SPELLING CHAMPS
Sixth-grade student named champion of annual DeSoto County School District Spelling Bee.
“Are you nervous?” asked Dr. Jerry Floate, moderator of the DeSoto County Spelling Bee, held recently at the Board of Education in Hernando. “Because I am.”
And the 2016 District Spelling Bee began.
Floate understands the tension and how difficult some of the words are to pronounce and spell. He is the principal of Olive Branch Middle School and works every day with students in this general age group. He then asked each student to say their name, grade and school so they could get used to the competition process using a microphone.
Norah Johnson, a sixth-grade student at Sacred Heart Catholic School, was the champion. Ava Hogan, an eighth-grade student at Center Hill Middle School, was the runner up. Both students will advance to the Mid-South Spelling Bee in March, sponsored by The Commercial Appeal. If one of these students wins at this nextlevel, she will go to Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee that is televised on the Disney Channel.
To participate in the annual DeSoto County School District Spelling Bee on Jan. 30 students had to win spelling bee tournaments at their respective schools. The district contest was also open to all county students, including private, parochial and home-schooled. Forty-four students vied for the title of Spelling Bee Champion.
One by one, the fourth through eighth grade students came to the mic and spelled words like “braille,” “gibbous,” “reciprocate,” “obelisk,” “pulchritude,” “sitzmark,” “esoteric” and “resilience.” The first round took out half of the participants.
Johnson said she spent her Christmas holidays studying.
“I am really happy,” she said. “I studied so hard for this. I would study the words and then ask my mom to call them out to me.”
Ava Hogan said she had a friend at school who would quiz her during her off period, learning the words, their meanings and the language of origin.
“I also love to read, and I read a lot. That is a way to learn new words,” she added.
The word that stumped Hogan was “strudel.” The championship word that made Johnson a winner was “diatribe.” Both girls went round after round spelling words correctly.
The Spelling Bee is organized by Jo Cox, director of continuing education for DeSoto County Schools. Her judges included Claudette Smith, principal at Olive Branch Intermediate School; Lisa Love, principal at Overpark Elementary School; Leslie Heyman, principal at Center Hill Elementary School, and records keeper Adrienne Sims-Gross, assistant principal at DCS Career & Technical Center — West.
DCS assistant superintendent Van Alexander welcomed the room of students, parents and guests that filled the large Board Room.
“When you see this group of winners, I know there has been a lot of studying and hard work at home to get them here,” Alexander said. “We appreciate your involvement and support. It is parents like you that make our school system great.”
Northwest Mississippi Community College’s March art exhibition will feature the work of Alabama artist Robert B. Hendrickson.
Hendrickson is a native of Birmingham, Ala. Born in 1979, he graduated from Vestavia Hills High School in 1997 and then enrolled at Auburn University to study art, where he concentrated on the studio arts.
In 2001, Hendrickson earned a bachelor’s of fine arts with a focus on lithography. In the fall of 2001, he entered the graduate studio art program at the University of Alabama. During his time there, he taught courses and worked to create a body of work that combined the disciplines of printmaking, drawing and painting.
In 2004, he earned a master’s of fine arts and immediately began teaching at the secondary and post-secondary levels. He has exhibited his work numerous times locally and regionally.
Since 2007, Hendrickson has been an Instructor of Art at Gadsden State Community College, where he teaches art appreciation, art history, drawing, and painting. He currently lives in Jacksonville, Alabama with his wife, Cheryl, and two children, Emmett and Avery.
“I am very excited about this exhibition. I hope that these works will provide material that will drive meaningful discourse between students and faculty,” said Hendrickson.
The opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 3 from 5-7 p.m., and the exhibition will run from Feb. 29-March 31 in the Northwest Art Gallery on the Senatobia campus.
Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Fridays. Admission to the gallery is free.
For more information about the Northwest gallery, contact House at 662-562-3399 or email lhouse@northwestms.edu.