Written by Juan Campos
We proudly announce the completion of our 2023 Spelling Bee contest this Friday, June 9th. The students who participated belonged to 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade from the morning shift, and 5th and 6th grade from the afternoon shift. The purpose of the event was to encourage students to continue learning and to do so in such a way that they can develop holistically, not merely academically. Besides demonstrating their talent and mastery of the English language through their participation in this event, they showed responsibility, dedication, and passion during the whole process of pre-selection and during their performance in the contest.
As regards the process of pre-selection, the teachers of the participating levels evaluated a number of students for more than a month before the main event. On average, 9 students per grade passed to the finals. During the nerve-racking finals, kids sure showed some amazing skills at breaking words down to their core components. Judges – who, for the purpose of objectivity, were not the teachers of the pupils participating at each round – had the arduous task of choosing the third, second, and first place winners, whose performance was absolutely awe-inspiring. The venue used, in this case the School’s Auditorium, was adequately set up with theme-related decorations: the whole stage was abuzz with bee stickers so as to surround the audience with motivating imagery.
We congratulate all of the participants and encourage them to keep on improving and engage in future English Department events at Externado de San José. Likewise, we thank the school staff who participated in the development of this year’s Spelling Bee.
