District Spelling Bee Winner
— Back to back wins for T.A. Howard Middle School —
T.A. HOWARD MS | After two hours
of meticulously spelling out a list
of vocabulary words, the word
“cordial,” followed by the sound of
an elimination bell, left only one
student standing.
Kristi Gonzales and Tiffany Lam at the 2019 District Spelling Bee.
It felt amazing because I’ve
been going to the district
spelling bee since fourth
grade.
~ Tiffany Lam
10 | Mansfield ISD TODAY
Tiffany Lam, a seventh-grad-
er at T.A. Howard Middle School,
stepped forward to the micro-
phone. Her heart started to beat
rapidly when she knew she was
only one word away from becom-
ing the Mansfield ISD spelling bee
champion.
“When he first said ‘amputa-
tion,’ I thought it was really easy,
but I went slower just in case,” Lam
recalled.
She spelled the word correct-
ly, and the crowd cheered with
excitement to welcome the new
district-wide winner.
MISD hosted its annual spell-
ing bee on Feb. 8 at the Mansfield
ISD Center for the Performing Arts.
The contestants are students from
third grade through eighth grade
throughout the district who have
won at their campus.
“Last year, I think we went
17 rounds. This year, we went 53
rounds. That’s the longest, I believe,
in our history,” said Kristi Gonzales,
MISD coordinator of elementary
language arts. “So it’s pretty incred-
ible to see the growth, and I think
that’s attributed a lot to some of
our explicit phonics instruction in
the classroom.”
Lam knew the feeling of be-
ing in the final round all too well.
She was a runner-up in the district
spelling bee last year; but this year,
she felt confident that the trophy
would be hers. She said her strat-
egy for remembering the correct
spelling was to write the word with
her finger on her hand.
“It felt amazing because I’ve
been going to the district spelling
bee since fourth grade,” said Lam.
“Now, that’s all paid off.”
Event organizers noted that
being part of the competition is
about more than simply spelling.
Participants are able to increase
their social skills as well.
“We’re asking them to get up
on stage and spell publicly, which
is helping them with their commu-
nication and public speaking skills,
as well as building self-confidence,”
Gonzales continued.
This is the second consecutive
year a student from T.A. Howard
Middle School has placed first in
the district spelling bee. Her teach-
er said it is a very proud moment.
“She’s absolutely a phenomenal
kid,” said English teacher Lisa Beek-
man. “We just have some phenom-
enal spellers. They’re just phenom-
enal spellers out there. We’ve been
blessed for two years in a row to
collect those kids.”