January 30, 2002
Spelling bee buzzes with a-n-t-i-c-i-p-a-t-i-o-n
Central Grade sixth grader wins annual TCAPS elementary school event
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It was hard to tell who was more nervous: the students on stage fielding spelling words or their parents and family in the audience, agonizing over each letter.
Last Tuesday evening, the Lars Hockstad auditorium was a sea of sweaty palms and fluttering stomachs as 50 elementary school students from Traverse City Area Public Schools competed in an Elementary Spelling Bee.
For Jessica Oakley, a sixth-grade student in Central Grade School's TAG program, the pressure to win was great. As last year's winner, she had family and friends who expected no less of her this year. One of two remaining students competing in the sixth and final round, she carefully spelled 'unaccountable' to emerge victorious.
"My friends would say I'm a walking dictionary because in class, whenever someone doesn't know how to spell a word, they tell me to spell it," said Oakley, who studied with the help of her dad, who read the words into a Dictaphone for her to repeat. "It was different for me this year because of pressure from my friends."
While she calmly made it through each round, her family was nervously hanging on every syllable.
"This is the most stressful thing I have ever watched her do," said Cori Oakley, Jessica's mother. "I feel for her and for all the kids, they are trying so hard."
As the stress of each round mounts, sometimes exiting - stage right - after a misspelling is welcome by the contestants.
"It was a relief to get done," said Kaira Saxton-Bush, a sixth- grade competitor from Willow Hill Elementary School who made it to the third round. "The kids were both nervous and supportive on stage."
The six winners and one alternate from the Elementary Bee will compete in the Grand Traverse County Bee at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School on Thursday, February 21. The county spelling bee will include students from 11 public, private and home schools throughout Grand Traverse County.
From there, the top seven spellers plus one alternate will compete against students from Leelanau, Kalkaska, Antrim and Emmet counties at the Grand Traverse Regional Bee on March 10 at the Milliken Auditorium.
The regional winner will travel to Washington, D.C., in May to represent the area at the National Spelling Bee.
In an era of instant spell-check gratification, mastering the intricacies of 'I before E, except after C' or endings such as '-ible' versus '-able' can seem an anachronism. Teachers, however, find that some students are naturally good spellers and motivated to constantly improve.
"The students who spell well are usually good readers who know the words, their history and how to say and use them," said Connie Boylan, a media specialist at Norris Elementary School and the recorder at the Elementary Bee.
Each elementary school selects the fifth- and sixth-grade students to represent them in the Elementary Bee. Different schools have different selection policies, ranging from in-school bees, spelling test scores and interest. Once selected, the kids receive a thick book of words to study around a month before the bee. This book contains words used nationwide for all spelling bees this year.
While it is a competitive event, the teachers make sure that students keep it in perspective.
"I tell them not to get too stressed out about it, just to do their best," said Steve Balcom, a fifth-grade teacher at Norris Elementary School and the coordinator for the Elementary Spelling Bee. "The students ask if they have to know every single word. I tell them to look at them all and be familiar with them."