Friday, March 28, 2014

Today I Love the ouzel - Slice of Life 2014 - Day 28

Look!  Not only is it hard to spell, it's a messy eater!
Today I Love the ouzel bird.

Not really.

I actually kind of hate it.

But in an odd way...

Well, let me start at the beginning.



Today, Spring Break or not, was the ACSI Regional Spelling Bee, and three of my students were representing our school.  A 6th grader was making his debut, and I'm sure will be back again next year.  A 7th grader also made her first trip to regionals today after neatly clearing away all of the district competition back in February.  I'm sure she'll be back again next year as well.  



6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade


But my 8th grader, Jarrod, had been there before...
and was pretty excited,
 and a bit nervous,
 about being back
 and getting one more shot at this thing
 before high school.  



The practice round went smoothly for all.  
You know you're at Regionals
 when there are no mistakes during the practice round.  
These kids mean business!

Then came the real first round and Mr. 6th Grade was 'deceived'.  
Miss 7th Grade took a wrong vowel on her pilgrimage.

And then along came Jarrod who caught an ouzel right in the face. 
 Ouzel? 

Really?


But, see, here's the thing.  
Had Jarrod caught that ouzel,
and the multitude of other words he knew how to spell
once he was out...
He could have made it to the National Bee in Texas.

The National Bee!

The National Bee...
 that would have made him 

choose

between that competition

and

our upcoming 8th grade class trip.

And trust me on this one, 
if you knew Jarrod, 
like I know Jarrod,
(Oh, how I wish you could all know Jarrod!)
after being his teacher for three years,
you would not want him to miss that trip,
and you would not want him to miss that Bee,
and you would not want him to have to make that choice.

So...in an odd, 
turned about, 
upside down,
inside out,
sort of way...

Today I love the ouzel bird.

Sort of.

6 comments:

  1. What a greta post. Sometimes Fate steps in to help us with the hard decisions. I hope Jarrod has the time of his life on the trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I know he will! We are all looking forward to it!

      Delete
  2. Always love the way life has a way of working itself out. I enjoyed the way your crafted your post about Jarrod. He sounds like the kind of student we'd all like to know.

    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Cathy! You have no idea! A nicer young man just doesn't exist! So very glad this one worked out for him. We were all able to laugh about it and he told me today his mom talked to some of the kids who did make it to Nationals and they said that they had literally been studying the dictionary. He told me, "They deserve to go to Nationals. I didn't study like that." See! Such a good guy!

      Delete
  3. I love the post you wrote it would be hard for me to chose what to do to glad everything worked out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for all your kind words BD! I am very glad it worked out the way it did too.

      Delete