Berkeley County School District is excited to recognize Sangaree Middle seventh-grader Ryan Taylor as this year’s victor in the district spelling bee, held Jan. 16 in the auditorium of Goose Creek High.
It is never an easy feat to go on a stage in a room full of family, friends, and district faculty and staff members – plus a plethora of very good spellers from across the district – but despite the nerves, Taylor kept calm on stage and ended up securing the win by correctly spelling the word “genome.”
Coming off the stage, Taylor was greeted by his excited family members and Sangaree Middle staff, including Principal Shawn McCombs, and said he was relieved to have done as well as he did.
“It feels like a huge weight off my chest,” he said.
McCombs said this is a big win for everyone at Sangaree.
"Everyone is really proud of Ryan, but we're not surprised," McCombs said. "He's a brilliant student and his work ethic is tremendous."
The district spelling bee is sponsored by The Post and Courier, and the top nine spellers qualify to compete in the regional bee, Lowcountry Spellbound!, in March (see list of qualifiers below).
BCSD students in grades fifth through eighth grade recently competed to be the best spellers at their respective schools. The top three spellers, plus an alternate, from 14 elementary and middle schools across the district qualified to participate in the bee.
The students took turns spelling in front of a panel of three judges: Jennifer Croley, BCSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction; Meri DuPre, retired BCSD administrator; and Dr. Jane Harrelson, BCSD’s Title I Compliance and Parent Involvement Coordinator.
BCSD Secondary ELA Coordinator Dr. Gem Massey served as the evening’s pronouncer.
When it is their turn to spell, students may ask the pronouncer to define the word, provide its part of speech, or use it in a sentence. Spellers can also ask for the word's language of origin, alternate pronunciations, or root word. During their time on stage, students tackled words like “unilaterally”, “anonymity” and “cacophonous.”
As they took the microphone to spell, lots of students practiced a method where they would “write” the word into their palm to help them spell it aloud. Taylor said his strategy was to try to focus more on the syllables in each word, as well as vowel sounds.
Students leave the stage upon misspelling a word but the rules change a bit when the competition dwindles down to the last two spellers: if one student misspells a word, the other student is required to spell that word correctly, and then spell an additional word correctly in order to be named the winner.
After successfully spelling the word “declension”, Taylor was able to clinch the county title with “genome.”
Congratulations to the BCSD students who are heading to Lowcountry Spellbound! next month (listed in order of placement in the district bee):
1. Ryan Taylor – seventh grade, Sangaree Middle
2. Reagan Pinckney – seventh grade, Berkeley Middle
3. Tiana Stevens – seventh grade, Berkeley Middle
4. Isabella Metz – eighth grade, Cane Bay Middle
5. Tomas D’Oliviera – eighth grade, Daniel Island School
6. Javin Bhajan – eighth grade, Marrington Middle School of the Arts
7. Miranda Moddy – eighth grade, College Park Middle
8. Bruce Dyson – seventh grade, Sedgefield Middle
9. Asher Auld – seventh grade, Daniel Island School