From writing newsletters to discovering the history of NYC, all of our students have been hard at work! Check out a few of the highlights happening at here in our Speyer News Round-Up!
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Spotted on Zoom: That's best-selling author Veera Hiranandani visiting with Speyer fifth graders to talk about the summer book they read: The Night Diary. The Night Diary received many awards including the 2019 Newbery Honor Award, the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award, and the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature.
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Over the summer, Speyer students had to contend with a global pandemic, leading to the cancellation of nearly all plans (no camp, limited travel, not able to see relatives). We challenged the oldest students, our eighth graders, to think about how they might respond to this sudden gift of time. Read on to see how the Class of 2021 tackled their summer assignment, taking the oft-asked essay question "What did you do on your summer vacation?" to a whole new level.
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Though this year is unlike one we have seen, Speyer kicked off the first week of school, and whether we were on the Boulevard or at home, we all were Speyer Safe and Dragon Strong!
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The Speyer Legacy School is thrilled to share that we have hired our next Head of Lower School, Dr. Heather Pinedo-Burns! In the words of Head of School Larry Donovan: “Heather’s experience and expertise and her many positive personal qualities make her the best fit for Speyer.” Dr. Pinedo-Burns is currently the Director of the Hollingworth Preschool at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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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?.
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What do you do on YOUR weekends? Our Speyer Chess Team tends to spend their “off days” on their way to checkmates and championships! Recently, Dragon Chess trekked to the Greater New York City Scholastic Chess Championship Tournament and the United States Amateur Team East Championship, bringing home the City Championship team title for the K-6 division and First Place Middle School Team! We’ve got all of the details here!
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Saving and investing, long-term budgeting and financial planning, debt management, environmental stability…all of these topics (and more) were tackled last week when the folks from PricewaterhouseCoopers took over the Boulevard and Middle School classrooms to work with Speyer's students for the second session of this year's Financial Literacy curriculum. Moving beyond the "what" to the "how," each grade explored a different financial concept.
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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!
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Slide 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.)
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Forget 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!
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Our 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!
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It’s only fitting that during the season of joy last December, Speyer Chess brought home much for us to be joyful about! Yes, Speyer Chess trekked to the K-12 US Chess National Championships and brought home TWO National Championship team titles for Kindergarten and 4th Grade! In fact, all Speyer Chess teams ended in top 10 for each division! We had many individual awards as well, including Lucas Y., who came in first place and is the National Champion for Kindergarten! Read on to hear all about the fantastic teamwork and passion of Speyer Chess!
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The 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!
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Who gets to tell the historical story…and why? What does it mean to “discover” land where people already existed and thrived? What are the consequences of essential omissions from historical texts? These were the questions that our fourth graders have been asking during their latest Humanities unit, tackling the big themes of perspective, discovery, and exploration as they studied of Christopher Columbus and the Taino people of the Caribbean. In their “Columbinating Event,” the students showcased what they learned in Humanities, Art, Writing, Science, Spanish, and more, highlighting one of the hallmarks of Speyer’s curriculum: interdisciplinary units of study.
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We 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!
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As 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.
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We 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!
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Talk 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.
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Once 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!
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