Friday, March 25th, 2022
The whole word in her hands
Rockford teen to compete in national spelling bee in D.C.
By Leslie Gartrell
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Parkway eighth grader Natalie Moeller, 14, won the Lima Regional Spelling Bee by spelling the word "agitation."
ROCKFORD - Natalie Moeller said this is the last year she can compete in local spelling bees, and she plans to make it count.
The Parkway Middle School eighth grader has her sights set on the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which kicks off Memorial Day weekend and ends with televised national semifinals and finals on June 1 and June 2 near Washington, D.C.
Moeller bested her Parkway classmates with "Yukon" in her school spelling bee and secured her place in the regional competition by spelling "appliances" correctly at the Mercer County Spelling Bee.
The 14-year-old won the Lima Regional Spelling Bee with "agitation," she said. Moeller said she also won last year's Mercer County Spelling Bee and wanted to make her final year competing her best.
"I figure it's my last year. I want to see how far I can get," she said.
Moeller said she became interested in spelling in fourth grade. A good score on each spelling test would earn a place on the wall, she said, and the student with the most tests on the wall would get a treat at the end of each nine weeks.
"I was kind of motivated by that, and I've just always done it since then," she said.
At the regional bee, Moeller said the competition was eventually whittled down to her and two other competitors.
"There was another girl I was kind of concerned about. She seemed like she had it down," she said. "Well, the first girl missed her word, and then I got mine right. Then the other girl missed her word, so I just had to spell another word right."
Like many experienced spellers, Moeller has a couple of methods to help her remember how to spell a word. Tracing the word on her hand helps her visualize how it is spelled when she's competing, she said.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Natalie Moeller writes in her hand to help her visualize a word as she spells it.
She practices and studies daily, aiming to get in 10-15 minutes of practice a day, or more if she can during the weekends.
Moeller said she often recruits her parents to quiz her and help her study. She said she'll have to study harder for the national bee.
"For the school (bee), you got a three-page packet of all the words that would be there," she said. "Once we moved to the county (bee), we got a thicker packet that was used for county and regionals. But for the nationals, they just go right out of the dictionary."
As part of her regional spelling bee awards, Moeller said she received a free one-year online subscription to the dictionary used by the national spelling bee.
Moeller also received a one-year membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopedia Britannica, The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award and an expenses-paid trip to the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee, according to The Lima News, which sponsored the regional spelling bee.
The eighth grader admitted she has some anxiety about the national bee because more people will be participating and watching. Moeller said she plans to solicit the help of her family and her new subscriptions to help her prepare.
"My family says 'no pressure,' but I'm like, 'You can say that!'" she said with a laugh.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Natalie Moeller, 14, won the Lima Regional Spelling Bee by spelling the word "agitation."
Middle school principal Brian Woods at the March 14 Parkway school board meeting lauded Moeller's success, as well as that of eighth grader Kaleb Gilliland, who won runner-up at the Mercer County Spelling Bee.
"It's really cool for those two. Pretty amazing, actually," he said. "It's pretty cool to watch that, to see our kids do so well on the big stage, so to speak."
Moeller will compete over Memorial Day weekend. The televised semifinals, hosted by LaVar Burton, will take place June 1 and the finals will be June 2 near Washington, D.C.
