Schools
DEF Spelling Bee Emphasizes Merits of Teamwork
The Dedham Education Foundation's 17th Annual Spelling Bee saw more than one winner, and all of them being the kids, and their futures.
The auditorium was packed and clamoring with zealous encouragement for the competing teams on stage for the 17th Annual Spelling Bee Friday.
Loudest of all? Their classmates.
Visualize a spelling bee and what likely comes to mind is a series of stammering panic attacks and a single microphone in the spotlight. This was not the case on Friday.
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Almost like a kids T.V. game show, four teams of four students each representing an elementary school, put their heads together from unifying bannered tables. After the school superintendent June Doe presented each word, followed by the definition and use in a sentence, each team would work out the proper spelling and present their answers using a white board.
The light-hearted atmosphere was epitomized by one of the third-grade competitors who sat in a relaxed pose, hands folded behind head like a CEO staring out the window at a big city skyline, after each round.
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Whenever a team succeeded to another round, kids in the crowd and apparent classmates let out uninhibited whoops and yelps.
The liveliness of the crowd was converted into breathy, gasping utterances of disbelief when the word “scheme” was followed up by a conversely more challenging “marzipan” (apparently a type of candy). When answers varied amongst the marker boards for the first time, one parent observed, “two down…two [of the boards] say marz-a.”
Later on, as more challenging words starting seeping in a little more regularly, another parent voiced to a neighbor, “I don’t remember that one being on the list.”
The evening served as a culmination of hours of practice at home.
“[My daughter] practiced quite [heavily]. She’s pretty dedicated to her schoolwork. She wants to be a teacher,” said one father of a competing third-grade student.
The Dedham Education Foundation sponsored the spelling bee and will use ticket sale profits to help fund arts and enrichment programs in the public schools.
Students through grade eight competed throughout the night as well.
“A lot of schools apply for enrichment programs,” said a DEF representative.
Given that the setting was so inherently friendly, it’s not so surprising that the third graders happen to produce two winning teams, after a series of redundant tie-breakers found nothing but ties.
Outside the auditorium, another woman exclaimed to the two ladies seated at the DEF’s collections table, “I’ve never even heard some of those words before.”
