Saturday, January 28, 2012

Arthropoda; Say it Three Times Fast.

Good luck. I could (barely) say it once and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong.

Today was the Lancaster Homeschool Spelling Bee. For the second year in a row I had the privilege to be the pronouncer. This Bee has two sessions; a junior bee for 4th and 5th graders and a senior bee for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Each had 15 participants. The event was held at the Eprhata Public Library.

I enjoy my participation in the Spelling Bee a lot. As a young child I was a poor speller. My father was fond of saying, "Paula, if you could spell as well as you swim...." I really wasn't a great swimmer but I enjoyed it much more than I did spelling. It was my second grade teacher, Ms. Forrest who got through to me finally. So watching these kids work through the words is fascinating to me. I enjoy my role as pronouncer because it feels so personal. It's me and the child. I wonder if they know how much I'm rooting for them. I would make a horrible judge - that's the person who has to ring the bell when the speller misses.

Today's bee had lots of memorable moments. In no particular order:

-The spellers were not given pre-assigned numbers this year. They were permitted to sit where they wished; in the order they wished. The speller who ended up in seat #1 in the junior bee was Sara Zook. I wondered to how often she gets to be first with a name like that.
- Each level began with an unjudged round where each child spelled their name to become comfortable with the standing up front alone with the microphone. One speller stumbled over spelling her name. When we mentioned it later she said she couldn't hear her voice and thought the microphone had cut out. Her sister suggested that perhaps it was because most people do not call her by her formal name - the one she was trying to spell. (I love you, Bippy. BIGHUGS)
- In the junior bee my heart went out to the speller who (I think) forgot what word she was spelling. The word was CROWD. I said the word, put it in a sentence and said the word again for her. She repeated it back to us. The judges, too, felt certain she understood the word. Yet she spelled CROWN. Ugh.
- For each speller I would look at the word and say it to myself first and then say it out loud. This was helpful especially in multiple syllable words. I wanted to make sure I didn't rush through the pronunciation. The word was PROGRESS. I say this with a short O sound. My husband, the Canadian, always says it with a long O sound. It's something we 'fuss' over from time to time. When I came to the word it was his voice I heard in my head and almost laughed out loud.... almost.
- One little speller was obviously guessing on a few words. She would search the air and come out with the right letters and when she realized she had survived another round she'd break into a huge grin and walk back to her seat with a little extra kick in her step. It was adorable.
- And then there was Arthropoda. We were in the senior bee now. The word for the speller was PHYLUM. She asked me to put it in a sentence. I looked to the guide and the sentence was "Insects belong in the phylum ....... " and then there was silence. Perhaps only 4 or 5 seconds but that's a lifetime when you are the only one speaking and everyone in the room - including the speller - is waiting for you. Forutnately that's all the time it took for me to realize it didn't matter if I misprononounced ARTHROPODA because that wasn't the word she had to spell. So I plowed ahead and I'm pretty sure it was wrong. When I looked up the speller (and eventual winner of the bee) had a very kind, sympathetic smile. To me it said, "It's ok, we'll get through this".

To summarize - I had fun today. My brother (who organizes this bee with his wife) told me that my glasses are the perfect pronouncer glasses. I hope that means I get to do this again next year. :)

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