For the first time in a years-long tradition, Coconino County’s top spellers are free from the anxiety-inducing judges, crowd, stage and microphone that so often lead to student slip-ups in meticulously practiced vocabulary recitations.
Instead, the 2021 Coconino County Spelling Bee took place virtually this week, following guidance from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, to allow communities to continue their spelling bee traditions while many schools remain online to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s an important event for our kids and our community now more than ever because it’s a tradition, and even though our traditions might look a little different, traditions are what keep us grounded and going,” said Coconino County Superintendent of Schools Cheryl Mango-Paget.
Third- through eighth-grade students from across the county would normally compete in Flagstaff at Coconino High School the weekend before President’s Day; however, this year school finalists completed an online, 50-question spelling bee and vocabulary test from their school campuses on either Thursday or Friday.
“You’re really competing with the Webster Dictionary when you’re doing it, versus competing with other students in this format,” Mango-Paget said, adding that there is a potential benefit to this new bee style, if it continues in the future, to get more remote schools and vulnerable groups more involved in the annual competition.
The student who had the highest score this week will advance to the state spelling bee and the top three students will receive prize money. If a tie-breaker is necessary, Mango-Paget said her office would set up a videoconference between the spellers, assigning them words until one speller wins, like in a typical bee. The county’s winning speller will be announced by next Friday, Feb. 19.
Although the past two competitions have had 21 and 22 competing schools, respectively, this year only six opted to send a student to the county bee: Basis Flagstaff, Marshall Elementary, Flagstaff Home Educators, Maine Consolidated School, Sinagua Middle School and Williams Elementary/Middle School.
Fourth-grader Beau Yazzie, 9, was the school finalist for Marshall Elementary and shortly after completing her quiz Friday afternoon said she was feeling “pumped.”
“It was kind of exciting. It was like, what do I do? Just read and you’ll be fine, and just listen very well and you might get it right,” she said of the experience.
Beau admitted she only started studying for the bee three days before her test; if she had started earlier, she would not have been able to focus on her other schoolwork. Her favorite word from the study list was “billow,” because of its similarity to “pillow” and her horse’s name, Willow. Unfortunately, the word was not one of the 50 included on her final test.
She said it felt good to be the school’s representative, though competing at the county level was as scary as it was exciting.
“I really wanted somebody else to do it, but then I noticed we haven’t won any spelling bee in a long time, and I’m the only one who got this far. So that’s why I’m basically here, to make sure that the school wins one,” Beau said.
Marshall Elementary reinstated its participation in the county spelling bee last year. First-grade teacher Alianah Mijares was tasked with managing the school bee.
“That grit and endurance it gives students at such a young age is super important,” Mijares said of participation in the bee. “It’s not necessarily a grade that they see on a report card -- it’s extra, but in a good way. We are a magnet school, so I think that also gives us that extra pizazz as a school to be involved with something like this and to really show we are pushing our students, because we know their capabilities and their abilities to work hard.”
This year, six classes at Marshall sent students to compete in the school bee, which was held in the same online quiz format as the county bee, allowing students to click an icon to hear a word before typing it out. Mijares said she did have two students complete the quiz a second time, with a new set of words, because they had tied for second place.
Mijares said her thoughts on the new format are mixed -- though she said the new format would help reduce the anxiety students typically feel from being watched, she doesn’t like the idea of tying students to a specific score for an event like this. Nevertheless, she was glad Marshall could participate in the county bee for the second year in a row.
“This is something, regardless of results and whatnot, our student who is competing at the county level will remember forever, especially during virtual learning. I think that’s amazing,” Mijares said. “School is the hardest it’s ever been for students, and they’re going even above and beyond to do this. We’re super proud of them.”
At Maine Consolidated in Parks, school bee coordinator Jennifer Grantham said because the majority of school’s approximately 125 students have returned to school in person, teachers were able to hold an in-person school bee a few weeks ago. Unlike in previous years, however, the school bee had less than half of its normal participants, who spaced out in an open area to spell out words for only their teachers and a livestreamed audience.
Maine Consolidated’s school finalist, eighth-grader Kyleigh Amos, completed her county test on Thursday.
“It’s tradition. Our kids like to represent our school and they’re proud to represent our school at the county spelling bee, so we wanted to keep it as normal as we could for our kids,” said Grantham, who teaches first grade and has been coordinating the school bee for at least eight years.
She said there are numerous benefits of the bee, even when delivered virtually.
“It’s great to work towards something and then accomplish a goal. I think it’s important. As well as academics: learning the different phonics rules and spelling rules for different words is a good thing,” Grantham said.
Mango-Paget said the plan is to continue the county bee into the future, even if next year it has to be virtual again, or even in a hybrid format, for the schools that choose to participate.
“It is a big accomplishment, and during this pandemic, when our kids do well, we need to celebrate it and we need to celebrate it loudly and keep bolstering their confidence,” she said. “They’re a good role model for how hard work can pay off for their peers.”