'Receptor': The word separating this year's spelling competition

Spelling bee: Andrew Melendez listens Thursday as Brenna Cobb correctly spells "cornea" to win the Gallup McKinley County School district spelling bee at Kennedy Middle School in Gallup. Cobb, an eighth grader, won the bee and Melendez finished second. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — It's one of those rules of English grammar that gets a lot of people in trouble - the use of "er" versus "or. "

That was what gave Brenna Cobb, an eight grade home study student, her second district spelling bee championship in a row Thursday.

After four rounds of competition and the elimination of 30 other students, Cobb found herself facing off in a final competition with Andrew Melendez, a student at JFK Middle School.

His downfall came on the word "receptor," which he spelled as ending in "er."

Cobb now heads for regional competition in Albuquerque and then hopefully back to nationals in Washington, D.C. Last year, she was eliminated in the first round of questioning where students are to spell out 25 words.

She continues to take spelling seriously, working with her parents, Doug and Audra Cobb of Fort Wingate, for an hour or two a night on the thousands of words that are in this year's competition.

Sixteen local schools participated in the competition this year, said Dan Smith, principal of Chee Dodge Elementary School and one of the coordinators of this year's event.

This is a little lower participation than in past years and Smith said the main reason for this was problems the district had in finding someone who would come up with the $10,000 sponsorship when the former sponsor, the Gallup Independent, dropped out last year.

This year's competition is being sponsored by the Elementary Principal's Association.

Several hundred students throughout the district participated in the competition with the top two in each school participating in the district competition.

Smith said the competition is valuable to the district because it helps instills in students an unbderstanding of how the differently sounds in the English language make certain sounds.

"It also teaches the value of language," he said.