~21 words~

We had a spelling bee at school yesterday.  22 nervous contestants took to the stage in the elementary school gym to take their turn at reciting aloud the correct spellings of a variety of words.  All of them have been practicing for it since October, and the day had finally arrived to show their skill at orthography.

 As the pronouncer, I had no idea how many words to even think we might go through or how long it might take to find a school champion.  Would it be over in 5 minutes or would we be racing the clock to be finished before our school dismissal time?  If I checked correctly, we needed 30 minutes of actual spell time to find the school champion who ended up being a young man from one of the fourth grade classes.  

 I met with all 22 students involved in the spelling bee shortly before the contest began.  I could tell their nerves were on edge and how anxious they must have felt about it all.  I reminded them that no matter what, I was really proud of them for even attempting to enter the spelling bee in the first place.  21  words would defeat them and in the end, the last person standing would be the winner.  

 I doubt that my Alexis, a fifth grader from our room who ended up in second place, will ever forget how to spell the word "charred".    I know that I never forgot how to spell "haphazardly" from the days of my quest for a state spelling championship back home in Kansas.  Things like that seem to stick with us, you know?  As each contestant left the stage, I had great pride in my heart for them.  No one threw a fit or cried or argued with the judges.  They respectfully acknowledged their misspellings.  I have been at several spelling bees in the past where that was not the case.  

 When it comes to being good sports, Liberty Elementary School students in Ponca City, Oklahoma have scruples.

 I'm not exactly sure why it is that spelling is so important to me, but it truly is.  We live in the day of spell checkers and auto correct.  With text messaging all around us, where people substitute a single letter that is supposed to stand for an entire written word, proper spelling has become a lost art it would seem.  

 Those 22 kids gave it their all yesterday as they conquered their fear in trying something new for the very first time.  21 words might have taken them one by one from the stage, but one thing is for certain.

 They still had plenty of reasons to be p-r-o-u-d.

~the last two standing~

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

As We All Hang on to Hope/Along the Road to Home

Image
The birds were singing in our neighborhood this early February morning.  The resident Northern Cardinal called out from the tops of the trees in our side yard to any and all who would hear it.  The Cedar Waxwing, House Finch, and European Starling joined in the chorus as well.  It was so nice to hear their voices as I stood on the front porch breathing in the fresh air.  It gave me hope that someday soon all the many birds will return as the weather and the calendar move closer to spring. We hang on to that hope. For the past month, during these horribly cold days of January and winter, I have been trying to get some spider plants to start in the south kitchen window.  Slowly I watched their roots develop, getting bigger and stronger every morning.  I knew it would be time to soon take them from the water and transplant the tender young plants into soil.  I wasn't really expecting to do it this morning, but the weather brought us more tolerable tempera...
Read more

From the plains of Oklahoma, along the road to home

Image
It's early, in fact it's 4:30 a.m. in the morning early, here along the plains of Oklahoma.  The house is remarkably quiet save for the once in a while snoring sound of Gus, our 7-year-old miniature Aussie dog.  I love the quiet and every chance I can, I sit in it and relish the gift of peace that it offers to me.  Soon enough the sun will arise, cars will wake up on the streets of our town, and children will venture up and down Magnolia Avenue on their bicycles as they yell back and forth to one another. The gift only lasts so long so I enjoy it when and while I can. Many years ago, I began blogging right before I left for the Bike Across Kansas in the summer of 2011.  Writing turned out to be something I really loved to do and so I continued during the summer.  In August of 2011, a really poor decision made while I was riding a bike ended up sending me to the hospital with a badly broken left arm and wrist.  The recovery was a long one, punctuated by nume...
Read more

~and I came here to stay~

Image
I learned something about myself as a teacher and a person during the first 3 days of school last week, and the something is this. "I have a plenty to learn." I have wanted to be a teacher for Ponca City Public Schools   for well over a year now.   I wanted to come here because I knew it would be a great opportunity to grow and change as a teacher.  With a quite limited number of years left as a public school educator, I didn't want to waste the chance to be able to help kids in any way that I could.  This particular district offers a tremendous amount of support to its staff who in turn are able to pass that support on to the children they teach each day.  I like that about being here, and it is a win-win  for all concerned. I definitely learned a lot during the first three days of school, and some of it was the hard way.  It's a humbling thing to be a veteran teacher of 40 years now and find yourself making mistakes that others who have bee...
Read more