Gurney Elementary School students had the opportunity to show off their spelling skills at the school spelling bee on May 30, 2023. The winner was third grader Vivian Self, who walked away with a medal and a t-shirt to commemorate her achievement of properly spelling the winning word “telescope.” Silas Hardwick, also in third grade, was the runner-up.
Principal Rachel Jones came up with the idea to start Gurney Elementary’s first-ever spelling bee, seeing it as another opportunity to promote literacy among her students. Second-grade teacher Ellen Jones and reading intervention teacher Courtney Mooney volunteered to lead the spelling bee while Molly Klodor, the District instructional technology coach, joined in building excitement for the event by designing a logo as well as making medals and certificates for winners.
Students and teachers prepared for the special day by creating a Google Classroom with a variety of resources to learn about and study for the spelling bee. As excitement for the bee was building, teachers and staff members began to share stories of when they were in spelling bees as children. A bulletin board was created that showed the picture of the teacher and the word they got out on in their spelling bee. Third-grade teacher Sandra Goodin won her second-grade spelling bee with the word “sure.” Michael Baldwin, the school resource officer, was eliminated on the word “album.” Not only did the students enjoy making connections with their teachers and staff members, but the stories they shared showed the students that it’s important to take risks and try new things.
During the last week of April, Gurney Elementary’s second and third-grade classes held their own class spelling bees to determine who would participate in the school-wide spelling bee. The winner and runner-up of each class spelling bee—22 students total—were the ones to participate in the school spelling bee.
The day of the official spelling bee finally arrived and the students gathered in the gym to watch their peers faceoff on stage. The MC was the school librarian, MaryJo Czerr. She truly took on the role by telling plenty of jokes and even making her own bee costume. Christopher Engelhart, Gurney Elementary School’s Spanish teacher, was the announcer and Dale Tschappat, school guidance counselor, was the score keeper. The spelling bee included five rounds and then a championship round, which took six rounds between the final two spellers to determine the winner—proving just how tough the competition was. After such a successful event, the school plans to continue this new tradition at Gurney for many years to come.