This year was the third time I co-organised the Spelling Bee, and it has been the most illuminating yet. It goes to show how important consistency is, how you must stick at something long enough for the rewards to compound and yield emotional dividends.
By far, the most gratifying thing is that students VOLUNTEERED to be emcees. As can be seen from this photo, I ruthlessly appointed two boys from my form class to be emcees for the first round. I didn’t give them the option to say no.
Anyway, I wasn’t expecting any response when I appealed for volunteers, so I was bowled over when people came up to me to say, “I WANT TO BE THE EMCEE!” One even ambushed me when I was having my lunch at the canteen. Given that most people would rather die than do public speaking, I am elated to say the least. Ask, and the Universe will provide.
Last year, I suffered the indignity of my students not turning up for the preliminary round even though I was the organiser. They didn’t want to stay back after school. Thankfully, I wasn’t humiliated this year. I actually had the bandwidth to prepare my two 13-year-old representatives for the competition. Most mornings, I arrived before assembly to test R 10 words. He is a gem, slaying words like enthusiastically without breaking a sweat. Towards the end, I even strategically got my other students to test R the words so that more people could benefit from my curated compilation. I created a Task Force! My class didn’t win the competition, but they seemed happy enough with second place. I’m thrilled that I worked them hard. Hopefully they will inherit Sensei's unparalleled work ethics.
Personally, I learnt more about English, particularly about how words with the QU combination are typically French. I also got to test students some of my favourite words, such as quirky and wistfulness. From an event management perspective, since I didn't have to anchor the Finals, I observed how the Spelling Bee mascot enlivened the atmosphere for staff and students alive. This leads me to consider how we should better harness the mascot next year.
Through this experience, I learnt how to lean on my students to advance my goals.
