Yesterday was the Struthers Elementary School spelling bee in which my grandson, Andrew, represented his fourth grade class. When I arrived, he was sitting on stage in the front row, his leg crossed over his knee, looking like a teenager trying to appear calm and collected. Knowing him as I do, I could see the anxiety in his face and body.
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| Andrew in his first spelling bee |
It brought back memories of how scared I was when I had my chance in the spelling bee. Although I was a good speller, I couldn’t calm my nerves, could see all those faces in the audience staring at me, and had stage fright. Being in the spelling bee is not like when you are up there with a group of people singing. You are now alone in the spotlight in front of a microphone. If you make a mistake, everyone knows it, no hiding from it.
The teacher in charge of the spelling bee was giving them directions on using the microphone, the direction they were to walk to and away from it, and explaining that they need to speak loudly and clearly, state the word first, then spell it, and re-state it to let the judges know they were done.
Aaron’s teacher allowed him to leave class to watch his twin brother. She knew how badly he had wanted to be standing up there in the bee. He has been helping Andrew study words up until just before leaving for school yesterday morning. He wanted Andrew to win so much and I bet Andrew tried to win it for his brother as much as for himself. I wonder if Aaron was feeling sour grapes because he was not up there, or if he saw how scary it really is to be up there, or whether he was silently spelling the words with the kids, counting how many he knew or when he would have been out of the event.
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| Aaron in the audience |
When the spelling bee started, each child walked to the microphone and gave his or her name after making the needed adjustment in height to the mike. As the event transpired each speller had their own persona and attitude. One little girl appeared very confident and whenever she went to the microphone, she had a big smile, straightened her back, then spelled her word. She looked like she felt this was in the bag and she was going to win the bee.
Another girl held her hands tightly behind her back each time she went up and appeared scared to death. One boy spoke with an accent or a speech impediment and his R’s were not pronounced clearly. I thought he had misspelled his words but the judges knew his speech patterns. Some students hurried to the mike, spelled their words as quickly as possible, then almost ran back to their seats.
The teacher who announced the words could have done a better job enunciating. I personally would have spelled words wrong because I misinterpreted what she said. When one child asked for a definition of a word, the definition given was so difficult to understand that even the parents in the audience groaned after hearing it. Just tell the student an explanation he will understand. Remember, these are only third and fourth graders here!
I learned yesterday that I have forgotten the spelling of some words that never used to be a challenge. I also learned two new words from this bee: frond and droll. I thought the announcer said “drool” so I would have been out.
A word that got one boy dismissed was “marshmallow”. I smiled to myself when it was given because it one of the words in the title of this blog. I have seen many people misspell this word when doing a search for my page. I never realized it was that hard or could be spelled so many ways, but it is.
It was Andrew’s turn to take his first word. He was the fourth child to spell. He walked up calmly enough to the mike which was almost directly in front of his seat. He made a slight adjustment to its height, said his word, then spelled it correctly. Karin and I both let out a quiet sigh of relief. Each time it was his turn, I think we both stopped breathing and said a prayer for him.
He made it to the third round but missed on the word, “shawl.” He spelled it shale which is understandable, since we have been seeing that word all over the paper lately. To be honest, I doubt that Andrew ever heard the word shawl.
As he walked to the back of the stage to sit with the other children who were out of the bee I saw his body almost crumble. It portrayed his disappointment at missing the word and being out of the bee. I saw his face contort and thought he was going to cry. I tried to catch his eye to give him a smile or a thumbs-up to let him know it was okay but he was not ready to look up yet. After a few more students also followed behind him quite rapidly I think he felt better. The third round was a big elimination round in the spelling bee.
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Andrew after receiving his award
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