Spelling Beeeee

So recently our school has been overtaken by spelling bee fervor, but thank goodness the end is in sight!

All last week was the English spelling bee, and being a native English speaker I was called out of class everyday to judge the competitions. Never having before seen or been in a spelling bee , I was clueless as to what was going on. I was told to say the word and use each one in a sentence for the participant. Sounds simple enough, right? Noooo, n-o-o-o-o, noooo! First I helped with the 9th graders and the majority of words on their list I had never seen in my life. I had a dictionary sitting beside me on the desk and I had to look up every single word. Every. Single. Word.
After a while I think I was sweating as much as (if not more) than the contestants because my job was hardly a walk in the park. Ever tried using the words "harangue", "debunking", or "lampoon" in a sentence off the top of your head? Yeah, doesn't sound like such an easy task after all, huh?? I fared better with the younger grades, since it's infinitely easier to use "soccer" in a sentence than "supercilious".

I was also the judge for my own class' spelling bee, which was the worst job in the world. The hardest part was keeping a blank face and coldly saying "Incorrect, you are disqualified". It was just too difficult watching their little faces crumble and the tears pour forth! I caught myself a couple of times giving encouraging head nods and sneaky second chances by saying, "I'm sorry I couldn't hear you. Could you please spell it one more time?"

(Not a video from our school, but proof that spelling bees can have some lighter moments:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjzrNWPul9E

But the most ridiculous was yet to come. The Spanish spelling bee this week was outrageous. The rules for this one are different-the children are required to stand in front of the room, listen to the word, and then write in on the board in cursive. The trick is that third part. They have to write it in proper cursive, and a judge stands behind them to assure that all is in order. If they make their accent mark writing it from bottom to top, they are dismissed. The correct way (apparently) to make an accent mark is from top to bottom. If their lower case 'o' is bigger than the other lower case letters, they are out. If they start a word with a lower case 'b' and fail to make the initial full ascending leg, they're done. Even if the word is spelled perfectly!

The kids were just the cutest (and most annoying!) in the weeks leading up to the competition, as they were all buzzzzing (sorry, couldn't resist) with enthusiasm for it! It was impossible to talk for even 1 minute uninterrupted, as inevitably someone would shoot up their hand and scream "SPELLING WORD!".
Example:
"Okay everyone, so I want you to color-SPELLING WORD!- your pictures with markers-SPELLING WORD!-and make them very-SPELLING WORD!-beautiful-SPELLING WORD!"
The annoying part came when we had "the" as a spelling word.

But finally we are just about done, d-o-n-e, done! :) And maybe once again I can actually finish a sentence uninterrupted.

Nahhhh