To Bee or Not to Bee

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“Your word is valley.” I froze, racking my brain on how to spell what should be a simple word.

I was in the fifth grade and I was standing in a room full of strangers at the District Finals of the Spelling Bee. Earlier that month I had won my classroom then grade-level Spelling Bees, quickly rising through the ranks of the competitive spellers at Peter G. Schmidt Elementary in Tumwater, Washington.? I may have been overly intense about the Spelling Bee for a 10-year-old, especially one for whom English was an (early) second language.?

What I did then

Spelling Bee prep was pretty simple back then. I reviewed the provided list of potential words (see the classic "Words of the Champions" pictured above), practicing the spellings to myself for hours on end. Despite English being their true second language, my parents reviewed the words with me when they could. I asked them often enough that they had a family friend come by and practice with me as well.?

What I would do today

Ten year old France today has an almost overwhelming array of resources compared to the France of yesterday.

1. First, as a 10 year old, I don’t know how to prepare or what resources are available.? So, I could (with my parent’s approval) ask Generative AI for advice on how to prepare and what resources I should explore.? Here’s an example chat with GenAI by a 10 year me transported to today: link.

2. I could also search the Internet or social media (if my parents allow me), but since I’m 10, I may have trouble evaluating the quality of the information I unearth. Generative AI can be a better resource for me in this way.?

3. As GenAI suggested, I could watch videos on YouTube, visit some dedicated spelling bee websites, or use some apps (there's an app for everything) to help me learn preparation techniques, spelling rules, and/or just to become more comfortable with the competition format.?

4. I’m not sure 10 year old me would think of this, but maybe I get lucky and find a video of a past competition in the same location.? (As an adult, I try and visit the location of speeches before the speech and actually visualize myself giving my remarks.)? Google Maps has increasingly number of internal views of building, but it wouldn’t include a local school.??

5. If I had access to a Generative AI platform with both voice input and output (which will be common soon), I could instruct it to take on the role of a Spelling Bee Tutor and practice to my heart’s content.

6. Of course, none of the above is a substitute for my own self-study and self-preparation and there is no tutor truly equivalent to a human tutor (at least not yet).?

What was the result

I asked for the word to be repeated. Then I asked for it to be used in a sentence.? Then I took a deep breath and spelled:

“V-A-L-L-Y"

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