this was helpful. I am looking to participate in 2010-2011 as well. So if the enrollment is not until August 2010 for the next bee, when do you start preparing students. How did you go about getting information for the enrollement process?
I have not run a spelling bee, but my daughter recently competed in our district-wide bee. Each school held its own bee and those winners moved on to the district level, a bit different from your plan. There were probably only 10-12 competitors at each school and then 20 at the district level, so each bee took about an hour.
They did use rules put out by Scripps covering what questions the kids could ask (repeat the word, use it in a sentence, definition, language of origin). The kids also had the option to write the word on an overhead projector rather than spelling aloud - same rules applied that they could not go back and erase/correct a letter once it was written down.
The pronouncer and the two judges were district curriculum staff. In your case, as long as you make sure they're not all from one school I think you're fine.
Myself and another parent are in the planning stages to host a district-wide spelling bee in the 2010-2011 school year. There are six k-6 schools and one 7-8 middle school in our district. We would like to end up with two finalists to send on to our regional elimination competition on their way to the Scripps Bee in DC.
We tried, too late, this year, to get each school involved, but did not find much support. There were the usual concerns regarding asking teachers to be involved outside of (or inside of) school time with this extra activity. Additionally, there were volunteer burnout issues - no one wanting to take on an extra event, especially one being met with apathy from our school & district's administration.
Instead, the two of us will be
1) Holding a community fundraiser to pay for the Scripps registration fee for each school
2) Asking interested students and their parents to let us know of their intention to compete at the beginning of the school year, so that we can get their school registered in time.
3) Holding an after-school 'spelling practice club' weekly or bi-weekly
4) Running one district-wide elimination in January amongst those students who registered in the fall.
Most of that seems pretty straightforward on the surface, but when I start thinking of the details of that District-Wide Elimination Bee in January, I start to worry.
Have you ever held a school or district-wide bee?
How was the day structured? Did you do it all in one day or break it down to a day of written bee eliminations, followed by a more standard oral bee amongst the finalists?
What rules did you follow for the bee(s)? Time limits? Judging? Rounds? Did Scripps provide you with rules? And, did you follow them or modify them to meet your schools' needs?
Who did you get as a pronouncer? as judges?
What pitfalls did you encounter? What worked well for you?
