A rose to Caledonia Middle School sixth-grader Elise Cook, this year’s Lowndes County spelling bee champ. She was recognized for her achievement Friday during a meeting of the Lowndes County Board of Education.
Elise, the 11-year-old daughter of Joe and Judene Cook, studied a list of 1,000 words to prepare. The contest included formidable opponents from Columbus and Lowndes County schools, as well as home and private schools, who where already spelling champions at the school level. They all deserve roses, too.
It takes courage to stand in an auditorium full of your peers, teachers, parents and community members and spell words aloud for a panel of judges. And many of these studious children likely would beat out adults in a spelling challenge.
As Elise prepares to compete in the Mid-South Spelling Bee March 3 in Memphis, Tenn. — the winner of that competition will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May — we’d like to offer a few commonly misspelled words to study up on.
Yourdictionary.com offers a list of the 100 most commonly misspelled words in the English language and tips on how to remember how to spell them correctly. Here is a sampling for your R-E-V-I-E-W:
n Accommodate – Remember, this word is large enough to accommodate both a double “c” AND a double “m.”
Conscious – Try to be conscious of the “sc” [ch] sound and the i-o-u near the end.
Fiery – The silent “e” on “fire” is also cowardly: It retreats inside the word rather than face the suffix -y.
Jewelry – Sure, sure, it is made by a jeweler but the last [e] in this case flees the scene like a jewel thief.
Judgment – Traditionally, the word has been spelled judgment in all forms of the English language.
Medieval – The medieval orthography of English even lays traps for you: Everything about the MIDdle Ages is MEDieval or, as the British would write, mediaeval.
Privilege – According to the pronunciation of this word, that middle vowel could be anything. Remember: two [i]s + two [e]s in that order.
Supersede – This word supersedes all others in perversity. This is the only English word based on this stem spelled -sede. Supersede combines the Latin words “super” and “sedere” which means to sit above.
Roses to the Columbus High School girls and the West Point High School boys basketball team for winning district titles Friday night.
Maggie Proffitt scored a career-high 38 points to lead Columbus to a 91-59 victory against Tupelo in the Class 6A-Region 2 championship. Last season, Columbus beat Starkville and Tupelo to win the Class 6A-Region 2 title. That championship was the program’s first since the 2002-03 season.
West Point, the third seed in the tournament, did things the hard way, beating second-seeded New Hope on Tuesday and then knocking off top-seeded Oxford 69-64 in Oxford to win the Class 5A-Region 2 title.
The victories earned the teams a chance to play host to first-round playoff games. Columbus will play at home Monday, while West Point will play at home Tuesday.
Of course, moms and dads get especially excited about sports at the high school level when they have one of their own to support. But research shows sports also builds character and helps these student-athletes develop life skills. Studies by Michigan State University”s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports also found that children who play sports perform better academically and develop better social skills.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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