Did you know Dragons are excellent at math – at least Speyer Dragon Math-letes are! Case in point: the recent victories at MATHCOUNTS Manhattan! Yes, Speyer’s Math Team competed against a huge field of public and independent schools and came in third overall, first among all independent schools and is headed to states!
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 MoreForget dusting or vacuuming…Speyer Debaters know how to SWEEP! Speyer teams took the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place spots at last weekend’s NYPL tournament at The Hackley School while also bringing home the Top Speaker's gavel and the Overall School Award (and did this while debating in front of guest judge former World Chess Champion and political activist Garry Kasparov)! In fact, Speyer snagged 8 out of the top 10 speaker spots! We have this wonderful Debate recap by our esteemed Debate Coach Mr. Glasser!
Read MoreOur very first weekend back at school, the Speyer debate team jumped right back into competition by heading north to attend a tournament at WHEELS in Washington Heights. They tackled the extremely weighty subjects of: Ban the Private Ownership of Firearms; Public Colleges and Universities Should be Free; and Parents Should Have the Right to Use Corporal Punishment at Home. Speyer Debate Coach Mr. Glasser has all of the details!
Read MoreWe have two words to describe our Dragon Debate so far: Perfect season! Yes, our Dragon debaters have been quite busy these past two months, competing at various tournaments where they have clinched first place overall in each of them! Click to read all of the details from our intrepid Debate Coach Mr. Glasser, including news about our own Speyer-hosted tournament!
Read MoreAs journalist Heywood Broun famously wrote, “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.” Throughout the fall season, our Dragon student-athletes revealed time and time again what they are made of: determination, resilience, and optimism. Recently, our Girls Volleyball, 5/6 Soccer, and 7/8 Soccer teams all played their final games to wrap up their seasons.
Read MoreWe all know NYC is amazing, yet our city is more than just the metropolis in which we live – it’s also an extension of Speyer’s classrooms. One could say it’s been a field-trip-palooza these past few weeks, with treks to Central Park, Brooklyn, museums, and more!
Read MoreTalk of advertising claims, the impact of geopolitical issues on the economy, and wage estimates floated through the Boulevard as the Middle Schoolers welcomed professionals from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) during the first of their three visits to Speyer, as part of our financial literacy curriculum. Each grade explored various financial topics that not only awaken students to issues of importance in the financial world but are doing so in a way that is open-ended, allowing students to push deeply into topics that are timely, edgy, and do not have clear answers.
Read MoreOnce again, Dragon Debate kicked off the 2019-2020 season wowing the competition. Last weekend’s event was by far the largest season opening event in the Urban Debate League, with almost 400 students from 36 schools in two states in attendance! With an undefeated record, Speyer’s team of Zach V., Mikeala G., and Nathan G. won the tournament!
Read MoreIt was once again time to kick off Speyer’s Financial Literacy Program, with members of the eighth grade officially “handing off” the responsibility for management of Speyer’s Financial Literacy Fund Portfolio to a very eager seventh grade. Watching the events of the morning, one could say the seventh graders are very invested in this aspect of their curriculum...c’mon, we had to go there!
Read MoreSpeyer’s Middle School took a break from its usual Friday schedule and held the Third Annual Academic Bootcamp. The day-long “bootcamp” allowed our Middle Schoolers to become oriented with the various technology tools they will use over the course of the year, discuss key executive functioning skills, and foster a sense of community.
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 MoreThis year's Middle School Financial Literacy curriculum recently wrapped for the year with some pretty nifty events: the final visit by professionals from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); a seventh grade field trip to Goldman Sachs; and the upcoming eighth grade vote on their class gift to Speyer!
Read MoreUsing our amazing city and all it has to offer as an extension of the classroom, Speyer fifth graders went to the theater last week, taking in a performance of the hit Broadway show Hadestown in connection to their unit of study on ancient Greece.
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 MoreMargaret Atwood noted, “A word after a word after a word is power.” Some Speyer eighth graders were honored for their power on the page, earning top recognition at the 2019 NYC Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!
Read MoreSpotted on the Boulevard: lockers covered with Post-it notes. A curious sight, for sure...so what’s the story here? We think it had something to do with our sixth grade’s latest literary studies of the YA novel Posted and the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. To find out the scoop, we went to Middle School Learning Specialist Ms. Goldstein!
Read MoreSpring is here! Birds are chirping, flower buds are blooming…and Speyer Math-letes are emerging as champions once again! We have a full round-up of the latest math competitions where Speyer’s MATHCOUNTS team and our Girls Adventures in Math (GAiM) teams amazed us and other teams from around the city and state!
Read MoreSpotted in the library: two – count’em – two wonderful authors talking about their craft to Speyer students! Yes, Speyer welcomed authors Gordon Korman and Stephanie Calmanson as part of a large overview to discuss the writing process and the life of a writer with multiple grades! Click to read how they in-Speyered our students!
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