David O'Halloran, Headmaster - Saint David's School, New York City

  Saint David's faculty at the IBSC Conference in Dallas, Texas (June 2022). Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn. —Geoffrey Mills, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher The most effective teaching incorporates art, craft, and science. Traditionally, the profession’s strength has rested in the art and craft areas. Art speaks to teachers using their own passions, talents, and creativity when teaching. Craft refers to the skill sets teachers exhibit, often gained through experience. The science of teaching leverages strategies that well-designed research studies indicate are most effective in eliciting desired outcomes in students. It is data driven, both quantitative and qualitative. By incorporating the scie...

  “Accept and trust in yourself. Focus on your interests. Those interests will connect you to everything."    These inspiring words were delivered during a master class given last Thursday in our theatre to our eighth grade boys by legendary artist Jeff Koons, the featured speaker at the Frederic (Eric) Wu ’14 Alumni Parents Council Lectures. The event, which also included the boys' parents and alumni parents in attendance, focused on Koons' philosophy about art.   Koons led us on a fascinating tour of his works: from his early inflatables and gazing balls to the iconic creations like "Balloon Dog" and the commemorative "Bouquet of Tulips" metal sculpture, erected in the wake of terrorist attacks in France in 2015.    His art, which by turn references the classical art of Greece as well as popular culture, calls upon the viewer to reflect —sometimes literally, as in his mirrored gazing ball sculptures — and to make connections. At Saint David’s, we spea...

“I am speaking today because I want to tell you what Horizons means to me. I remember the memorable times of Horizons like the trips to the Guggenheim, Seeing Spiderman Far From Home , the lunch… These experiences shaped me into the person and student I am today. Joining a community and learning how to give a firm handshake gave me room to build my confidence in talking with others, as you can see. Besides that, Horizons helped me academically. Horizons formed me into a successful high schooler. This year I rowed on the crew team, got a lead in the theater program and continue to perform well academically.  “I’m still in touch with friends I made at Horizons, and some are even at Fordham with me. I use the lessons I learned here every day. And will continue to through high school and beyond. The joyful memories and experiences I’ve had at Horizons are priceless and are better than anything I could’ve possibly imagined."--Noah R., Horizons at Saint David's Alumnus .   Noah, who...

Earlier this week, Saint David's warmly welcomed back alumnus Tommy Robertshaw '10 to deliver a Chapel Talk at one of Saint David's special traditions, the Mother-Son Chapel. The annual Chapel gathers our fifth grade boys and their mothers or mother figures for a special, shared experience; a Chapel Talk by a young alumnus who reflects upon the role his mother has played in his life.  Eloquently connecting his love for his mother with his affection for his elementary school, Tommy's words moved and inspired us all. I would like to share them, below:  One of my very early memories is from Kindergarten, making gold and red streamers out of construction paper in the back yard—right out there—for the school’s Golden Jubilee–its 50th birthday. Now the school is 72 and I’m 26. But this room is exactly the same.  And so is this: All that we can be, all that we will be, all we are began in thee. O alma mater, fostering parent, hail to thee Saint David’s School.  Can anyone t...

There is nothing like that special connection between a boy and his musical instrument, and the collaboration involved in listening and responding to fellow musicians. Each individual contributes his own unique piece to the more complex and complete whole. This morning, our Philharmonic Ensemble performed in our theatre, together for the first time since the pandemic began.    Through most of this school year, the boys were restricted by Covid protocols to rehearsing just with members in their own grade. Recently, we were able to bring all our Ensemble musicians, who span Grades Four through Eight, together for a series of rehearsals. The boys were thrilled to be able to play with and off each other as an orchestra, with our esteemed Ensemble Director Philip Hough leading them through St. Anthony Choral (Joseph Haydn), Cielito Lindo (Traditional Mexican Folk Song) and Brandeburg Concerto No. 3, 1st movement (Johann Sebastian Bach) - much to the delight of their parents and ...

The recent Dinosaur Show presented by our Omega class, our third graders' "Three Fractured Fairy Tales"  and the sixth graders' Digital Universe space shows were far more than "entertaining shows" (although that they most definitely were). More importantly, these productions exhibited performances of understanding, built skills and confidence, and empowered the boys. Our young Omega paleontologists revealed their knowledge of the dinosaur facts they discovered during their exploratory, interdisciplinary unit about the prehistoric animals. They entertained with dinosaur jokes: What do you call a dinosaur ghost? A scare-a-dactal !, and they danced and sang their hearts out. In "Three Fractured Fairy Tales" the third graders revealed the truth behind fairy tales we all think we know so well: Jack and the Beanstalk, The Big Bad Wolf and Three Little Pigs . The boys collaborated to cast, block, and create set pieces for the production, and assumed all...

The notion of what it means to be a good man is at the heart of the mission of Saint David's School. This Seventh Grade Father/Son Dinner is an annual special event in which fathers or father figures, and sons explore what it means to be a good man, the relationship between parent and son, and other mission-inspired themes. We were thrilled to have fathers, sons, grandparents, brothers or other paternal influences in the lives of our boys at table together last week for this signature event--the first time we could hold it in person in the last two years. This year's featured guest speaker, Kevin M. Callahan, wrote  Brothers in Arms: Remembering Brothers Buried Side by Side in American World War II Cemeteries . Callahan's book centers on the stories of brothers who died fighting for freedom during the Second World War. After graduating from Yale University, Mr. Callahan had visited the American cemetery at Normandy and was taken by both the beauty of the grounds...