![\"\"](\"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/DSC_0215.1.jpg\" "\\"DSC_0215.1\\"")
<\/a>PHS Spell Bowl coach Mrs. Amy Schmeltz helps junior Grace Stokes learn her Spell Bowl words. Photo by: Kelsey Schnieders<\/p><\/div>\n
By Kelsey Schnieders<\/em><\/p>\n Reykjavik, bouillabaisse, Biedermeier, somnambulistic. Those are just a few of the 3,500 words on the 2011 Indiana Academic Spell Bowl list.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s team is coached by Mrs. Amy Schmeltz, one of PHS\u2019s English and Yearbook teachers, who herself competed on a spell bowl team in high school. \u00a0\u201cOur team was very successful,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cWe went to state every year. \u00a0The experience taught me the importance of tradition.\u201d \u00a0Mrs. Schmeltz also said that she was very excited to have the opportunity to coach the team. \u00a0This is her second year coaching the Spell Bowl team.<\/p>\n The words on the spell bowl list range from the simple, like \u201csoy\u201d and \u201ccast,\u201d all the way up to the just plain strange, like \u201cwill-o\u2019-the-wisp\u201d and \u201csyzygy.\u201d \u00a0The students practice for the competitions by taking spelling tests over some of the words at practices. \u00a0\u201cDifferent students have different methods of studying independently,\u201d Mrs. Schmeltz said. \u00a0\u201cSome have their families quiz them, some copy the words multiple times, some look them up and listen to the pronunciation on their iPods.\u201d \u00a0Practices are held Mondays and Wednesdays in Mrs. Schmeltz\u2019s room, 136, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Students spend most of the time laughing, coming up with their own creative ways to remember words.<\/p>\n In a Spell Bowl competition itself, there are 10 rounds and each student spells nine words. Mrs. Schmeltz explained, \u201cThe students sit next to a proctor who watches them write the word as they listen to an announcer pronounce the word and use it in a sentence. \u00a0The team with the most correct words wins.\u201d \u00a0The Northern Lakes Conference Contest is October 10 at Northwood and the Area competition is October 17 at John Glenn. \u00a0The team is hoping to make it to State again this year, which is held at Purdue.<\/p>\n Mrs. Schmeltz said during her interview, \u201cMy favorite part is working with a group of top-notch students and listening to the associations students make with the words.\u201d \u00a0She added, referring to the ever-present giant bag of candy that manages to find its way to every practice, \u201cOf course, the candy is pretty important too!\u201d<\/p>\n And does Mrs. Schmeltz have a favorite word? \u00a0\u201cAtlatl and bibelot are my favorite words so far,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cThere are so many from which to choose!\u201d<\/p>\n To anyone considering joining Spell Bowl, Mrs. Schmeltz says, \u201cTry it! \u00a0You can make new friends while building your vocabulary and study skills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kelsey Schnieders Reykjavik, bouillabaisse, Biedermeier, somnambulistic. Those are just a few of the 3,500 words on the 2011 Indiana Academic Spell Bowl list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature","category-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2026"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9070,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions\/9070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}