As the high school students were arriving, a student from a rival school went up to another student he met at the circuito (district) level and said, “Hi! How are you?” in English!
A high school teacher would mouth the words
along with the students. She would
do the “Yes” and hand in fist thing when she
got the word correct.
 |
| Like the Hubs is doing here |
The Hubs crossed his fingers and whispered words
of encouragement from afar to his students as they spelled the secret challenge
words that decided the winner.
A row of teachers were discussing the level of
complexity for the secret challenge words and trying to spell them along with
the students.
Eighteen (Peace Corps) Volunteers and three
(Accion Joven) team members took time out of the day to cheer, herd, sweat,
judge, or announce words for the 51 participants.
All three age groups had to use the secret
challenge words to determine the winner.
(That means the kids memorized 300 words from the general word list).
Two fifth graders sang a song in English for an
artistic presentation at the beginning.
The Music Assessor stayed all day to help with the sound system. Even having to get up every 5 to 10 minutes to walk the microphone to a young man who was on crutches.
The administrative staff from the office stood
in the back because there were no seats and they wanted to watch the elementary
competition.
The elementary teachers presented me with a
gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a plaque and my Peace Corps boss gave me
flowers as well.
A text after the competition from a teacher read,
”More students are looking forward to the next contest…they are excited and
willing to get involved for next year.”
I don’t know how to
put this day into words. It was a
fruition of months of preparation by 30+ teachers, my counterpart, and
myself. The dedication of my teachers is amazing. They made this event the success it
was. They trained the students,
they donated money, and they did the prep work. My counterpart took this on as well. Having the Spelling Bee in Santa Cruz
was her dream. I was her voice and
feet, but she is ready for next year.
Our goal in Peace
Corps is to create sustainable projects, and I worried. I thought, this isn’t going to go
beyond me. But I was wrong. So
wrong. This is something that
not only the teachers and students saw it was worth it, but also the Ministry
of Education (MEP), parents, and Accion Joven (a youth orientated program) saw
worth striving for. This project
will be is sustainable and successful in my region.
The top three winners in each age group will advance to the Inter-regional Spelling Bee in November!
The top three winners in each age group will advance to the Inter-regional Spelling Bee in November!
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