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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Word Warriors

The inaugural Spelling Bee contest of The Children’s Library Imus was a success! With the Official number of participants totaling to 97 (registrants reached 107 though), as compared to The Children’s Library Novaliches’ 59, it was a task seemed to be so hard to complete successfully. It would be good to note that a week before the game day we only had 15 schools registered for the event, imagine our mixed reactions with the increase of participating schools from 15 to 107 two days before the big day. The TCL staff of Imus, Ms. Lady of TCL Novaliches, Ms. Jemma, the operations manager of The Children’s Library for Imus and Novaliches, and the trio of consultants, Ms. Diyanne, Ms. Claire and me having to meet three times to settle possible areas of concerns basically due to the number of participants.

Major revisions with the rules, regulations and game mechanics:

1. Participants will be grouped into 4 batches, A, B, C and D.

2. There will be 3 categories or rounds per batch and these will be the Easy round, Moderate round and the difficult round.

3. There will only be 5 words per round and each correctly answered word will have an equivalent point:
• Easy round will have 2 points per word
• Moderate round will have 4 points per word
• Difficult round will have 6 points per word
4. For each batch, the top five placers/rankers will advance to the oral final round.

5. Ten finalists will make it to Grand Finals on November 24, 2007.

6. In the oral/final round, process of elimination will be used. Meaning, one correctly spelled word orally will bring the speller on the safe side and the speller who incorrectly spells a word is eliminated. In case more than 10 spellers make it to the safe side, they will have to go through another round until the 10 slots are taken.

Let me give you a rundown of what happened yesterday at The Library:

Registration started around 10:00 am and as early as 9 in the morning, the queue has begun and we can see the excitement on the faces of the students and their coaches/mentors. Although there was a pre- registration weeks before, we needed to have a confirmed list by having them sign on the registry the competition day itself which lasted until around 1130.

Briefing/Orientation of the program was given by Ms. Jemma and was followed shortly by Ms. Claire who reminded everyone of the mechanics of the game, what of the mechanics of the game, technicalities to watch out for like acceptable answers, erasures and cheatings. I’d like to commend Ms. Claire about this because never it was mentioned the whole day the word cheating and I believe as adults in the learning community, we either do one or more of the following:

1. Put in too much color in our student’s competition;

2. Put in a balanced approach and spirit in our student’s competition and

3. Do not put in enough encouragement and motivation in our student’s competition.

It really depends on the personality, background and beliefs of the mentor whenever they deal with their students, which in turn has a factor on how the young mind will be shaped for the present and the future.

By 530, the Final Oral round is ready to start. A total of 30 participants qualified for this round with one automatically qualifying for the Grand Finals on the 24th of November. The reason for this? A perfect score of 60 points and she is none other than Karen of Elizabeth Seton South. When I asked Rod, one of TCL’s staff in charge of the computer scoring (he’s also the man responsible for all the visual arts and designs you see in the Library), to rank all the qualifiers according to their total scores, Karen was way ahead of the pack with a perfect score of 60. The player trailing her on the second spot has a score of 40 points. A big 20 point lead is something we, the judges, felt is something to be recognized by giving her the automatic slot for the Grand Finals.

How was the oral final round? Would you like me to describe each scene that took place? Let me start with the total energy filling up the room. Well, I personally was so excited for this round as I see the Official Watchers/Volunteers putting the tables away and replacing them with chairs, 30 chairs to be filled by the finalists, plus 10 chairs on one side of the library. These additional 10 chairs are D’ Chair for the Qualifiers for the Grand Finals. If there is the D’ Day for the World War II, we have D’ Chair for this Spelling Bee Battle that has come to the final, destiny changing round for our word warriors.

Again, I’d like to remind you though that the first slot for the Grand Finals is taken already by Karen of Elizabeth Seton South. All the more these 29 word warriors will be battling it out for the 9 remaining slots.
Mine was excitement, but among these word warriors, it’s a battle!

And for the mentors and coaches?

Their faces gave me one and only one thing in my head… It’s war!

I, together with the Ms. Claire took turns in explaining the mechanics for the final round. Ms. Diyanne and Ms. Jemma took turns in making sure we did not forget any of the details in the mechanics.

After the battle, when the playing field is cleared, we have the 10 word warriors advancing to the Grand Finals on the 24th:

THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY –IMUS
ELIMINATION ROUND
OCTOBER 17, 2007

GRAND FINALISTS

KAREN B. AMORA
ELIZABETH SETON SCHOOL-SOUTH (automatically qualified)
BATCH B-60 PTS., RANK 1

ANN PATRICIA F. MARTINEZ
ELIZABETH SETON SCHOOL-MAIN (chimpanzee)
BATCH A-44 PTS. RANK 2

JASPER NEAL E. JAIME
PAG-IBIG UNIDA SCHOOL (expression)
BATCH B-42 PTS. RANK 2

ALYSSA MAE R. BARRON
SEED OF WISDOM LEARNING CENTER (whippet)
BATCH D-40 PTS., RANK 1

ANGELO Q. DE VERA
LA CAMELLE SCHOOL (fillet)
BATCH D-38 PTS. RANK 2

JEROME G. DE QUINTO
ANABU II ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (maple)
BATCH A-36 PTS. RANK 5

JESSAN RENDELL G. BELENZO
DR. JOSE P. RIZAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (interruption)
BATCH C-36 PTS. RANK 1

KARLO DOMINIQUET. CABACUNGAN
LYCEUM OF CAVITE-EAST (protozoan)
BATCH D-36 PTS. RANK 3

PAULINE MAE I. ALPAY
SALAWAG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (posthumous)
BATCH C-34 PTS. RANK 2

SHAYNA MELISSA B. MAUNES
LA BELLE MONTESSORI SCHOOL (hazardous)
BATCH C-32 PTS., RANK 3

BATCH A – 2 GRAND FINALISTS
BATCH B – 2 GRAND FINALISTS
BATCH C – 3 GRAND FINALISTS
BATCH D – 3 GRAND FINALISTS


Yes, we had time to freeze moments from the event:


First batch with their certificates!



The 30 finalists out of 97, vying for the 10 spots.



The 10 Grand Finalists with their mentors, TCL Staff, Volunteers and Spelling Bee Consultants.



The people behind the TCL Spelling Bee 2007, A success!

Congratulations to all the participants of the 1st Spelling Bee Contest of The Children’s Library Imus.

Round results and additional pictures to follow.

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