Harry Potter is educational? 🐝 (Hive Highlights Oct. 2020)

You can make it so.

I recently had the delight of speaking with two charming ladies who enjoyed our Spell-a-thon. I also found out why your biggest teaching opportunities might be Captain Underpants, My Little Pony or, as you’ll see shortly, Harry Potter. Evidently, it’s a winning strategy. More on that in a bit, but here’s our updates for you this month.

• Our Spell-a-thon’s wrapped up and we’d like to say thanks to everyone who participated! Watch the event here.
• Here’s a reminder to submit your Unsung Hero nominations and short essay entries by October 31st. The best essayists get our cash prizes. An online gala will be held December 13th to celebrate our unsung heroes.
• We’re bringing you another Battle of the Generations on November 26th! The virtual proving grounds comes to a senior home in Sudbury, where the coalition of kids will defend their collective championship belt.

So I spoke to Padma Srinikethanan and her brilliant daughter Ananya. She’s ten, but assures me she’ll turn eleven soon. Another thing I’m assured of is everyone should take a closer look at how they’re making the most of entertainment media as teaching opportunities. There’s something to be learned from everything, so why not what the kids are already obsessed with?

Ananya first joined our Spelling Bee in 2017, she was grade one. She tells me exactly which word she lost to — “zealous” — but more importantly she tells me what she learned from it. She even has me do some learning myself, when at one point she spouts off the definitions to “menagerie” and “kuchen”. Her next year, grade two, she stepped up to third place, as she’s happy to report (she contentedly holds her glimmering trophy up to the webcam). Grade three, she went even further and claimed the top spot. Her trophy for that is even more impressive.

She couldn’t have done it without her mom’s impressive guidance. Padma does mock spelling bees with her and makes sure Ananya writes out every word that proves challenging. That’s especially important for a Spell-a-thon, where we’re trying to learn so many new and complex words. But she’s more than up to the challenge.

“I’m excited because it gives me an opportunity to share some of the words I’ve learned, inspire others to do it, and it helps with my own vocabulary. I’m learning over a hundred words,” she explains, soon adding that she hopes she even exceeds that number.

Learn-acadabra? Sorry.

One of the ways she racks up her vocabulary is by means of spell-slinging wizards… I’ll let her explain. “I read lots of books, they help me. One of the series I learn from is Harry Potter. I’ve learned a lot of words.” Ananya’s entering our upcoming competition on October 24. The way she studies, she doesn’t need magic to win it. For more on turning entertainment into education, I spoke to a literacy expert and here’s her practical tips for you.

🐝 Thanks! You just read Hive Highlights, where Spelling Bee of Canada recaps developments in our community. For fun language arts reads and videos, subscribe to Buzz News!

This post was written by Fran Mbadiwe, an editor who runs SBOC’s Buzz News. Apart from that, he’s probably journaling.