Updates and Catch Ups

I've fallen a bit behind on blogging, so I'm going to rather briefly update you on many different exciting events that have happened over the last few weeks.

First of all, I never congratulated our Boys High School on capturing the FYOS Debate Tournament Title for the first time.  Both the Boys' teams and the Girls' teams were outstanding throughout the tournament, with the final match - which pitted Zahava Gersten and Racheli Tsuna against Jeremy and Dylan Cooper - decided by the closest of margins.  Jeremy and Dylan's Negative case was just a hair stronger than Zahava and Racheli's Affirmative case (which was a plan for mining Helium 3 on the moon for the purposes of replacing nuclear fission with nuclear fusion thereby eliminating the dangers of nuclear energy and helping to solve our energy crisis) and Jeremy and Dylan walked away with 1st place team honors.  2nd place team went to Zahava and Racheli, while 3rd place honors went to team Ethan Cooper and Yaakov Kaplan.  In the speaker award category, first place went to Zahava Gersten, Jeremy Cooper took second, and debate newcomer Sade Cooper took third place.  Congratulations to them all!




In addition to being recognized internally for his debating prowess, Jeremy Cooper was also recently recognized by Princeton University's Princeton Prize in Race Relations with a certificate of accomplishment for his work as president of Bridge Builders Memphis.

Congratulations is also in order for all of our 8th grade advancees who shined brighter than ever at their Advancement Ceremony last week.  Presenting research they did on their own family's history, under the guidance of Mrs. Shelley Kutliroff, each student spoke eloquently and inspirationally, about where they have come from and the lessons they have inherited from previous generations.




A few days ago, I posted about the adorable ECE presentations at our Ice Cream Bash.  Since then, Dr. Joel Siegel has been kind enough to forward me links to the videos he took of their performance.  Here they are for you to enjoy:


Prek-3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lrGrnfZdxw&feature=relmfu
Prek-4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03PDRwnGoVI
Kindergarten: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZDjEZgLRlw&feature=relmfu

And, lastly, I promised to post pictures of our Kindergarteners from their wonderful graduation ceremony this past Sunday.  They too did a terrific job and we can't wait to see what is in store for them as they enter 1st grade!