By Nancy Gutierrez
There are many mnemonics used to help remember spelling rules. 'I' before 'E' except after 'C', when two vowels go walking the first does the talking.
These are rules to live by, especially for students like Taisha Brecero who participated in the Tulare County Spelling Championship Feb. 25. More than 200 third fourth and fifth grade students from 67 different schools competed that day for the honor of best speller in the county and the competition was fierce. Students spelled round after round tackling words like Gastroenterology, organic, audience and rugby.
Bracero made the county meet after participating in a spell-off at Jefferson. She was named one of the six best spellers at Jefferson and was able to continue to the county spelling bee.
That rainy morning Bracero gathered with other nervous elementary age students at the Lamplighter Inn to match skills. Students could ask the Spell Master, in this case Scott Hillman, to repeat the word, the definition of the word, what the language of origin was, what part of speech the word represents and to have the word used in a sentence, but students could not ask about root words.
Bracero hung on through the first round but missed in the second. Though short-lived she said she had a good time in the competition.
