By Gabriella Stavrev, Special to the News.
Editor's note: Gabriella was recently named the Bryan County Spelling Bee champ. She pens this article for the News.
In my opinion you should be interested in E/ LA, grammar, and reading books. I go under these procedures since I absolutely love to read, have good grades in E/LA, and have interests in my grammar. Of course you still have to be interested in spelling itself.
One actual benefit of reading books is that I can remind myself how the word looks before I spell it. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Fennel, helped me get interested in reading books. I also did a reading club with her as well. I truly enjoyed all my teachers who helped me to achieve bits of my big goal. I almost forgot to tell you my favorite words! I have 3, they are lachsschinken, arrondissement, and last but not least indecipherable.
How I got Good at It
This might be surprising, but when I was younger I did not actually know how to speak English. I only knew how to speak Bulgarian. This does make my experience more interesting because I am over here winning three spelling bees in a language I didn’t even know how to speak when I was younger!
If you are having trouble with a packet of words try the following: get a paper and write it 3-5 times. If you are having this problem I guarantee you should try it.
When I keep doing this the word gets stuck in my brain, and I never forget it. Two examples of this technique are Indecipherable and Arrondissement. What spelling really means to me is to uncode the tricks in a word.
Why is this Important to Me
In my opinion, spelling is probably the most used topic everywhere. We have to learn to read and write, how to speak or communicate. Then this all comes out of a book. Not just any book, but a packet of words! Spelling is also important to me because of my future career plans. I want to either be a veterinarian or an architect. If I am to be a veterinarian, I need to know the names of the diseases and medications. If I am to be an architect, I need to know how to explain the building process to the builders. Spelling is also important when writing essays for high school or even college.
How did I Study
Well, I actually used a spelling app. On the spelling app, I would learn them by typing first, then I would look at their origin, definition, a sentence as an example, and I can look at the word’s part of speech. After I have this ready, I would get my mom to ask me the words on the app. The app would pronounce the word, but I would spell it out loud. We used flash card mode for this. The words that I get wrong we just simply put them on bookmarks to review later.
How my Family was Involved
One way should be obvious, they all helped me study. My mom was the one who asked me the words and helped me get tricks to remember them. My brother, Dennis, helped me review the words. And my dad helped me study the bookmarks and the origin of the words. I am super thankful to my family and friends who helped me achieve my dedicated work. This motivated me a lot.
Conclusion
I am super happy about how I actually won the County Spelling Bee this year. Thank you to all the people who helped me study. This really does make a difference. While having fun you can be working the hardest you ever had. I hope this motivates you to try. I will finish this off with a quote I love, “Hard work pays off!”