“Assuage,” meaning to make an unpleasant feeling less intense, is the word that won eighth grade student Benjamin Selzer the middle school spelling bee. When he spelled the word and didn’t hear a bell ring, Selzer was left feeling very accomplished and pleased with himself.
On Jan. 30, the JDS middle school held its annual spelling bee. Every year, all middle school advisories take a written spelling quiz, and the winner from each advisory gets to participate in a larger competition in front of the entire middle school.
Middle school English teacher Samuel Sullivan’s job in the spelling bee is pronouncing the words for the competitors. In addition to pronouncing, Sullivan is responsible for providing definitions, parts of speech, languages of origin and example sentences to help contestants. He also rings the bell to eliminate a speller.
“As an English teacher, spelling bees are very interesting. It pushes kids in different ways. The memorization, spelling on the fly,” Sullivan said. “Growing up, I watched spelling bees and have always been interested.”
Once a student qualifies for the spelling bee, they are given a list of 250 words to study. At the competition, spellers are quizzed on these words, but teachers also include a few unfamiliar ones to make it more challenging. If a student misspells a word, they are disqualified.
This year, very few spellers were eliminated before the outside list of words was used.
“There should be moments where kids are challenged to do something, and then someone rises to the top, and it’s seen, and it’s recognized,” Sullivan said. “The sense of competition, I think, is very valuable.”
By the final rounds, only a small group of spellers remained, including Selzer.
“The strategy I used was I had my family say words to me from the list, and I would spell it back to them, like how you would in the format of a spelling bee,” Selzer said.
According to Selzer, he has been doing the spelling bee since he was in sixth grade, but this was his first time winning. Selzer, as the winner of the JDS spelling bee, is scheduled to compete in the Montgomery County competition on Feb. 22.
“I’m looking forward to it [the regional spelling bee] a little bit. I’m not really sure, because I know a lot of people study a lot, and I haven’t done an insane amount of preparation,” Selzer said.
While Selzer was the one to ultimately take home first place, other competitors describe the experience as fun as well. Eighth grade student Sophie Polon said she joined the spelling bee just for the experience.
Polon said that she did not study very much in preparation for the competition. She had her friends just read her some of the words for practice. According to Polon, the experience was much less stressful than in previous years because of the newly added option for people not to watch.
In past years, all middle school students were required to watch the bee during their AFB time. This year, middle school English teacher Deborah Feigenson and Sullivan decided that they didn’t want to require students to attend and instead let them come as they wished, to make the spellers feel more comfortable.
Although she was eliminated before the final round, Polon said she was okay with not winning because she was not particularly interested in going to regionals. Despite competing in the spelling bee herself, she said her favorite part of the event was watching her friend, eighth grade student Ari Mellen, compete.
“I was proud of my friend when she spelled a word correctly that she looked really nervous about,” Polon said.
While students in the bee focus on supporting their friends, teachers are responsible for ensuring the event runs smoothly. Sullivan said the event was hard at times because he was doing many roles at once, shifting between tasks like ringing the bell, writing what was happening and reading the words.
However, Sullivan said the purpose of the spelling bee went beyond simply managing and helping out with the actual competition, and that it is meant to help students grow their confidence.
