With painted faces, team t-shirts, and enthusiasm bursting throughout the auditorium, the eleventh grade Vocab Bowl last Friday was the perfect way to get excited for the upcoming PSSA testing in the spring and to break up the winter, post holiday blues.  

“Every year I have to convince my students that it is a fun event, but as it gets closer, the hype starts to build,” said Mrs. Ellen Mckee, “but this year was one of the best Vocab Bowls so far.”

Created by eleventh grade English teachers six years ago as a way to make school fun while reviewing student’s English skills, the Vocab Bowl has been a highlight of many students’ junior years. This year, the competition was tough, with one of the biggest turnouts of students in the Vocab Bowl history.

Starting out the competition by splitting into the students respective classes, the game begun with host Mr. Kevin Manero explaining the rules and getting the crowd pumped up for the exciting two periods of competition. Using a remote control system to submit answers, one student representative from each of the seven classes sat in the “contestants’ row” to answer multiple choice questions.

Thorough the class round, “celebrity guests” Mr. Kyle Berger, Mrs. Karen Holmes, Mrs. McKee’s mother, Mr. Bill Travers, and Superintendent Dr. Curt Dietrich joined the student’s fun as they answered vocabulary questions. As the game continued, Mr. Manero came around asking pop culture, political, and literature themed trivia questions, while Mrs. McKee called out raffle ticket numbers for students to win candy prizes. Students were also quizzed with PSSA prep questions, winning a candy prize if they answered them correctly, and participated in a dance competition, with the winner winning a ten-dollar Wawa gift card.

After the class competition ended, the individual student game begun. Two students at a time would go up against each other, flipping over an index card with a word’s definition on it. From there, whichever student answered with the correct word first won and went back into the line. The winner of the individual round won an oversized, grand champion belt for being the last contestant in the individual round.

After the individual completion was over, the group winner was announced. With a tie for first place, Mr. Sam Feeney and Ms. Amy Young’s second period class and Mrs. Mckee and Ms. Becky Poole’s fifth period class won, while Mrs. Mckee and Ms. Poole’s third period class came in second place.

Acording to McKee, her favorite part of her day was “when some of my students who were competing at the end walked off the stage with big smiles on their faces.”

Not only a way to prepare for the upcoming tests in the spring, the 2012 Vocab Bowl gave students the opportunity to see that school is, in actuality, fun.