Words are powerful tools, but right now, they’ve been more difficult to utilize. Sometimes we just don’t have the words to convey what we are feeling, how we are doing, or just the world at this moment. However, something pretty amazing happened (virtually) at Speyer on Friday that gave us a restored hope in finding words to help us cope with what was happening. Speyer’s eighth graders held (perhaps the first-ever) 8th Grade Zoom Poetry Recitals During COVID-19 Social Distancing. They were the culmination of their Distance Learning poetry unit, during which they tackled three key questions: Is it a poem? Why did she write it? and, Is it any good?.
Read MoreSlide aside the salad bar, it is time for “The Scottish Play”! Yes, for the third year, Speyer’s Dining Hall became the stage for our eighth graders to present their own unique take on the Bard's famous tragedy. The third annual performance was a direct result of their exploration of the themes in the play as they immersed in the study of Mac**** aka “The Scottish Play”. (There is, as you may know, a theatrical tradition of bad luck associated with saying the name out loud and… well, read on to see if it’s true.)
Read MoreThe end of December was event-full – full of culminating events! Both our second and third graders presented their work to family and friends, with each event encompassing months of cross-curricular work and interdisciplinary units of study. We have a full round-up of the second grade’s Literary Lalapalooza and the third grade’s “From Colonies to Country” events!
Read MoreThey are about to graduate, but that didn’t deter them from one final culminating event. In a project that truly pulled together all they had learned in the nine years they were here at Speyer, our eighth graders studied Advocacy as their last Humanities unit. Humanities teacher and Deputy Head of School Mr. Deards challenged them to start an analysis of another person’s plight, first by asking, “Do I understand what it is to live his or her life?” He has more on this amazing final culminating event!
Read MoreWith mere days left in the school year, it’s been only what can be called a Culminating Event-a-palooza, with concerts, presentations, and more as many of our students welcomed their families, our faculty, and other guests as they shared months and months of work, learning, and creating! We’ve got the full round-up for you!
Read MoreJust call them Ishmael! Our sixth graders had an amazing experience as they embarked on their three-day trek to Cape Cod! It was a fabulous adventure to explore whaling — the unit of study they have been exploring in Humanities and Science — in a hands-on, tangible way.
Read MoreThe motto in the Dining Hall was “Move over the dumplings and make way for Macbeth,” as it became a stage for Speyer eighth graders to presented their own unique take on the Bard's famous tragedy. The second annual performance was a direct result of their exploration of the themes in the play and their weeks-long in-depth analysis of the text. In their presentation, they depicted a trial of Macbeth, with speeches from attorneys and excerpts of the play and the eigth graders' writing exercises — all to present various arguments to the audience, who was serving as the jury. With more explanation of the process and the extraordinary path from the first lines of text the students studied to their final bows, we have a guest View writer: eighth grade Humanities teacher and Deputy Head of School Mr. Deards!
Read More