through life while dealing with cancer. Hazel Grace Lancaster, the main character, is a sixteen year-old girl with stage IV cancer. Hazel Grace is what you call a “couch potato”, She never goes out as it concerns her mother.  After a while her doctor diagnosed her with depression making her go to a support group. Hazel is not to fond of the idea and find it boring and pointless. Except for her acquaintance ,Isaac, who's been going through trouble of his own. That is until one day she finds a new member in her support group, a teenage boy shamelessly staring at her. This boy’s name is Augustus Waters,a friend of Isaacs. Hazel and Augustus become close friends over time, going from place to place and facing tragedies along the way.

    The Fault In Our Stars is a zany and hilarious book that will make you cry, laugh and everything in between. The book is highly recommended for any young adult and older.

Focus on a Family:The Pollack-Johnson's

By Jamie Polson

Linda, Jamie, and Bruce Pollack-Johnson

Project Learn School ( PLS) has lots of family members who live all over Philly. Bruce and Linda Pollack-Johnson are two members who live in East Mt. Airy. They are the parents of this reporter and have been in the PLS community for 17 years.  How they first heard about this magical school, was from their neighbor Danny Miller ( who works for NPR), and whose daughter Karin, went to PLS. Bruce and Linda were looking for a place for their oldest son Ben.  Once they saw PLS they knew it was the right place for their family.

     Many parents of PLS students, devote their time to help run the school.  The jobs they do are called Co-oping jobs.  It is necessary for each family to do a co-oping job.  Some of these jobs include, helping in a classroom, taking out the trash, shoveling the front stairs and sidewalk when it snows, and working on a committee, like the Administrative Committee.    

     Bruce is a co-oper on PLAC (Project Learn Administrative Committee)  which is the planning committee for the PLS Town Meeting.  He is also, the current treasurer of PLS. Bruce said that being treasurer is, “stressful for me, but that’s just who I am.”  Bruce loves PLS, that's why he works so hard to make it a better place.  Bruce will not be treasurer next year, because his son will be graduating in June.  Bruce is also a math professor at Villanova University.  He enjoys working at Villanova where he teaches, does research, writes articles for journals and is an advisor for math students at Villanova. Some of Bruce’s hobbies include:  biking, singing with family and friends, tennis,  games such as Boggle, juggling, candlepin bowling, running, and running a coffee house.

    Linda is an Italian translator for written documents, and interpreter for spoken word at CHOP and other area hospitals.  She enjoys sewing, knitting, swimming, biking, arts n’ crafts, cooking, reading, and traveling.  Linda grew up in Roxborough and said “ When I was a kid all my friends lived in Mt. Airy, so when I was old enough to buy a house I moved to Mt. Airy.”  Linda’s co-oping jobs are that she counts the box tops that are collected from the community, and drives kids on field trips.

 Bruce and Linda said, “After 17 years we’ll really miss the Project Learn community because we've known them for so long, they're  like family.  We know that we don’t have to dress up or anything for you guys because you know us well enough.”  Project Learn  will miss Bruce and Linda and it won’t be the same without them.     

   

Book Review: The Giver

By Zack Waxler

    The Giver, a Newbery Award-winning book, by Lois Lowry is fantastic. It is about a futuristic world where the government has taken complete control. Everybody is assigned a job when they reach the age of twelve. Jonas, an 11 (as people of the age of eleven are called) is almost twelve and is very nervous about getting his job. When the ceremony of twelves starts, he gets an unusual job, Receiver. This job has only ever been given to one other person, The Giver. The Giver’s job is now to fill the Receiver’s mind with all the memories of the world so they are not forgotten. Some of the memories Jonas receives are filled with pain such as war, hunger and cold. It is a very hard job because people rarely ever experience pain in this futuristic world.  As soon as they do, they take pain medicine which instantly removes any pain. Jonas has been given this job because he has a unique ability, he can see color. Throughout the rest of the book, you learn how Jonas’s life works, and how scary the world he lives in turns out to be.

    In the series there are four books: The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son. In 1994 The Giver won the Newbery Award. The Giver has sold over 5.3 million copies in total. The movie of The Giver is scheduled to be released on August 15, 2014. 

The Giver series is one of my favorite series. I like the fact that all four of the books tie into each other very nicely. In the first few chapters of each book, you realize the connection to the book preceding it. The Giver is great for anyone who likes books about futuristic worlds. I would not recommend it to anyone below the age of 10, however, because they might not be able to understand parts of it.

Movie Review: Frozen

By Cece Mulcahy

Frozen, the newest animated movie from Disney, is about two sisters, Anna and Elsa who live in Norway. It turns out Elsa has special powers; she can turn anything into ice. Her parents lock her away, to protect everyone else, because she uses her powers on her sister, by mistake.

One day, when the sisters were playing in the throne room, which Elsa had turned into a snowy place, Elsa accidentally zapped Anna on the head instead of making a snow mound. From that point on, all the adventures begin. Ten years later, it’s Elsa’s coronation, and the gates are reopening. Anna only thinks about the guests, while Elsa concentrates on controlling her powers. Anna thinks it’s her chance to find true love, and is tired of being in the castle. During the coronation, Anna meets Hans, and thinks that he’s her true love. After a marriage proposal, Anna and Hans go to get Elsa’s blessings for the marriage, and even though Elsa says no, Anna presses on. Elsa gets angry,  sets off an eternal winter, and  runs off to a high, snowy mountain where she builds a castle of ice.

The thing I enjoyed most in this movie was Anna’s character because I like how she stands up to her sister. If you’re looking for a movie like Brave but still like some aspects from Tangled, both of which are other Disney movies, then this movie is for you. This movie is rated PG, and is appropriate for a young crowd. I would rate it 5✰ out of 5✰.