As fourth and fifth graders gathered in the school cafeteria early Thursday morning, Nov. 17, Copeland Elementary prepared to have its third annual Spanish spelling bee.
Down to six competitors, divided evenly between both grades, the young participants took turns spelling out challenging words such as frío, escuela and flores.
One-by-one, the contestants were eliminated until a winner was announced for fourth grade, and parents waited with bated breath as they watched the final two fifth grade candidates compete head to head.
“F-U-T-B-O-L. Fútbol,” said Julian Reyescarrion, after which he was announced the winner, and his parents cheered with proud smiles plastered.
Mother and father, Crystal and Emanuel Reyescarrion, said they could not have been prouder of their son and were shocked to see him win in the end.
“I never saw him practice. I was nervous because he just wouldn’t practice at home with me,” said Crystal Reyescarrion. “But he always likes surprising me with his work ethic and stuff like that.”
Cool and calm on the outside, Julian Reyescarrion said he felt a little shy and nervous on the inside. He said he prepared by practicing in class, and was ecstatic to know he won the fifth grade medal for succeeding in the spelling bee.
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Spanish teacher and host of the event, Yaqueline Garcia, said she was so proud of both her winners and for them challenging themselves to compete. Garcia said, about two weeks prior to the competition, Reyescarrion came to her and shared that he wanted to quit.
“He said, ‘I don’t think I want to do this anymore and I want to quit,’” she said. “But I told him to stay with it and to not give up, because I really thought he could do it and even win.”
With all the nerves the contestants must have felt on stage in front of all their peers, Garcia said she came up with the spelling bee because she wanted to challenge the children’s minds and help grow their self-confidence.
To Garcia, it is more than just a spelling bee – it is building the foundation for lifelong skills such as confidence, perseverance, cultural awareness, a healthy work ethic and competition.
Similar to Garcia’s point of view, Crystal Reyescarrion said learning a second language is a necessity and a huge advantage for later stages of life.
“It’s just the way the world is now. We’re not just one language anywhere,” she said. “It’s so blended that you really just need to learn a different language to get through.”
Both parents said they were grateful Garcia encouraged their son when he wanted to quit. Crystal Reyescarrion said she often tells her son that giving up is not an option – it builds character. Something which her husband full-heartedly agreed on.
“It’s easier to give up, but to push through it and keep going, that’s the hard part,” he said. “It’s a challenge, and that’s what life is like. It’s full of challenges.”
As Copeland Elementary is an International Baccalaureate school, Principal Laurie Taylor said she believed the program was important because it reinforced the facility’s focus on promoting a second language.
Taylor said many people think spelling is a lost art due to automatic spell-check functions on electronics, but she advocates that spelling strengthens students’ reading and literacy skills.
She also said the children, from kindergarten through fifth grade, are given time to learn a second language, and the students always look forward to the spelling bee. Meaning that by the time they leave for middle school, some students already have five years of experience with learning the basics of Spanish after fifth grade.
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“As an IB school, we are trying to make global connections and create internationally minded students, so having a second language is just how we should be doing business in today’s world,” she said.
Fellow spelling bee winner for fourth grade, Mason Page, said he competed because he wanted to know what it felt like to succeed at something.
“I practiced for two hours straight just for me to win, because I wanted to win so bad,” he said. “I studied a lot and thought about it a lot.”
Like Julian Reyescarrion, Page said he always tries to pay attention to Spanish class on Thursdays in preparation for his goal of winning. He also said it was cool to know two languages because not everyone gets such an opportunity.
Page’s mother, Sandy Spell, said she was incredibly proud of her son for practicing so vigorously and being so determined to win.
“I was happy, because that’s not the language that we teach at home,” she said. “I’m Filipino, so I’m teaching him that at home too.”
Spell said she thinks it is important for her son to learn about different cultures, not just Filipino, in order to make him a more well-rounded and knowledgeable individual, which can lead to him being a more peaceful and understanding person.
Garcia said elementary is the seed for middle and high school, and makes it the perfect age to build an educational foundation for students and to broaden their minds early on.
“I wanted to introduce them with more vocabulary and more culture,” she said. “But they are also having fun, because they are supporting each other. Supporting each other is important because we are not isles – we are not just by ourselves. We need each other, so what I try to do is give a lot of them self-confidence and show them to be risk takers. Leap into something because it pays off in the end.”
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
