The Mineral County Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in the Alberton School gymnasium last Wednesday with lots of nervous competitors, parents and teachers. 

One grandparent was overheard in the bleachers saying, “There’s no way I can help him with his homework. I don’t understand anything with the math, but spelling hasn’t changed and that’s where I can show I still have it upstairs,” and then laughed.

Students from the three schools in the county up to eighth grade competed and the last three spellers went four rounds before crowning Shepard Miller, a seventh-grade student from St. Regis, as the champion for the second year in a row. 

Aurora Loop, a fourth-grade student, also from St. Regis, and Brian Murray who is a sixth-grade student from Superior, finished second and third.

“It’s events like these that make this community special. Being able to watch the kids and talk with the parents assures me that our county has plenty of good people wanting the best for their families. It’s a very good feeling,” said Mineral County Sheriff Ryan Funke who watched the event.

Amanda Cyr, in her first year as Alberton School Superintendent/Principal, said she was impressed with Alberton fifth grade teacher, Katy Cannon, on how she organized their event and then the county wide spelling bee. 

“The most challenging part of organizing the different levels of spelling bees is learning how the school and county levels operate and feed into the region and state bees. Luckily, I have a great team of teachers working in the Superior and St Regis schools who helped me along the way,” Cannon said. 

Cannon explained that in her fifth-grade class, they work with small sets of words from the study list each week to become more confident and over a few months, many students became familiar with spelling increasingly complex words. 

“I am very proud of their growth,” she smiled. Cannon said practicing is not all done in their classes. “I know that several of our families have been working with the word lists all school year. The practice really shows in those students' improvement in spelling, and their improvement in reading is also noticeable and I certainly see a connection between students who read more and those who are the best spellers. Reading helps tremendously with word familiarity. For example, a student might have read ‘cavorting,’ thereby knowing that word that isn't commonly used in everyday speech. It is much harder to spell words you have never read.”

The Mineral County Spelling Bee is more than a three-school contest; it is also a celebration of months of hard work for all students. Schools celebrate their contestants, not just the winners, but all those brave spellers who get up in front of the mic and try a word. 

“It takes a lot of courage for a student to take on a spelling word in front of an audience, Cannon shared. “Students who made it to the Mineral County Spelling Bee have taken on challenges at the classroom, grade, and schoolwide levels. The willingness to be challenged with an unknown word and give it their best is very brave. I am proud of every kid who gave it a try.”

The state competition is Saturday, March 21 at 1p.m. at Montana State University in Bozeman with Shepard Miller as the only competitor from Mineral County. Good luck Shepard!!

    Fourth through eighth grade students from Mineral County compete for the chance to go to the state spelling bee later this month in Bozeman. (Courtesy photo)